Per Ditlev-Simonsen

Per Ditlev-Simonsen (2007)

Per Ditlev-Simonsen (born June 12, 1932 in Oslo ) is a Norwegian politician of the conservative Høyre party . Between 1995 and 2007 he was the mayor of Oslo, before that he was the defense minister of his country from 1989 to 1990 .

Origin and education

Per is the son of the Norwegian shipowner Sverre Ditlev-Simonsen (1906–2004) and Lily Kaurin (1907–1978).

Between 1950 and 1951 Per Ditlev-Simonsen attended a commercial high school and then he was with the Hans Majestet Kongens Guard until 1952 . From 1953 to 1955 he attended Stanford University in California , where he obtained a bachelor's degree in economics and history.

After graduating, he joined his father's shipping company, where he worked from 1955 to 1993 with breaks. Between 1991 and 1996 he was CEO of Christiania Bank .

Political career

From 1973 to 1981 Ditlev-Simonsen was the so-called Vararepresentant in the Norwegian parliament, the Storting . So he was only a substitute MP. However, between 1975 and 1983 he was a member of the Oslo City Council. In the 1981 election, he managed to move directly into Storting, where he represented Oslo and was a member of the finance committee. In the subsequent election in 1985, contrary to the hopes of his party, he did not run again. From 1982 to 1988 he was the chairman of his party in the Norwegian capital.

On October 16, 1989, Ditlev-Simonsen was appointed Minister of Defense in the Syse government. He held this office until November 3, 1990, which meant that the fall of the Berlin Wall fell during his term of office . In response to these new developments, he had a Defense Commission set up to work out the reorientation of Norwegian defense policy after the rapprochement of the conflicting parties in the Cold War .

In 1995 he was elected mayor of the city of Oslo. He held this office until 2007. Shortly before the 2007 local elections, a tax scandal came to light, as a result of which he resigned as mayor on 23 August. He had hidden three million crowns in an account in Switzerland from the tax authorities. He did not have to pay the tax debt, as the offense was statute-barred after 10 years.

Web links

Commons : Per Ditlev-Simonsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Per Ditlev-Simonsen at Storting (Norwegian)
• Per Ditlev-Simonsen in Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Anne Linn Kumano Ensby: Per Ditlev-Simonsen trekker seg. August 22, 2007, accessed November 9, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål). 
2. ^ Ditlev-Simonsen slipper å betale. Retrieved November 9, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål).