Trygve Lie

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Trygve Lie (right), 1960

Trygve Halvdan Lie (born July 16, 1896 in Grorud , † December 30, 1968 in Geilo ) was a Norwegian politician and lawyer . From 1946 to 1952 he was the first officially appointed Secretary General of the United Nations .

Life

Trygve Lie studied law at the University of Oslo . From 1922 to 1935 he worked, among other things, as a lawyer licensed to the Supreme Court (Overrettssakfører) and as a legal advisor for the Arbeidernes Faglige Landsorganisasjon . From 1931 he was also at the head of the Arbeidernes Idrettsforbund , one of the predecessor organizations of today's Norwegian Sports Federation, for four years . In 1935 the Social Democrat became Minister of Justice and in July 1939 Minister of Commerce of Norway. From 1937 he belonged to the Storting .

After the German attack on Norway on April 9, 1940, he went into exile in London with King Håkon VII and the government . From 1941 to 1945 he was a foreign minister in the Norwegian government in exile .

On February 1, 1946, he was appointed the first Secretary General of the United Nations . He was acceptable to both the West because of his stay in London and to the Soviet Union because of his participation in a more left-wing Norwegian government. He took over the business of Gladwyn Jebb , who was acting general secretary up to that point. After an idealistic beginning, the division of the world into two power blocs became more and more apparent. Both sides accused him of preferring the other and at the same time tried to instrumentalize the UN. A major point of contention was the question of whether Communist China or the government-in-exile on Taiwan ( Republic of China ) should get a permanent seat on the UN Security Council . The successes of his tenure include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and mediation in the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Iran .

In 1950, in the absence of the Soviet Union, the UN Security Council decided on the first military operation against North Korea , which authorized the USA to intervene in favor of the invaded South Korea ( Korean War ). In the eyes of Stalin, this partisanship finally made Lie an opponent of the Eastern Bloc, and he now promoted its removal.

Lie was re-elected as Secretary General of the United Nations in 1951 against the will of the Soviet Union by the General Assembly , but resigned on November 10, 1952 in frustration. Accordingly, he greeted his successor, Dag Hammarskjöld , with the words “Welcome to New York and the United Nations. You are doing the most impossible job on earth here. "

From 1963 to 1964 he was Norwegian Minister of Industry. In the period from 1964 to 1965 he again held the office of Minister of Commerce.

Lie was awarded numerous orders and decorations, including the Norwegian Borgerdådsmedalje (1966), the Grand Cross of the Dannebrog Order (1954), the Grand Cross of the Saint Olav Order (1953) and the Czechoslovakian Order of the White Lion (1948). In 1950 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . About 25 universities awarded him an honorary doctorate . The Trygve Lies plass in Oslo is named after him, on which is a statue of Lie created by Nico Widerberg in 1994. There is a Trygve Lie Gallery and Trygve Lie Plaza in New York City .

Trygve Lie died in 1968 at the age of 72.

Web links

Commons : Trygve Lie  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stortinget: Lie, Trygve (1896–1968) , accessed April 28, 2011 (Norwegian)
personal data
SURNAME Lie, Trygve
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lie, Trygve Halvdan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian politician, member of the Storting, Secretary General of the United Nations (1946–1952)
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Grorud
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1968
Place of death Geilo