37 Facts About Olav Meisdalshagen

Olav Meisdalshagen was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party best known for serving as the Norwegian Minister of Finance from December 1947 to November 1951 and as the Norwegian Minister of Agriculture from January 1955 to May 1956.

Olav Meisdalshagen was a Member of Parliament for a long time, being elected for the first time in parliamentary election of 1936 and serving until his death, except for the period between 1940 and 1945 when the Parliament of Norway was de facto defunct due to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.

Olav Meisdalshagen was a proponent of economic regulation, which marked his period as Minister of Finance.

Olav Meisdalshagen did return briefly to cabinet as Minister of Agriculture, and cooperated with the government through the position as chairman of Norges Kooperative Landsforening, a national association of consumer co-operatives.

Olav Meisdalshagen was born on 17 March 1903 in Nord-Aurdal as a son of smallholder and joiner Ole Olav Meisdalshagen and Marit Myren.

Olav Meisdalshagen attended Valdres Folk High School from 1920 to 1921, and took secondary education at Voss between 1921 and 1925 with financial support from his brothers; his father died in 1924.

Olav Meisdalshagen took the examen artium in 1925, and enrolled in law studies at the Royal Frederick University.

Olav Meisdalshagen came under the influence of the revolutionary group Mot Dag, though he was never a member.

Olav Meisdalshagen became involved in politics while attending school in Voss, and chaired the Labour Party chapter in Nord-Aurdal from 1927 to 1940.

Olav Meisdalshagen chaired the local chapters of Valdres, from 1930 to 1932, and Fagernes, from 1931 to 1934.

Olav Meisdalshagen was elected as a member of Nord-Aurdal municipal council in 1931, and was re-elected to serve until 1940.

Olav Meisdalshagen spent his professional life in Fagernes, where he had opened an attorney's office in 1933.

Olav Meisdalshagen headed the municipal board of arbitration in debt matters, from 1935 to 1940.

Olav Meisdalshagen was the youngest member of Parliament at the time.

Olav Meisdalshagen agreed that the King should abdicate, as did the majority of the parliamentary group.

In 1941 Olav Meisdalshagen became a prominent figure in the Norwegian resistance movement against German rule, in the position of district leader of Milorg in Valdres.

Olav Meisdalshagen was a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and Customs and secretary of the Preparatory Credentials Committee, and became a member of the Standing Committee on Justice in December 1946.

Olav Meisdalshagen was board chairman of the Norwegian State Housing Bank from 1946 to 1953.

Midway through his four-year term, Olav Meisdalshagen was appointed Minister of Finance in Gerhardsen's Second Cabinet.

Olav Meisdalshagen served from 6 December 1947 to 19 November 1951, when Torp's Cabinet was formed.

Olav Meisdalshagen was succeeded as Minister of Finance by Trygve Bratteli; other candidates were discussed but rejected, including Meisdalshagen's old acquaintance Klaus Sunnana.

Olav Meisdalshagen even stated that a majority in Parliament probably agreed that such a law should have permanent effect, not be renewed from time to time.

The higher importance of the Ministry of Trade ended after 1951, and Olav Meisdalshagen's period was thus an exception in the history of the Ministry of Finance.

Olav Meisdalshagen was ultimately criticized by Brofoss for "lack of economical insight", and he ran afoul with Central Bank of Norway Governor Gunnar Jahn.

Olav Meisdalshagen was still a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and Customs.

On 22 January 1955 the Gerhardsen's Third Cabinet was formed, and Olav Meisdalshagen served as Minister of Agriculture until 14 May 1956.

Olav Meisdalshagen then returned to Parliament, this time as a member of the now-defunct Standing Committee on Agriculture.

Olav Meisdalshagen was elected for a fifth time in 1957.

Olav Meisdalshagen was chairman of the Norges Kooperative Landsforening from 1952 to his death.

Olav Meisdalshagen was regarded as an internal opponent of the Labour Party's foreign affairs and defence policy.

Olav Meisdalshagen remained skeptic to a non-neutral foreign policy in the 1950s, and in February 1951 a conflict with Minister of Defence Jens Chr.

Olav Meisdalshagen was a member of the board of Oppland Arbeiderblad from 1945 to 1957, and had spent some time working there before the war.

Olav Meisdalshagen was discontented with the deregulation policy to which the Labour Party gradually adhered in the 1950s.

Olav Meisdalshagen had been a supporter of the "Easter Uprising" of 1958, a voicing of dissent within the Labour Party, where the socialist students' association gained the signatures of Labour MPs on a NATO-critical resolution.

Halfway through his fifth term in Parliament, on 21 November 1959, Olav Meisdalshagen suffered from a sudden indisposition after a parliamentary speech.

Olav Meisdalshagen was hospitalized, but died later that same day.

Olav Meisdalshagen was biographized in 1982 by Nils Oddvar Bergheim.