Gerhardsen, Einar Henry

Gerhardsen, Einar Henry 

Born May 10, 1897, in Oslo. Norwegian statesman and political figure.

A worker by profession, Gerhardsen began to participate in labor union activities in 1919. From 1925 to 1936 he was the secretary of the Norwegian Labor Party in Oslo, and he was the secretary of the party’s central board from 1936 to 1945. From 1941 to 1945, after the 1940 occupation of Norway by fascist Germany, Gerhardsen was a prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and then in the Grini camp near Oslo. He was the chairman of the Labor Party from 1945 to 1965. In 1945 he also became a deputy in the Storting and served as president of that body in 1954. Gerhardsen was prime minister of Norway from 1945 to 1951 and from 1955 to 1965, except for August-September 1963.