Eivind Reiersen (11 June 1877 – 16 September 1947) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

newspaper editor and politician for the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

parties. He served one term as an MP, was deputy mayor of

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the Norsj ...

, and edited the newspapers ''

Fremover ''Fremover'' is a regional newspaper published in Narvik, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Sca ...

'', '' Ny Dag'', ''

Bratsberg-Demokraten ''Bratsberg-Demokraten'' ("The Bratsberg Democrat") was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Skien in Telemark county. From 1924 to 1929 it was named ''Telemark Kommunistblad''. ''Bratsberg-Demokraten'' was started on 7 April 1908, as the Labour Pa ...

'' (a.k.a. ''Folkets Dagblad''), '' Telemark Arbeiderblad'', '' Telemark Kommunistblad'' and ''

Rjukan Arbeiderblad ''Rjukan Arbeiderblad'', commonly known as RA, is a Norwegian newspaper, based in Rjukan and owned by Amedia. It was established in 1923 by the local Labour movement. First editor was Axel Sømme, who edited the newspaper from 1923 to 1924. Trond ...

''.

Labour Party career

He was born at Ringsevju in Nes in

Sauherad Sauherad is a former municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Midt-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Akkerhaugen. The municipality borders Kongsberg, Skien, Nome, ...

as a son of

crofter A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural area ...

s Reier Eivindsen (1853–1933) and Gunhild Olsdatter (1853–1900). He worked as a farm and forest labourer from 1889 to 1895, construction site labourer from 1895 to 1898 and at a paper factory from 1898 to 1911. He joined the Labour Party in 1899, and was a member of

Solum The solum (plural, sola) in soil science consists of the surface and subsoil layers that have undergone the same soil forming conditions. The base of the solum is the relatively unweathered parent material. Solum and soils are not synonymous. Som ...

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

from 1907 to 1913, serving since 1910 as deputy mayor. He chaired the county branch of the Labour Party in

Bratsberg Amt Bratsberg is a name of Norwegian origin and may refer to: People * Harry Bratsberg (also Harry Bratsburg), an American actor and director also known as Harry Morgan Places * Bratsberg, Trøndelag, a village in Trondheim municipality in Trøndelag ...

from 1908 to 1913. In 1911 he left manual labour as he became a secretary in the

Norwegian Union of General Workers The Norwegian Union of General Workers ( no, Norsk Arbeidsmandsforbund, NAF) is a trade union in Norway. It has a membership of 33,000 and is affiliated with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO). The union was founded on 13 April 1895 ...

. In 1913 he was hired as editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''

''. He became the first chairman of

Bodø Bodø (; smj, Bådåddjo, sv, Bodö) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Bodø (which is also the capital of Nordland count ...

Labour Party in 1914, and remained so until 1915. He was a national board member of the Labour Party from 1915 to 1921, and county leader of the Labour Party in

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

from 1922 to 1923. From 1916 to 1919 he edited the newspaper '' Ny Dag'', and from 1919 ''

''. In January 1921 his newspaper was merged to become '' Folkets Dagblad''. After editing ''Folkets Dagblad'' for some time, Reiersen went on to the new, more radical newspaper '' Telemark Arbeiderblad'' in the same year. Reiersen stood for general election in

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

in the constituency ''Lillehammer og Gjøvik''. He managed to carry the votes in Gjøvik with 620 votes against Ellef Marcussen's 597. Marcussen, however, hailed from

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

and carried the votes there, winning comfortably with 1,817 votes in total against Reiersen's 1,381. Reiersen was later elected to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil. ** The Spanish lin ...

from the constituency

Market towns of Telemark and Aust-Agder counties The Market towns of Telemark and Aust-Agder counties ( no, Kjøpstedene i Telemark og Aust-Agder fylker) was an electoral district for parliamentary elections in Norway. It comprised the market towns ( no, kjøpsteder) of Brevik, Kragerø, Notodden ...

. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Customs. He served one term, and the change of party allegiance to Communist came during this term. He was also a member of the executive committee of Skien city council from 1922, and served as deputy mayor from 1925 to 1926.

Communist Party and back to Labour Party

In 1923 Reiersen defected from the Labour Party, joining the newly formed

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

. Reiersen served as county leader for the Communist Party until 1925. He headed their ballot for the

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

and 1927 elections, but was not re-elected. He edited ''Ny Dag'' for a second period in 1924. He then edited ''Telemark Kommunistblad'', as ''Bratsberg-Demokraten'' now was named, from 1925 to 1928. He was then the manager in ''

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

'' from 1928 to 1930. In 1930 he was excluded from the Communist Party, and he eventually rejoined the Labour Party. Reiersen was occupied from 1933 to 1934 with writing biographies for the workers' encyclopedia ''

Arbeidernes Leksikon (''The Laborers' Encyclopedia'') is a Norwegian encyclopedia published in six volumes in the 1930s. It was the first reference book in Norwegian to have a pronounced class bias, and the first encyclopedia outside of the Soviet Union to be direc ...

''. He had earlier written both non-fiction as well as short stories. Many short stories were printed in newspapers, and a short stories collection named ''Kamp'' ("Struggle") was released in 1917. In 1940 he served as editor of ''

'' for nine months before the newspaper was shut down during the

occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

. He was also imprisoned in

Møllergata 19 Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This is ...

from 22 January to 8 February 1945, then in

Grini concentration camp '', '' no, Grini fangeleir'', location=Bærum, Viken, Norway, location map=Viken#Norway, built by=Norway, original use=Constructed as a women's prison, operated by=Nazi Germany, notable inmates= List of Grini prisoners, liberated by=Harry Söderma ...

until May 1945 when the war ended. He was married to Amanda "Manda" Reiersen (1891-1977), born Ingeborg Amanda Ellefsen, who was active in the labour movement as well. He died in September 1947.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiersen, Eivind 1877 births 1947 deaths Politicians from Skien Norwegian trade unionists Norwegian newspaper editors Labour Party (Norway) politicians Communist Party of Norway politicians Politicians from Telemark Members of the Storting Norwegian biographers Norwegian male writers Male biographers Norwegian male short story writers Norwegian resistance members Grini concentration camp survivors People from Sauherad