Hagbart (or Hagbard) Emanuel Berner (12 September 1839 – 24 January 1920) was a Norwegian lawyer,

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

politician and newspaper editor. He was one of Norway's leading liberal progressives of his time. He represented the Liberal Party as a member of parliament from 1880 to 1888, as

Auditor General of Norway The Office of the Auditor General of Norway ( no, Riksrevisjonen) is the state auditor of the Government of Norway and directly subordinate of the Parliament of Norway. It is responsible for auditing, monitoring and advising all state economic act ...

from 1883 to 1898 and as Burgomaster of Christiania from 1892 to 1912. He was the first editor-in-chief of the liberal newspaper ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

'' and the co-founder (with

Gina Krog Jørgine Anna Sverdrup "Gina" Krog (20 June 1847 – 14 April 1916) was a Norwegian suffragist, teacher, liberal politician, writer and editor, and a major figure in liberal feminism in Scandinavia. She played a central role in the Norwegian l ...

) and first president of the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights ( no, italic=no, Norsk Kvinnesaksforening; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organization and works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights thr ...

. In 1882 he introduced the parliamentary act that admitted women to the university.

Background

Berner was born in

Sunndal is a municipality in the Nordmøre region located in the northeast part of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Sunndalsøra. Other villages include Gjøra, Grøa, Hoelsand, Jordalsgre ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

county,

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 Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He was the son of parish priest Ole Christian Berner and Laura Nicoline Collin. The family moved to

Akershus Akershus () is a traditional region and current electoral district in Norway, with Oslo as its main city and traditional capital. It is named after the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. From the middle ages to 1919, Akershus was a fief and main county ...

in 1850. He married Selma Augusta Hovind in 1871. He was the brother-in-law of both industrialist

Hans Mustad Hans Mustad (26 January 1837 – 27 February 1918) was a Norwegian businessperson. He was instrumental in shaping the company O. Mustad & Søn. Mustad was born in Vardal as the son of Ole Hovelsen Mustad. He was a brother of Kristian Mauri ...

and Hans Gerhard Stub (1849–1931), Bishop of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America.

Career

Berner graduated as a student in 1858, and as a jurist in 1863. In Christiania he befriended intellectuals such as

Ernst Sars Johan Ernst Welhaven Sars (11 October 1835 – 27 January 1917) was a Norwegian professor, historian, author and editor. His main work was ''Udsigt over den norske Historie'', four volumes issued from 1873 to 1891. He co-edited the magazines ...

and

Aasmund Olavsson Vinje Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (6 April 1818 – 30 July 1870) was a Norwegian poet and journalist who is remembered for poetry, travel writing, and his pioneering use of Landsmål (now known as Nynorsk). Background Vinje was born into a poor but we ...

, and became politically active and a supporter of the

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

language. He co-founded the publishing house

Det Norske Samlaget Det Norske Samlaget is a Norwegian publishing house founded on 24 March 1868 with the aim to promote and publish books in Landsmål, now known as Nynorsk. ''Det Norske Samlaget'' is now divided into two institutions: a literature organization, ''L ...

in 1868, and was its chairman until 1877. In 1868 he co-founded the newspaper ''

'', together with Danish-born author and literary figure,

Anthon Bang Anthon Bang (Copenhagen, 9 December 1809 – Oslo, Christiania (now Oslo), 31 July 1870) was a Danes, Danish-Norwegians, Norwegian writer and publisher. He was born in Copenhagen (Denmark), and grew up in Trondheim in central Norway. He was t ...

(1809–1870). He was editor of ''Dagbladet'' from 1869 to 1879. The newspaper had close connections to the political movement that later came to be the

Liberal Party of Norway The Liberal Party ( no, Venstre, lit=Left, V; se, Gurutbellodat) is a centrist political party in Norway. It was founded in 1884 and it is the oldest political party in Norway. It is positioned in the centre on the political spectrum, and it is ...

. ''Anthon Bang'' (Store norske leksikon)
/ref> His demand for a "clean" Norwegian flag, instead of the then-flag with a union badge (popularly known as ''Sildesalaten''), led to political turbulence in 1879. The parliamentary majority voted for the removal of the union badge three times, but was defeated by royal veto twice. Finally, in 1898, the third royal veto was overruled and the union badge was removed from the national and the state flag. He was elected as a member of 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 ...

in 1879, representing

, and was re-elected in 1882 and 1885. Berner co-founded the

in 1884, together with

, and was the organization's first president. He was

from 1883 to 1898, and burgomaster of

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

from 1898 to 1912.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berner, Hagbard Emanuel Norwegian jurists Norwegian newspaper editors Auditors general of Norway Members of the Storting 1839 births 1920 deaths Norwegian civil servants Norwegian women's rights activists Liberal Party (Norway) politicians Nynorsk People from Sunndal Politicians from Oslo 19th-century Norwegian politicians 19th-century Norwegian writers Norwegian Association for Women's Rights people