Henning Bremer Bødtker (14 August 1891 – 19 November 1975) was a Norwegian jurist and civil servant. He was the

Attorney General of Norway Established in 1816, the Office of the Attorney General of Norway ( no, Regjeringsadvokatembetet) is the legal advisor to the government. The attorney general assists the executive branch of government with judicial questions and to conduct civil le ...

from 1945 to 1962.

Personal life

He was born in Svelvik as a son of ship captain Jacob Bødtker (1847–1923) and Hilda Tofte (1853–1943). He is a second cousin of professor Adam Trampe Bødtker. In 1922 he married Swedish citizen Dagmar von Sydow. Their daughter who was also named Dagmar married landowner and politician Carl Oscar Collett.

Career

finished Finished may refer to: * ''Finished'' (novel), a 1917 novel by H. Rider Haggard * ''Finished'' (film), a 1923 British silent romance film * "Finished" (short story), a science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp See also *Finishing (disa ...

his secondary education in 1909 and graduated from the

Royal Frederick University The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

with the cand.jur. degree in 1913. He was a law clerk and junior solicitor from 1914 to 1918, and also chaired the Norwegian Students' Society in 1916. From 1919 he was a practising lawyer in Oslo. He worked as a secretary for the Norwegian Bar Association from 1929 to 1937, also editing ''Norsk Sakførerblad'' for the last six years. He became a board member in the Norwegian Bar Association in 1938 and chaired the organization from 1940 to 1947. 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 th ...

he was 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 12 June 1941, 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 Söderm ...

from 12 September 1941 to 4 September 1942. He had endeavored to keep the Norwegian Bar Association from being usurped by the Nazis. His organization was one of forty-three to protest nazification attempts on 15 May 1941, in a letter addressed directly to

Reichskommissar (, rendered as "Commissioner of the Empire", "Reich Commissioner" or "Imperial Commissioner"), in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and Nazi Germany. Ger ...

Josef Terboven Josef Terboven (23 May 1898 – 8 May 1945) was a Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Essen and the ''Reichskommissar'' for Norway during the German occupation. Early life Terboven was born in Es ...

. This protest of the 43 was met with harsh reactions; already on 12 June 1941 arrest orders were issued on Bødtker and fellow signatory

Erling Steen Erling Steen (6 March 1891 – 22 September 1961) was a Norwegian businessman, humanitarian leader and member of the Norwegian resistance movement in World War II. Personal life Steen was born in Kristiania as a son of Johan Steen (1856–193 ...

. On 18 June six more protesters were arrested.

Post-war career

After the war he served as the

from 1945 to 1962. He chaired the committees that oversaw the transition to peacetime of

Nortraship The Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (Nortraship) was established in London in April 1940 to administer the Norwegian merchant fleet outside German-controlled areas. Nortraship operated some 1,000 vessels and was the largest shipping company ...

between 1945 and 1946, and then the Norwegian whaling fleet between 1946 and 1947. He was also the auditor of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1946 (auditing the year 1945) to 1972. He chaired Fellesbanken from 1945 to 1964 and

Foreningen Norden Foreningen Norden (Norwegian and Danish), Föreningen Norden (Swedish), Norræna félagið (Icelandic), Norrøna Felagið (Faroese), Peqatigiiffik Nunat Avannarliit (Greenlandic) and Pohjola-Norden (Finnish), ''The Norden Associations'', sometimes ...

in Norway from 1950 to 1956, was a board member of the companies

Norsk Kulelager 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 ...

and

Norsk Trelleborg Gummi 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 ...

. He received the King's Medal of Merit in gold and was decorated as a Commander of the Order of St. Olav (1955), the Order of the Dannebrog, the

Order of the White Rose of Finland The Order of the White Rose of Finland ( fi, Suomen Valkoisen Ruusun ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Vita Ros’ orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. ...

and the

Order of the Polar Star The Royal Order of the Polar Star ( Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim. The Order of t ...

. He died in 1975 and was buried at Ris.

References

D– {{DEFAULTSORT:Boedtker, Henning 1891 births 1975 deaths People from Svelvik University of Oslo alumni 20th-century Norwegian lawyers Norwegian civil servants Grini concentration camp survivors Commanders of the Order of the Dannebrog Commanders of the Order of the Polar Star Recipients of the King's Medal of Merit in gold