Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (18 February 1813 – 23 April 1891) was a Norwegian priest and politician. He was born at

Jarlsberg Manor Jarlsberg Hovedgård Jarlsberg Manor (Norwegian: Jarlsberg Hovedgård) is a manor three kilometres northwest of the centre of the town of Tønsberg in Vestfold og Telemark, Norway. It has traditionally been the residence of members of the Wedel-Jar ...

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered t ...

. His brother

Johan Sverdrup Johan Sverdrup (30 July 1816 – 17 February 1892) was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first prime minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism and served as the 4th prime minister of Norway. Sverdrup was ...

would found the

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 ...

and become

Prime Minister of Norway The prime minister of Norway ( no, statsminister, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government department ...

in 1884.Harald Ulrik Sverdrup
at the Sogn og Fjordane County Encyclopedia ( Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) He graduated as cand.theol. in 1837, and worked as a senior technical officer (''amanuensis'') at the

University Library of Oslo The University of Oslo Library ( no, Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo, UBO) is a library connected to the University of Oslo. Like the university, it was established in 1811 with Georg Sverdrup as the first head librarian. It originally doubled as ...

from 1837 to 1845. In 1845 he was appointed to a clerical position, that of chaplain in

Leikanger Leikanger () is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located on the northern shore of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center was the village of Hermansverk, which also was the ...

. In 1849 the district of Balestrand was separated from Leikanger as an own parish, and Sverdrup became

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

(''sogneprest'') of the new parish. He published several works, mostly based on

Erik Pontoppidan Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan (24 August 1698 – 20 December 1764) was a Danish author, a Lutheran bishop of the Church of Norway, an historian, and an antiquarian. His Catechism of the Church of Denmark heavily influenced Danish and Norwegian reli ...

's explanation of the Luther's Small Catechism. As his brother, Harald Ulrik Sverdrup became involved in politics. When Balestrand became a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of its own in 1849, Sverdrup became its first mayor. He sat as mayor until 1879. He was among the establishers of the local

savings bank A savings bank is a financial institution whose primary purpose is accepting savings deposits and paying interest on those deposits. They originated in Europe during the 18th century with the aim of providing access to savings products to al ...

in 1847, and of the transport company Nordre Bergenhus Amts Dampskibe (later: Fylkesbaatane i Sogn og Fjordane) with

Jan Henrik Nitter Hansen Jan Henrik Nitter Hansen (1801–1879) was a Norwegian businessman and politician. He was born at Døsen in the parish of Luster in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. He later relocated to the village of Lærdalsøyri, and became the most significant me ...

and Michael Aubert in 1858. He was elected to the

Norwegian Parliament 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 1851, representing the constituency of ''Nordre Bergenhus Amt''. He was re-elected in 1854, 1857, 1859, 1862, 1865 and 1868.Harald Ulrik Sverdrup
— Norwegian Social Science Data Services In 1870 he lost the election due to disagreements with

Søren Jaabæk Søren Pedersen Jaabæk (1 April 1814 – 7 January 1894) was a Norwegian politician and farmer. Jaabæk is the longest-serving member of the Norwegian Parliament in the history of Norway, and was one of the founders of the Liberal Party of No ...

and his supporters, but Sverdrup later returned for a final term from 1874. Harald Ulrik Sverdrup stepped down as a priest in 1883. When he stepped down, his son Jakob Sverdrup stood for election, and won. He also became a government minister. A daughter of Harald Ulrik Sverdrup married the priest and

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-N ...

proponent Eirik Olson Bruhjell. They had met while Sverdrup was the private tutor of Bruhjell. Another of his sons,

Edvard Sverdrup Johan Edvard Sverdrup (22 June 1861 – 21 January 1923) was a Norwegian educator, author and church leader. Sverdrup was one of the key theologians in the Church of Norway in the first few decades of the 1900s. Biography Sverdrup was born in B ...

, became a professor of theology. One of Edvard's sons, Harald Ulrik Sverdrup, Jr., went on to become a well-known oceanographer and meteorologist.Johan Edvard Sverdrup
at the Sogn og Fjordane County Encyclopedia ( Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation)

References

External links

Family genealogy
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sverdrup, Harald Ulrik 1813 births 1891 deaths Members of the Storting Mayors of places in Sogn og Fjordane Norwegian priest-politicians