Knut Peder Langfeldt (14 January 1925 – 24 October 2018) was a Norwegian organizational worker and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

writer. He lived at

Slemdal Slemdal is a neighborhood in the borough of Vestre Aker in Oslo, Norway. The neighborhood lies south of Vettakollen, and was built up from the 1890s. It is served by the Oslo Metro station Slemdal. The local sports team is IL Heming. The is loc ...

at a young age. In May 1943, during the

German occupation of Norway 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 tried to flee the country by boat. However, he was discovered near Abelsnes. He was imprisoned in

Flekkefjord is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira, Gyland, Rasvåg, Kirkehavn, and Åna-Sira are lo ...

, then three days at Arkivet in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

, before being moved to

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 ...

. He remained here for a year, except for the time from August 1943 to March 1944 when he was at

Ullevål Hospital Ullevaal Stadion () is an all-seater football stadium located in Oslo, Norway. It is the home ground of the Norway national football team, and the site of the Norwegian Cup Final. From its opening in 1926 to 2009 it was the home ground of FK ...

. He was incarcerated at

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 ...

from 14 July 1944 to 4 May 1945. The German occupation ended on 8 May 1945, and the roles changed. From May to September 1945 he worked as a prison guard for the now-imprisoned Nazis and collaborators. He also joined the

Young Communist League of Norway The Young Communist League of Norway ( no, Norges Kommunistiske Ungdomsforbund, NKU) was until April 2006 the youth league of Norges Kommunistiske Parti (NKP). The NKP declared on 1 April 2006 that the NKU was no longer its youth organization, an ...

, and came in contact with

Peder Furubotn Peder Furubotn (29 August 1890 – 28 November 1975) was a Norwegian cabinetmaker, politician for the Communist Party and resistance member during World War II. Early and personal life Furubotn was born in Brekke, Sogn og Fjordane, the son o ...

. Furubotn arranged the drafting of Langfeldt into the

Parteihochschule Karl Marx The Party Academy Karl Marx (''Parteihochschule Karl Marx'') was an academy (''Hochschule'') that was founded in 1946 in the Soviet occupation zone. During the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), it was subordinate to the Central Committee ...

in what would become

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

, and here he was a contact between the

Communist Party of Norway The Communist Party of Norway ( no, Norges Kommunistiske Parti, NKP) is a communist party in Norway. The NKP was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. It was Stalinist from its establishment and, as such, supported t ...

(who knew him only by the pseudonym Karl Quandt) and the German socialist party (who knew him as Kurt Lindenberg). Langfeldt was not a Communist Party member, however. He studied at the college from 1947 to 1949, and later studied at the

University of Oslo 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 ...

. From 1957 to 1961 he lived in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, studying for two years and being a correspondent for ''

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 ...

'' in the last two years. He worked as information director in the National Insurance Administration before working in the

Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities ( no, KS) is an employers' organisation in Norway. It was founded in 1972 as a merger between the Union of Norwegian Cities (''Norges Byforbund'', founded in 1903) and the Norwegian Asso ...

from 1968 to 1992. In 1962 he, together with

Jacques Freymond Jacques Freymond (5 August 1911 – 4 May 1998) was a Swiss political historian. He was born in Lausanne, and studied in his hometown as well as in München, Sorbonne and Sciences Po. He worked in the upper secondary school from 1935 to 1942. Fro ...

, Henri Burgelin and Miklós Molnár, co-published the 800-page work ''La Première Internationale'' on the

First International The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as ...

. In the

Norwegian language Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regio ...

he published the books ''Moskvatesene i norsk politikk'' in 1961 and ''Det direkte demokrati: Rådsrepublikk eller parlamentarisme?'' in 1966, as well as articles in '' Historisk Tidsskrift'' and ''

Samtiden ''Samtiden'' is a Norwegian political and literary magazine. History and profile ''Samtiden'' was founded by Jørgen Brunchorst and Gerhard Gran in 1890. The magazine's first publisher was ''John Griegs forlag'' (Bergen), and from 1900 Aschehoug ...

''. Langfeldt has been active in

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. He married a Swiss woman, and had two children. He resided in

Nordstrand Nordstrand may refer to: Places ;Germany * Nordstrand, Germany, a peninsula in Germany * Nordstrand (Amt), a former municipality in Nordfriesland, Germany ;Norway * Nordstrand, Norway, a borough in Oslo, Norway * Søndre Nordstrand, a borough in ...

. He died in October 2018.Death announcement, ''Aftenposten'' 8 December 2018 p. 53

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Langfeldt, Knut 1925 births 2018 deaths Grini concentration camp survivors Norwegian political scientists University of Oslo alumni Norwegian expatriates in Germany Norwegian expatriates in Switzerland Norwegian newspaper reporters and correspondents