Kristian Pedersen Tønder (9 November 1860 – 9 March 1934) was a Norwegian priest and politician for the Labour Party. He was born at Sørli in

Nesna Municipality Nesna is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Nesna (village), ...

as a son of farmers Peder Mikal Kristoffersen (1819–1885) og Jacobine Kristine Arntsdatter (1830–1896). He graduated from Tromsø Seminary in 1883, and studied theology from 1887 until he graduated with the

cand.theol. Candidatus theologiæ (male), Candidata theologiæ (female), abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six-year higher education in theology in Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. In Norway, the title has re ...

degree in 1894. At the same time, he also worked as a school teacher in Kristiania. He also taught in the municipalities of Ibestad,

Dyrøy Dyrøy ( sme, Divrráid suohkan) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Brøstadbotn. Other villages include Dyrøyhamn, Espenes, Holm, and Hundstrand. The m ...

and

Tranøy Tranøy is a former municipality that was located in the old Troms county, Norway. The municipality is situated on the southern coast of the large island of Senja. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was me ...

during his life. In 1901 he took the practical-theological seminary, and could serve as a clergyman. He was a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

at Ibestad Church from May 1902 to June 1907, and then vicar at

Salangen Church Salangen Church ( no, Salangen kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Salangen Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is located in the village of Sjøvegan. It is one of the churches for the Salangen parish which is pa ...

from June 1907 to 1931. He chaired the school board for Salangen Municipality from 1903 to 1911, and served as mayor of Salangen Municipality from 1904 to his death in 1934. He was 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 ...

in the 1915 election, representing the constituency of Trondenes. He was then elected from the constituency Senjen 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 ...

, and from Troms in

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 ...

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 ...

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 * ...

and

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

. During the last two terms he chaired the parliamentary temperance group of the Labour Party. He also became known as the person who proposed Christopher Hornsrud as Prime Minister when the Labour Party parliamentary group voted over the question in 1928. The national board had chosen the unwilling Johan Nygaardsvold with 11 against 6 votes for Hornsrud (so the proposal did not origin with Tønder), but in the parliamentary group Hornsrud was chosen with 41 votes against 13 votes for four other candidates. Tønder established the newspaper ''

Folkeviljen ''Folkeviljen'' ("People's Will") is a former Norwegian language, Norwegian newspaper, Labour Party (Norway), Labour Party organization and was established by parish priest and later Parliament of Norway, Member of Parliament Kristian Tønder in S ...

'', and was its first editor. He died in March 1934.

References

1860 births 1934 deaths Norwegian priest-politicians Labour Party (Norway) politicians Mayors of places in Troms Members of the Storting Norwegian temperance activists People from Nesna {{Norway-politician-1860s-stub