Martin Julius Halvorsen (4 November 1867 – 7 March 1951) was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and Social Democratic Labour parties. Born in

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 ...

, he took an education as a book printer. Having founded his own

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...

in 1897, he moved it from Kristiania to rural

Jessheim Jessheim is a town in the Ullensaker municipality in Akershus of Norway. History The railway station with the Jessheim station was built in 1854 as part of the Hovedbanen line from Oslo to Eidsvoll. The railroad had at the initial construction o ...

in 1902. Here, he founded the newspaper ''Akershusingen'', renamed to ''

Romerikes Blad ''Romerikes Blad'' is a local newspaper published in Lillestrøm, Norway. It covers the Romerike district. History and profile ''Romerikes Blad'' was established by Martin Julius Halvorsen in 1902 in Jessheim under the name ''Akershusingen'', a ...

'' in 1904. He was the editor-in-chief of this newspaper for some time.Martin Julius Halvorsen
— Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) The newspaper still exists, and has a circulation of about 38,000.Romerikes Blad
at Norwegian Media Registry Halvorsen also edited '' Akershus Social-Demokrat'' from 1916 to 1917. While living in Kristiania, he was a member of the city council from 1896 to 1901. He was then a member of Ullensaker

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

from 1904 to 1937, serving as deputy mayor from 1916 to 1919 and mayor from 1934 to 1937. Halvorsen also served one term, from 1913 to 1915, in 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 ...

, representing the rural constituency of ''Mellem Romerike'', and finally, was a deputy for Harald Halvorsen. He was a member of the board of the Labour Party chapter in

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 ...

from 1905. From 1908 to 1912 he was chairman of the county chapter. Between 1921 and 1927, when the Labour Party suffered a split, Halvorsen was a member of the Social Democratic Labour Party. However, as the Labour Party and the Social Democratic Labour Party reconciled in 1927, he rejoined Labour and sat on the county board for a second period, from 1927 to 1937.

References

1867 births 1951 deaths Labour Party (Norway) politicians Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway politicians Members of the Storting Politicians from Oslo Mayors of places in Akershus People from Ullensaker Norwegian newspaper editors {{Norway-politician-1860s-stub