Otto Albert Blehr (17 February 1847 – 13 July 1927) was a Norwegian statesman, attorney and newspaper editor who was the 8th prime minister of Norway from 1902 to 1903 during the

Union between Sweden and Norway Sweden and Norway or Sweden–Norway ( sv, Svensk-norska unionen; no, Den svensk-norske union(en)), officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and known as the United Kingdoms, was a personal union of the separate kingdoms of Swede ...

and from 1921 to 1923 following the Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden. He represented the Liberal Party.''Otto Blehr'' (Government Administration Services)
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Biography

Blehr grew up at a farm at

Stange is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Hedemarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Stangebye ...

Hedmark Hedmark () was a county in Norway before 1 January 2020, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmark and Oppland counties were merged i ...

, Norway. His parents were Albert Blehr (1805–1872) and Maren Wilhelmine Ludovica Kathinka Stenersen (1818–1877). His father was a doctor and physicist at Sanderud Hospital. He graduated in 1865 and then began studying the University of Christiania. Blehr graduated

cand.jur. Candidate of Law (Latin: ''candidatus/candidata juris/iuris'') is both a graduate law degree awarded to law students in the Nordic region as well as an academic status designation for advanced Law School students in German-speaking countries. ...

in 1871. He served as parliamentary reporter for the newspapers ''

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 ...

'' and ''

Bergens Tidende ''Bergens Tidende'' is Norway's fifth-largest newspaper, and the country's largest newspaper outside Oslo. ''Bergens Tidende'' is owned by the public company Schibsted ASA. Norwegian owners held a mere 42% of the shares in Schibsted at the end ...

''. In 1874, he was one of the founders of the '' Fjordabladet'' where he served as the first editor-in-chief until 1882. In 1878, he also started and served as the first editor of the ''

Sogns Tidende ''Sogns Tidend'' was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Sogndal in Sogn og Fjordane county. It was named ''Sogns Tidende'' from 1878 to 1927. It started as ''Sogns Tidende'' in 1878 by Otto Blehr. Blehr was a Liberal Party (Norway), Liberal Party ...

''. Blehr was the governor of

Nordre Bergenhus Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the co ...

(1883–1888) and for

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

(1895–1900). In 1877, he established himself as a prosecutor at Lærdal in Sogn. In 1879 Blehr was elected as first deputy representative to the Storting for Nordre Bergenhus amt (now Sogn og Fjordane) and from 1883 to 1888 he was a permanent representative. In the fall of 1888 he was not re-elected to the Storting. He became a prosecutor () in

Sunnfjord Sunnfjord ( en, the southern fjord - in contrast to Nordfjord) is a traditional district in Western Norway located in Vestland county. It includes the municipalities of Askvoll, Fjaler, the southernmost parts of Kinn, Sunnfjord, and the souther ...

and Nordfjord. In 1889 a lawyer in

Hålogaland Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norway, Norwegian provinces in the medieval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a Monarchy, kingdom extending between the Namdalen valley in Trøndelag county and ...

. He held this assignment until he became a judge () at Kristiania in 1893. In 1894 Blehr was again elected to the Storting, now for

. Blehr was re-elected as parliamentary deputy for Nordland in 1898. On 21 April 1902, he took over as Prime Minister of the Norwegian government in Kristiania. In October 1903, Blehr resigned as a result of an election defeat. In 1905 he was appointed as County Governor () at Christiania (now Oslo), an office he held until 1921. On 21 June 1921, Otto Blehr became Prime Minister and at the same time also chief of the Ministry of Finance. He was also a member of the Norwegian delegation to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

1920 and 1922–1925. On 3 March 1923 the government resigned.

Personal life

He married women's rights activist Randi Blehr (1851–1928) in 1876. Both were co-founders of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights, where his wife later became president. Otto Blehr was awarded the Grand Cross of the

Order of St. Olav The Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav ( no, Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden; or ''Sanct Olafs Orden'', the old Norwegian name) is a Norwegian order of chivalry instituted by King Oscar I on 21 August 1847. It is named after King Olav II ...

in 1898. He was also the auditor of the

Norwegian Nobel Committee The Norwegian Nobel Committee ( no, Den norske Nobelkomité) selects the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize each year on behalf of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's estate, based on instructions of Nobel's will. Five members are appointed by ...

from 1903 to his death in

Oslo 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 ...

during 1927. He was the father of

Eivind Blehr Eivind Stenersen Blehr (20 January 1881, in Lærdal – 27 July 1957) was a Norwegian minister in the NS government of Vidkun Quisling, from 1942 to 1944. In the Norwegian post-war legal purges he was convicted of treason and sentenced to 20 yea ...

, a minister in the Quisling regime in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blehr, Otto 1847 births 1927 deaths People from Stange University of Oslo alumni Norwegian jurists Norwegian newspaper people Norwegian newspaper editors County governors of Norway Government ministers of Norway Liberal Party (Norway) politicians Ministers of finance of Norway Prime ministers of Norway Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour Norwegian Association for Women's Rights people Ministers of justice of Norway Ministers of trade and shipping of Norway