Otto Luihn (15 March 1890 – 3 March 1943) was a Norwegian newspaper editor, magazine editor and poet.

Early life

He was born as Otto Killingland in

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...

as a son of attorney Samuel Killingland (1841–1910) and Johanne Louise Luihn (1856–1906), and a grandson of Hans Jacob Luihn. Luihn finished middle school in 1906, and worked a couple of years at sea. In 1913 he married Marie Langlotz (1893–1969).

Career

Luihn worked for the anarchist magazine ''Storm'' from 1909. He was a journalist for ''

Klassekampen ''Klassekampen'' ( en, The Class Struggle) is a Norwegian daily newspaper. It describes itself as "the newspaper of the Left." The paper's net circulation is 34,000 (2021), and it has around 111,000 daily readers on paper (160,000 on Saturdays). ...

'', then for ''

Social-Demokraten :''This is about the Swedish newspaper. For the American newspaper see Social-Demokraten (Chicago newspaper). For the Norwegian newspaper see Dagsavisen.'' ''Social-Demokraten'' ("The Social Democrat") was a Swedish daily Social Democratic newsp ...

'' from 1914 to 1916, editor-in-chief for the Stavanger newspaper '' Den 1ste Mai'', then journalist for the Bergen newspaper ''

Arbeidet ''Arbeidet'' ("The Work") was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Bergen in Hordaland county. History and profile ''Arbeidet'' was started in Bergen as a socialist newspaper on 6 December 1893, by a grouping called . It was the first socialist d ...

'' from 1919 to 1923. Joining the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

in 1923, he worked for '' Norges Kommunistblad'' from 1923 to 1927. He was the first editor of the weekly magazine '' Arbeidermagasinet'' from 1927. In the same year he was imprisoned (five weeks of detention, without conviction) together with Henry W. Kristiansen, Just Lippe and Albin Eines, after a police raid in the Communist Party offices. He was also the writer behind ''Sjurs Sjursen vil bli kapitalist'', a satirical comic strip illustrated by Bjarne Restan, which appeared in the same magazine. He edited ''Arbeidermagasinet'' until February 1931, and set out to mold it into an entertainment magazine with a connection to the labour movement. For enlightenment purposes they ran a column named ''Kjente menn innen arbeiderklassen'' ("Famous Men of the Working Class"), and in 1931 Luihn released ''Arbeidernes fremmedordbok'' ("Workers' Dictionary of Foreign Words"). He also released the poetry collection ''Dikt'' in 1930. Luihn spent the year 1931 to 1932 studying in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. In 1933 he fielded in the general election as ninth ballot candidate for the Communist Party in Akershus. From the same year he edited the magazine ''Arbeider-Revy'', which was officially an organ for the organization ''Arbeiderforfatteres forening'', which he started. It has been called social realistic, and was heavily inspired by Komintern and the Soviet Union, which Luihn admired. He also wrote three books to testify this admiration: ''Sovjetunionen. Oplevelser og inntrykk'' (1933), ''Centralasia under Sovjetstjernen'' (1934) and ''Ukraine. På opdagerferd i den tredjestørste Sovjetrepublikk'' (1936). He defended the Moscow Trials, but nonetheless defected from the Communist Party to the Labour Party in 1937. He wrote in ''Arbeidermagasinet'' and ''

Arbeiderbladet ''Dagsavisen'' is a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. The former party organ of the Norwegian Labour Party, the ties loosened over time from 1975 to 1999. It has borne several names, and was called ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1923 to 1997. ...

'' now and then, and was also the first chairman in the trade union ''Illustrert presses forfattere''. He had also been a member of the Norwegian secretariat of International Revolutionary Writers. During the

occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany 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 th ...

in 1942, he was arrested by

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

on 17 May 1942. He was incarcerated at Bredtveit concentration camp from 8 June to 24 September 1942. After being released he fled to Sweden. He died from a heart ailment in March 1943 in Stockholm.

Published books

* ''Sovjetunionen. Oplevelser og inntrykk'' (1933) * ''Centralasia under Sovjetstjernen'' (1934) * ''Ukraine. På opdagerferd i den tredjestørste Sovjetrepublikk'' (1936)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luihn, Otto 1890 births 1943 deaths People from Drammen Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian magazine editors Norwegian comics writers Labour Party (Norway) politicians Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Norway Norwegian resistance members Bredtveit concentration camp survivors Norwegian expatriates in Sweden