Johan Christian Viggo Ullmann (21 December 1848 – 30 August 1910) was a Norwegian educator and politician with Venstre, the Norwegian social-liberal party. He was the son of the author

Vilhelmine Ullmann Vilhelmine Ullmann (née Dunker; 16 March 1816 – 28 April 1915) was a Norwegian pedagogue, publicist, literary critic and proponent for women's rights. Early and personal life Ullmann was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. She was the ...

, brother of the feminist Ragna Nielsen and the great grandfather of actress Liv Ullmann. Norway's first social doctor was his grandchild, also named Viggo Ullmann (Lillehammer, 1920–).

Career as a teacher

From 1870 he studied philology at the University of Christiania and was cand.philol. 1872. He received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in 1875, after which he worked as a teacher at the

Folk High School Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule;' ...

s Skulestad, Østre Moland, Landvik, Bratsberg, Drangedal, Gjerpen and Vinje. At the liberal Folk High School in Seljord (''Seljord Folkehøgskule''), he worked for a more vocational approach to the study. In this period, he was also chairman of the publisher Det Norske Samlaget, as well as editor for the newspaper '' Varden''. His

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

was influenced by the ideas of

N. F. S. Grundtvig Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (; 8 September 1783 – 2 September 1872), most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential pe ...

, where

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and learning was seen as a voluntary act, and obligatory exams were replaced by voluntary self-evaluation. He was also a spokesman of the

theorems In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of the ...

of American economist

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

Political career

He was the leader of the party Venstre (1893–1894 and 1898–1900), Member of Parliament for Bratsberg 1898–1900, Venstre's parliamentary leader 1893–1894 and

President of the Storting 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 ...

1892–94, 1897 and 1898–1900. In 1884 he was a co-founder of the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights ( no, italic=no, Norsk Kvinnesaksforening; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organization and works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights thr ...

. He helped The Association for Women's Suffrage (led by his sister, Ragna Nielsen) to write a suggestion for a change of the constitution, something which brought him into conflict with certain religious societies. Together with Prime Minister Wollert Konow, he was central in Norwegian Peace Association (Norwegian: Norges Fredslag) and was later (in 1890) behind the establishment of The Parliament's Peace Association (Norwegian:''Stortingets Fredsforening'') and The Peace Letter to King

Oscar II of Sweden Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik; 21 January 1829 – 8 December 1907) was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death in 1907 and King of Norway from 1872 to 1905. Oscar was the son of King Oscar I and Queen Josephine. He inherited the Swedish and Norwe ...

. Ullman was First Deputy Member of the

Nobel Committee A Nobel Committee is a working body responsible for most of the work involved in selecting Nobel Prize laureates. There are five Nobel Committees, one for each Nobel Prize. Four of these committees (for prizes in physics, chemistry, physiolo ...

(7 August 1897 – 5 June 1900). From 1902 until he died, he was county governor of

Bratsberg amt Bratsberg is a name of Norwegian origin and may refer to: People * Harry Bratsberg (also Harry Bratsburg), an American actor and director also known as Harry Morgan Places * Bratsberg, Trøndelag, a village in Trondheim municipality in Trøndelag ...

(now Telemark).

Selected works

Ullman also published several books: * ''Plutarks levnetsbeskrivelser'' (

Plutarch's Lives Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', commonly called ''Parallel Lives'' or ''Plutarch's Lives'', is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably writt ...

), 2 volumes, 1876–1877, translation * ''Ammianus Marcellinus’s 25 aar av Roms historie'' (

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gestae ...

’ 25 years of Roman history), 3 volumes, 1877–1881, translation * ''Haandbok i verdenshistorien'' (Handbook to world history), 4 volumes, 1899–1905.

References

Other sources

* *

External links

Viggo Ullmanns dødsfall i kirkebok for Vestre AkerPolitiske taler av Viggo Ullmann
virksommeord.uib.no {{DEFAULTSORT:Ullmann, Viggo 1848 births 1910 deaths Liberal Party (Norway) politicians Presidents of the Storting Members of the Storting Norwegian Association for Women's Rights people Georgist politicians County governors of Norway