Wollert Konow (16 August 1845 – 15 March 1924) was the 12th

prime minister of Norway The prime minister of Norway ( no, statsminister, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government department ...

from 1910 to 1912. He was the leader of a coalition cabinet. Konow's time as Prime Minister saw the extension of accident insurance to seamen in 1911.Biografier – Samfunnsveven
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Background

Konow was born in the borough of

Fana Fana is a borough of the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. The borough makes up the southeastern part of the municipality of Bergen. The borough was once part of the historic municipality of Fana which was incorporated into Bergen in ...

in the city of Bergen, Norway. He was the son of Wollert Konow (1809–1881) and Marie Louise Oehlenschläger (1818–1910). His father was a writer and elected official. In 1842 his parents had purchased the historic Stend Manor in

where Wollert Konow was born. Wollert Konow was a grandson of the noted Danish poet and playwright

Adam Oehlenschlager Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

(1779–1850). He was a student at

Bergen Cathedral School Bergen Cathedral School (Norwegian: ''Bergen Katedralskole'', Latin: ''Schola Cathedralis Bergensis'', formerly known as Bergens lærdeskole and Bergen latinskole and colloquially known as Katten) is an upper secondary school in Bergen, Norway. Loc ...

. After graduating in 1864, Konow went to the Royal Frederick University in Christiania. He began to study law which he never completed. In 1868, he started a school at

Halsnøy Halsnøya or Halsnøy is an island in Kvinnherad municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies between the Hardangerfjorden and Skånevikfjorden. The island has about 2,300 inhabitants (2008) and it is the most populated island in Kv ...

Sunnhordland Sunnhordland is a traditional district in the western region of Norway. The district consists of the southern coastal regions of the old Hordaland county (now part of Vestland county). It includes the areas that surround the mouth of the Hardang ...

where he was both teacher and head manager until 1872. In 1873 Konow took over operation of the mill at Stend and expanded the estate by acquiring neighboring properties.

Career

Wollert Konow was mayor of Fana most of the time between 1880 and 1901, and was in 1877–1879 Deputy to the Parliament for Søndre Bergenhus amt (now Hordaland). He served as Minister of Agriculture in 1910 and

Minister of Auditing The Norwegian Minister of Auditing was the head of the Norwegian Ministry of Auditing. The position existed from 1822 to 1918. List of Norwegian Ministers of Auditing ReferencesMinistry of Auditing. Councillor of State 1822 - 1918 {{Ministers of ...

1910-1912. He was

Odelsting 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 base ...

president 1884–1887 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 base ...

in 1888 and again from 1897 to 1899. He was a central board member of the

Liberal Left Party The Free-minded Liberal Party ( no, Frisinnede Venstre) was a political party in Norway founded in 1909 by the conservative-liberal faction of the Liberal Party. The party cooperated closely with the Conservative Party and participated in severa ...

from 1909 to 1912. Wollert Konow served as Prime Minister over a two-year period as leader of a coalition which combined elements of two competing parties; ''Høgre'' and ''Frisindede Venstre''. Konow's coalition government came to an end in 1912 after he declared his sympathies for the rural language form ''

Landsmål Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

'' during the height of the

Norwegian language conflict The Norwegian language conflict ( no, målstriden, da, sprogstriden) is an ongoing controversy in Norwegian culture and politics related to the written versions of Norwegian. From 1536/1537 until 1814, Danish was the standard written language of ...

causing conflict with ''

Riksmål (, also , ) is a written Norwegian language form or spelling standard, meaning the ''National Language'', closely related and now almost identical to the dominant form of Bokmål, known as . Both Bokmål and Riksmål evolved from the Danish wri ...

'' supporters. After loss in the election in 1912, Konow was out of politics for good, and he spent the remainder of his life at Stend. He was commonly referred to as Wollert Konow (SB) to differentiate him from

Wollert Konow (H) Wollert Konow (born 24 May 1847 in Bergen, died 25 October 1932) was a Norwegian politician and farmer. Konow was head of the Interior Ministry from 1891 to 1893, speaking as Foreign Minister in 1913 and central radicals for decades. In 1891 he w ...

who was his cousin and contemporary politician from

Hedemark 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 ...

. The initials "SB" stood for "Søndre Bergenhus," the now-defunct constituency Konow represented in national politics.

Personal life

In 1875, he married Fredrikke Wilhelmine Kooter (1854-1935), who was the daughter of Jacob Blaauw Kooter (1818-1887) and Marie Frederikke Balchen (1817-1883). Konow was alternate member 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 ...

, 1913 to 1922 and Member of the Committee from 1922 until he died at Stend in Fana during 1924.

Stend Manor

Stend Manor (''Stend hovedgård'') was a historic estate which had belonged to Nonneseter Abbey of Bergen during the Middle Ages. Around 1682, the main building was built in timber as a single-story with three wings. In 1842, Dr. Wollert Konow acquired Stend. In 1861, Stend was bought by Søndre Bergenhus (now Hordaland) county. Since then, it has housed an agricultural school. Under the direction of architect Erlend Tryti (1885-1962) extensive renovation and restoration work was carried out in the years 1921-1922. The main building were restored in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

References

Other sources

*Garvik, Olav (2001) ''Wollert Konow, Statsminister og stril'' (Bergen: Fagbokforlaget)