Ørnulf Egge (26 May 1910 – 31 July 1978) was a Norwegian politician for the Workers' Youth League and Communist Party and resistance member during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early political career

He was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

, and was a son of writer Peter Egge. He became a central board member in the Workers' Youth League in 1934, and belonged to the left wing. This became clear especially after 1937, although Egge managed to win support for the Workers' Youth League to still work for

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing Weapon, weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, ...

. After the German invasion and occupation of Norway in 1940, Egge joined the Trade Opposition of 1940, a grouping that wanted non-resistance against the German invaders in order to secure good conditions for workers and trade unions. The Trade Opposition was declared underminers by the

Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (, LO) is a national trade union center, decidedly the largest and probably the most influential umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway. The 21 national unions affiliated to the LO have almo ...

in July 1940, and in August/September when it became clear that the Fascist party

Nasjonal Samling The Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norway, Norwegian far-right politics, far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling a ...

would be a cooperating partner with the Germans, Egge backed out together with Edvard Bull, Jr. and others. Shortly thereafter, the Workers' Youth League was prohibited by the Nazi authorities. In 1941 Egge and others from the Workers' Youth League came into contact with the Communist Party, which had gone underground. In May 1942 Egge became the leader of the youth work in the Communist Party. In May 1943 he was sent to their secret headquarters encampment in

Valdres Valdres () is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between the districts of Gudbrandsdalen and Hallingdal. The region of Valdres consists of the six municipalities of Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre S ...

, to work as organizational secretary. He was also a member of the central committee. On 13 June 1944 the headquarters were attacked by 800 Nazi personnel. What was called Operation Almenrausch was a blow to the Communist Party's organization, but Egge survived and fled. He operated out of Oslo until the end of World War II. At the same time the communist sabotages began to fade, because the movement lacked weapons and had been weakened by Operation Almenrausch and other arrests.

Post-war career

On 15 June 1940, Egge gave his support to

Johan Nygaardsvold Johan Nygaardsvold (; 6 September 1879 – 13 March 1952) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party who served as the prime minister of Norway from 1935 to 1945. From June 1940 until May 1945, he oversaw the Norwegian Government-in-exile f ...

to continue as

Prime Minister of Norway The prime minister of Norway (, which directly translates to "minister of state") is the head of government and chief executive of Norway. The prime minister and Cabinet of Norway, Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government departme ...

. He also negotiated to cooperate more closely with the Labour Party; this goal was not achieved.Pryser, 1988: p. 552 Egge was the political secretary of the Communist Party from 1945 to 1946. He was excluded in 1950, during the purge against Peder Furubotn and his supporters. He died in 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egge, Oernulf 1910 births 1978 deaths Politicians from Oslo Labour Party (Norway) politicians Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian resistance members