Håkon Meyer (11 March 1896 – 23 October 1989) was a Norwegian politician, trade unionist and businessperson. Meyer was born in

Kristiania 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 i ...

, the son of Ludvig Meyer and Emma Metz. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was an active and leading Labour Party politician, and chaired the Social-Democratic Youth League. Meyer had a leading position in the

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

opposition group called "

Fagopposisjonen av 1940 ''Fagopposisjonen av 1940'' (Trade Opposition of 1940) was a grouping among Norwegian trade unionists in 1940, after the German invasion of Norway. It had roots in a 1930s informal oppositional group within the Norwegian labour movement. The i ...

", and became a member of

Nasjonal Samling Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norwegian 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 and a group of supporters such ...

in December 1940. He chaired the

Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees The Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees ( no, Norsk Kommuneforbund, NKF) was a trade union in Norway, organized under the national Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions. It was founded in 1920 as the Norwegian Municipal Workers' Union, a spli ...

from 1941 to 1942. In the

legal purge in Norway after World War II The purge in Norway after World War II was a purge that took place between May 1945 and August 1948 against anyone who was deemed to have collaborated with the German occupation of the country. Several thousand Norwegians and foreign citizens w ...

, Meyer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason. In mitigation, the court took into account that Meyer had used his political contacts to help a number of German emigrants and Jews flee Norway. Meyer was released from prison in 1949.Side 441. Tore Pryser: ''Hitlers hemmelige agenter'', Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 2001 He later settled in Sweden, where he was running a trading company. In 1952 he published the book ''Et annet syn''. He died in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

in 1989.

References

1896 births 1989 deaths Politicians from Oslo Labour Party (Norway) politicians Members of Nasjonal Samling People convicted of treason for Nazi Germany against Norway Norwegian emigrants to Sweden Norwegian publishers (people) {{norway-politician-1890s-stub