Lise Lindbæk
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Lise Lindbæk (1 January 1905 – 13 March 1961) was a Norwegian freelance
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and
foreign correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...
, and writer of several books. She is commonly regarded as Norway's first female
war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...
.


Personal life

Lise Lindbæk was born in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
, Denmark, as the daughter of priest and journalist Johannes Peder Lindbæk and teacher and writer Sofie Aubert. She grew up in Copenhagen and later in
Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 53,354 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...
. After the death of her father, she moved with her mother to
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 ...
, Norway in 1920. She married newspaper editor Sanfrid Neander-Nilsson in 1927, and their daughter Janka was born in 1929. Due to political disagreements (her husband sympathized with the Nazis), the marriage was dissolved in 1933, and Lise settled in Genoa as a single mother. From 1934 to 1939 she lived with physician Max Julius Carl Alexander Hodann, a former
city physician City physician (German language, German: ; , , from Latin ) was a historical title in the Late Middle Ages for a physician appointed by the city council. The city physician was responsible for the health of the population, particularly the poor, ...
() in Berlin-Reinickendorf who had emigrated due to harassment from the
Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
. She was aunt to banker and businessman
Jannik Lindbæk Jannik Lindbæk (born 23 March 1939) is a Norwegian banker and businessperson. Personal life He was born in Oslo as a son of banker Jannik Lindbæk Sr. (1906–1966) and chief physician Ellen Margrethe Lund. His aunt was journalist and war corre ...
.


Career

From 1924 Lindbæk worked as a foreign correspondent in Italy for Oslo newspapers, while she studied archaeology. She is generally considered the first female Norwegian war correspondent, covering the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
for the newspaper ''
Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...
'', even though
Gerda Grepp Gerda Johanne Helland Grepp Accessed through thgrave-site registryof the Genealogy Society of Norway (DIS), select "Id" from the drop-down menu labelled "Find" and enter "675648". (26 May 1907 – 29 August 1940) was a Norwegian translator, jour ...
arrived in Spain a few months before Lindbæk, covering the conflict for ''
Arbeiderbladet 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. Eirik Hoff Lys ...
''. Author
Sigrun Slapgard Sigrun Slapgard (born 20 October 1953) is a Norwegian journalist, novelist and non-fiction writer. She worked as journalist for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, and has written novels and biographies of Lise Lindbæk, Sigrid Undset and ...
supports Lindbæk's status as Norway's first female war correspondent on the grounds that she covered Mussolini's road to power and the 1933
Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, ...
. During Lindbæk's time in Spain, she wrote the story of the German/Scandinavian-speaking
Thälmann Battalion The Thälmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned German communist leader Ernst Thälmann (born 16 April 1886, executed 18 August 1944) and included approximately 1 ...
of the
International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
, being published in 1938. Amongst the people she cooperated with during the war were the writers
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
and
Nordahl Grieg Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg (1 November 1902 – 2 December 1943) was a Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and activism, political activist. He was a popular author and a controversial public figure. He served in World War II as a war c ...
. After the nationalist victory in Spain, Lindbæk worked to improve the conditions of the Spanish refugee children in France. In the
Second World War 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 ...
, she was in Paris during the German invasion summer 1940, unable to return to Norway. She experienced a dramatic escape to
Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
and
Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
, where she spent half a year and learned to know the situation of
interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
Scandinavian sailors in the
French colonies From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire existed mainly in the Americas and Asia. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the second French colonial empire existed mainly in Africa and Asia. France had about 80 colonie ...
in North Africa. She eventually reached the United States. In the U.S., she worked for the magazine '' Nordisk Tidende'', lectured at universities, and edited the
anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
(English: 'A Thousand Norwegian Ships') about the fate of the Norwegian sailors and their contributions to the war effort (issued in the US in 1943, and later also in Norway). At the end of the war, Lindbæk returned to Norway, suffering from alcohol problems she had developed during her wartime work. She involved herself in the reconstruction work in Norway's northernmost county
Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...
, which had suffered almost complete destruction in the closing months of the war. She worked as a journalist for the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
from 1945 to 1949. Her UN experiences also resulted in the book , which was published in 1949. In the 1950s, Lindbæk worked as a reporter in Germany, both in East and West Germany. She died in
Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
, Germany in 1961, committing suicide by drowning herself in the sea. Lise Lindbæk was buried in
Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 53,354 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...
, Denmark.


Selected works

* (1935, with Max Hodann) * (1938) * (first edition New York City 1943; anthology, editor) * (1946) * (1958)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindbaek, Lise 1905 births 1961 suicides Norwegian war correspondents Norwegian expatriates in Italy Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian expatriates in Germany 20th-century Norwegian non-fiction writers Norwegian people of the Spanish Civil War Norwegian women in World War II Norwegian people of World War II Suicides in West Germany Norwegian women non-fiction writers Women in the Spanish Civil War Women war correspondents 20th-century Norwegian women writers 20th-century Norwegian writers War correspondents of the Spanish Civil War 20th-century Norwegian journalists 1961 deaths