Ole Pedersen Høiland (c. 1797 – 20 December 1848) was a Norwegian
burglar
Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving trespass to land, the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal ...
and jail-breaker. He was arrested several times for theft; he became legendary for his many successful escapes, and for his spectacular robbery of
Norges Bank
Norges Bank (, , ) is the central bank of Norway. It is responsible for managing the Government Pension Fund of Norway, which is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, as well as the bank's own foreign exchange reserves.
History
The histor ...
.
Personal life
Høiland was born in
Bjelland
Bjelland is a village in Lindesnes municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located along the river Mandalselva, about southeast of the village of Byremo (in Lyngdal) and about west of the village of Hægeland (in Vennesla). The vil ...
in
Vest-Agder
Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total popul ...
, the son of farmer Peder Olsen Høiland and Gjertrud Gunlaugsdatter. The family lost their farm after bankruptcy sale, and moved to
Kristiansand
Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...
. Ole worked as a servant on another farm for one year, after which he spent most of his life as a vagabond.
[
]
Criminal life
Høiland operated as a thief in the south-western part of Norway. He was arrested and punished physically by slave labour and whipping.[ While imprisoned, he managed to escape from prison eleven times.][ His spectacular robbery of the Christiania department of Norges Bank in 1835 earned him the amount of 64,000 ]speciedaler
The rigsdaler specie was a unit of silver currency used in Norway from 1544, renamed as the speciedaler in 1816 and used until 1873. Norway used a common reichsthaler currency system shared with Denmark, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein until 1873 w ...
.[ He was arrested seven weeks later, and imprisoned at the ]Akershus Prison
Akershus Fortress (, ) or Akershus Castle ( ) is a medieval castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), mi ...
. After four years he escaped from Akershus, and managed to stay on the run for three years. He was eventually arrested for the last time in 1842, and was extraordinarily heavily guarded during his subsequent imprisonment at Akershus. He ended his life by committing suicide in Akershus in 1848.[
]
Legacy
Poet Henrik Wergeland
Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland (17 June 1808 – 12 July 1845) was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist. He is often described as a leading pioneer in the develop ...
wrote two songs about Høiland, the first "", and another song after his final arrest in 1842. His fellow prisoner Gjest Baardsen wrote a memorial song after Høiland's death, titled "". A biography of Høiland was printed in '' Christiania-Posten'' in 1849, and Jacob Breda Bull wrote about him in 1910. His life was basis for the film '' Ballad of the Masterthief Ole Hoiland'' from 1970, directed by Knut Andersen, where Per Jansen
Per Johan Jansen (14 December 1941 – 8 August 2022) was a Norwegian stage and film actor.
Life and career
Jansen was born in Bergen on 14 December 1941. He made his stage debut at Det Norske Teatret in 1966. He later had assignments at Oslo ...
played the title character.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoiland, Ole
1790s births
1848 deaths
19th-century Norwegian criminals
Norwegian male criminals
People from Vest-Agder
Norwegian bank robbers
Norwegian people who died in prison custody
Prisoners who died in Norwegian detention
Norwegian escapees
People who died by suicide in prison custody
Suicides by hanging in Norway
1840s suicides