Trygve Bratteli

Trygve Bratteli
9th Prime Minister of Norway
In office 12 October 1973 – 15 January 1976
Monarch	Olav V
Preceded by	Lars Korvald
Succeeded by	Odvar Nordli
In office 17 March 1971 – 17 October 1972
Monarch	Olav V
Preceded by	Per Borten
Succeeded by	Lars Korvald
President of the Nordic Council
In office 1 June 1978 – 17 September 1978
Preceded by	V. J. Sukselainen
Succeeded by	Olof Palme
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 24 October 1965 – 16 September 1976
Preceded by	Einar Gerhardsen
Succeeded by	Reiulf Steen
Minister of Finance
In office 4 March 1951 – 7 August 1955
Prime Minister	Oscar Torp
Preceded by	Olav Meisdalshagen
Succeeded by	Mons Lid
In office 11 April 1956 – 19 October 1960
Prime Minister	Einar Gerhardsen
Preceded by	Mons Lid
Succeeded by	Petter Jacob Bjerve
Minister of Transport and Communications
In office 23 April 1960 – 28 August 1963
Prime Minister	Einar Gerhardsen
Preceded by	Kolbjørn Varmann
Succeeded by	Lars Leiro
In office 25 September 1963 – 17 January 1964
Prime Minister	Einar Gerhardsen
Preceded by	Lars Leiro
Succeeded by	Erik Himle
Member of the Norwegian Parliament
In office 14 October 1950 – 15 September 1981
Constituency	Oslo
Personal details
Born	Trygve Martin Bratteli 11 January 1910 Nøtterøy, Vestfold, Norway
Died	20 November 1984 (aged 74) Oslo, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Randi Bratteli
Children	Ola
Alma mater	University of Oslo
Religion	Church of Norway
Signature

 Trygve Martin Bratteli  (11 January 1910 – 20 November 1984) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party and Prime Minister of Norway in 1971–1972 and 1973–1976. He was President of the Nordic Council in 1978.

Early life and career

Bratteli was born in Nøtterøy, where he attended primary school. He was unemployed for some time, worked as a messenger, a whaler, and construction worker. Named as secretary of the Labour Party's crisis committee during the Nazi invasion of Norway, he was arrested by the Germans in 1942, was a Nacht und Nebel prisoner of various German concentration camps, including Natzweiler-Struthof, from 1943 to 1945 but survived. He was liberated from Vaihingen an der Enz concentration camp on 5 April 1945 by the White Buses along with 15 other Norwegians who had survived.^[1]

Political career

After returning to Norway in 1945, he became chairman of the Workers' Youth League, vice chairman of the party, served on the newly formed defense commission, and in 1965 he was made chairman of the Labour Party. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1950, and was re-elected on seven occasions.

He was appointed Minister of Finance in Oscar Torp's cabinet, and from 1956 to 1960 in the third cabinet of Einar Gerhardsen. From 1960 to 1963, still during Gerhardsen's third period as Prime Minister, he was Minister of Transport and Communications. He was also acting Minister of Finance from January to February 1962. In September 1963, when Gerhardsen's fourth cabinet was formed, Bratteli was again made Minister of Transport and Communications, a post he held until 1964.

The centre-right cabinet of Borten held office from 1965 to 1971, but when it fell, Bratteli became Prime Minister. In social policy, Bratteli's premiership saw the passage of a law in June 1972 that lowered the pension age to 67.^[2] Central to his political career was the question of Norway's membership of the European Community. Following the close rejection of membership in the 1972 referendum, his cabinet resigned. However, the successor cabinet Korvald only lasted one year, and the second cabinet Bratteli was formed following the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1973. It was succeeded by another Labour cabinet Nordli in 1976.

Trygve Bratteli wrote a number of autobiographical and political books. His memoirs about his time in German concentration camps - Prisoner in Night and Fog - became a bestseller in Norway.

Trygve Bratteli was a member of Friends of Israel in the Norwegian Labour Movement (Norwegian: Venner av Israel i Norsk Arbeiderbevegelse), planted a forest to his memory in Israel.

Trygve Bratteli was married to Randi Bratteli. Their children are Ola Bratteli, a professor of mathematics, and Marianne Bratteli, an artist.

References

• "Trygve Bratteli" (in Norwegian). Storting.

1. Thirteen other Norwegians had died at Vaihingen and were buried in a mass grave, according to: Ottosen, Kristian (2001-07-02). "Gjensyn med Vaihingen". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2008-02-21.
2. Growth to limits: the Western European welfare states since World War 2: Volume 4 by Peter Flora