Halvdan Koht (7 July 1873 – 12 December 1965) was a Norwegian historian and politician representing the Labour Party.
Born in the north of Norway to a fairly distinguished family, he soon became interested in politics and history. Starting his political career in the Liberal Party, he switched to the Labour Party around the turn of the 20th century. He represented that party in the Bærum municipal council for parts of the interwar period. He was never elected a member of Parliament, but served nonetheless as Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1935 to 1940, as part of the government-in-exile following Germany's invasion of Norway. In the latter capacity he sought to preserve Norway's neutrality in the Second World War, a decision that garnered him political infamy. Growing discontentment with Koht's political decisions ultimately led to his exit from the cabinet. After the war, however, he returned to his academic career track and wrote major works in the 1950s and 1960s.
As an academic he was a professor of history at the Royal Frederick University (now the University of Oslo) from 1910 to 1935, having become a research fellow in 1900 and docent in 1908. Among many honors, he held an honorary degree at the University of Oxford. He was a prolific writer, and touched on numerous subjects during his long academic career. He wrote several biographies; his works on Johan Sverdrup and Henrik Ibsen spanned several volumes each. He became known for syntheses on Norwegian history, and emphasised the roles of peasants and wage labourers as historical agents who found their place in an expanding notion of the Norwegian nation. He was also interested in the United States and its history, and was a pioneer in Norway in this respect.
Koht's views on the Norwegian language also gave him nationwide academic recognition. He championed the Samnorsk language reform, the declared aim of which was to consolidate the two standards of written Norwegian. A reform pushing the formal written language in this direction was indeed implemented in 1938, but historical events led to the failure of this policy. A pertinacious and unyielding advocate of international peace, Koht was a founding member of the Norwegian Peace Association and an ordinary member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. As an activist and politician he was described as a strong-willed and individualistic person, who nurtured a strong belief in taking an academic and legal perspective on political problems.
Background
Halvdan Koht was born on 7 August 1873 in Tromsø, one of the larger cities in Northern Norway. He was the second of four children born to Paul Steenstrup Koht (1844–1892), an educator and politician, and Betty Giæver (1845–1936), a part-time teacher with a penchant for singing, languages and drawing. Betty's antecedents were mixed: she was maternally descended from Northern Germany, yet on her father's side she was of Norwegian origin—a distinguished forebear on that side was her great-grandfather, the civil servant Jens Holmboe from Tromsø.Genealogical entries for Hanna Birgitte Holmboe and Joachim Gotsche Giæver (vestraat.net) Through the offspring of his maternal grand-uncle, Halvdan Koht was a third cousin of the parliamentarian Ola Krogseng Giæver.Genealogical entries for Jens Holmboe Giæver (vestraat.net) and NSD data for Ola Krogseng Giæver In Paul Koht's lineage, Kjeld Stub was a distant ancestor. The name Koht stems from German immigrants to Norway in the 17th century.Koht, 1951: p. 11.
He was intended to have the name Joachim, but this was stopped on request from Joachim G. Giæver who voiced his dislike for the name. He was then christened Halfdan, changed to Halvdan some years later.Koht, 1951: pp. 7–8. The family lived in Tromsø, where Paul Steenstrup Koht was a headmaster and mayor. The family moved to Skien when Halvdan was twelve years old, where his father again immersed himself in politics: he served as mayor as well as parliamentarian for the Liberal Party. Koht finished school here, taking his examen artium in 1890. His father was among his teachers for a while in Norwegian and Greek.Koht, 1951: p. 20. In 1893, one year after the death of Koht's father, the family moved to Bekkelaget, a borough in Aker Municipality. Koht studied at the Royal Frederick University (now the University of Oslo).
In September 1898 in Kristiania, Koht married Karen Elisabeth Grude (1871–1960), an essay writer and women's rights activist one and a half years his senior; they had three children. One child died in infancy, but the remaining two had distinguished careers: Åse Gruda Skard (née Koht) became a child psychologist and Paul Koht an ambassador. Through Åsa, Halvdan Koht was a father-in-law of literary scholar Sigmund Skard and a grandfather of politician and academic Torild Skard, psychologist and ombud Målfrid Grude Flekkøy and politician and organisational leader Halvdan Skard. In the late 1920s, Karen's declining health and Halvdan's preoccupation with his work placed a strain on their relationship. Disenchanted with the loveless union, Koht entered several extramarital friendships in the following decade, often pen friends. During the Second World War, there were rumors about a romantic relationship with his secretary Unni Diesen. After 1945 the relationship to Karen regrew in strength.
Education Koht graduated with a cand.philol. degree from the Royal Frederick University in 1896. He studied history with geography as a minor subject until 1895;Koht, 1951: p. 30. his main history teacher was Gustav Storm. The next examination was in different languages, both classical and modern. Koht had the choice between Ancient Greek and Classical Latin or Norwegian and German (including Norse); he chose the Norwegian and German.Koht, 1951: p. 41.
In 1895, after finishing his history studies, he spent three months in the Mediterranean, travelling with three ships, the first from Norway to Venice, the second from Venice to Constantinople, the third back to Norway. He studied German literature during this travels.Koht, 1951: pp. 60–61. In December 1896, Koht was finally examined by Sophus Bugge and earned his degree.Koht, 1951: p. 43. He was one of just three students to be examined in Norwegian and German in late 1896, and had been the only candidate in history the previous year.Koht, 1951: p. 73.
A break from the studies came in the second half of 1892. After his father's death, he could not afford to attend university that semester. He worked briefly as a private tutor in the Skien district, and was paid to write in the newspaper Varden.Koht, 1951: pp. 65–66. On returning to his studies he worked as a Kristiania correspondent for the newspaper; eventually he also worked for Päivälehti.Koht, 1951: pp. 67, 70. In 1901, he took over from Erik Vullum as obituarist and anniversary writer in Verdens Gang.Koht, 1951: p. 110. Over the next years, he would contribute extensively to publications such as Den 17de Mai, Syn og Segn, Samtiden, Dagbladet, and Tidens Tegn; these were mostly Liberal or Norwegian nationalist publications.Koht, 1951.
For some months after graduating Koht worked as an unpaid volunteer at the University Library of Oslo, while also continuing to attend university lectures. He was then given a scholarship, the "Gustav Bruun Endowment" of . The university doubled Koht's award to NOK 3600.Koht, 1951: pp. 73–75. From 1897 to 1899 he studied abroad with this fellowship. He studied at the University of Copenhagen, the University of Leipzig and in Paris (École des hautes études, École des Chartes). He was especially influenced by Karl Lamprecht in Leipzig.Koht, 1951: p. 88.
From 1899 to 1901, Koht worked as a substitute at the University Library of Oslo, and part-time as a school teacher. He was also engaged by Gustav Storm to help him with publishing the source text Regesta Norvegica.Koht, 1951: p. 35. In 1908, after eight years of work, Koht completed the two last volumes of Norsk Forfatter-lexikon, a biographical dictionary of Norwegian writers. However, it was a posthumous work, the principal author—Jens Braage Halvorsen—having died in 1900.
Academic career
Appointments and doctorate In 1901 he was appointed as a research fellow at the Royal Frederick University. He rarely had responsibility for any teaching of the students, and since he was often busy with Norsk Forfatter-lexikon he remained a research fellow until 1907. In 1908 he took his dr.philos. degree on the thesis Die Stellung Norwegens und Schwedens im Deutsch-Dänischen Konflikt 1863–1864. Opponents at the dissertation were Ebbe Hertzberg and Yngvar Nielsen.Koht, 1951: pp. 119–122.
Koht was then hired as a docent at the university in 1908. Because Koht had internal opponents at the university, the appointment was designated to cover "cultural history" instead of "history". A while later the university changed it to "history". The cabinet changed it back to "cultural history", before the Parliament finally decided on "history". Koht was going to start his tenure as a docent, but argued with Waldemar Christofer Brøgger that he deserved to travel abroad first.Koht, 1951: p. 124. From 1908 to 1909 Koht travelled around in the United States, England and Sweden, visiting the peace conferences in London (1908), Chicago (1909) and Stockholm (1910). During these years, his wife, daughter and her nanny lived in Eidsvoll.Skard, 1974: p. 123. Koht then returned to Norway and the university, and remained docent until being promoted to professor in 1910. He remained professor until 1935, and also served as the dean of his Faculty from 1912 to 1917.
Fields of research Koht faced considerable skepticism among academics when announcing his intentions to study social history from the farmers' perspective. Gustav Storm claimed that farmers in Norway had "done no effort of their own". Ludvig Ludvigsen Daae exclaimed that a person whom Koht wanted to study, the farmer-politician John G. Neergaard, was a "crook ... oh well, trahit sua quemque voluptas".Koht, 1951: p. 34. Koht was given to do research in Nordmøre on Neergaard.Koht, 1951: p. 104. In 1896 professor Cathrinus Bang replied to Koht's wish to study social history: "Yes, do not go out and become a socialist!"Koht, 1951: p. 106.
In 1910, Koht completed the dissertation Bonde mot borgar i nynorsk historie, in which he further developed his theories on the role of the farmers in history.Koht, 1951: p. 152. Published in the journal Historisk Tidsskrift in 1912, it featured an elaboration on Koht's theory about class and the nation. According to Koht, the community of the nation was expanded in a democratic way when the agrarian movement, then the labour movement, both rose from political passivity to demand a place in the political and national sphere. He wrote about this in the 1910 article Norsk folkesamling as well.Koht, 1951: p. 153. The book Norsk bondereisning, published in 1926 as a compilation of Koht's presented material in his university lectures, represented the culmination of Koht's work on the topic of class conflict between the agrarian and the urban population. Koht argued that the peasant movement had abandoned the cause of class interest in favour of universal rights and social reforms. The same perspective had to be applied to the struggle of the labour movement, Koht maintained. An economic background for the farmers' rising was presented in 1912, in Priser og politikk i norsk historie, originally a lecture for the second Norwegian conference of historians.Koht, 1951: pp. 154–155. This lecture was also where his historical materialism came to fruition. In 1951 he stated that he "has never thought that the theories could be foundational for a political or social uprising".