On the 9th of April 1940, under the code name Operation Weserübung, Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Strategically, Denmark's importance to Germany was as a staging area for operations in Norway. In Norway, Germany sought to secure naval bases for use against the British Fleet in the North Sea and to guarantee vital iron ore shipments from neutral Sweden, on which Nazi Germany was dependent. The invasion of Denmark lasted less than six hours, the shortest military campaign conducted by the Germans during the war, while Norway surrendered to Germany only after two months, on the 10th of June 1940.
On the 1st of February 1942, the Germans appointed a minister president whose pro-Nazi collaborationist puppet government would participate in Germany's war efforts and send Jews out of the country to concentration camps in German-occupied Poland. His name, which would become a byword for collaborator or traitor, is Vidkun Quisling.
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born on the 18th of July 1887 in Fyresdal in southern Norway. His father, Jon Lauritz Qvisling, was a Lutheran minister and genealogist, and Vidkun's mother, Anna Caroline Bang, came from a wealthy family in Grimstad, Norway. In 1905, the then 18-year-old Vidkun Quisling entered the War College. Of the 250 cadet sets, he had achieved the highest score on the notoriously difficult entrance exams. From the War College, Quisling entered the military academy to pursue a career in the Army. Vidkun Quisling graduated with the best grades in the history of the academy since its founding in 1817, and the king of Norway rewarded him by inviting the young Vidkun to an audience with him. In 1911, Quisling joined the general staff of the Norwegian Army.
Three years later, on the 28th of July 1914, the First World War began. During the war, Norway was neutral. Quisling detested the peace movement, though the high human cost of war did temper his views. In March 1918, he was sent to Russia as an attaché at the Norwegian legation in Petrograd. Though dismayed at the living conditions he experienced, Quisling nonetheless concluded that the Bolsheviks "have got an extraordinarily strong hold in Russian society" and marveled how Leon Trotsky had managed to mobilize the Red Army forces so well. He asserted that by contrast, in granting too many rights to the people of Russia, the Russian provincial government under Alexander Kerensky had brought about its own downfall. When the legation was recalled in December 1918, Quisling became the Norwegian military's expert on Russian Affairs.
In September 1919, Quisling departed Norway to become an intelligence officer with a Norwegian delegation in Helsinki, Finland, a post that combined diplomacy and politics. In January 1922, he arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kharkiv to help with the League of Nations' humanitarian relief effort there. In August of the same year, he married the Russian Alexandra Andreevna Voronina. It appeared that there was no romantic involvement between the two, and it is believed that Quisling merely seemed to have wanted to lift the girl out of poverty by providing her with a Norwegian passport and financial security. Soon he met Maria Vasilievna Pasetsnikova, a Ukrainian more than 10 years his junior. The couple behaved as though they were married, claimed Alexandra was their daughter, and celebrated their wedding anniversary. His time in Russia, however, had the greatest impact on Quisling's political thought. Quisling called his political philosophy "Universism." The goal was to develop a collective consciousness for global unity by passing a consciousness from the individual level to the national level. Eventually, universalism took on a racial element as Quisling incorporated a belief in Nordic racial superiority. He asserted that the path to world unity would only be achieved under Nordic leadership.
Working against the Jews, Quisling permanently returned to Norway in 1929. He served as the Norwegian Minister of Defense between 1931 and 1933 as a member of the Agrarian party. When the Agrarian party refused to appoint Quisling as party leader, he left and formed his own party. In May 1933, he co-founded the National Unity political party. Quisling also became the party's Fuehrer, or leader. The party's platform was based on four principles: a corporatist vision of society, an emphasis on nationalism and Christianity, paternalism of the state, and economic self-sufficiency. However, the National Unity party was not successful in elections. In the 1933 Norwegian parliamentary elections, the party took 2.2% of the vote. In 1936, the last elections held before the outbreak of World War II, it took only 1.8% of the vote. Neither result was enough for the party to hold a seat in the Storting, the unicameral Norwegian parliament. In addition, dwindling party membership created many problems for Quisling, especially financial ones. For years he had been in financial difficulties and reliant on his inheritance while increasing numbers of his paintings, which he had acquired cheaply in post-revolutionary Russia, were found to be copies when he tried to sell them. His collection stretched to some 200 paintings including works claimed to be by Rembrandt, Goya, Cézanne and numerous other Masters. However, sometimes even originals did not raise as much as Quisling had hoped. Vidkun and his brother Arne sold one Frans Hals painting for just $4,000, believing it to be a copy and not the $50,000 artwork they had once thought it to be, only to see it reclassified as an original and revalued at $100,000.
In 1939, Quisling turned his attention towards Norway's preparations for the anticipated European War, which he believed involved a drastic increase in the country's defensive spending to guarantee its neutrality. Meanwhile, Quisling presented lectures entitled "The Jewish Problem in Norway" and supported Adolf Hitler in what appeared to be a growing future conflict. Despite condemning Kristallnacht, which was a series of coordinated violent riots against the Jews throughout Nazi Germany and recently incorporated territory, which occurred on the 9th and 10th of November 1938, he sent the German leader a 50th birthday greeting thanking him for saving Europe from Bolshevism and Jewish domination. Quisling also contended that should an Anglo-Russian alliance make neutrality impossible, Norway would have to go with Germany.
Invited to Germany in the summer of 1939, he began a tour of a number of German and Danish cities. He was received particularly well in Germany, which promised funds to boost National Samling in Norway and hence spread pro-Nazi sentiment.
At the start of World War II in 1939, Norway, like all of Scandinavia, gained new strategic importance for Germany. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the German Navy from 1939 to 1943, was concerned about maintaining German Naval access to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean via Naval bases on the Norwegian shoreline. In December 1939, Raeder met with Quisling. The Führer was generally impressed. Quisling suggested the British were planning to move into Norway for their own strategic needs. Alarmed, Germany began planning Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway.
The German invasion of Norway under General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst began on the 9th of April 1940. The same day, while the German offensive got under way, Quisling attempted to seize power in the world's first radio broadcast coup d'état. He announced to the Norwegian public that they should welcome rather than resist the advancing Germans. He also announced a new government and declared himself the new head of state. Two hours later, Quisling repeated his radio announcement. This time, he issued a warning that any refusal to cooperate with the new government would henceforth involve the most serious consequences for the individuals concerned.
Quisling now reached the high-water mark of his political power. On Hitler's orders, Curt Bräuer, Germany's representative in Norway at the time of the invasion, demanded that King Haakon appoint Quisling head of a new government, thereby securing a peaceful transition of power and giving legal sanction to the occupation. However, Haakon rejected this demand. He went further in a meeting with his cabinet, telling the ministers that he could not appoint Quisling prime minister because neither the people nor the parliament of Norway had confidence in him. He let it be known that he would soon abdicate than appoint any government headed by Quisling. Hearing this, the government unanimously voted to support the king's stance. It formerly advised him not to appoint any government headed by Quisling and urged the people to continue their resistance.
With his popular support gone, Quisling ceased to be of use to Hitler Germany retracted its support for his rival government preferring instead to build up its own independent governing Commission on the 15th of April 1940 Nazi leadership forced him to step down thus Quisling's coup only lasted 6 days and his domestic and international reputation both hit new lows casting him as both a traitor and a failure.
Norway fell to Germany on the 19th of June 1940 and the king and prime minister went into Exile in London on the 24th of April 1940 Hitler appointed Yosef terban as Reich Commissar of the occupied Norwegian territories General Von Falcon host who had planned and commanded the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in 1940 retained military control in addition all political parties other than Kling's National sabling were outlawed as the leader of National sabling Kling was given a position as head of the cabinet under terban in early 1942 terban appointed him Minister President of a national government that was essentially a puppet state under German control in the course of the summer of 1942 Kling lost any ability he might have had to sway public opinion by attempting to force children into National sabling's Youth Organization which was modeled on the Hitler Youth this move prompted a mass resignation of teachers from their professional body and church men from their posts which was a significant setback for Kling's attempts to build a national support base and his relationship with the German authorities deteriorated further in 1943 when he declared a state of emergency in Oslo in response to the firing of two German officers by members of the Norwegian resistance in the same year he also publicly declared that Jewish men who had been deported to concentration camps were a case of natural punishment for their sabotage activities in 1944 the Germans and the Norwegian puppet government began to implement a plan to evacuate the population of northern Norway to the southern part of the country in order to prevent the advancing Soviet Army from using the area as a base for attacks on German positions in the region gisling supported the plan and in November 1944 during a speech to the Norwegian police he said that the evacuation was a necessary and great Norwegian contribution to the German campaign in Finland which was then fighting the Soviets in the far north of Finland and Norway the plan involved the forced evacuation of the entire population of the Norwegian province of finmark and the northern part of the province of Tums in the autumn of 1944 the German military High Command ordered the scorched Earth policy in the northernmost counties of Norway in order to prevent the Soviet army from pursuing and resupplying its forces in the region German troops systematically destroyed all buildings in the area and forcibly evacuated the civilian population to the south over 60,000 people were forcibly evacuated and 10,000 to 11,000 houses were destroyed in the process 4,000 people refused to leave and were kept in the area by German forces as a result of the German scorched Earth policy the people of Northern Norway were subjected to severe hardships and many died in the harsh Norwegian winter of 1944 to 1945 the German occupation of Norway lasted until the 8th of May 1945 when Germany surrendered and the occupation ended on the 8th of May 1945 the day after Germany's surrender gisling was arrested at his private estate in Norway on the 9th of May 1945 during the treason trial that followed gisling was found guilty of charges including treason and collaboration with the Nazi regime he was also found guilty of the murder of the Norwegian resistance member Gunnar shlstad who was killed in 1943 while carrying out a raid on the Norwegian Ministry of building and the attempted murder of another resistance fighter in 1944 gisling was sentenced to death by the Norwegian courts on the 10th of September 1945 his appeal was rejected by the Norwegian Supreme Court on the 13th of September 1945 and his application for a new trial was rejected on the 23rd of October 1945 the execution of vidkun gisling was carried out by firing squad at 2:40 a.m. on the 24th of October 1945 at the akeersus fortress in Oslo Norway he was 58 years old and was buried in an unmarked grave at the churchyard of his family farm in Gjerpen in southern Norway his wife Maria remained in Norway and died in 1980 at the age of 80 Kling's name has become a byword for a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying his or her own country the term quisling is a synonym for traitor or collaborator the term was popularized by the British newspaper The Times in a leader article published on the 15th of April 1940 which was headed I go to the grave and the article ended with the words to videon quisling and his kind we say gisling is a traitor and the word is now a term of abuse the term was also used by Winston Churchill in a speech on the 10th of May 1940 when he said a quising is a traitor who helps the invaders of his own country and he is not alone in that for in Norway there is a man named chling whose first name is also vidkun but that is the only similarity between the two men for the rest of his life quisling was plagued by the stigma of being a traitor to his country and his name became a byword for collaborator in many languages including the English language in which the term Quisling means a traitor who collaborates with the enemy and the Norwegian language in which the term vidkun gisling is now synonymous with treason and is used as a slang word for a traitor or collaborator in the final months of the war gisling was present at meetings with the German authorities in Norway in which the deportation of Jews was discussed he was also aware that the Norwegian Police had assisted in the deportation of at least 750 Jews to concentration camps in German occupied Poland of whom at least 25 survived the war on the 8th of May 1945 Germany surrendered and the occupation of Norway ended on the 9th of May 1945 the now former Minister President turned himself in at the police station in Oslo where he was arrested and charged with high treason and other offenses while in prison gisling continued to work on his political ideas and wrote a version of his unism philosophy he also worked on his defense for his upcoming trial which began on the 24th of August 1945 in the case of the state versus vidkun gisling in the Oslo district court the trial was part of the legal purge in Norway that took place after World War II in which traitors and collaborators were prosecuted and punished for their actions during the occupation the trial lasted 3 weeks and was the most publicized trial in Norwegian history gisling was found guilty of treason and other charges including the facilitation of the deportation of Norwegian Jews to concentration camps in German occupied Poland he was sentenced to death by firing squad on the 10th of September 1945 the Supreme Court rejected his appeal for a new trial on the 12th of October 1945 the execution of vidkun gisling was carried out by firing squad at the Oso fortress in the Norwegian capital on the 24th of October 1945 at 2:40 in the morning his last words before the firing squad were executed and I hope that the execution will be for the good of Norway and that it will be a deterrent for others he was 58 years old after his execution gisling's body was cremated and his ashes were returned to his birthplace in the town of fezal in southern Norway in 1959 his wife Maria and his stepdaughter Yon both committed suicide in the same year that gisling's remains were interred in the family plot at the local church in 1995 gisling's family applied to have the remains exhumed and reburied in the church but the application was rejected by the local authorities who said that the church was a sacred place and that gisling was a traitor and a disgrace to his country in 1999 his family appealed to the Norwegian government to have his remains exhumed and reburied in the family plot in the churchyard of Gerd range church in the town of gerd range in southern Norway where he had been baptized and confirmed the Norwegian government denied the request on the 9th of April 2004 the 64th anniversary of the German invasion of Norway a group of local people in the town of gerd range attempted to have Kling reburied in the local churchyard the church turned down the request on the grounds that it could not agree to the reburial of a person who had betrayed his country in 2013 the Norwegian government rejected a request to have his remains exhumed and reburied in the churchyard of the local church in fesal where he was baptized and confirmed in 2017 his family made a formal request to have his remains exhumed from his unmarked grave in the churchyard of the church in fesal and reburied next to his wife Maria in the churchyard of the church in laving in the county of Telemark in Norway the family's request was rejected by the Norwegian government in 2018 on the grounds that the grave is a war grave and must remain untouched in 1942 quisling was granted a divorce from his first wife Alexandra so that he could marry Maria who had been his mistress since 1923 the wedding took place on the 21st of August 1942 and the couple remained married until his execution on the 24th of October 1945 at the Akersus fortress in Oslo when quisling was executed by firing squad in the courtyard of the Akersus fortress on the 24th of October 1945 he was 58 years old as he faced the firing squad he reportedly said sentence of death was passed by the court and I forgive those who have prosecuted me I die a man for Norway not a traitor for Norway I have no regrets on my conscience I hope that I shall be granted the grace to die as a man and a Norwegian the last thing he said was I am going to be shot by my own countrymen I am innocent and I die for Norway's independence and for the future of Norway he was executed by firing squad at 2:40 a.m. at the Akersus fortress in Oslo Norway he was 58 years old his wife Maria died in 1980 and the couple had no children his name has become a byword for traitor and collaborator in the Norwegian language quisling is a synonym for traitor and the term viking is used in several other languages including English Czech Slovak and Hungarian to mean a traitor or a collaborator
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