Viking Valkyrie by
Andreas Bloch (1860–1917).
19th century The first organized Norwegian nationalist movement arose in
Denmark. Norwegian students came together in
Norwegian Society in the university city of
Copenhagen. Political independence was not seen as realistic, but the desire for more internal autonomy was expressed through the desire for a specifically Norwegian university. Nationalistic sentiment in
Norway grew strongly in the early 19th century. This was linked to the
Napoleonic Wars and the influence of the
French Revolution. The sense of community was also strengthened by the
conflict with Sweden. The
17th of May – Constitution Day – which began to be celebrated in 1824, was also an important factor. When
National Romanticism broke through in the 1840s, old culture was brought forth by artists, writers, and other champions of nationalism. In the 1870s and 1880s, the
Liberal Party in particular was a nationalist party during the struggle for
parliamentarism, which was gradually introduced from 1884. The same applied to the
Target Movement and the
Norwegian Youth Association. The Target Movement led by
Ivar Aasen claimed there were two cultures in Norway, the
upper class consisting of the
nobility,
civil servants and parts of the
bourgeoisie who represented an elitist and foreign, mainly
Danish culture, and "the Norwegian people" that had roots in
peasantry and represented Norwegian popular culture. The notion of the two cultures also existed outside the target group, including among the Liberal party and poets such as
Aasmund Olavsson Vinje and
Arne Garborg. The latter two‚ however, interpreted the two-culture doctrine more strictly than the rest of the supporters of this division. Garborg went so far to say that there were not only two cultures in Norway, but two nations. Garborg believed only those who embraced
the national language and true
Norwegian culture could be considered Norwegian and those who did not had to be considered Danes. This created conflicts among the more moderate nationalists. The conflicts surrounding the dissolution of the
Swedish-Norwegian union in 1905 led to political nationalism becoming popular with the
left wing, but this nationalism was mostly concerned with national independence, and less so with what was considered true Norwegian culture.
Interwar period While in the 19th century people were mostly concerned with the concepts of
ethnicity and
nation, throughout the 20th century people increasingly became concerned with
race. The concept of different human races originated in
biology, which at the time had grown in prestige. National minorities such as
Sámi,
Kven,
Travellers and
Jews were considered to belong to a different race than Norwegians, though few had systematic racist ideologies. Such nationalism became common in the interwar period among the
Norwegian Agrarian Association and other organizations. With the
labor movement,
nationalism was less popular; for them, social class was more important than nation. With the victory of the
Soviets against the
White movement in the
Russian Civil War, and the rise of other
revolutionary marxist movements across
Europe, nationalism among the
right wing in Norway would take on an
anti-communist character. One of the largest nationalist anti-communist movements, and largest right-wing mass movement in the country was the
Fatherland League.
Second World War During the Second World War, the event led to tremendous growth of nationalism. Both the Norwegian resistance movement and the
National Gathering (NS) claimed to be the real custodians of the Norwegian nation. The development of the war and
Germany's military dictatorship led over 90% of the population coming to regard the resistance movement as the "good Norwegians", while the NS were regarded as traitors to the country. The historian
Øystein Sørensen has shown that the NS had no unified view of nationalism, but was divided into a Norwegian-nationalist wing, and a pan-Germanic
Nazi wing. Many members of the Fatherland League had a strong antipathy towards the NS and many took part in the
resistance movement. Key figures of the movement such as
Otto Skirstad was shot by the
Quisling regime. like many organizations some members of the movement also joined the NS. == See also ==