Coming of war 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 defence spending to guarantee its neutrality. Meanwhile, Quisling presented lectures entitled "The Jewish problem in Norway" and supported
Adolf Hitler in what appeared to be growing future conflict. Despite condemning
Kristallnacht, he sent the German leader a fiftieth-birthday greeting thanking him for "saving Europe from Bolshevism and Jewish domination". Quisling also contended that should a British-Soviet alliance make neutrality impossible, Norway would have "to go with Germany." Invited to the country 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 ''Nasjonal Samling's'' standing in Norway, and hence spread pro-Nazi sentiment. When war broke out on 1 September 1939, Quisling felt vindicated by both the event and the immediate superiority displayed by the German army. He remained outwardly confident that, despite its size, his party would soon become the centre of political attention. After impressing German officials, he won an audience with Hitler himself, scheduled for 14 December, whereupon he received firm advice from his contacts that the most useful thing he could do would be to ask for Hitler's help with a pro-German coup in Norway, that would let the Germans use Norway as a naval base. Thereafter, Norway would maintain official neutrality as long as possible, and finally the country would fall under German rather than British control. It is not clear how much Quisling himself understood about the strategic implications of such a move, and he instead relied on his future Minister of Domestic Affairs
Albert Hagelin, who was fluent in German, to put the relevant arguments to German officials in Berlin during pre-meeting talks, even though Hagelin was prone to damaging exaggeration at times. Quisling and his German contacts almost certainly went away with different views as to whether they had agreed upon the necessity of a German invasion. On 14 December 1939, Quisling met Hitler. The German leader promised to respond to any British invasion of Norway (
Plan R 4), perhaps pre-emptively, with a German counter-invasion, but found Quisling's plans for both a Norwegian coup and an Anglo-German peace unduly optimistic. Nonetheless, Quisling would still receive funds to bolster
Nasjonal Samling. The two men met again four days later, and afterwards Quisling wrote a memorandum that explicitly told Hitler that he did not consider himself a National Socialist. In the meantime, the
Altmark incident complicated Norway's efforts to maintain its neutrality. Hitler himself remained in two minds over whether an occupation of Norway should require an invitation from the Norwegian government. Finally, Quisling received his summons on 31 March, and reluctantly travelled to
Copenhagen to meet with Nazi intelligence officers who asked him for information on Norwegian defences and defence protocols. He returned to Norway on 6 April and, on 8 April, the British
Operation Wilfred commenced, bringing Norway into the war. With
Allied forces in Norway, Quisling expected a characteristically swift German response.
German invasion and coup d'état In the early hours of 9 April 1940,
Germany invaded Norway by air and sea in "Operation
Weserübung", or "Operation Weser Exercise", intending to capture King
Haakon VII and the government of Prime Minister
Johan Nygaardsvold. However, alert to the possibility of invasion,
Conservative President of the Parliament C. J. Hambro arranged for their evacuation to
Hamar in the east of the country. The
Blücher, a German cruiser which carried most of the personnel intended to take over Norway's administration,
was sunk by cannon fire and torpedoes from
Oscarsborg Fortress in the
Oslofjord. The Germans had expected the government to surrender and to have its replacement ready; neither happened, although the invasion itself continued. After hours of discussion, Quisling and his German counterparts decided that an immediate
coup was necessary, though this was not the preferred option either of Germany's ambassador
Curt Bräuer or of the
German Foreign Ministry. In the afternoon, German liaison-person
Hans-Wilhelm Scheidt told Quisling that should he set up a government, it would have Hitler's personal approval. Quisling drew up a list of ministers and, although the legitimate government had merely relocated some to
Elverum, accused it of having "fled". Meanwhile, the Germans occupied Oslo and at 17:30
Norwegian radio (NRK) ceased broadcasting at the request of the occupying forces. With German support, at approximately 19:30, Quisling entered the NRK studios in Oslo and proclaimed the formation of a new government with himself as prime minister. He also revoked an earlier order to mobilise against the German invasion. He still lacked legitimacy. Two of his orders—the first to his friend Colonel Hans Sommerfeldt Hiorth, the commanding officer of the army regiment at
Elverum, to arrest the government, and the second to
Kristian Welhaven, Oslo's chief of police—were both ignored. At 22:00, Quisling resumed broadcasting, repeating his earlier message and reading out a list of new ministers. Hitler lent his support as promised, and recognised the new Norwegian government under Quisling within 24 hours. As a result of actions such as these, it was claimed at the time that Quisling's seizure of power in a
puppet government had been part of the German plan all along. Quisling now reached the high-water mark of his political power. On 10 April, Bräuer travelled to Elverum where the legitimate
Nygaardsvold government now sat. On Hitler's orders, he 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. Haakon rejected this demand. Later, in a meeting with his cabinet, Haakon told his ministers that neither the people nor the Storting had confidence in Quisling. The king went further, saying that he could not appoint Quisling as prime minister, and would abdicate before appointing a Quisling-led government. Hearing this, the government unanimously voted to support the King's stance. It formally advised him not to appoint any government headed by Quisling, and urged the people to continue their resistance. Quisling's domestic and international reputation both hit new lows, casting him as both a traitor and a failure.
Head of the government Once the King had declared the German commission unlawful, it became clear that he would never be won over. An impatient Hitler appointed a German,
Josef Terboven, as the new Norwegian , or governor-general, on 24 April, reporting directly to him. Despite Hitler's assurances, Terboven wanted to make sure that there would be no room in the government for the
Nasjonal Samling nor its leader Quisling, with whom he did not get along. Terboven eventually accepted a certain
Nasjonal Samling presence in the government during June, but remained unconvinced about Quisling. As a result, on 25 June, Terboven forced Quisling to step down as leader of the
Nasjonal Samling and take a temporary leave of absence in Germany. Terboven complied and addressed the Norwegian people in a radio broadcast in which he stated that the
Nasjonal Samling would be the only political party allowed. By the end of 1940 the monarchy had been suspended, although the Parliament of Norway and a body resembling a cabinet remained. The
Nasjonal Samling, the only pro-German party, would be cultivated, but Terboven's would keep power in the meantime. Quisling would serve as
acting prime minister, and ten of the thirteen "cabinet" ministers were to come from his party. He set out on a programme of wiping out "the destructive principles of the
French Revolution", including
pluralism and parliamentary rule. This reached into local politics, whereby mayors who switched their allegiance to the
Nasjonal Samling were rewarded with much greater powers. Investments were made in heavily censored cultural programmes, though the press remained theoretically free. To bolster the survival chances of the Nordic
genotype,
contraception was severely restricted. Quisling's party experienced a rise in membership to a little over 30,000, but despite his optimism it never reached 40,000. , along with assembled German
order police soldiers and Quisling, before a German propaganda event at the Colosseum cinema in Oslo, May 1941 On 5 December 1940, Quisling flew to Berlin to negotiate the future of Norway's independence. By the time he returned on 13 December, he had agreed to raise volunteers to fight with the German (SS). In January 1941, SS head
Heinrich Himmler travelled to Norway to oversee preparations. Quisling clearly believed that if Norway supported Nazi Germany on the battlefield, there would be no reason for Germany to annex it. To this end, he opposed plans to have a German SS brigade loyal only to Hitler installed in Norway. In May, Quisling was shattered by the death of his mother Anna, as the two had been particularly close. At the same time, the political crisis over Norwegian independence deepened, with Quisling threatening Terboven with his resignation over the issue of finance. In the end, the Reichskommissar agreed to compromise on the issue, but Quisling had to concede on the SS issue: a brigade was formed, but as a branch of the
Nasjonal Samling. Quisling remained convinced this was an anti-German sentiment that would fade away once Berlin had handed power over to
Nasjonal Samling. However, the only concessions he won in 1941 were having the heads of ministries promoted to official ministers of the government, and independence for the party secretariat. greet Reichskommissar
Josef Terboven and Minister President Vidkun Quisling on 1 February 1942. In January 1942, Terboven announced that the German administration would be wound down. Soon afterwards he told Quisling that Hitler had approved the transfer of power, scheduled for 30 January. Quisling remained doubtful it would happen, since Germany and Norway were in the midst of complex peace negotiations that could not be completed until peace had been reached on the
Eastern Front, and Terboven insisted that the would remain in power until such peace came about. After a brief postponement, an announcement was made on 1 February 1942 that the cabinet had elected Quisling to the post of
minister president of the national government.
Minister President His new position gave Quisling a security of tenure he had not previously enjoyed, although the remained outside his control. A month later, in February 1942, Quisling made his first state visit to Berlin. It was a productive trip, in which all key issues of Norwegian independence were discussed—but
Joseph Goebbels in particular remained unconvinced of Quisling's credentials, noting that it was "unlikely" he would "...ever make a great statesman." Back at home, Quisling was now less concerned about ''Nasjonal Samling's'' membership, and even wanted action to clean up the membership list, including purging it of drunkards. On 12 March 1942, Norway officially became a
one-party state. In time, criticism of, and resistance to, the party was criminalised, though Quisling expressed regret for having to take this step, hoping that every Norwegian would freely come around to accepting his government. On 11 August 1942, Hitler postponed any further peace negotiations until the war ended. Quisling was admonished and learned that Norway would not get the independence he so greatly yearned for. As an added insult, for the first time he was forbidden to write letters directly to Hitler. Quisling had earlier pushed for a corporate alternative to the Parliament of Norway, the
Storting, which he called a . It would comprise two chambers, the (Economic Chamber) and (Cultural Chamber). Now, in advance of ''Nasjonal Samling's
eighth and last national convention on 25 September 1942, and becoming increasingly distrustful of professional bodies, he changed his mind. The Riksting'' became an advisory body while the (Leader Council), and parliamentary chambers were now to be separate bodies subordinate to their respective ministries. After the convention, support for
Nasjonal Samling, and Quisling personally, ebbed away. Increased factionalism and personal losses, including the accidental death of fellow politician
Gulbrand Lunde, were compounded by heavy-handed German tactics, such as the
shooting of ten well-known residents of Trøndelag and its environs in October 1942. In addition, the
lex Eilifsen ex-post facto law of August 1943, which led to the first death sentence passed by the regime, was widely seen as a blatant violation of the Constitution and a sign of Norway's increasing role in the anti-Jewish
Final Solution, and would destroy everything the convention had achieved in terms of boosting party morale. The transports were organised by the German occupation authorities, who relied on Norwegian police and administrative assistance, and formed part of the wider deportation of Norwegian Jews to camps in
Nazi-German occupied Poland. Dahl has suggested that Quisling may have accepted at face value the official German line in 1943 and 1944 that the deportees were being held for later resettlement in a planned Jewish territory, sometimes associated with the
Madagascar Plan. (
Germanske SS Norge) at
Slottsplassen in Oslo, 1944 At the same time, Quisling believed that the only way he could regain Hitler's respect was to raise more Norwegian volunteers for the now-faltering German war effort, and he publicly committed Norway to German plans for
total war. For him at least, after the
German defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, Norway still had a part to play in keeping the German empire strong. In April 1943, Quisling delivered a scathing speech attacking Germany's refusal to outline its plans for post-war Europe. When he put these complaints to Hitler in person, the Nazi leader remained unmoved despite Norway's contributions to the war effort. Quisling felt betrayed over this postponement of Norwegian freedom, an attitude that waned only when Hitler eventually committed to a free post-war Norway in September 1943. Biographers describe Quisling as increasingly fatigued during the final years of the war. In 1942 he passed 231 laws, 166 in 1943, and 139 in 1944, with social policy remaining one of the areas that still received significant attention. By that autumn, Quisling and
Anton Mussert in the Netherlands could be satisfied they had at least survived in office. In 1944, the weight problems Quisling had been having during the preceding two years also eased. Despite the increasingly dire military outlook in 1943 and 1944, ''Nasjonal Samling's
position at the head of the collaborationist government, albeit with its ambiguous relationship to the Reichskommissariat, remained formally unchallenged. Quisling became entangled in a similar debacle in early 1944 when he forced compulsory military service on elements of the Hirden'', causing a number of members to resign to avoid being drafted. On 20 January 1945, Quisling made what would be his final trip to visit Hitler. According to Dahl, Quisling proposed that Norway should continue to support Germany in the last phase of the war in return for greater political autonomy and an end to direct German interference in Norwegian affairs, reflecting his fear that the occupation government would struggle to retain control as German forces retreated southwards through Norway. In the final months of the war Quisling increasingly presented himself, both to associates and later at his trial, as seeking to limit further Norwegian casualties as defeat approached. His government participated in efforts to secure the repatriation of Norwegians held in German
prisoner-of-war camps, and by this stage he appears to have accepted that National Socialism would be defeated. After Hitler's suicide on 30 April 1945 Quisling publicly advanced what Dahl characterises as a naïve proposal for a transitional, power-sharing government involving both his administration and the government-in-exile, which found no support. On the following day he met military leaders of the resistance to discuss the terms of his arrest. According to Dahl, Quisling stated that he did not wish to be treated as a common criminal but also that he did not want preferential treatment compared to his
Nasjonal Samling colleagues. He claimed that he could have ordered his forces to continue fighting but had chosen not to, saying he wished to avoid turning "Norway into a battlefield", and he presented his actions as helping to secure an orderly transfer of power. In the agreement reached at the meeting the resistance leadership undertook that collaborationists would stand trial before Norwegian courts after the war, and Quisling was initially confined in a house rather than a prison. ==Arrest==