On the 9th of April, 1940, Vidkun Quisling seized power in Norway. I have posted about famous Norwegians such as Harald Hardrada and Thor Heyerdahl so now it’s time to write about an infamous one. Before we start I must apologise for the illustration. I normally use ChatGBT to create images for my posts. That way I don’t have to worry about using images that maybe subject to copyright. This time ChatGBT wouldn’t play ball.
My request – “Create an image in landscape of Vidkun Quisling in Oslo in 1940”
Chat GBT – “We’re so sorry, but the image we created may violate our guardrails around harassment, discrimination, bullying, or similar prohibited content. If you think we got it wrong, please retry or edit your prompt.” Who would I have been harassing? But back to Quisling.
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (1887–1945) was a Norwegian army officer, diplomat, and politician whose name became synonymous with treachery during the Second World War. A talented and intelligent man in his youth, Quisling’s early promise curdled into ideological extremism and collaboration with Nazi Germany, culminating in his brief, infamous seizure of power in Norway on 9 April 1940 and his execution for treason after the war.
Quisling was born on the 18th of July, 1887, in Fyresdal, Telemark, the son of a Lutheran pastor and genealogist, Jon Lauritz Quisling, and Anna Caroline Bang. Raised in a deeply religious and disciplined household, he excelled academically from an early age. He entered the Norwegian Military Academy in 1905 and graduated at the top of his class, later attending the Norwegian Military Staff College, again finishing with distinction. His early career marked him out as one of the brightest officers of his generation, with a reputation for intellectual seriousness and an interest in philosophy and international affairs.
In the 1920s, Quisling served as a military attaché in Petrograd (later Leningrad) and became involved in humanitarian work during the Russian famine. Working alongside the famous explorer Fridtjof Nansen, he helped organise relief efforts that saved thousands of lives. During this period, he developed a deep hostility toward Bolshevism and Marxism, which he viewed as existential threats to European civilisation. These experiences in revolutionary Russia profoundly shaped his political outlook, pushing him toward a rigid, anti-communist worldview.
Quisling’s political career began in earnest in the early 1930s. In 1931, he was appointed Norway’s Minister of Defence in the government of Peder Kolstad. His tenure was controversial and marked by disputes over military spending and national security. By this time, Quisling had begun to articulate an idiosyncratic political philosophy blending nationalism, authoritarianism, Christianity, and fierce anti-communism. In 1933, he founded the Nasjonal Samling (National Unity) party, modelled in part on European fascist movements. However, unlike similar movements in Germany and Italy, Nasjonal Samling failed to gain significant popular support in Norway. It never won more than a tiny fraction of the vote in free elections.
Despite his limited domestic following, Quisling admired Adolf Hitler and the apparent resurgence of Germany under National Socialism. He believed that Norway’s future lay in alignment with Germany and saw himself as the man destined to lead Norway into this new order. His political rhetoric grew increasingly authoritarian and antisemitic, alienating much of the Norwegian public and political establishment.
The defining moment of Quisling’s life came with the German invasion of Norway on the 9th of April 1940. As German forces moved into Oslo and other key locations, Quisling took to the airwaves in a radio broadcast, proclaiming himself Prime Minister and ordering Norwegians to cease resistance. This attempted coup was made without consultation with the King, the legitimate government, or the Norwegian people. It was an extraordinary act of opportunism and betrayal, undertaken while his country was under attack.
The coup initially created confusion but quickly collapsed. King Haakon VII and the Norwegian government refused to recognise Quisling’s authority and fled north, continuing resistance before eventually escaping to Britain. The Germans, who had not fully trusted Quisling beforehand, found his premature action inconvenient. For a time, they sidelined him, governing Norway through a Reichskommissar, Josef Terboven.
Nevertheless, Quisling remained useful to the occupiers. In 1942, the Germans installed him as Minister-President of a collaborationist government. Though real power remained in German hands, Quisling became the face of Norwegian collaboration. His regime assisted in implementing Nazi policies, including the persecution and deportation of Norwegian Jews. Around 760 Jews were deported from Norway during the occupation, most of whom perished in Auschwitz. Quisling’s government also supported the suppression of resistance, censorship of the press, and attempts to Nazify Norwegian institutions, including schools and the Church.
Despite these efforts, Quisling never succeeded in winning genuine popular support. Most Norwegians regarded him with contempt. The term “quisling” entered the English language as a synonym for traitor, popularised by British newspapers early in the war. His name became an international byword for betrayal.
As Germany’s fortunes declined, Quisling’s position grew increasingly precarious. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, he was arrested by Norwegian authorities. His trial for treason began in August 1945 and was one of the most significant legal proceedings in post-war Norway. Quisling defended himself by claiming that he had acted in Norway’s best interests, believing that cooperation with Germany would spare the country worse suffering. The court rejected this argument, finding him guilty of high treason, murder, and embezzlement.
Vidkun Quisling was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress in Oslo on the 24th of October 1945. His death marked the end of a life that had moved from early promise to enduring infamy. Today, Quisling remains one of the most reviled figures in Norwegian history, a cautionary example of how ambition, ideology, and misjudgment can combine to produce catastrophic moral failure.