Christian August Manthey Lange (28 April 1907 – 6 August 1970) was a Norwegian educator, non-fiction writer and cultural

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché () is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified ac ...

Personal life

Lange was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

, the son of politician and Nobel Laureate

Christian Lous Lange Christian Lous Lange (17 September 1869 – 11 December 1938) was a Norwegian historian, teacher, and political scientist. He was one of the world's foremost exponents of the theory and practice of internationalism. Early life and education H ...

(1869–1938) and his wife Bertha Manthey (1867–1947). He was a brother of politician and

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

Halvard Lange Halvard Manthey Lange (16 September 1902 – 19 May 1970) was a Norwegian politician and diplomat, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1946-1963 and again from 1963-1965. He was also the longest serving Foreign Minister to date, h ...

, and of

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

member Carl Viggo Manthey Lange. He spent part of his childhood in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, where his father had a position as secretary-general of the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; , UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing g ...

Career

Lange finished his secondary education in 1924, enrolled subsequently at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

where he studied history, and graduated as cand.philol. in 1933. He worked as a teacher in Oslo from 1934. In 1939 he issued the history textbook ''6000 år. Verdenshistorie for den høgre skolen'', in cooperation with Nic. Stang.

World War II

Following the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he participated in resistance work. He was arrested in June 1941 and held at

Møllergata 19 Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway, where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This ...

until October 1941, at

Grini concentration camp Grini prison camp (, ) was a Nazi concentration camp in Bærum, Norway, which operated between 1941 and May 1945. Ila Detention and Security Prison is now located here. History Grini was originally built as a women's prison, near an old croft ...

from October 1941 to April 1943, and at the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

until the end of World War II. He issued the book ''3 fra Sachsenhausen'' in 1945, together with

Carl Johan Frederik Jakhelln Carl Johan Frederik Jakhelln (27 August 1914 – 25 April 1987) was a Norwegian diplomat and writer. He was born in Andenne, Belgium, as the son of jurist and diplomatist Johan Fredrik Winter Jakhelln. The family lived in five countries when J ...

and

Olav Larssen Olav Larssen (10 July 1894 – 5 July 1981) was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour Party (Norway), Labour and Communist Party of Norway, Communist parties. Personal life Olav Larssen was born in Furnes, Norway, Furnes as ...

, where he wrote the article "Ved livets grense" about Norwegian prisoners in Sachsenhausen. In 1946 and 1947 the two-volume book ''Griniboken'' was issued, edited by Lange and Johan Schreiner, with contributions from several of the prisoners at Grini. Lange's contribution is the chapter "Gamle Grini", where he gives an overview of the camp in the period he spent at Grini.

Post war

Lange was cultural

at the Norwegian embassy in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

from 1946 to 1948. From 1948 he worked as a teacher at ''Oslo offentlige lærerskole'', and from 1953 he was head of ''Hamar lærerskole''. He headed ''Statens lærerskoleklasser i Oslo'' from 1958. From 1962 he lectured at the

. He died in 1970, by drowning in the lake

Bogstadvannet Bogstadvannet () is a lake between the city of Oslo and the municipality of Bærum, Akershus, Norway. It is part of Sørkedalsvassdraget, which in turn is part of Oslomarkvassdraget. Originally, the lake was named Få(d)vannet after an earlier n ...

in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lange, August 1907 births 1970 deaths Writers from Oslo University of Oslo alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian educators Norwegian textbook writers Grini concentration camp survivors Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Norwegian World War II memoirists Accidental deaths in Norway Deaths by drowning in Norway 20th-century Norwegian writers Norwegian expatriates in Belgium Norwegian expatriates in the Soviet Union Cultural attachés