Bernt Holtsmark (27 December 1859 – 20 April 1941) was a Norwegian farmer and politician for the Conservative Party and the Liberal Left Party. He was a four-term member of the

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 ...

, and served as Minister of Agriculture from 1910 to 1912. He was also known for establishing the agricultural college at Sem in his native

Asker Asker (), also called Asker proper (''Askerbygda'' or ''gamle Asker'' in Norwegian), is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway, located approximately 20km southwest of Oslo. From 2020 it is part of the ...

Personal life

He was born at Tveter farm in

as a son of Bent Holtsmark and his wife Anne Elisabeth Gabrielsen. He was a brother of Torger and Wilhelm Holtsmark. Through his brother

Gabriel In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...

, he was an uncle of professors Johan Peter Holtsmark and Anne Elisabeth Holtsmark, and painter Karen Holtsmark. He was also a first cousin of Finn, Wilhelm. and Ragnvald Blakstad. In October 1887 he married Johanne Amalie Koller, a daughter of Carl Theodor Fredrik Koller. The marriage lasted until her death in February 1917. Holtsmark then married Ingeborg Mathilde Bye in June 1919.

Career

He attended a private agricultural school at Østensjø from 1876 to 1878, the Higher College of Agriculture at Aas from 1883 to 1884 and the

Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Berlin The Agricultural University of Berlin () was an agricultural university in Berlin, Germany. Established in 1881, it was closed in 1934, and incorporated as a faculty into the Humboldt University of Berlin. History Academic teaching in agricultur ...

( Agricultural University of Berlin) from 1885 to 1886. In 1887, together with his brother Wilhelm, he established an agricultural college at the farm Sem, today known as a manor which in 2001 lent its name to the Declaration of Sem of the second cabinet Bondevik. They ran the college until 1914. In 1893 he took over the farm Tveter, and was a farmer there. His book ''Husdyrlære'', a textbook on

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

, came in 1897 and was reprinted fourteen times, last in 1961. Also, he contributed to the newspapers and magazines ''Budstikken'', ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'', ''

Verdens Gang (), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is ...

'', ''

Tidens Tegn ''Tidens Tegn'' (Norwegian: ''Sign of the Times'') is a former Norwegian newspaper, issued in Oslo from 1910 to 1941. Editors The founder and first editor-in-chief of ''Tidens Tegn'' was Ola Thommessen, who edited the newspaper until 1917. Th ...

'' and '' Allers'' with writings on agriculture. He was elected to the

from the constituency Akershus Amt in 1903, and was re-elected in

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

. He first represented the Conservative Party, and in the second term he was registered for the Coalition Party. On 1 March 1910, he was appointed as the new Minister of Agriculture in the cabinet Konow, succeeding Wollert Konow (SB) in the position. He held office until the cabinet fell in February 1912. He was later re-elected in

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

and

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

to serve a further two parliamentary terms, this time for the Liberal Left Party. He was a chairman of the Liberal Left Party for a period. He was also a chairman of the Norwegian Fire Protection Association, and a member of the board of Norsk Husflidsforening, Norsk Landmandsforbund, the Royal Norwegian Society of Development from 1898 to 1907 and 1919 to 1931, and Havedyrkningens Venner from 1916 to 1935. He received honorary membership in the two latter organizations. From 1927 to 1936 he worked as director and chair of

Norges Hypotekbank Norges Hypotekbank is a defunct Norway, Norwegian etat, government bank, created by law on September 18, 1851. Its function was to help commerce, and primarily the agriculture, agricultural sector, through cheap mortgages. The seat of the bank wa ...

, and he was also a member of several public boards, agencies and committees. He was decorated as a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1912.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holtsmark, Bernt 1859 births 1941 deaths Akershus politicians Asker politicians Coalition Party (Norway) politicians Conservative Party (Norway) politicians Free-minded Liberal Party politicians Members of the Storting Members of the Storting 1904–1906 Members of the Storting 1907–1909 Ministers of agriculture and food of Norway Norwegian College of Agriculture alumni Norwegian educators Norwegian expatriates in Germany Norwegian farmers Norwegian non-fiction writers Norwegian textbook writers