Elisabeth Schweigaard Selmer (born Ragnhild Elisabeth Schweigaard, 18 October 1923 – 18 June 2009) was a Norwegian jurist and politician for the Conservative Party. During the Nazi occupation of Norway, Elisabeth Schweigaard worked with the Norwegian resistance movement "Hjemmefronten" against the Nazi collaborationist

Quisling regime The Quisling regime, or Quisling government are common names used to refer to the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, collaboration government led by Vidkun Quisling in German occupation of Norway, German-occupied Norway during th ...

. Elisabeth was then just a teenager.

Personal life

She 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 ...

to Niels Anker Stang Schweigaard (1884–1955) and his wife Betty Reimers (1886–1968). She had two older sisters, and was a great-granddaughter of Tellef Dahll SchweigaardGenealogy
and great-granduncle of Anton Martin Schweigaard. Born as Ragnhild Elisabeth Schweigaard, she married law professor Knut Sejersted Selmer. Through him she was a daughter-in-law of Ernst W. Selmer.

Career

In 1941, she was expelled from

Oslo Cathedral School Schola Osloensis, known in Norwegian language, Norwegian as Oslo Katedralskole (''Oslo Cathedral School'') and more commonly as "Katta",

because of anti- NS behaviour. She enrolled as a student in 1945 and graduated as cand.jur. in 1949. During the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

she had been involved in the Norwegian resistance, in illegal radio broadcasting. After graduation, she started working as a secretary in the Ministry of Justice and the Police, but then worked as an attorney from 1950 to 1955. She then returned to the Ministry of Justice, being promoted to assisting secretary in 1962. On the local political level, Selmer had been a member of

Oslo 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 ...

city council during the term 1951–1955. In 1965, she was appointed Minister of Justice and the Police as a part of the centre-right cabinet of

Per Borten (3 April 1913 – 20 January 2005) was a Norway, Norwegian politician from the Centre Party (Norway), Centre Party and the prime minister of Norway from 1965 to 1971. Per Borten is credited for leading the modernization of what was then named Bo ...

, the first woman to hold this position. She left the Minister of Justice position on 3 October 1970, when replaced by Egil Endresen. She then served as a

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Justice from 1971 to 1990, having been appointed in 1970. Schweigaard Selmer was a member of many boards and councils. She was vice president of the Norse Federation from 1975 to 1978, and a long-time board member. She also sat on the boards of

Oslo City Museum Oslo City Museum (''Oslo Bymuseum'') is a department of Oslo Museum in Oslo, Norway since 2006. The museum is located at Frogner Manor (''Frogner Hovedgård'') in Frogner Park (''Frognerparken''). The museum was first founded in 1905 as t ...

, the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and Norway's Resistance Museum. A

Riksmål (, also , ) is an unofficial written Norwegian language form or spelling standard, meaning the ''National Language'', closely related and now almost identical to the dominant form of Bokmål, known as . Both Bokmål and Riksmål evolved from t ...

proponent, she was a member of the

Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature The Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature (), commonly known as the Norwegian Academy, is a Norwegian learned body on matters pertaining to the modern Norwegian language in its Dano-Norwegian variety, now commonly known as Riksmål and Bo ...

. She was proclaimed Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1980, and has the Defence Medal 1940 – 1945.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Selmer, Elisabeth Schweigaard Politicians from Oslo Conservative Party (Norway) politicians Female resistance members of World War II Government ministers of Norway Norwegian civil servants Norwegian women civil servants Norwegian resistance members Supreme Court of Norway justices Members of the Norwegian Academy 1923 births 2009 deaths Norwegian women in World War II People educated at Oslo Cathedral School Norwegian women judges Women government ministers of Norway Female justice ministers Ministers of justice of Norway 20th-century Norwegian women politicians 20th-century Norwegian politicians