''Fritt Folk'' ("Free People") was a Norwegian newspaper, published in

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 ...

. It was the official organ of the fascist party

Nasjonal Samling The Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norway, Norwegian far-right politics, far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling a ...

, and came to prominence during the Second World War.

History

''Fritt Folk'' had a predecessor in a party newspaper for Nasjonal Samling. The party was founded in 1933 and the party newspaper in 1934. ''Fritt Folk'' was published for the first time on 26 March 1936, and had the tagline ("national organ for Nasjonal Samling"). The first editor-in-chief was Herolf Harstad. Funded by party members and the

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legation A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a minister. Ambassadors outranked ministers and had precedence at official events. Legation ...

, it was published daily. However, after Nasjonal Samling suffered a large defeat in the

1936 Norwegian parliamentary election Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

, effort dwindled and it was an obscure, weekly newspaper. Editor from 1937 to 1944 was Arnt Rishovd. From 1 April 1940 it was again published daily, this time with funding from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. On 9 April 1940 Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany, and an occupation started. Two days after the invasion, ''Fritt Folk'' was sent out as a supplement to popular newspapers such as ''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

''. This ended on 15 April when Quisling was intermittently deposed and the

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was installed, but the newspaper continued to prosper under Nazi rule. It had certain competitors in that many existing newspapers were usurped by Nazis, including ''Aftenposten'', and they brought the same kind of news as ''Fritt Folk''. Other newspapers were stopped, and when ''

Arbeiderbladet is a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. The former party organ of the Norwegian Labour Party, the ties loosened over time from 1975 to 1999. It has borne several names, and was called ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1923 to 1997. Eirik Hoff Lys ...

'' was stopped in August 1940, ''Fritt Folk'' usurped its offices and printing press. A prerogative for ''Fritt Folk'' was that Norwegian businesses and companies were forced to advertise in the newspaper, which boosted the economy. The circulation was secret, and this and some other administrative aspects of the newspaper have not yet been unveiled. Even though the newspaper was controlled by Presseabteilung, it had a certain tendency to not follow German directions in all cases. Among others, it allowed Johannes S. Andersen to respond to rumours that he was a Nazi by printing his statement "although I have done many wrong things in my life, a Nazi I am not. Yours sincerely Johs. S. Andersen". The newspaper sometimes criticized decisions made by Nasjonal Samling, especially under its last editor (1944–1945), Odd Erling Melsom. The German occupiers issued their own, German-language newspaper, '' Deutsche Zeitung in Norwegen'' with a circulation of about 40,000 copies. The last issue came on 7 May 1945.

Editors

* Herlof Harstad 1936 * Arnt Rishovd 1937–1944 * Odd Melsom 1944–1945 File:Erling Corneliussen (1940) (4814675357).jpg, Engineering student at NTH reading ''Fritt Folk'' in 1940.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritt Folk 1936 establishments in Norway 1945 disestablishments in Norway Defunct newspapers published in Norway Fascist newspapers Newspapers published in Oslo Nazi newspapers Nasjonal Samling Norway in World War II Norwegian-language newspapers Propaganda newspapers and magazines Newspapers established in 1936 Publications disestablished in 1945