Jens Bache-Wiig (15 November 1880 – 6 May 1965) was a Norwegian engineer and industrialist.

Early life and education

He was born at

Bøn Bøn is a village in Eidsvoll, Akershus, Norway. It is approximately 49 km away from 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 p ...

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the munic ...

to factory owner Hartwig Bache-Wiig (1850–1922) and his wife Amalie Kristine Holt (1851–1940). His father and his brother Carl operated a

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of glycosidic bond, β(1→4) linked glucose, D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important s ...

factory at Bønsdalen until 1889, when the family moved to

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 ...

. At some point after the 1899 Kristiania

housing bubble A housing bubble (or housing price bubble) is one of several types of asset price bubbles which periodically occur in the market. The basic concept of a housing bubble is the same as for other asset bubbles, consisting of two main phases. First t ...

burst, Bache-Wig moved to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

to study engineering. He first attended the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau, and then the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

, where he took his final exam in 1902.

Career

In 1906, Bache-Wiig was employed by the

Westinghouse Electric Company Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, includ ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, United States. After that, he was appointed professor in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at the newly established

Norwegian Institute of Technology The Norwegian Institute of Technology ( Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was ...

, where he stayed until 1916. In 1912–13, he published papers on the calculation of

electrical machine Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

s with AC and DC generators. In 1916, he became managing director of

Elektrisk Bureau Elektrisk Bureau or EB was a Norwegian manufacturer of telecommunication equipment. It was founded in 1882 and lasted until 1993 when it became part of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB). The company was located at Billingstad in Asker. History In 1882 ...

, a manufacturer of telecommunication equipment. He left Elektrisk Bureau for Standard Electric – a subsidiary of the

International Telephone and Telegraph ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

(ITT) – in 1926. In 1931, he was appointed director-general of ITT's Germany division, and received also the responsibility for the ITT's operations in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. Four years later, he resigned from the position, in protest against the New York head office intervening in his area of responsibility. During the

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 ...

of German-occupied Norway, Bache-Wiig served in the non-political

Administrative Council Administrative Council () was a part of Council of State (Kingdom of Poland), Council of State of the Congress Poland. Introduced by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815, it was composed of 5 ministers, special nominees of the Tsar, Ki ...

until September 1940, when it was replaced by the ''

Reichskommissariat Norwegen The Norwegen was the Reichskommissariat, occupation regime set up by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, German-occupied Norway during World War II. Its full title in German was the ("Reich Commissariat for the Occupied Norweg ...

'' headed by the Norwegian Nazi Terboven. In this Council, he was the Head of the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Provisioning. In 1944, he succeeded Axel Aubert as managing director of

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norway, Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around th ...

Marriages and death

Bache-Wiig married Tordis Nicolaysen (1885–1934) on 8 December 1906; this marriage ended in divorce. He married Hjørdis Tidemand-Johannessen (1891–??) on 20 June 1939. He died in

Bærum Bærum () is a list of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Akershus County, Norway. It forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a populatio ...

on 6 May 1965, and then was buried at

Vår Frelsers gravlund The Cemetery of Our Saviour () is a cemetery in Oslo, Norway, located north of Hammersborg in Gamle Aker district. It is located adjacent to the older Old Aker Cemetery and was created in 1808 as a result of the great famine and cholera epidemi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bache-Wiig, Jens 1880 births 1965 deaths People from Eidsvoll Norwegian electrical engineers Academic staff of the Norwegian Institute of Technology Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour