Knut Peder Langfeldt (14 January 1925 – 24 October 2018) was a Norwegian organizational worker and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

writer. He lived at

Slemdal Slemdal is a neighborhood in the borough of Vestre Aker in Oslo, Norway. The neighborhood lies south of Vettakollen, and was built up from the 1890s. It is served by the Oslo Metro station Slemdal. The local sports team is IL Heming Idrettsla ...

at a young age. In May 1943, 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 ...

, he tried to flee the country by boat. However, he was discovered near Abelsnes. He was imprisoned in

Flekkefjord Flekkefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Lister Region, Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the ...

, then three days at Arkivet in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

, before being moved to

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 ...

. He remained here for a year, except for the time from August 1943 to March 1944 when he was at

Ullevål Hospital Ullevaal Stadion () is an all-seater football stadium located in Oslo, Norway. It is the home ground of the Norway national football team, and the site of the Norwegian Cup Final. From its opening in 1926 to 2009 it was the home ground of ...

. He was incarcerated 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 14 July 1944 to 4 May 1945. The German occupation ended on

8 May 1945 Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

, and the roles changed. From May to September 1945 he worked as a prison guard for the now-imprisoned Nazis and collaborators. He also joined the

Young Communist League of Norway The Young Communist League of Norway (, NKU) was until April 2006 the youth league of Norges Kommunistiske Parti (NKP). The NKP declared on 1 April 2006 that the NKU was no longer its youth organization, and that all youths interested in joinin ...

, and came in contact with

Peder Furubotn Peder Furubotn (29 August 1890 – 28 November 1975) was a Norwegian cabinetmaker, politician for the Communist Party and resistance member during World War II. Early and personal life Furubotn was born in Brekke, Sogn og Fjordane, the s ...

. Furubotn arranged the drafting of Langfeldt into the

Parteihochschule Karl Marx The Party Academy Karl Marx (''Parteihochschule Karl Marx'') was an academy (''Hochschule'') that was founded in 1946 in the Soviet occupation zone. During the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), it was subordinate to the Central Committee ...

in what would become

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

, and here he was a contact between the

Communist Party of Norway The Communist Party of Norway (, NKP) is a communist party in Norway. The NKP was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. It was Stalinist from its establishment and, as such, supported the Soviet government while oppo ...

(who knew him only by the pseudonym Karl Quandt) and the German socialist party (who knew him as Kurt Lindenberg). Langfeldt was not a Communist Party member, however. He studied at the college from 1947 to 1949, and later studied 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 ...

. From 1957 to 1961 he lived in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, studying for two years and being a correspondent for ''

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 ...

'' in the last two years. He worked as information director in the National Insurance Administration before working in the

Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities () is an employers' organisation in Norway. It was founded in 1972 as a merger between the Union of Norwegian Cities (''Norges Byforbund'', founded in 1903) and the Norwegian Associati ...

from 1968 to 1992. In 1962 he, together with

Jacques Freymond Jacques Freymond (5 August 1911 – 4 May 1998) was a Switzerland, Swiss political science, political history, historian. He was born in Lausanne, and studied in his hometown as well as in München, University of Paris, Sorbonne and Sciences Po. ...

, Henri Burgelin and

Miklós Molnár Miklós (, ) is a given name or surname, the Hungarian form of the Greek (English ''Nicholas''), and may refer to: In Hungarian politics * Miklós Bánffy, Hungarian nobleman, politician, and novelist * Miklós Horthy, Regent of the Kingdom of H ...

, co-published the 800-page work ''La Première Internationale'' on the

First International The International Workingmen's Association (IWA; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist ...

. In the

Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelli ...

he published the books ''Moskvatesene i norsk politikk'' in 1961 and ''Det direkte demokrati: Rådsrepublikk eller parlamentarisme?'' in 1966, as well as articles in '' Historisk Tidsskrift'' and ''

Samtiden ''Samtiden'' is a Norwegian political and literary magazine. History and profile ''Samtiden'' was founded by Jørgen Brunchorst and Gerhard Gran in 1890. The magazine's first publisher was ''John Griegs forlag'' (Bergen), and from 1900 Ascheh ...

''. Langfeldt has been active in

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

. He married a Swiss woman, and had two children. He resided in Nordstrand. He died in October 2018.Death announcement, ''Aftenposten'' 8 December 2018 p. 53

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Langfeldt, Knut 1925 births 2018 deaths Grini concentration camp survivors Norwegian political scientists University of Oslo alumni Norwegian expatriates in Germany Norwegian expatriates in Switzerland Norwegian newspaper reporters and correspondents