Olaf Bryn Kullmann (2 July 1892 – 9 July 1942) was a Norwegian naval officer and peace activist.

Early life and career

He was born in

Stord Stord is a municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since i ...

in the county of

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Munici ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. He was a son of

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

and school manager Jakob Kullmann (1852–1910) and Ingeleiv Kristine Mæland (1864–1951). He studied at the Norwegian Naval Academy, and served on a

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

with the rank of Premier Lieutenant from 1916. He later studied law, graduated with the

Candidate of Law Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

degree in 1923, served as a deputy in

Vestfold Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...

, and from 1925 was an attorney in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

. From 1925 to 1930 he worked 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 ...

. He then returned to the navy, from 1929 with the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. He had responsibility for the torpedo battery at Oscarsborg Fortress.

Political turnaround

Kullmann eventually turned against the ideas of the existing military. He had been an adviser for the

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party (; , A or Ap; ), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party (, DNA), is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Norway, political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectru ...

when in 1932 it proposed to replace the entire armed forces with a semi-armed "civil guard", and was a member of the party for some time. In the summer of 1932 he participated on an anti-war congress in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. For his agitation, Kullmann was suspended and legally relieved of his naval engagements. The campaign was spearheaded by then-Minister of Defence

Vidkun Quisling Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (; ; 18 July 1887 – 24 October 1945) was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Nazi collaborator who Quisling regime, headed the government of N ...

, and a support campaign for Kullmann was spearheaded by the Labour Party. Kullmann also formed a short-lived Peace Party. The latter half of the 1930s started with the

Second Italo-Abyssinian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...

, which Kullmann protested. For this he was expelled from Italy, where he had travelled in 1935. He issued the book ''Hjelp din bror, etioperen'' ("Help Your Brother, the Ethiopian") in Norway in 1938. In 1940, Norway was invaded by Germany, involving Norway in World War II. Kullmann subsequently bicycled around Norway to agitate for

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

Incarceration and death

The German occupiers demanded his signature on a declaration that he would forever cease his pacifist agitation; Kullmann refused and was arrested in June 1941. He was imprisoned in

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 ...

and

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 ...

before being sent to

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

, 3 April 1942, and died there in July. He was memorialized in a poem by fellow Sachsenhausen inmate Arnulf Øverland in the 1956 poetry collection ''Sverdet bak døren''. Kullmann was a granduncle of later

Norwegian Nobel Committee The Norwegian Nobel Committee () selects the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize each year on behalf of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's estate, based on instructions of Nobel's will. Five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. ...

member Kaci Kullmann Five.

Selected works

* ''Fred eller krig for Norden?'' (1935) * ''Europe Awake'' (1936) * ''Hjelp din bror, etioperen'' (1938) * ''Folkereisning mot krig'' (1939) * ''Lovsangen'' (1940)

References

Other sources

* Gjelsvik, Tore (1979) ''Norwegian Resistance: 1940–1945'' (Univ of Toronto Press) *Ottosen, Kristian (1990) ''Liv og død : historien om Sachsenhausen-fangene'' (Oslo: Aschehoug) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kullmann, Olaf 1892 births 1942 deaths Royal Norwegian Naval Academy alumni Royal Norwegian Navy personnel Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Norwegian anti-war activists 20th-century Norwegian lawyers Norwegian resistance members People who died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp Grini concentration camp prisoners Military personnel who died in Nazi concentration camps People from Stord