Olav Rytter (29 January 1903 – 7 June 1992) was a Norwegian newspaper editor, radio personality, foreign correspondent, philologist and translator.

Biography

Olav was born in

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal counties of Norway, county. The admin ...

as the son of writer Henrik Rytter. He took his philological education 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 ...

and the University of Prague, having specialized in

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...

and

Indic languages Indic languages may refer to: * Indo-Aryan languages, a subgroup of the Indo-European languages spoken mainly in the north of the Indian subcontinent (used in the context of Indo-European studies) * Languages of the Indian subcontinent, all the indi ...

. He would translate several works written in such languages. After working as a teacher 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 ...

in Prague and Warsaw, from 1928 to 1935, he returned to Norway in 1935 to edit the newspaper '' Norsk Tidend''. He became a member of the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights (; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's rights, women's and girls' rights organization that works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights through political reform, ...

in 1936. From 1938 to 1946, he was a programme secretary in the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

(NRK). When Norway was invaded by Germany in April 1940, Rytter fled the country together with the

Norwegian royal family Members of the Norwegian royal family are people related to King Harald V of Norway or former Norwegian monarchs who are royals and who hold royal titles. The term does not include non-royal relatives. The current family who holds the throne a ...

and cabinet. After a short period in Stockholm he reunited with the Norwegian authorities-in-exile in London, where he worked for the NRK and

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

until 1944. He received basic military training, in Scotland. He has also been credited with suggesting

Martin Linge Martin Jensen Linge, (11 December 1894 – 27 December 1941) was a Norwegian actor who, in World War II, became the commander of the Norwegian Independent Company 1 (NOR.I.C.1) (pronounced as ''Norisen'' by the Norwegians), formed in March 19 ...

as an SOE agent in the fall of 1940. In 1944 Rytter travelled to

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

to oversee the liberation of Northern Norway as an officer of information. Norway was fully liberated 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 ...

. From 1948 to 1963, Rytter worked with information for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. He headed their Prague information office from 1948 to 1953, helped establishing new offices in Jakarta, Teheran and Afghanistan over the next years, before heading the Cairo office from 1959 to 1963. In 1963, he returned to Norway to edit the newspaper ''

Dag og Tid ''Dag og Tid'' () is a national weekly newspaper in Norway that uses the Nynorsk standard of the Norwegian language. ''Dag og Tid'' was founded in 1962. Contrary to most other Norwegian newspapers, its circulation has recently increased signific ...

''. He stepped down from this position after short time, but continued working from 1964 to 1974 as a foreign correspondent. Rytter died in June 1992. He donated his entire literature collection to the University of Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rytter, Olav 1903 births 1992 deaths Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian newspaper reporters and correspondents Norwegian television reporters and correspondents NRK people Norwegian people of World War II University of Oslo alumni People from Kristiansund 20th-century Norwegian translators 20th-century Norwegian writers Norwegian officials of the United Nations Norwegian Association for Women's Rights people