Per Bratland (September 8, 1907 – April 9, 1988) was a Norwegian newspaper editor. Born in Oslo, he started out as a photo reporter for the Drammen newspaper Fremtiden in 1927. He became the editor-in-chief of '' Tiden'' in 1934, and a journalist in ''

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 ...

'' in 1936. He covered the arrival of Adolf Hitler in Vienna in March 1938, and the Nazi annexation of Austria, as news reporter, escaping to Tsjekkoslovakia by taxi, with his undeveloped film hidden in the petrol tank. When the

occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany 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 ...

started in 1940, ''Arbeiderbladet'' was shut down. Escaping the invasion army, Bratland took a famous photo of king Haakon VII and crown prince Olav, hiding in the birch forest in Molde, under a bombing raid by German airplanes. He escaped Aalesund by sea to Bodø, crossed the border to Sweden on ski, and presented his news photos from the war in Norway in Stockholm. His story and the photographs he presented there of bombed Norwegian cities, contradicted the impression created by German media, of a peaceful occupation. He returned to Norway through Finland, but arriving in Oslo, the Nazi administration blacklisted him from work as a journalist. Later that year, Bratland fled the country again, and worked at the press office of the

Norwegian legation in Stockholm The Norwegian Legation in Stockholm played a significant role during the World War II, Second World War. Until 9 April 1940 the legation consisted of four persons, and at the end of the war about 1,100 persons were connected to the legation. Refug ...

from 1940 to 1941 and in London from 1941 to 1945. After the war he created and edited the magazine ''

Aktuell RTL aktuell is a German television news programme broadcast on the commercial station RTL. The main 20-minute bulletin airs every evening at 18:45 CET, supplemented by a breakfast news bulletin (''Punkt 6'', ''Punkt 7'', and ''Punkt 8'' formerly ...

'' from 1945 to 1956. He then worked in ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1956 to 1975, except for the years 1959 to 1961, when he was the editor-in-chief of ''

Bergens Arbeiderblad ''Bergensavisen'' (lit. "the Bergen newspaper"), usually shortened to ''BA'', is the second largest newspaper in Bergen, Norway. The paper is published in tabloid format. The newspaper's webpage ba.no is Bergen's largest local newspaper webpage. ...

''. He published several books in Norwegian: ''Hvem har makt i Norge'' (1965), ''Bratteli tenker høyt'' (1968) and ''Er vi slik?'' (1971).

References

1907 births 1988 deaths Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian resistance members Norwegian expatriates in Sweden Norwegian expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century Norwegian writers 20th-century Norwegian non-fiction writers Expatriates in England {{Norway-writer-stub