Ragnar Sigvald Skancke (9 November 1890 – 28 August 1948) was the Norwegian Minister for Church and Educational Affairs in
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 ...
's
Nasjonal Samling
The Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norway, Norwegian far-right politics, far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling a ...
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Shot for treason in the legal purges following the war, he remains the
last person executed in Norway.
Before the war, Skancke was a highly respected professor of
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
Norwegian Institute of Technology in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
and a member of the
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.
Pre-war life
Skancke was born in
Ã…s, Norway, the son of bank director Johan Skancke and Kari Busvold. In 1908 he became a student, and in 1913 gained a
Bachelor of Engineering
A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a college graduate majoring in an engineering discipline at a higher education institution.
In the United Kingdom, a Ba ...
in
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
, Germany.
Skancke worked as a
docent at the
Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim from 1913 to 1918, and then spent the next five years as an supervising engineer at the telecommunication company
Elektrisk Bureau. From 1923 onwards, Skancke was a professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He married Ingrid Aas (born 1888) in 1927.
[
]
World War II collaboration
Political positions
April 1940 "coup" government
The first political position given to Professor Skancke was that of Minister of Labour in Vidkun Quisling's April 1940 "coup" government, the latter's attempt at seizing power in Norway following the German invasion of 9 April. Skancke was in Trondheim at the time, and only heard of his appointment when it was announced on the radio. He reacted with opposition to Quisling's attempt to form a government, refusing to assume the ministry allotted to him.
Terboven council and NS government
Reichskommissar Josef Terboven, the leading civilian German leader in occupied Norway, on 25 September 1940 appointed a council of Norwegian ministers to assist him in governing Norway. Skancke was appointed as Councillor of State for Church and Educational Affairs, and was given the title Minister for Church and Educational Affairs exactly a year later.
Acts during war
During his collaborationist work in occupied Norway Skancke mostly acted in passive ways, but did not hesitate to enact countermeasures if he met opposition to his work. Although not taking a leading part in the attempted nazification of the Norwegian Church and school system, he did take full responsibility for the sacking of bishops, priests and teachers opposed to National socialist teachings. He also ordered Norwegian teachers and school children to attend a Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...
exhibition 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 ...
in February 1941, which led to the first school strike of the occupation, and ordered the confiscation of books by authors opposed to Quisling. Skancke, however, was completely opposed to the deportation 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 ...
of teachers who would not institute the new teaching programmes.[NorgesLexi.com]
Skancke, Ragnar (Sigvald) (1890—1948)
In one instance of refusal to cooperate fully with the German authorities, Skancke delayed acting on an order from Reichskommissar Terboven issued on 5 July 1941 that all Norwegian church bells were to be sent to Germany for smelting
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...
and use in the war industry
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
. The case dragged out until it was handed over to minister of trade Eivind Blehr in 1942. Blehr refused to release the bells, leading to several confrontations with Terboven until the Germans were later persuaded to drop the demands, saving all the bells.
Post-war conviction and execution
Trials
Following the May 1945 German capitulation in Norway and the rest of Europe, Skancke was put on trial for treason. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1946. In March 1947, the Norwegian Supreme Court rejected Skancke's appeals and confirmed the sentence. In response to the confirmation of his sentence, Skancke attempted to get a retrial, presenting new evidence and witness testimonies. During this process, the mood in Norway largely changed with many calls for clemency for the former collaborationist minister.
Execution
As all calls for clemency were rejected Skancke was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress on 28 August 1948, the last person to be executed in Norway, which has since abolished capital punishment for all crimes, including war crimes and treason. Before his execution, the Norwegian High Court had received letters from 668 priests who asked for mercy on Skancke's behalf. Ragnar Skancke was one of only three Norwegian Nazi leaders to be executed for political crimes in the post-war legal purge, the others being Quisling and Internal affairs minister Albert Viljam Hagelin, all the 34 other Norwegians and Germans executed in the post war process having been convicted of murder, torture or systematic informing.
Published works
In addition to professional works on electrical engineering in the 1930s, Skancke also wrote a book on Vidkun Quisling.[WorldCat book finder]
"Ragnar Skancke"
/ref>
* ''Theorie der Wechselstrommaschinen mit e. Einl. in d. Theorie d. stationären Wechselströme nach O. S. Bragstad'', J. Springer, Berlin 1932
* ''Über ultraakustische Schwingungen in zylindrischen Stäben'', Brun, Trondheim 1935
* ''Boken om Vidkun Quisling'', Blix, Oslo 1941
* ''Ein Buch über Vidkun Quisling'', Blix, Oslo 1941 (German translation)
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skancke, Ragnar
1890 births
1948 deaths
People from Ã…s, Akershus
Norwegian expatriates in Germany
Executed Norwegian collaborators with Nazi Germany
Members of Nasjonal Samling
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
Academic staff of the Norwegian Institute of Technology
Norwegian electrical engineers
Norwegian politicians convicted of crimes
Executed politicians