The Theta Museum () is a museum 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 ...
, Norway. It is a one-room museum in a room that was used by the
Norwegian resistance
The Norwegian resistance ( Norwegian: ''Motstandsbevegelsen'') to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:
*Asserting the legitimacy of the exiled governm ...
group known as the
Theta group to send radio messages to England under the
Nazi German occupation 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 ...
. The room was opened to the public in 1982, and is the smallest museum in Norway.
Background
The room is in one of the buildings on the
Bryggen
Bryggen (''the dock''), also known as Tyskebryggen (, ''the German dock''), is a series of Hanseatic heritage commercial buildings lining up the eastern side of the Vågen harbour in the city of Bergen, Norway. Bryggen has been on the UNESCO lis ...
wharf (''Enhjørningsgården''), where it was well hidden from German officials. The young members of the Theta group used their engineering training to create a special electrical locking system to conceal the door to the room. By that time, most doors in the buildings on Bryggen had been sealed and closed off, which made it difficult to find hidden rooms.
German raid
On 17 October 1942, the German forces carried out a raid at Bryggen, and the room was accidentally discovered. A rotten floorboard on the floor above gave way when a soldier stepped on it leading to discovery of the well-hidden room. None of the members of the Theta group was captured. The group members had prepared a large batch of
TNT
Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...
in case the room was discovered and searched. The TNT was in a cupboard with a trigger on the door. The charge did not go off; if it had, it is said that the whole of Bryggen would have been blown up.
After the raid the room was damaged and everything inside had been removed. For the museum, objects have been assembled that approximate the furnishings during the war. Objects from the war were donated for this purpose by people all over Norway. The only original objects in the room are a coffee table, a Hallicrafter receiver, a homemade HF transmitter, copies of intelligence reports submitted by Norwegian agents, and tasking messages received from London. At , it is the smallest museum in Norway.
[Dag Fonbæk]
"Brygger på noe godt"
Reise, ''Verdens Gang
(), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is ...
'', 23 July 2005
Guided tour
The guided tour of the museum is intended to give a sense of what it was like to secretly work against the Nazi German occupiers, and information about the radio transmissions made from the room and how among other things they enabled the
British Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
to sink the ''
Tirpitz Tirpitz may refer to:
People
* Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930), German admiral
** Tirpitz Plan, a plan for Germany to achieve world power status through naval power
Ships
* German battleship ''Tirpitz'', a World War II-era Bismarck-class ...
''.
References
External links
Thetamuseetat Prosjekt Bryggen {{in lang, no
at Bergen Guide
Norwegian resistance movement
Museums in Bergen