Trygve de Lange - L0017 284Fo30141604250245

Trygve de Lange (3 September 1918 – 12 February 1981) was a Norwegian lawyer and secretary-general of

Libertas Libertas (Latin for 'liberty' or 'freedom', ) is the Roman goddess and personification of liberty. She became a politicised figure in the late republic. She sometimes also appeared on coins from the imperial period, such as Galba's "Freedom ...

. He was born in

Kristiania 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, an ...

, took his

examen artium Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1 ...

in 1937 and the cand.jur. degree 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 ...

in 1941. He edited the periodical ''

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

'' from 1938 to 1939, and was deputy chair of the

Norwegian Students' Society Norwegian Students' Society () is Norway's oldest student society. The Norwegian Students' Society was established during 1813 in Oslo, Norway. Two years after the Royal Frederick University (today named the University of Oslo) was founded, 18 of ...

in 1940. In 1942 he married Lulla Bagn (1918–2003). After

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 ...

he opened a lawyer's office. When

was founded to promote libertarian ideas after World War 2 in order to counteract the

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

tendency of the time, de Lange was hired as the first secretary-general. In 1955, de Lange was hired part-time as finance secretary in the Conservative Party by the party's general secretary, Leif Helberg. John Lyng belonged to those who wanted de Lange as general secretary of the Conservative Party, while primarily C.J. Hambro and Alv Kjøs provided for the final break with Libertas around 1960. The beginning of this settlement was Liberta's launch of the program "Will to power", where it was proposed to give young, talented politicians positions in business, so they could get to know business next to his political work. Libertas proposed concrete political programs and alternative state budgets, but was opposed by the Conservatives' central government, which stated that "the independence of the parties is an absolute prerequisite for a clear responsibility in political life." Kjøs believed that Libertas should simply be shut down. Lars Roar Langslet and others in the circle around Minerva criticized market liberalism as such. Libertas was forced to become a pure information organization and refrain from playing in purely political matters, and the Conservatives could more easily cooperate with other bourgeois parties. De Lange had many supporters, some of whom wanted to recruit him to the leadership of the Conservative Party. As de Lange retired in 1976, Libertas faded into a more obscure existence, and it was disbanded and replaced by Liberalt Forskningsinstitutt in 1988. de Lange returned to the lawyer profession, and died in February 1981 in Oslo.

References

1918 births 1981 deaths Lawyers from Oslo University of Oslo alumni 20th-century Norwegian lawyers {{norway-law-bio-stub