Quisling (1988)

Vidkun Quisling: A life, a Trial is the English title of a documentary series in four parts which premiered on Norwegian television (NRK) in 1988.

Quisling was a Norwegian politician whose name became synonymous with a traitor, because he collaborated with Nazi Germany when this country invaded and occupied Norway during World War Two (1940-1945).

Here is some basic information about this series:

** Original Norwegian title: Vidkun Quisling: Et liv, en rettssak

** Directors: Stein Ørnhøi and Hanne Hoel

** Writers: Stein Ørnhøi and Kristine Ramm

** Historical consultant: Hans Fredrik Dahl (born 1939) – Professor of History at the University of Oslo 1988-2009 – author of the biography Quisling: A Study in Treachery (1999)

** Language: Norwegian – no English subtitles!

** Number of episodes: 4

** Run time: 250 minutes

The series covers Quisling’s life and career from the beginning in 1887 to the end in 1945. This means that we hear about Quisling as a child in the 1890s, as a young man around 1905, when Norway became an independent nation, and as an adult person in the 1920s and the 1930s, before the outbreak of the war. 

A large part of the series is a re-creation of the trial against Quisling which took place in 1945, shortly after the end of the war in Europe.

Significant parts of the trial were re-created with modern actors in the major roles. The dialogue is taken from the transcript of the original trial in 1945.

The cast includes the following

** Finn Kvalem (1934-1990) as Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945) – the defendant

** Odd Furøy (1930-1994) as Erik Solem (1877-1949) – the chief judge

** Erik Hivju as Annaeus Schjødt (1888-1952) – the prosecutor

** Jens Bolling (1915-1992) as Henrik Bergh (1879-1952) – the lawyer for the defence

** Jon Eikemo as Albert Viljam Hagelin (1881-1946) – a Norwegian businessman and politician

** Nils Ole Oftebro as Vilhelm Ullmann (1886-1972) – a childhood friend of Quisling

** Liselotte Holmene (Erik Hivju’s wife) as Maria Quisling (1900-1980) – Quisling’s second wife

As stated above, the series is divided into four parts:

# 1. Prelude – 66 minutes

# 2. Dux, major and member of the government – 76 minutes

# 3. Coup d’etat – 43 minutes

# 4. President of Norway – 65 minutes

In the 1920s, Quisling lived and worked in Soviet Russia or the Soviet Union for several years (1921-1929).

At first, he worked for the Nansen Committee which brought relief to people who were suffering from hunger after the civil war between the Whites and the Reds (1918-1920).

Later, he worked as a diplomat. Before the UK had an embassy in the USSR, British interests in the USSR were represented by Norway. For a while, Quisling was a Norwegian diplomat who represented British interests in the USSR.

During this time Quisling was on the extreme left. He admired communism and the new Soviet state. Later in life he changed his mind and moved to the extreme right. Now he admired Hitler and Nazi Germany.

In the 1930s, Quisling was a member of two Norwegian governments:

** 1931-1932 = minister of defence
** 1932-1933 = minister of defence

In 1933, Quisling founded a political party, the National Union, which was a Norwegian version of the Nazi Party in Germany, but there were two significant differences:

** Quisling’s party was connected to the Christian religion
** Quisling’s party did not want to go after the Jews

The National Union took part in Norwegian elections several times, but never got many votes, only about two per cent of the votes. National Union was never able to win a single seat in the Norwegian parliament.

The series also covers Quisling’s personal life. He was married two times:

** In 1922, he married Alexandra Voronin (1905-1993)
** In 1923, he married Maria Vasilijevna (1900-1980)

It seems he was not divorced from his first wife Alexandra when he married his second wife Maria, so technically he was a bigamist!

Alexandra came to Norway, but later she moved to the US where she died in 1993. Maria came to Norway where she lived until her death in 1980.

On 9 April 1940, Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany. Quisling was ready to work for the Germans. He was hoping to be chosen as the leader of a new government in German-occupied Norway.

But at first, things did not go his way. The Nazi leaders knew that Quisling had limited support in the Norwegian population, so they did not want to appoint him to lead the government of Norway.

Instead a German commissar (Josef Terboven) was chosen to take charge, while Quisling was chosen to be his adviser. But later the Germans changed their minds.

In 1942, Quisling’s dream came true:

He was appointed to head the government of Norway. His party National Union became the government party and the only legal political party in the country. He held this position until the end of the war in May 1945.

What do reviewers say about this series? On IMDb there is no rating and no reviews are listed. I am on my own. What do I say? Here is my opinion:

This series is informative, but not powerful. If you are interested in modern history – in particular the history of World War Two – and if you can understand Norwegian, this series is definitely something for you. It is not great, but it is good. I think it deserves a rating of four stars.

PS # 1. At the end of his trial Quisling was found guilty of treason. The penalty was death. The sentence was appealed to the Supreme Court, where the sentence was upheld. Quisling was executed in October 1945.

PS # 2. Albert Viljam Hagelin, who was Minister of Domestic Affairs in Quisling’s government during the war, was also found guilty of treason in a court of law. He was executed in May 1946.

PS # 3. The series about Quisling is available online on the website of NRK. Remember the language is Norwegian. There are no English subtitles!

*****

There are more stories about

Norway and World War Two

on my blog:

** The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

** Hitler’s Sunken Secret (2005)

** The Saboteurs (2015)

*****

The Heroes of Telemark is Hollywood’s version of the Norwegian resistance movement. It is only mentioned as an example of historical distortion. Watch this drama to see how often and how much historical truth can be violated.

*****

 

 

Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945)

The photo is from ca. 1919

*****