Trygve Bratteli

Trygve Bratteli (born January 11, 1910, Nøtterøy, Norway—died November 20, 1984, Oslo) was a politician, chairman of the Norwegian Labour Party (1965–75), and prime minister of Norway in 1971–72 and 1973–76.

Entering the Labour Party’s youth organization in 1928, Bratteli became editor of the newspaper Arbeiderungdommen (“Labour Youth”) in the 1930s and served as secretary of the organization until 1940 and as its chairman in 1945–46. From 1940 to 1942, during the early years of the German occupation of Norway in World War II, he participated in the Resistance. He was arrested and spent the rest of the war in German prisons and concentration camps.

After the war Bratteli continued to rise in the Labour Party, serving as vice chairman (1945–65) and as chairman after 1965. He was elected to the Storting (parliament) in 1950, and in 1951–55 and 1956–60 he was Norway’s finance minister. He held the Ministry of Communications in 1960–64 and became prime minister in 1971 after having led the Labour parliamentary opposition since 1965. He resigned in 1972 when the proposal that Norway join the European Communities—a move he strongly supported—was defeated. He returned to power in 1973 but resigned his post on January 9, 1976, though he remained a member of the Storting until 1981.