Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun (August 4, 1859 – February 19, 1952) was a leading Norwegian author and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920.

Political sympathies

Hamsun was a prominent advocate of Germany and German culture, as well as a rhetorical opponent of British imperialism and Soviet Russia, and he supported Germany both during the First and the Second World War. Despite his immense popularity in Norway and around the world, Hamsun's reputation for a time waned considerably because of his support of Vidkun Quisling's National Socialist government. Following a meeting with Joseph Goebbels in 1943, he sent Goebbels his Nobel Prize medal as a gift. Hamsun also met with Adolf Hitler and tried to have him remove Josef Terboven from the position of Reichskommissar of Norway.

Related Topics:
Germany - Imperialism - Vidkun Quisling - National Socialist - Joseph Goebbels - 1943 - Adolf Hitler - Josef Terboven - Reichskommissar

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After Hitler's death, Hamsun wrote some commemorative but also ironic words in the leading Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, describing Hitler as a "warrior for mankind" but also a "man of small stature".

Related Topics:
Hitler - Aftenposten

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After the war, he was confined for several months in a psychiatric hospital. In 1948 he was fined 325,000 kroner for collaboration, but cleared of any direct Nazi-affiliation. Hamsun himself wrote about this experience in the 1949 book, On Overgrown Paths.

Related Topics:
1948 - Kroner

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The Danish author Thorkild Hansen investigated the trial and wrote the book The Process Against Hamsun (1978), which created a storm in Norway. Among other things Hansen stated: "If you want to meet idiots, go to Norway", since he felt that treating an old man like that was outrageous. In 1996 the Swedish director Jan Troell based the movie Hamsun on Hansen's book. In Hamsun, the actor Max von Sydow plays Knut Hamsun.

Related Topics:
Thorkild Hansen - 1978 - 1996 - Jan Troell - Max von Sydow

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