[102] Quisling remained there until 20 August, while Rosenberg and Admiral Erich Raeder, whom he had met on his earlier visit to Berlin, negotiated on his behalf. Maria wanted to see Western Europe; Quisling wanted to get some rest following bouts of stomach pain that had lasted all winter.[26]. Upon her death, she donated all their Russian antiques to a charitable fund that still operated in Oslo as of August 2017. [34] The new Norwegian unification government tried him on 20 August for numerous crimes; he was convicted on 10 September and was executed by firing squad on 24 October 1945.

Fritt Folk was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Oslo. [65], Increased support also materialised when the Bygdefolkets Krisehjelp, the Norwegian Farmers' Aid Association, sought financial aid from Nasjonal Samling, who in turn gained political influence and a useful existing network of well-trained party officers. Quisling drew up a list of ministers and, although it had merely relocated some 150 kilometres (93 mi) to Elverum, accused the legitimate government of having "fled. Only the Cultural Chamber actually came into being with the Economic Chamber postponed because of unrest within the professional bodies it was supposed to represent. [19] Quisling wanted to achieve independence for Norway under his rule, with an end to the German occupation of Norway through a peace treaty and the recognition of Norway's sovereignty by Germany. He was "well installed in his personality," but unable to gain a following among his own people as the population did not provide a mirror for Quisling's ideology. [32] Quisling designated the area reserved for Norwegian colonization as Bjarmeland , a reference to the name featured in the Norse sagas for Northern Russia. With the assistance of Hjort and Prytz, Nordisk folkereisning i Norge quickly became a political party, Nasjonal Samling, or NS, literally "National Unity," ready to contest the forthcoming October election.

[20], The word Quisling has become synonymous with treachery and collaboration with the enemy. "[159] The document was also notable for its attack on the materialism of National Socialism. [1] Actual executive power was retained by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, headed by Josef Terboven. [26] Quisling's proposal was sent to both OKW chief Alfred Jodl and SS leader Heinrich Himmler.[26]. After hours of discussion, Quisling and his German counterparts decided that an immediate coup was necessary, though this was not the preferred option of either Germany's ambassador Curt Bräuer or the German Foreign Ministry. [nb 4] The two men met again four days later, and afterwards Quisling wrote a memorandum that explicitly told Hitler that he did not consider himself a National Socialist. [9] Terboven then appointed a group of 11 kommissariske statsråder (English: provisional councillors of state) from Nasjonal Samling to help him in governing Norway. [158] He rejected the basic teachings of orthodox Christianity and established a new theory of life, which he called Universism, a term borrowed from a textbook which Jan Jakob Maria de Groot had written on Chinese philosophy.

[149] The word quisling itself became synonymous with traitor.

Quisling claimed that the Nygaardsvold Cabinet had given up power despite that it had only moved to Elverum, which is some 50 km (31 mi) from Oslo, and was carrying out negotiations with the Germans. [19] Quisling wanted to achieve independence for Norway under his rule, with an end to the German occupation of Norway through a peace treaty and the recognition of Norway's sovereignty by Germany.

Quisling also mused on how Germany ought to go on the offensive against its ally the Soviet Union, and on 9 December travelled to Germany to present his multi-faceted plans. [10], With the establishment of Quisling's national government, Quisling, as minister-president, temporarily assumed the authority of both the King and the Parliament. [1] The original intention of the Germans had been to hand over the sovereignty of Norway to the new government, but by mid-January 1942 Hitler decided to retain the civilian Reichskommissariat Norwegen under Terboven. He argued he could have kept his forces fighting until the end, but had chosen not to so as to avoid turning "Norway into a battlefield." [153] To his opponents, Quisling was unstable and undisciplined, abrupt, even threatening. "[151] The noun survived, and for a while during and after World War II, the back-formed verb to quisle /ˈkwɪzəl/ was used. During the first week of October, he wrote a fifty-page document titled Universistic Aphorisms, which represented "... an almost ecstatic revelation of truth and the light to come, which bore the mark of nothing less than a prophet. [1] Actual executive power was retained by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, headed by Josef Terboven. His attempted indictment of Bishop Eivind Berggrav proved similarly controversial, even amongst his German allies. [127], Quisling tired during the final years of the war.

He was bullied by other students at the school for his Telemark dialect, but proved a successful student. Both Kjeld Stub Irgens and Eivind Blehr were fired in June 1944.

Quisling claimed that the Nygaardsvold Cabinet had given up power despite that it had only moved to Elverum, which is some 50 km (31 mi) from Oslo, and was carrying out negotiations with the Germans.[5]. In the difficult circumstances of the Great Depression, even originals did not raise as much as Quisling had hoped.

[89], In the afternoon, Quisling was told by German liaison Hans-Wilhelm Scheidt that should he set up a government, it would have Hitler's personal approval.

Other important ministers of the collaborationist government were Jonas Lie (also head of the Norwegian wing of the SS from 1941) as Minister of the Police, Dr. Gulbrand Lunde as Minister of Culture and Enlightenment, as well as the opera singer Albert Viljam Hagelin, who was Minister of the Interior. In this way, the Nazis were avoiding choosing between the rival centres of power. However, alert to the possibility of invasion, Conservative President of the Parliament C. J. Hambro arranged for their evacuation to Hamar in the east of the country. [148] The Nasjonal Samling movement was wiped out as a political force in Norway, though Quisling himself has become one of the most written about Norwegians of all time. Here, Vidkun went to school for the first time. ", Høidal, Oddvar K. "Vidkun Quisling and the Deportation of Norway's Jews.

[108] In the process, he also toughened his attitude to the country harbouring the exiled king, the United Kingdom, which he no longer saw as a Nordic ally. Haakon further stated that he would abdicate rather than appoint a government headed by Quisling. Immediately after the meeting on 14 December, Hitler ordered his staff to draw up preparations for an invasion of Norway. He further wanted to ally Norway to Germany and join the Anti-Comintern Pact.

When war broke out on 1 September 1939, Quisling felt vindicated by both the event and the immediate superiority displayed by the German army.

[153] Party members did not receive preferential treatment,[157] though Quisling did not himself share in the wartime hardships of his fellow Norwegians. They participated in regular group meetings that included middle-aged officers and business people, since described as "the textbook definition of a Fascist initiative group," through which Prytz appeared determined to launch Quisling into politics. In this way, Quisling was manoeuvred out of power by Bräuer and a coalition of his former allies, including Hjort, who now saw him as a liability. Attempts to establish exactly what the Oslo authorities managed to achieve in trying to find the assailant have been hampered by the loss of the original case file. Nonetheless, Quisling would still receive funds to bolster Nasjonal Samling. As a result of the toughened stance, an informal "ice front" emerged, with Nasjonal Samling supporters ostracised from society. The provisional councillors of state were intended as a temporary system while Nasjonal Samling built up its organization in preparation for assuming full governmental powers.

[1] [2] [3] The official name of the regime from 1 February 1942 until its dissolution in May 1945 was Den nasjonale regjering (English: the National Government). Haakon further stated that he would abdicate rather than appoint a government headed by Quisling. The Norwegian campaign was an attempted Allied occupation of northern Norway, during the early stages of World War II. [22] [23], Nasjonal Samling publications called for the annexation of the historically Norwegian Swedish provinces of Jämtland (Norwegian: Jemtland), Härjedalen (Norwegian: Herjedalen, see also Øst-Trøndelag ) and Bohuslän (Norwegian: Båhuslen) [24] [25] In March 1944, Quisling met with Wehrmacht general Rudolf Bamler, and urged the Germans to invade Sweden from Finnish Lapland (using the forces delegated to the German Lapland Army) and through the Baltic as a preemptive strike against Sweden joining the war on the Allied side. Victor Andreas Emanuel Mogens was a Norwegian journalist, editor and politician for the Fatherland League. Though these were all Terboven's decisions, Quisling agreed with them and went on to denounce the government-in-exile as "traitors." [119] A further 250 were deported in February 1943, and it remains unclear what the party's official position was on the eventual fate of the 759 Norwegian deportees. [98], In return, Hitler wrote to Quisling thanking him for his efforts and guaranteeing him some sort of position in the new government. Haakon stalled for time, telling the ambassador that Norwegian kings could not make political decisions on their own authority. This reached into local politics, whereby mayors who switched their allegiance to the Nasjonal Samling were rewarded with much greater powers.

Quisling's biographer, Dahl, believes that in all likelihood the second marriage was never official. [11] Although having only temporarily assumed the King's authority,[4] Quisling still made efforts to distance his regime from the exiled monarchy. Named after Vidkun Quisling, who assisted the Nazis in their conquest and rule of Norway during World War II. Despite Hitler's assurances, Terboven wanted to make sure that there would be no room in the government for the Nasjonal Samling nor its leader Quisling, with whom he did not get along. With the establishment of Quisling's national government, Quisling, as minister-president, temporarily assumed the authority of both the King and the Parliament. The group had 4,000 members in 1945. After Quisling moved into the Royal Palace he took back into use the official seal of Norway, changing the wording from "Haakon VII Norges konge" to "Norges rikes segl" [12] (in English translation, from "Haakon VII King of Norway" to "The Seal of the Norwegian Realm" [13] ).

Despite condemning Kristallnacht, he sent the German leader a fiftieth-birthday greeting thanking him for "saving Europe from Bolshevism and Jewish … When Gulbrand Lunde died in 1942, Rolf Jørgen Fuglesang took over his ministry as well as retaining his own. Hitler did, however, in an April 1943 meeting promise Quisling that once the war was over Norway would regain her independence. On 8 November 1944, Albert Viljam Hagelin was fired from his position and replaced by Arnvid Vasbotten. [35], The harder line now developing in Russian politics led Quisling to distance himself from Bolshevism.