Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Quisling
Born: 1887
Past appointments:
Illegal government president NS
Council of State Secretariat/Government Secretariat NS - Illegal Vidkun Quisling government in Oslo 1942-1945
01.02.1942–08.05.1945
After it was agreed between Nazi-German occupation authorities and the Norwegian Nazi party Nasjonal Samling (NS) that parts of the responsibility for the civil administration of Norway should be transferred to a government headed by NS leader Vidkun Quisling, the illegal ministers handed in their resignations on 30 January 1942. They requested Quisling to form a «national government». This was done. As illegal head of government, Quisling took the title ministerpresident (premier). Quisling now claimed to possess the authority which according to the Constitution belonged to the King and the Storting. At the Nazi-German capitulation in Norway on 8 May 1945, Vidkun Quisling's illegal government was dissolved. In agreement with the resistance movement Home Front, Johan Nygaardsvold's Government in London had appointed eight chief officers to lead the ministries in Oslo until a government delegation would arrive from London. The main task of the chief officers was to link up the ministries with the Nygaardsvold Government, by re-establishing the structure of ministries that had existed in Oslo on 9 April 1940.
Illegal prime minister NS and illegal minister of foreign affairs NS
09.04.1940–14.04.1940
After Nazi Germany’s attack on Norway on 9 April 1940 forced King Haakon VII and Johan Nygaardsvold’s Government to leave Oslo with civil servants from government offices, the leader of the Norwegian Nazi party Nasjonal Samling (NS), Vidkun Quisling, that evening appointed an illegal government. Quisling’s illegal government did not manage to gather before it was dismissed by Nazi-German occupation authorities on 14 April. On 15 April 1940, the Norwegian Supreme Court – the only legal state organ left in Oslo – appointed a council for the civil administration of areas under Nazi-German occupation, mainly in and around Oslo. This was done with the understanding of Nazi-German occupation authorities.