Sigurd Halvorsen Johannessen

Illegal minister of trade NS

Ministry of Trade (of 1916) NS - Illegal ministers in Oslo 1940-1942

25.09.1940–01.02.1942

On 25 September 1940, Nazi Germany’s reichskommissar in Norway, Josef Terboven, appointed 13 illegal acting ministers to lead the ministries in Oslo, with restricted authority and without a leading minister. Two of the ten ministries in Oslo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence, were closed down, as was the Office of the Prime Minister. Terboven now established five new ministries. As leader of the Nazi party Nasjonal Samling (NS), Vidkun Quisling from October 1940 met weekly with the illegal NS ministers. He had no formal influence on their work. After it was agreed between Nazi-German occupation authorities and NS that parts of the responsibility for the civil administration of Norway should be transferred to a government headed by 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).