Political Work, Imprisonment
Originally a road worker, Gerhardsen became politically active in the socialist labour movement during the 1920s. He was convicted several times of taking part in subversive activities until he, along with the rest of the Labour party, gradually moved from communism to democratic socialism. He participated in the Left Communist Youth League's military strike action of 1924. He was convicted for assisting in this crime and sentenced to 75 days of prison.
By the middle of the 1930s Labour was a major force on the national political scene, with Gerhardsen as the Mayor of Oslo and Johan Nygaardsvold as Prime Minister of a minority cabinet. During World War II, Gerhardsen took part in the organised resistance against Nazi occupation and was arrested on 11 September 1941 and interned in concentration camps at Grini in Norway and at Sachsenhausen in Germany in August 1944. After the war, Gerhardsen formed the interim government which sat from the end of the occupation in May 1945 until the elections held in October the same year. The elections gave Labour an absolute majority in Parliament, the Storting, which it retained until 1961. Gerhardsen served as President of the Storting from 10 January 1954 to 22 January 1955.
Read more about this topic: Einar Gerhardsen
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