Frederik Stang

Frederik Stang (1808 – 1884) was a Norwegian lawyer, public servant, and politician who served as Norway's first prime minister. Frederik Stang was the driving force in the Norwegian political society. Stang was responsible for the start of the material development in Norway, in the middle of the 19th century. His struggle to preserve the distribution of power - "the system Stang" - led to a bitter political struggle in the last years of his life came to a shadow of his big-building efforts for the country.

Stang was known as Friederich until the late 1930s. He entered Law school at the age of 16 and graduated by the time he was 20. 22 years old, he accepted a position as lecturer of law at the Royal Frederick University. During this time, he published a seminal text on Norwegian constitutional law. He went over to private practice in 1834, where he distinguished himself as a trial attorney, especially in supreme court cases.

In 1861, after a brief stint as mayor of Oslo, Stang was appointed to the Norwegian cabinet. His time as a political leader was characterized by considerable discord within the Norwegian parliament and between Norway and the Swedish government.

In 1865, Stang founded the Norwegian Red Cross. In 1870, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The parliament cut his pension in half in 1881; the citizens of Oslo raised money to make up for the shortfall, and he donated this to a foundation to advance Law school.