Early Life and Political Career
He was born in Kristiania as a son of Gudmund Harlem, Sr. (1885–1918) and Olga Haug (1887–1942). He finished his secondary education in 1935, enrolled as a student at the University of Oslo in the same year, and graduated with the cand.med. degree in 1946. He fled the country for Sweden in 1943 because of the German occupation, and stayed there until the end of war. In the autumn of 1945 he was the leader of the Norwegian Students' Society. He was hired as a physician at Statens Attføringsinstitutt in 1946, and was promoted to chief physician in 1953.
He also became involved in politics. He was a member of the revolutionary group Mot Dag from 1934 to its disestablishment in 1936, and then joined the Norwegian Labour Party and sat on the Oslo city council from 1945 to 1947, and of the school district board from 1948 to 1955. He was also a member of the central committee of the Workers' Youth League from 1946 to 1949, and of the International Union of Socialist Youth board from 1946 to 1951. From 1949 to 1957 he was a deputy member of the Labour Party's central committee; he was deputy chairman of the Oslo branch from 1952 to 1957.
In 1938 he married Swedish citizen Inga Margareta Elisabet Brynolf (1918–2005), daughter of two lawyers. Their daughter Gro Harlem Brundtland, born 1939, became Prime Minister of Norway (1980–1981, 1986–1989, 1990–1996) and Director-General of the World Health Organization (1998–2003). A much younger daughter Hanne Harlem, born 1964, has been Minister of Justice (2000–2001).
Read more about this topic: Gudmund Harlem
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, political and/or career:
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“Have a care over my people. You have my people—do you that which I ought to do. They are my people.... See unto them—see unto them, for they are my charge.... I care not for myself; my life is not dear to me. My care is for my people. I pray God, whoever succeedeth me, be as careful of them as I am.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“I would like you to understand completely, also emotionally, that I’m a political detainee and will be a political prisoner, that I have nothing now or in the future to be ashamed of in this situation. That, at bottom, I myself have in a certain sense asked for this detention and this sentence, because I’ve always refused to change my opinion, for which I would be willing to give my life and not just remain in prison. That therefore I can only be tranquil and content with myself.”
—Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)