Jens Christian Hauge - History

History

Hauge was a lawyer and started his resistance work in 1941, and was jailed for some months in the autumn of that year.

Out of prison in 1942, he quickly advanced within the resistance movement, and within a year he was the secret leader of the clandestine organisation. Hauge worked hard to have a good relation with the Norwegian government in exile, and made a number of trips to Stockholm and London to achieve this.

In the last months of the war, Hauge had secret talks with Wehrmacht officers that gave information about the German plans for Norway. These talks facilitated the smooth transition to peace when the Germans surrendered in May 1945.

Hauge had a number of political positions in Norway after the war, and was a central player within the ruling social democrats, the Norwegian Labour Party. He became Norway's youngest Defence Minister in 1945, only 30 years old, and had that position until 1952 during the governments of Einar Gerhardsen and Oscar Torp. For a brief period he was also Minister of Justice in 1955.

Hauge was instrumental in having Norway leaving its position as neutral and join the NATO alliance in 1949. After leaving government he was still central within Norwegian society and had a number of important positions.

Hauge has been described as one of the most interesting and powerful persons in 20th-century Norway. He is also controversial, and has been criticised for not giving more information regarding central parts of the Milorg activities, such as assassinations of Norwegian collaborators. Hauge has also been in question in relation to the strange circumstances regarding the death of the Milorg member Kai Holst in Stockholm just after the war.

Hauge was involved in the establishment of the Norwegian state oil company Statoil, which currently is the largest Nordic company in terms of revenue, and in the startup of the airline Scandinavian Airlines System where he was a board member for more than 20 years. Hauge was also instrumental in arranging the foundation Fritt Ord, which works to maintain freedom of expression in Norway.

On 18 August 2008 the Norwegian national newspaper Aftenposten reported that Jens Christian Hauge was on the OSS (today CIA) employee list.

Hauge has been regarded as the pivotal figure in the troika that controlled the ruling Labour Party after World War II: Einar Gerhardsen, Haakon Lie and Hauge. He assumed a most peculiar position of power, as the other two were known as something close to personal enemies. Hauge also became a monumenal figure in the Norwegian War Industry. He became Board Member of several State owned companies especially within nuclear power and defence systems, including Member of Board of Directors of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk, and chairman of Statoil 1972-75.

Due to his position during and after the War Hauge was one of Norway's most powerful individuals for more than 4 decades. Hauge helped facilitate the sale of heavy water from Norway to the Israeli nuclear programme, telling the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1960 that the Israelis would not use the heavy water for military purposes. Recently uncovered secret material suggests otherwise, however. Protocols from 1958 substantiate that the Norwegian Labour Government with Prime Minister Gerhardsen knew that Israel was going to use the water for plutonium production, making it possible for Israel to produce nuclear weapons. Noratom was also going to support Israel with reactor parts and technology.

Jens Christian Hauge was a key member of the Bilderberg Group. Frequent correspondence between Hauge and group's founder, released after Hauge's death, showed that Hauge was a central figure on the board of the group.