Early Career
Vilhelm Aubert was born in Kristiania in 1922. He was the older brother of mathematician Karl Egil Aubert, born 1924. Vilhelm Aubert enrolled at the University of Oslo in 1940, the same year as Norway was invaded by Germany as a part of the Second World War. Aubert became a member of the illegal intelligence organization XU.
Aubert finally graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1946. He then lived in the United States for two years, studying sociology and psychology at Columbia and Berkeley. After returning to Norway, he was instrumental in the foundation and consolidation of social science research in Norway, a still fledgling field. He was a joint founder of the Norwegian Institute for Social Research (ISF, or Institutt for samfunnsforsking), an independent research institute in Oslo, along with Arne Næss, Eirik Rinde, and Stein Rokkan in 1950.
Aubert was a member of the Labour Party in his younger days. Situated on its left wing, he co-published the pamphlet Tenk en gang til. Tanker om fred og nedrustning in 1952, and was among the founders of the newspaper Orientering. He was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper for some time. The persons in and around this newspaper were excluded from the Labour Party in 1960, following a turbulent existence as an internal party opposition, especially in foreign policy issues. Some of the excluded members went on to found the Socialist People's Party, whereas Aubert left partisan politics to concentrate on an academic career. However, he continued his opposition towards nuclear arms.
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