Arbeidernes Leksikon is a Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

 encyclopedia

Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....

 published in six volumes in the 1930s.

It was the first reference book in Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

 to have a pronounced class bias, and the first encyclopedia outside of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 to be directed specifically at the working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

. The publication had a connection with the Norwegian labor movement's goal to spread knowledge among the working and lower class, and in doing so could break the monopoly the middle class

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 had on the dissemination of information in society. They thought that the existing encyclopedias had a middle class bias.

The idea of such an encyclopedia came within the group that produced the laborers' magazine Arbeidermagasinet

Arbeidermagasinet

Arbeidermagasinet was a Norwegian weekly magazine established in 1927. It changed its name to Magasinet For Alle in 1953, and ceased publication in 1970. The magazine is especially noted for its literary quality and its promotion of the short story.-Editors:Arbeidermagasinet's first editor from...

. This magazine was produced from 1927 by members of the Communist Party of Norway

Communist Party of Norway

The Communist Party of Norway is a political party in Norway without parliamentary representation. It was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. The party played an important role in the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War, and experienced a brief...

 (founded 1923). Communist Party member Jakob Friis

Jakob Friis

Jakob Johan Sigfrid Friis was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party born in Røros. He also belonged to the Communist Party for a period....

 was hired as chief editor of the encyclopedia in 1930. The work was published by the Arbeidermagasinet's publishing company in six volumes from 1932 to 1936. In addition to Jakob Friis, Trond Hegna

Trond Hegna

Trond Hegna was a Norwegian journalist and politician for the Norwegian Labour Party and the Communist Party of Norway....

 worked as editor; from the third volume on, Dagfin Juel

Dagfin Juel

Dagfin Juel was a Norwegian civil servant and politician for the Labour Party.He graduated as cand.oecon. in 1932. He was hired in the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1938, and was later promoted to assistant secretary. He moved to the Ministry of Trade in 1949, and was promoted from assistant...

 worked as a co-editor.

The Communist Party was reluctant to the whole project, and the Norwegian Labour Party

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

 was negative as well. In April 1933, Arbeidernes Leksikon received a grant from the group Mot Dag

Mot Dag

Mot Dag was a Norwegian periodical and a communist organization with the same name.It was established in 1921 under the initiative of Erling Falk, partly with origins in the debate forum in the Social Democratic student government in Oslo ; partly from a Falk-led study circle which from 1919...

, which had formerly been affiliated with the Communist and Labour parties, but now was independent. Mot Dag leader Erling Falk

Erling Falk

Erling Falk was a Norwegian politician, ideologist and writer. He was active in the Norwegian Students' Society, the Norwegian Labour Party and the Communist Party, but is best known as a leading figure in the group Mot Dag, who issued a periodical of the same name...

 was involved with the editorial work.

A selection of articles from the encyclopedia was published in 1974 in a three-volume reprint by the publishing house Pax Forlag

Pax Forlag

Pax Forlag is a Norwegian publishing house, established in 1964.Pax Forlag has issued a selected reprint of the "working class" encyclopaedia Arbeidernes Leksikon in 1974, and the political encyclopaedia Pax Leksikon ....

. This publishing house also published its own class encyclopedia, Pax Leksikon

Pax Leksikon

Pax Leksikon is a Norwegian political encyclopedia published in six volumes by the Norwegian publishing house Pax Forlag from 1978 to 1981....

.

Portions of the encyclopedia are available online.

List of volumes

This is a list of the six volumes of the encyclopedia Arbeidernes Leksikon.

• Volume 1: Aachen-Båtsmann. Published 1932
• Volume 2: C-Fiskemåken. Published 1933
• Volume 3: Fisken-Husbondskar. Published 1933
• Volume 4: Husbygg-Legende. Published 1934
• Volume 5: Legering-Radio. Published 1935
• Volume 6: Radioaktivitet-Åverk. Published 1936