Gunnar Heiberg
Encyclopedia
Gunnar Edvard Rode Heiberg (18 November 1857 – 22 February 1929) was a Norwegian
poet, playwright, journalist and theatre critic.
a son of judge Edvard Omsen Heiberg (1829–1884) and his wife Minna (Vilhelmine) Rode (8 June 1836–1917). He was a brother of Jacob
, Anton
and Inge Heiberg, as well as an uncle of Hans Heiberg
, first cousin of Eivind Heiberg
, Gustav Adolf Lammers Heiberg
Helge Rode
and Kristofer Hansteen, a first cousin once removed of Bernt
, Axel
and Edvard Heiberg
and a second cousin of Jean Heiberg
.
He was married to actress Didrikke Tollefsen (1863–1915), whom he met in Bergen
, between April 1885 and 1896. In April 1911 he married Birgit Friis Stoltz Blehr (1880–1933). Through his second wife's sister he was a brother-in-law of Sigurd Bødtker
.
his secondary education in 1874, and enrolled in law studies. Heiberg was influenced by Charles Darwin
, Georg Brandes
and Johan Sverdrup
, and befriended Gerhard Gran
. He became a cultural radical, and debuted as a poet in 1878. In the autumn that year he spent time in Rome
, together with Henrik Ibsen
and Jens Peter Jacobsen
. His first play Tante Ulrikke was written from 1877, finally printed in 1884, but not staged until 1901. His first play to reach the stage was Kong Midas, premiéring in Copenhagen's Royal Danish Theatre
in 1890.
From 1880 to 1882 he worked as a journalist in Dagbladet
. He was later a journalist in Verdens Gang
from 1896 to 1903, and Paris
correspondent for that newspaper from 1897 to 1901 (during the Dreyfus case, among others). He was also a theatre critic. From 1884 to 1888, he was the artistic director of the theatre Den Nationale Scene
in Bergen. He resigned when the theatre director and board refused to stage Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
's play Kongen. His best known plays are Balkonen (The Balcony, 1894) and Kjærlighedens Tragedie (The Tragedy of Love, 1904).
, King in the personal union between Sweden and Norway
. In 1896 he wrote the book Hs. Majestæt, originally published a series of articles in Verdens Gang. The book was highly critical towards Oscar II, stemming from a news story that the King, when processioning in Støren
, had personally knocked the hat off a farmer's head. When the book was printed, the publishing company Olaf Norlis Forlag did not dare to put its name on the cover page. Not long after, the publishing house was threatened with legal steps. Nearly all of the 1,100 copies were annihilated in self-censorship
.
In 1905 Heiberg stood forward as an agitator for the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden. At the 16 January 1905 première of Kjærlighedens Tragedie Heiberg held a speech against the union, stating that a peaceful continuation of the present conditions between Sweden and Norway was impossible. Heiberg was adamant that the only acceptable solution would be a free and independent Norwegian state, and that no compromise could be made in that regard. Present at the event was the former (1900–1902) Liberal Party of Norway Minister of Defence
Georg Stang, whom Heiberg greatly admired for his work on the construction of many of the defensive fortifications along the Norwegian–Swedish border. After the completion of his speech Heiberg walked across the room to where Colonel Stang was seated, toasted
him, put his arm around Stang's neck and exclaimed: "I love you". The dissolution went through, but Heiberg also opposed the Karlstad Treaty, the conditions of which he found "humiliating". One of Heiberg's main points of contention with the Karlstad Treaty was the Norwegian acceptance to dismantle the border fortifications, writing in Dagbladet 13 September 1905 that "an honourable war is far less dank and sickening than a dishonourable peace". Norland 2004: 230 Also, as a republican he did not want a new monarchy to ascend the throne; this happened following the Norwegian monarchy plebiscite, 1905
. Collected speeches about all these topics were published in 1923 under the name 1905. In 1912 Heiberg attacked Christian Michelsen
, a republican who worked to dissolve the union but advocated monarchy, in the play Jeg vil værge mit land. (I will/want to defend my country)
From 1923 he received a writer's grant from the state. He died in November 1929 in Oslo, and is buried at Vestre gravlund
.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
poet, playwright, journalist and theatre critic.
Personal life
He was born in ChristianiaOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
a son of judge Edvard Omsen Heiberg (1829–1884) and his wife Minna (Vilhelmine) Rode (8 June 1836–1917). He was a brother of Jacob
Jacob Vilhelm Rode Heiberg
Jacob Vilhelm Rode Heiberg was a Danish civil servant and burgomaster in Norway.He was born in Vallø, Denmark as the son of judge Edvard Omsen Heiberg...
, Anton
Anton Heiberg
Anton Wilhelm Scheel Heiberg was a Norwegian stage instructor and theatre director. He was the brother of Gunnar Edvard Rode Heiberg. He worked as stage instructor at Nationaltheatret from 1903. He was theatre director of the Bergen theatre Den Nationale Scene from 1905 to 1907. He was in charge...
and Inge Heiberg, as well as an uncle of Hans Heiberg
Hans Heiberg
Hans Heiberg was a Norwegian journalist, literary critic, theatre critic, essayist, novelist, playwright, translator and theatre director.-Early and personal life:...
, first cousin of Eivind Heiberg
Eivind Heiberg
Eivind Heiberg was a Norwegian engineer and railway director. He is known as the chairman of Skabo Jernbanevognfabrik from 1899 to 1924, the Federation of Norwegian Manufacturing Industries from 1906 to 1912, the Norwegian Employers' Confederation from 1912 to 1917, the Norwegian State Railways...
, Gustav Adolf Lammers Heiberg
Gustav Adolf Lammers Heiberg
Gustav Adolf Lammers Heiberg was a Norwegian barrister and politician for the Labour Party.-Personal life:He was born in Kristiania as a son of barrister Anton Vilhelm Heiberg and his wife Antonie Magdalene Fossum. He was a first cousin of Eivind, Jacob, Gunnar and Inge Heiberg and a first cousin...
Helge Rode
Helge Rode
Helge Rode was a Danish writer and critic, and journalist for Politiken, Berlingske Tidende, and Illustreret Tidende. He was a critic of Georg Brandes and the Modern Breakthrough....
and Kristofer Hansteen, a first cousin once removed of Bernt
Bernt Heiberg
Johan Bernt Krohg Heiberg was a Norwegian architect.-Early and personal life:He was born in Kristiania to the barrister Axel Heiberg and his wife Ragnhild Krohg . He had two brothers: Axel Heiberg jr. and Edvard Heiberg...
, Axel
Axel Heiberg (judge)
Axel Heiberg was a Norwegian judge.He was a son of barrister Axel Heiberg , brother of Bernt and Edvard Heiberg, nephew of Eivind Heiberg, first cousin of Hans Heiberg and a first cousin once removed of Gustav, Jacob, Gunnar and Inge Heiberg.He worked as a lawyer from 1935, and became a prosecutor...
and Edvard Heiberg
Edvard Heiberg
Edvard Heiberg was a Norwegian director and engineer.Heiberg was the youngest son of barrister Axel Heiberg and his wife Ragnhild Krohg . He had two brothers, Axel Heiberg Jr. and Bernt Heiberg...
and a second cousin of Jean Heiberg
Jean Heiberg
Jean Hjalmar Dahl Heiberg was a Norwegian painter, sculptor, designer and art professor.-Personal life:Heiberg was born in Kristiania to Hjalmar Heiberg and Jeanette Sofie Augusta Dahl. Both his father and grandfather were professors of medicine...
.
He was married to actress Didrikke Tollefsen (1863–1915), whom he met in Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
, between April 1885 and 1896. In April 1911 he married Birgit Friis Stoltz Blehr (1880–1933). Through his second wife's sister he was a brother-in-law of Sigurd Bødtker
Sigurd Bødtker
-Personal life:He was born in Trondhjem as a son of physician Fredrik Waldemar Bødtker and Sophie Jenssen . He was the brother of chemist Eyvind Bødtker, a second cousin of military officer Carl Fredrik Johannes Bødtker, log driving manager Ragnvald Bødtker and County Governor Eivind Bødtker, and...
.
Career
Heiberg finishedExamen artium
Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...
his secondary education in 1874, and enrolled in law studies. Heiberg was influenced by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, Georg Brandes
Georg Brandes
Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture...
and Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first Prime Minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism. Sverdrup was Prime Minister from 1884 to 1889.- Early years :...
, and befriended Gerhard Gran
Gerhard Gran
Gerhard von der Lippe Gran was a Norwegian literary historian, professor, magazine editor, essayist and biographer.-Personal life:...
. He became a cultural radical, and debuted as a poet in 1878. In the autumn that year he spent time in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, together with Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
and Jens Peter Jacobsen
Jens Peter Jacobsen
Jens Peter Jacobsen was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen" and pronounced "I. P. Jacobsen"...
. His first play Tante Ulrikke was written from 1877, finally printed in 1884, but not staged until 1901. His first play to reach the stage was Kong Midas, premiéring in Copenhagen's Royal Danish Theatre
Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...
in 1890.
From 1880 to 1882 he worked as a journalist in Dagbladet
Dagbladet
Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....
. He was later a journalist in Verdens Gang
Verdens Gang (1868-1923 newspaper)
Verdens Gang is a former Norwegian newspaper, issued in Oslo from 1868 to 1923.It was established as a weekly magazine in 1868, later expanded to three issues a week, and was issued daily from 1885. It was the most widespread political newspaper in Norway for many years, and had considerable...
from 1896 to 1903, and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
correspondent for that newspaper from 1897 to 1901 (during the Dreyfus case, among others). He was also a theatre critic. From 1884 to 1888, he was the artistic director of the theatre Den Nationale Scene
Den Nationale Scene
Den Nationale Scene is the largest theatre in Bergen, Norway. Den Nationale Scene is also one of the oldest permanent theatre in Norway.-History:...
in Bergen. He resigned when the theatre director and board refused to stage Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Bjørnson is considered as one of The Four Greats Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland...
's play Kongen. His best known plays are Balkonen (The Balcony, 1894) and Kjærlighedens Tragedie (The Tragedy of Love, 1904).
Anti-Swedish sentiments
Heiberg was skeptic to Oscar IIOscar II of Sweden
Oscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...
, King in the personal union between Sweden and Norway
Union between Sweden and Norway
The Union between Sweden and Norway , officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, consisted of present-day Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union....
. In 1896 he wrote the book Hs. Majestæt, originally published a series of articles in Verdens Gang. The book was highly critical towards Oscar II, stemming from a news story that the King, when processioning in Støren
Støren
is a former municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality is located in the north-central part of the present-day municipality of Midtre Gauldal. The municipal center of Støren was the village of Støren, where Støren Church is located....
, had personally knocked the hat off a farmer's head. When the book was printed, the publishing company Olaf Norlis Forlag did not dare to put its name on the cover page. Not long after, the publishing house was threatened with legal steps. Nearly all of the 1,100 copies were annihilated in self-censorship
Self-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own work , out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities of others, without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority...
.
In 1905 Heiberg stood forward as an agitator for the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden. At the 16 January 1905 première of Kjærlighedens Tragedie Heiberg held a speech against the union, stating that a peaceful continuation of the present conditions between Sweden and Norway was impossible. Heiberg was adamant that the only acceptable solution would be a free and independent Norwegian state, and that no compromise could be made in that regard. Present at the event was the former (1900–1902) Liberal Party of Norway Minister of Defence
Minister of Defence (Norway)
The Norwegian Minister of Defence is a Councillor of the Council of State and Chief of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, the position has existed since the Secretary of the Army and Secretary of the Navy was combined into the Minister of Defence...
Georg Stang, whom Heiberg greatly admired for his work on the construction of many of the defensive fortifications along the Norwegian–Swedish border. After the completion of his speech Heiberg walked across the room to where Colonel Stang was seated, toasted
Toast (honor)
A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast"...
him, put his arm around Stang's neck and exclaimed: "I love you". The dissolution went through, but Heiberg also opposed the Karlstad Treaty, the conditions of which he found "humiliating". One of Heiberg's main points of contention with the Karlstad Treaty was the Norwegian acceptance to dismantle the border fortifications, writing in Dagbladet 13 September 1905 that "an honourable war is far less dank and sickening than a dishonourable peace". Norland 2004: 230 Also, as a republican he did not want a new monarchy to ascend the throne; this happened following the Norwegian monarchy plebiscite, 1905
Norwegian monarchy plebiscite, 1905
The Norwegian Monarchy Plebiscite, 1905 on accepting a republican or monarchial form of state in Norway was held on 12 and 13 November 1905. The voters were to cast a yes or no vote on whether they approved of the decision the Storting had made in authorizing the government to offer the throne of...
. Collected speeches about all these topics were published in 1923 under the name 1905. In 1912 Heiberg attacked Christian Michelsen
Christian Michelsen
Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of an independent Norway from 1905 to 1907...
, a republican who worked to dissolve the union but advocated monarchy, in the play Jeg vil værge mit land. (I will/want to defend my country)
From 1923 he received a writer's grant from the state. He died in November 1929 in Oslo, and is buried at Vestre gravlund
Vestre gravlund
Vestre gravlund is a cemetery in the Frogner borough of Oslo, Norway, located next to the Borgen metro station. At , it is the largest cemetery in Norway...
.