Karl Amundsen was a Norwegian politician for the 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....

.

He was born at Sjøndem in Brandval

Brandval

Brandval is a parish in the municipality of Kongsvinger, in Hedmark county, Norway.-History:Brandval is located in the Norwegian traditional district of Solør. Brandval parish forms the northern part of Kongsvinger municipality. Brandval is situated north of Kongsvinger on the Glåma river. The...

 as a son of Amund Johannesen and Karen Hansdatter. He took carpenter education in Kristiania

Oslo

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...

, and worked as such until 1911. He had moved to Løiten

Løten

Løten is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Løten. The parish of Løiten was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 .-Name:The municipality is named after an old farm...

 and was the manager of the district welfare fund there from 1911.

He chaired the county branch of the Labour Party, and was elected to the executive committee of Løiten municipal council. He was then elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1912

Norwegian parliamentary election, 1912

-Results: Liberal Left Party is part of coalition with Conservative Party Labour Democrats is part of coalition with Liberal Party-References:**...

 from the constituency Søndre Hedemarken. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Customs. In the 1915 election

Norwegian parliamentary election, 1915

-Results: Liberal Left Party is part of coalition with Conservative Party-References:**...

 he won the first round of voting with 3,746 votes, but not by a large enough margin ahead of the runner-up. In the second round he faced the first round's loser, the independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 candidate Karl Wilhelm Wefring

Karl Wilhelm Wefring

Karl Wilhelm Wefring was the Norwegian Minister of Defense 1920-1921, 1923-1924 and 1926....

, but lost with 4,379 votes against Wefring's 4,886.

Amundsen is also known for conjuring up the name of the newspaper Demokraten

Arbeideren (Hamar)

Arbeideren was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Hamar, Hedmark county. It was started in 1909 as the press organ of the Labour Party in Hedemarken and its adjoining regions, and was called Demokraten until 1923...

. He was also a board member of the newspaper. He was a board member of Hamar Arbeiderblad

Hamar Arbeiderblad

Hamar Arbeiderblad is a local newspaper published in Hamar, Norway. It is part of the media company Hamar Media. The newspaper was first published on 30 March 1925, in 1,200 copies. It was the local branches of the Labour Party that took the initiative to start up the publication. It is no longer a...

from 1930 to 1932.