Laagen was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Lillehammer

Lillehammer

is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...

 in Oppland

Oppland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer. Oppland is, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway....

 county.

It started on 18 September 1923 as the organ of the Norwegian Agrarian Association

Norwegian Agrarian Association

The Norwegian Agrarian Association is the largest Norwegian interest organization for farmers.It functions both as a labour union and as a trade union. It negotiates with the Norwegian Farmers and Smallholders Union and the Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion about agricultural...

. The agrarians were not adequately satisfied with the existing newspaper Gudbrandsdølen

Gudbrandsdølen

Gudbrandsdølen was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Lillehammer in Oppland county.Gudbrandsdølen was started on 1 January 1894, after editor-in-chief Johan Filseth had been jettisoned from another newspaper Framgang. After his death in 1927, Jul Sundsvik and Johan's son Kaare Filseth took over....

. Laagen, named after the nearby river

Gudbrandsdalslågen

The Gudbrandsdalslågen river flows through the Gudbrandsdal of Norway.The Gudbrandsdalslågen begins in the lake Lesjaskogsvatnet , which lies in Lesja municipality in Oppland. Lesjavatn is the only lake in Norway which has two outlets; they flow into two of Norway’s more famous rivers...

, was published daily from 1 October 1924. In 1928 it opened a correspondent office at Otta

Otta, Norway

is a town in the municipality of Sel in the county of Oppland in Norway. It has about 2,750 inhabitants. The Otta river joins the Gudbrandsdalslågen river at Otta. Next to Otta lies the massive Rondane, which became the first national park in Norway in 1962, and which has several mountains over...

.

Editor-in-chief throughout its existence was Ivar Høvik, and chairman was Erling Bjørnson. Bjørnson eventually shifted party allegiance from Agrarian to Nasjonal Samling, and imposed his views on the newspaper. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany

Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany

The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...

 from 1940, Høvik decided to follow suit and join the NS party, even though he did not write national socialist editorials. Some employees in the newspaper participated in resistance

Norwegian resistance movement

The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:...

 work. Bjørnson—and Høvik—decided to give up on 7 May 1945, and subeditor Sigurd Skogheim edited Laagen on its last day of existence, 8 May 1945. The occupation was over

Victory in Europe Day

Victory in Europe Day commemorates 8 May 1945 , the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. The formal surrender of the occupying German forces in the Channel Islands was not...

, and the victorious Home Front decided to liquidate Laagen with immediate effect.