Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo

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...

, Norway

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...

 where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation

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 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This is also where Vidkun Quisling

Vidkun Quisling

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...

 in 1945 surrendered to the legitimate Norwegian government and was imprisoned.

History

Although the site was owned by the city government since the 17th century, it was not until 1857 that the city of Kristiania decided to put the site to use as a center for law enforcement. Based on the drawings by Jacob Wilhelm Nordan, construction for the complex started in 1862 and was finished in 1866.

Facing Youngstorget

Youngstorget

Youngstorget is a square and marketplace in Oslo, Norway.It is located on the street Torggata, between Storgata and Møllergata. The square was traditionally used as a market place for trade with agricultural produce. It is named for merchant Jørgen Young . It was named Nytorvet in 1852, which was...

 (which then was called Nytorvet), was the police station and courtrooms; behind these was the jail. A floor was added in the late 1870s. Though some of the capacity was moved to a new prison in Åkebergveien (known as "Bayern"), the structured continued to serve as prison and central police station until the new police structure at Grønlandsleiret was finished. The prison was demolished and replaced with a new office building, and the police station was taken over by the government.

World War II

Immediately upon arriving in Norway, the German army commandeered Møllergata 19 for its own purposes, and the first prisoners were British subjects suspected of being clandestine agents, arrested on 10 April. The following day, a Norwegian was also detained for showing contempt for the German forces. By August, the prison was solely used for prisoners arrested by the Nazi authorities. The official capacity was 145 prisoners, but the Germans kept up to 550 at a time. Prisoners held here were often subject to interrogation and torture at Victoria Terrasse

Victoria Terrasse

Victoria Terrasse is a building complex in central Oslo, Norway.Built in the 1880s, it was taken over the by Norwegian government in 1913 and put to use by the police and various political departments....

.