Vidkun Quisling(1887-1945)
- Actor
Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling was born in 1887. An army officer, he
served as military attaché in Petrograd from 1918-19 and in Helsinki
from 1919-21, later assisting Fridtjof Nansen in relief work in Russia. He was
Norwegian minister of defense from 1931 to 1933. He then left the
Agrarian party to found the fascist Nasjonal Samling [National Unity]
party. In 1940 he secretly aided Germany in its invasion and conquest
of Norway, and as a reward was installed by the Germans as head of the
collaborationist Norwegian government. Almost universally despised in
Norway, and not particularly popular with his German masters, he
nevertheless remained in power until May of 1945, when he was arrested
after the Germans in Norway surrendered. He was tried by the
post-occupation Norwegian government for high treason, convicted,
sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. From his last name has
come the commonly accepted epithet for one who turns traitor and
collaborates with the enemy: "quisling".