8th National Assembly
Poster issued by the Nasjonal Samling, announcing a party rally to take place in Oslo, Norway. A Greco-Roman structure can be seen flanked by ceremonial fire pits, resembling Nazi Germany’s annual party rallies and drawing features from Albert Speer’s monumental neoclassical architecture. The Olympian spectacle is surmounted by the emblem of the Nasjonal Samling—an eagle carrying a solar cross or ‘Odin’s cross’. Below is inscribed the following in runic text: 8th National Assembly | Norway’s Resurgence | Oslo, 25th–27th of September, 1942.
The Riksmøte is a Norwegian term that translates to “National Assembly” or “Parliamentary Session”, and typically refers to the formal opening of the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) each year. Steeped in tradition and ceremonial pageantry, a speech would typically be made to outline the government’s planned policies and priorities for the coming year.
The Nasjonal Samling was a fascist political party active in pre-war Norway which rose to prominence under the German occupation by leading the collaboration effort. References to a national renewal, resurgence or rebirth were frequently made the rhetoric of the Nasjonal Samling and their publications. The party espoused the idea of a revolutionary rebirth of a mythical atemporal people, whose true values and a primordial purity had supposedly been suppressed in recent history, yet lay dormant within the people’s genome as an ancestral memory. This revolution was to be carried out in a final showdown between materialism and this ancestral spiritualism, and the Nasjonal Samling called on its people to discover within themselves their heroic destiny as modern Norwegians, to bring about Norway’s rebirth from decadence. The slogan on the poster Norges Nyreising is a clear reference to their party program to bring about Norway’s rebirth from decadence, and would have no doubt served as the key theme for the 1942 Riksmøte. This belief in a ‘palingenetic’ rebirth of a nation is a characterizing trait of fascist ideology.
The party was headed by Vidkun Quisling, whose last name would later become a loanword for ‘traitor’ due to his collaboration with the Germans. He would state the following when he stood trial in 1945:
“For me, politics is not a question of party interests, a career trajectory [levebrødspolitikk], or personal ambition and hunger for power. It is self-sacrifice and acts in the service of the historical development for the good of my own people, and for the promotion of the Kingdom of God on earth that Christ came to establish. If my actions have been treacherous—as they have been portrayed—then I wish to God for the sake of Norway that many of the sons of Norway become traitors like I am, only that they are not thrown into prison.”
As with other notable fascists such as Oswald Mosley or Benito Mussolini, Quisling was an altruist who began his political career as a socialist, drawn to its idealistic principles and believing in the betterment of humanity. Despite his eventual fall from grace, Quisling is known for working alongside Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen throughout the interwar period, devoting his time to many humanitarian causes throughout Europe.
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Poster issued by the Nasjonal Samling, announcing a party rally to take place in Oslo, Norway. A Greco-Roman structure can be seen flanked by ceremonial fire pits, resembling Nazi Germany’s annual party rallies and drawing features from Albert Speer’s monumental neoclassical architecture. The Olympian spectacle is surmounted by the emblem of the Nasjonal Samling—an eagle carrying a solar cross or ‘Odin’s cross’. Below is inscribed the following in runic text: 8th National Assembly | Norway’s Resurgence | Oslo, 25th–27th of September, 1942.
The Riksmøte is a Norwegian term that translates to “National Assembly” or “Parliamentary Session”, and typically refers to the formal opening of the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) each year. Steeped in tradition and ceremonial pageantry, a speech would typically be made to outline the government’s planned policies and priorities for the coming year.
The Nasjonal Samling was a fascist political party active in pre-war Norway which rose to prominence under the German occupation by leading the collaboration effort. References to a national renewal, resurgence or rebirth were frequently made the rhetoric of the Nasjonal Samling and their publications. The party espoused the idea of a revolutionary rebirth of a mythical atemporal people, whose true values and a primordial purity had supposedly been suppressed in recent history, yet lay dormant within the people’s genome as an ancestral memory. This revolution was to be carried out in a final showdown between materialism and this ancestral spiritualism, and the Nasjonal Samling called on its people to discover within themselves their heroic destiny as modern Norwegians, to bring about Norway’s rebirth from decadence. The slogan on the poster Norges Nyreising is a clear reference to their party program to bring about Norway’s rebirth from decadence, and would have no doubt served as the key theme for the 1942 Riksmøte. This belief in a ‘palingenetic’ rebirth of a nation is a characterizing trait of fascist ideology.
The party was headed by Vidkun Quisling, whose last name would later become a loanword for ‘traitor’ due to his collaboration with the Germans. He would state the following when he stood trial in 1945:
“For me, politics is not a question of party interests, a career trajectory [levebrødspolitikk], or personal ambition and hunger for power. It is self-sacrifice and acts in the service of the historical development for the good of my own people, and for the promotion of the Kingdom of God on earth that Christ came to establish. If my actions have been treacherous—as they have been portrayed—then I wish to God for the sake of Norway that many of the sons of Norway become traitors like I am, only that they are not thrown into prison.”
As with other notable fascists such as Oswald Mosley or Benito Mussolini, Quisling was an altruist who began his political career as a socialist, drawn to its idealistic principles and believing in the betterment of humanity. Despite his eventual fall from grace, Quisling is known for working alongside Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen throughout the interwar period, devoting his time to many humanitarian causes throughout Europe.