Alf Amble

Alf Maria Amble (1909–1950) was a Norwegian anti-Semitic activist and writer.

He was born in Trondhjem, but grew up in a foster home in Stjørdal. He took a short technical education in Oslo in 1925–1926, but committed several petty crimes in his young days. He was given a new chance to migrate to Canada, but was sentenced for crimes here too, and was extradited. After spending some time at sea he returned to Norway in 1928–1929. He worked briefly within the Communist Party of Norway, but later shifted to the far right and joined Fatherland League. Before the Second World War he was also affiliated with the Nazi party National Socialist Workers' Party of Norway, and was a member of the Deutscher Fichte-Bund from 1937. He was briefly involved in the Oxford Movement, but made a break with this organization.

He committed more crimes around 1930, was convicted of breaking and entering and three years in prison. He was released from Opstad tvangsarbeidshus in 1933, and despite taking the examen artium in 1934 he spent most of his future career as an activist. Historian Terje Emberland has analyzed his views as loosely based on Norse mythology, with millennialistic and messianistic aspects. Amble was also a fervent anti-Semite; Emberland has used Saul Friedländer's term "redemptive anti-Semitism" to describe Amble's views.

He became known for gluing activistic posters in the streets of Oslo, particularly in December 1938, when his actions was probably inspired by the Kristallnacht. Amble was arrested and tried for these anti-Semitic posters. He fled Norway for Germany after being released from detention, then returned in the autumn of 1939, and was acquitted. As a part of the trial Amble was assessed by forensic psychiatrist Gabriel Langfeldt, who among other things diagnosed Amble with "enduringly weakened mental faculties". Langfeldt (and Ørnulv Ødegård) would later, famously, apply the same diagnosis to the worldwide known author Knut Hamsun. Amble's defender was Albert Wiesener.

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