Christian Friele

Christian Frederik Gotfried Friele (22 May 1821 – 24 January 1899) was a Norwegian newspaper editor. Born in Bergen to a prosperous family, he received a deficient education, but managed nevertheless to find his way into the conservative Morgenbladet newspaper. As its editor-in-chief, he became known for his wit and sharp-tongued remarks; he ruthlessly derided key contemporary political figures as "clerical lutefisk" and "royal stable jacks". In the 1884 impeachment case against Prime Minister Christian August Selmer, Friele sided with Selmer, and retreated from his position as editor of Morgenbladet following the court's verdict. Firmly believing that orders of merit would compromise his integrity as editor, he twice declined the offer of being rewarded the Order of St. Olav.

Friele was born to the merchant Ole Morup Friele (1790–1852) and his wife Louise Engelche Bohr (1797–1869) in the West-Norwegian city of Bergen on 22 May 1821. The family was relatively wealthy; consequently Friele did not experience the wretched living conditions of many of his contemporaries. His birthplace had a profound impact on his later life; the writer and poet Johan Sebastian Welhaven – also from Bergen – taught him how to fine-tune Bergen-style sarcasms, for which Friele became feared in his later editorship.

He enrolled in law studies in 1838, at the age of 17. A not very assiduous student, he used 13 years to collect his law diploma – other students typically took three to four years. During his studies he befriended the playwright Henrik Ibsen and the author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson – the former he was allowed to address with the informal second-person pronoun Du. Despite his long tuition, Friele was not considered erudite by his contemporaries; rumor had it that he had never read a book or seen a play.

Upon finishing his law studies, he was employed as a journalist for the Christiania-Posten newspaper. In 1854 he succeeded Bjørnson as parliamentary referee of Morgenbladet; this change of roles angered Bjørnson, who later would write a scornful play directed at Friele. On 12 December 1860, Friele married Marie Cathrine Lasson (1827–1909), daughter of the jurist Peder Carl Lasson (1798–1873) and his wife Ottilia Pauline Christine von Munthe af Morgenstierne (1804–86); the marriage was happy but childless.

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