Christian Michelsen
| Christian Michelsen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st Prime Minister of Norway | |
|
In office 11 March 1905 – 23 October 1907 |
|
| Monarch | Haakon VII |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Jørgen Løvland |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 March 1857 Bergen, Norway |
| Died | 29 June 1925 (aged 68) Fana, Hordaland, Norway |
| Political party |
Liberal Party (1884–1903) Coalition Party (1903–09) Free-minded Liberal Party (1909–25) |
| Other political affiliations |
Fatherland League (1925) |
Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen (15 March 1857 – 29 June 1925) was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of independent Norway from 1905 to 1907. Michelsen is most known for his central role in the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, and was one of Norway's most influential politicians of his time.
Born in Bergen, he was named after his grandfather, bishop Peder Christian Hersleb Kjerschow. He was the eldest of five siblings born into a merchant family. Michelsen attended the Bergen Cathedral School. He studied law at the University of Christiana and went on to become a lawyer. He later established the shipping company, Chr. Michelsen & Co., which became one of the largest in Norway.
He became a member of the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) in 1891, representing the Liberal Party of Norway. He considered himself mostly above petty party strifes, and one of his major aims was to create a coalition of parties reaching from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Party, which he called the Coalition Party. He served as Finance Minister in the second cabinet Hagerup, and was one of the strongest proponents of a more firm policy towards the union between Sweden and Norway. In March 1905, Michelsen replaced Francis Hagerup as Prime Minister, and immediately became the leader of the movement towards dissolution of the union (Unionsoppløsningen i 1905).
The formal basis for the dissolution was King Oscar II's refusal to accept the Norwegian consular laws (Konsulatsaken). The Swedish government had for several years insisted that laws governing foreign affairs had to be a part of the union agreement, and as such, consular laws could not be passed by the Norwegian Storting without consent of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag). The Swedes were willing to accept the Norwegian urge for separate consular affairs, but they demanded that Norway accept the precedent under which the union had operated for 90 years, namely that the Foreign Minister be Swedish. This, the Norwegians felt, acknowledged Sweden as having the upper hand in the Union. While this supremacy existed in reality, Norwegians were unwilling to accept the unequal relationship on a formal, legal basis.
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