Johan Sverdrup
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Johan Sverdrup MP |
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| 4th Prime Minister of Norway | |
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In office 1884–1889 |
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| Monarch | Oscar II |
| Preceded by | Christian Homann Schweigaard |
| Succeeded by | Emil Stang |
| Leader of the Liberal Party | |
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In office 1884–1884 |
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| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Ole Anton Qvam |
| Member of the Norwegian Parliament | |
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In office 1851–1884 |
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| Constituency | Vestfold |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Johan Sverdrup 30 July 1816 Sem,  Norway
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| Died | 17 February 1892 (aged 75) Christiania |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Spouse(s) | Caroline Sverdrup |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Church of Norway |
Johan Sverdrup (30 July 1816 – 17 February 1892) was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first Prime Minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism. Sverdrup was Prime Minister from 1884 to 1889.
He was born in Sem, close to Norway's oldest city, Tønsberg. His father was a pioneer in scientific agriculture in Norway. He finished his law studies in 1841. The year before he had his debut as a mountaineer and climbed Norway's eighth highest mountain, Surtningssui, and thereby becoming for a short period the Norwegian who had been at the highest point in the country. His remarkable feat was his sole first climb.
He worked as a lawyer in Larvik, a small town on the west coast of the Oslofjord. In 1851 he was for the first time elected to the Storting, and from then until his appointment as Prime Minister in 1884, he was one of the leaders of parliament. In Norway, political parties were considered inappropriate and unwanted. Sverdrup tried from his earliest days in the Storting to form a radical party consisting of the large group of peasants and the radical elements among the representatives from the cities. His first attempt was named the "lawyers' party" after the profession of the leaders of the group. It soon became evident that the times were not ripe for such a radical novelty, and for the next years Sverdrup knit a loose alliance with the peasant leader, Ole Gabriel Ueland.
It is ironic that if it hadn't been for Sverdrup's fervent opposition, the reform that would transform Norwegian political life from 1884 on, would have been introduced two decades earlier. The Government wanted the Ministers to meet in parliamentary sessions to further the communications between the King's Council and those elected by the people. Sverdrup managed to prevent this reform with the support of a great number of the peasants.
In 1870 Ueland died, and the loose leadership of the alliance of peasants went over to Søren Jaabæk, an economically extremely conservative politician, whose views hardly exceeded the most primitive cutting of every part of the budget, even if the money in question would be used to the furthering of democracy and education, two of his most important topics. Such a negative policy-making (Jaabæk's name was changed by the Ministerial adherents and press to Neibæk after the Norwegian word Nei, which means no, while Ja means Yes) will never produce great results, which Sverdrup clearly foresaw. He didn't hesitate to acknowledge Jaabæk as the formal leader and organizer of this budding party, which can be named the peasant friends after the organization and magazine that Jaabæk managed to spread throughout most of the country. But in parliament Jaabæk would often bow to Sverdrup's more advanced political strategies, when they were not too expensive.
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