Gulbrand Lunde
Gulbrand Oscar Johan Lunde (14 September 1901 – 25 October 1942) was a Norwegian chemist and a leading member of Nasjonal Samling (NS).
Life
Gulbrand Lunde was born and grew up in Fana near Bergen. He was the son of the architect Sigurd Lunde (1874–1936) and his wife Inga, née Grue (1870–1948). His father was one of Bergen's leading architects. In 1919, Gulbrand Lunde completed his schooling in Bergen with his university entrance qualification. He then studied chemistry at the Zurich University of Technology. At the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, he received his doctorate in 1925 with the dissertation Studien in der Gallensäurereihe. He then returned to Norway, where he began working as an assistant at the Mineralogical Institute at the University of Oslo. There he worked with Thomas F. W. Barth and the Jewish geologist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt.
Gulbrand Lunde quickly established himself as an avid supporter of Vidkun Quisling and was one of the first members of Nasjonal Samling. He participated in the establishment of NS in Stavanger in 1933 and was active in the election campaign the same autumn. He was one of NS's foremost speakers and was an effective administrator. In 1934, he was elected as a municipal council representative in Stavanger when the party received 12 percent of the vote. From 1935, Lunde was head of propaganda at NS and authored a number of writings and publications.
WWII
On 25 September 1940, three months after Operation Weserübung, he became Deputy Minister of Culture and Enlightenment and was Minister of Culture to the Ministry of Culture and Enlightenment in Quisling's government from 1942 until his death in the autumn of the same year.
Death
Lunde and wife (∞ 6 March 1929) Marie Honoria Halling, née Wulfsberg (b. 26 August 1907), died by drowning in October 1942 when their car fell off the ferry dock at Våge, between Ålesund and Åndalsnes. The incident was investigated because sabotage was suspected, but the conclusion was that it was merely an accident.
Memorial service
A large memorial service was held in Oslo for Lunde and his wife Marie, and the urns were later set down at Hopperstad Stave Church, Vik in Sogn.
Works (excerpt)
- Studien in der Gallensäurereihe, Freibrug 1925
- Kampen om Norge, Oslo 1941
