Nils Nilsen Thune

Who was Nils Nilsen Thune?

Nils Nilsen Thune was a Norwegian jurist and civil servant.

He was born in Vang, Oppland, and was a son of Nils Throndsen Thune. He graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1902. He was hired in the Trondhjem police in 1911, and became police inspector in the city in 1916 and an assessor in 1920. In 1924 he was appointed as the district stipendiary magistrate in Inderøy. During these years he was a member of the city councils of both Trondhjem and Steinkjer. In 1933 he became district stipendiary magistrate of Eiker, Modum and Sigdal, and in 1945 he became acting County Governor of Buskerud, and he got the position on a permanent basis in 1946.

In 1945 he was also named as a member of the commission Undersøkelseskommisjonen av 1945 that scrutinized the actions of the Norwegian government in 1940. The other commission members were Gustav Adolf Lammers Heiberg, Arnold Holmboe, Ole Hallesby, Ernst Fredrik Eckhoff, Arne Bergsgård and Sverre Steen, and the secretary was Helge Sivertsen. The background for the commission was the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, and the question was raised whether Norway could have avoided it through a different foreign and security policy. Second, the actions of Norwegian authorities between 9 April and 25 September 1940 were investigated, both regarding the three branches of government that eventually laid down their offices, but also the transition authority as well as other relevant civil and military bodies.