Søren Jaabæk

Who was Søren Jaabæk?

Søren Pedersen Jaabæk was a Norwegian politician and farmer. Jaabæk is the longest-serving member of the Parliament of Norway in the history of Norway, and was one of the founders of the Liberal Party of Norway.

Jaabæk was born in Holum, Lister og Mandals amt, Norway in 1814. After living in Halse og Harkmark for some years, he returned to Holum following his father's death in 1849. He began his professional life working in schools and churches. He served several terms as mayor of Holum and Halse og Harkmark between 1840 and 1890. In 1845, he was elected to the Parliament of Norway, where he served until 1891.

In 1865, Jaabæk founded Bondevennerne, a political society of Norwegian farmers which evolved from a local group in Mandal to a national movement, composed of more than 300 local bodies with approximately 30,000 members in total. Through Bondevennerne, Jaabæk introduced the open popular meeting to Norwegian politics, and the first Norwegian cooperatives emerged as offshoots of the Bondevennerne movement. Bondevennerne's main newspaper, Folketidende, was also founded by Jaabæk in Mandal in 1865. Jaabæk was elected chairman of Bondevennerne in 1868.