Vidkun Quisling

Who was Vidkun Quisling?

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'état.

From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying forces. His government, known as the Quisling regime, was dominated by ministers from Nasjonal Samling, the party he founded in 1933. The collaborationist government participated – wittingly or unwittingly – in Germany's Final Solution. Quisling was put on trial during the legal purge in Norway after World War II and found guilty of charges including embezzlement, murder and high treason. He was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, on 24 October 1945. The word quisling has since become a synonym for traitor, an allusion to the very poor light in which Quisling's actions were seen both at the time and after his death.

The son of a Church of Norway pastor, Quisling blended quasi-Christian principles, scientific developments, principles of Eastern religions, and bits and pieces from philosophy to form a new theory he called Universism.