Haakon Lie
| Haakon Lie | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
22 September 1905 Kristiania, Norway |
| Died | 25 May 2009 (aged 103) Oslo, Norway |
| Occupation | Party secretary for the Norwegian Labour Party (1945–1969) |
| Spouse(s) | Ragnhild Gunderud (1929-1951) Minnie Dockermann (1952-1999) |
| Children | Gro (b. 1932) Turid (b. 1938) Karen (b. 1952) |
Haakon Steen Lie (22 September 1905 – 25 May 2009) was a Norwegian politician who served as party secretary for the Norwegian Labour Party from 1945 to 1969. Coming from humble origins, he became involved in the labour movement at an early age, and quickly rose in the party system. After actively working for the resistance movement and the exiled government during World War II, he was elected to the second-highest position in the party after the war, and his years in office were the most successful in the party's history.
Lie is widely considered – along with Einar Gerhardsen – to be the architect of the post-war success of the Labour Party, and of the Norwegian welfare state. At the same time, he has also been the subject of criticism for organising surveillance of Norwegian opposition figures, in particular communists. Lie remained active in Norwegian public life, even after his 100th birthday, and in 2008 he celebrated his 103rd birthday with the release of a new biography, "Slik jeg ser det nå" (As I see it now).
Born 22 September 1905 into a family of Finnish origin in Oslo (then named Kristiania), he was baptized Håkon Steen Lie. He would later change the spelling to Haakon during World War II. His father was fireman Andreas Lie (1870-1942) and his mother was homemaker Karen Halvorsdatter Gunderud (1871-1952). Though he describes his childhood as a happy one, his family was poor and, until 1916, his father had to work 120 hours a week. With his parents, two brothers, and two sisters, he grew up at his fathers fire-station sharing one room and a kitchen in the St. Hanshaugen neighborhood. Lie got involved with the labour movement at the age of sixteen, in 1921.
Here he met some of his lifelong friends and colleagues: Martin Tranmæl, Oscar Torp and Einar Gerhardsen. When the Labour Party left the Third Communist International in 1923, and was split between the new-founded Communist Party and the remaining social democrats, Lie ended up on the latter wing. The bitter strife between the two factions strongly influenced his lifelong anti-communist stance.
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