Norwegian Declaration of 1814

[Daniel L. Christiansen]

Does anyone know if there is an online copy of the 1814 Norwegian
Declaration of Independence? I would like to see the signatures affixed
to the bottom.

[Daniel L. Christiansen]

Thanks for the replies, all. Yes, I am aware that the 1814 document is
not technically a declaration of independence, in the sense of the US
document, if for no other reason than that Norwegian independence
didn't result directly from the events of 1814. I apologize for being
careless with my terms: the 1814 assembly and the resultant document
are called by various terms in the literature, and even in Norwegian
public-relations websites. This is why I specified the 1814 date.

That having been said, I am still looking for a possible copy of the
document . . . not a transcription. I would like to see the
signatures, rather than just the names, which I have already seen.

[Stein R]

"Daniel L. Christiansen" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

Thanks for the replies, all. Yes, I am aware that the 1814 document is
not technically a declaration of independence, in the sense of the US
document, if for no other reason than that Norwegian independence
didn't result directly from the events of 1814. I apologize for being
careless with my terms: the 1814 assembly and the resultant document
are called by various terms in the literature, and even in Norwegian
public-relations websites. This is why I specified the 1814 date.

That having been said, I am still looking for a possible copy of the
document . . . not a transcription. I would like to see the
signatures, rather than just the names, which I have already seen.

According to constitution pages of the Norwegian National Library
(http://www.nb.no/baser/1814/av1.html - in Norwegian), the original
handwritten text was agreed upon on May 16th, and signed just by
the two representatives that were functioning as presidents of the
constitutional assembly on that day - C.M Falsen and H.M Krogh,
along with the representative that were taking notes that day -
repr Christie of Bergen.

The formal document to be signed by all the representatives is dated
May 17th 1814, but wasn't actually signed until May 18th, since the
election of a new Norwegian king on May 17th took so long that the
signing of the constitution by *all* the representatives had to be
delayed until May 18th.

So it kind of depends. But there was a facsimile (photocopy) copy of
the constitution published in Oslo in 1964. Perhaps you still can get
a copy of that.

The original copy is in the Norwegian parliament (http://www.stortinget.no).
It is possible that their staff can help you locate a photocopy of the
Norwegian constitution signed on May 18th 1814.

Good luck in finding this photo.

Grin,
Stein

[Stein R]

"Daniel L. Christiansen" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

Thanks for the replies, all. Yes, I am aware that the 1814 document is
not technically a declaration of independence, in the sense of the US
document, if for no other reason than that Norwegian independence
didn't result directly from the events of 1814. I apologize for being
careless with my terms: the 1814 assembly and the resultant document
are called by various terms in the literature, and even in Norwegian
public-relations websites. This is why I specified the 1814 date.

That having been said, I am still looking for a possible copy of the
document . . . not a transcription. I would like to see the
signatures, rather than just the names, which I have already seen.

Btw - just curious - why are you looking for the signatures ? Are
you a descendant of one of the people who signed the Norwegian con-
stitution ?

Also, just in passing, and you may know this already - the Nor-
wegian constitution does not have quite the same status in Nor-
wegian society as the US constitution does in US society.

In the US, the constitution seems to be almost "holy writ", and
it seems like just about any political issue sooner or later turns
into a discussion of "constitutional rights", and the election of
a new supreme court justice is a huge politcal fight.

The Norwegian constitution lives a somewhat more pragmatic life.
We change the wording directly in the text, adding and deleting
text amidst the original text.

Political issues are resolved in parliament, and very few people
could tell you the names of even three of our 18 supreme court
justices, or even the name of the chief justice of our supreme
court.

Then again, since the impeachment of the Selmer administration
in 1884, we haven't really had a functioning balancing of powers
between the executive, the legislative and the judicial powers.

In Norway, the legislative is far stronger than the other two
branches of government. For all practical purposes we have
parliamentarism - that the administration/government must have
the support (or at least not the opposition) of a majority in
parliament.

But of course - if you are ready to return a vote of no con-
fidence against the sitting government, you'd better also be
prepared to gather the necessary majority to form a viable
government of your own.

BTW2 - no traces of parliamentarism in our constitution - that
is one of the unwritten traditions which has just become common
practice over time.

So you won't find the same veneration of the Norwegian consti-
tution in Norway as you find for the US constitution in the US,
and the Norwegian constitution plays far less part in current
politcal life than then US constitution does in the US.

A total digression, of course - but maybe relevant background
information for someone reading this newsgroup / mailing list.

Grin,
Stein

[Sven Olaf Borg]

If you just need to know the names, you will find them in this document.
Here are the names, when they lived, where they came from and occupation:

http://home.online.no/~olhov/eidsvoll.html

The Constituion and the history in english:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Norway

Any image on the net of the Constitution is not found, so if you would like to see the original handwriting, you have to order a copy. I guess you can contact the Norwegian Parliment and ask them where to get it.

http://www.stortinget.no/english/index.html

Sven

[Knut Bryn]

Stein R wrote:

The original copy is in the Norwegian parliament (http://www.stortinget.no).
It is possible that their staff can help you locate a photocopy of the
Norwegian constitution signed on May 18th 1814.

Perhaps a better idea is to contact "Norsk rikspolitisk senter",
Eidsvoll. Their email adress is: [email protected]


Knut Bryn, Molde