Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie

Who was Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie?

Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie was a Norwegian jurist and Nazi collaborator. He is best known as director of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation for some time during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.

Already in the 1930s he was the leader of the Norwegian Fascist party Nasjonal Samling in Hedmark. He spent his professional life as a jurist in Hamar, where he co-founded the local branch of Nasjonal Samling in March 1933 together with Albert Wiesener and Einar Grill Fasting, among others. The party was relatively successful in the city, winning two city council seats in its first election outing. Christie was also a high-ranking freemason.

On 9 April 1940 Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany. Vidkun Quisling usurped the radio broadcaster in Oslo, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, and performed a coup d'etat via radio. Christie travelled to Oslo on 10 April and worked for a few days as the secretary of Quisling's cabinet, although this cabinet soon became defunct. In September 1940, Christie was named by Gulbrand Lunde as commissary president of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. He held his inaugural speech in the radio on 29 September. This was written by someone else and given to Christie minutes before airing—Christie had no experience with NRK whatsoever.