Konrad Knudsen

Who was Konrad Knudsen?

Konrad Gustav Knudsen was a Norwegian painter, journalist, and parliamentarian. Known for inviting Leon Trotsky to seek asylum in Norway.

Konrad Knudsen was born in Drammen, and was a painter like his father. He finished accounting training in 1904 and worked as a painter in Drammen until 1908 when he travelled to the United States. In the US he worked as a painter, lumberjack and a construction worker, and then became editor of the socialist publication Social-Demokraten. In 1920 he was one of the leading figures in the Scandinavian Socialist Federation that sided with the Communist International.

He returned to Drammen in 1920 and worked as a painter foreman until 1923, he then got a job as an editor in the newspaper Fremtiden. From 1921 he had various positions within the Labour Party, and was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in 1937, a position he had until 1957.

In 1935 he invited Leon Trotsky to Norway, and Trotsky initially stayed at his house at Norderhov outside the small city Hønefoss. After a break-in by a Norwegian fascist militia the government intervened and on order by the Minister of Justice, Trygve Lie, Trotsky was evicted.