Olaf Solumsmoen

Who was Olaf Solumsmoen?

Olaf Solumsmoen was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour Party.

He was born in Sigdal, and decided to be a stenographer. He was hired in the Labour Party newspaper Fremtiden in Drammen, where he also was involved in local politics. He eventually left stenography to become a journalist. He worked as chief editor for the Labour Party press office Arbeidernes Pressekontor from 1931 to 1946. During the Nazi occupation of Norway from 1940 to 1945, an underground newspaper was published titled Bulletinen. The first editors were Olaf Solumsmoen and Olav Larssen . Both men were arrested and imprisoned. Solumsmoen was imprisoned at Grini concentration camp from 27 January 1942 to the end of the war, 8 May 1945.

From 1946 Solumsmoen worked as "night editor" of Arbeiderbladet, the primary Labour Party newspaper. In 1948 he was hired as secretary for Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen. From 1956 to 1965, during the third and fourth cabinet Gerhardsen, Solumsmoen served as state secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister. The tenure was only interrupted by the cabinet Lyng administration, which reigned for a month in 1963. He died in 1972 in Oslo.