Helge Krog

Helge Krog (born February 9 1889 in Kristiania - the former name of Oslo, dead July 31 1962 in Oslo) was a Norwegian writer and translator.

Helge Krog was educated as an economist, a profession he never practiced within. From 1911 he worked as a theatre and literature critic for the newspaper Verdens Gang. Later he also worked for Dagbladet and Arbeiderbladet. During this time he got in touch with Gunnar Heiberg and Olaf Bull, who influenced him much. He made his debut as a playwright in 1919.

Information

(Objekt ID 15765)
Object type Person
Born February 9, 1898 (dead July 30, 1962)
Functions Author, Translator, Critic, Dramatist/Playwright
Nationality Norwegian
Gender Male
Adresse Oslo, Norway
Website WIKIPEDIA
More

As a playwright Helge Krog was known to reprimand society, in the tradition following Heiberg and Henrik Ibsen. Even though Krog was a declared socialist, the working class had no part in his plays, as opposed to writers such as Oskar Braaten and Rudolf Nilsen. The aspect of liberation was more often about individual liberation, often within bourgeoisie surroundings.

Sometime around 1924 Krog got in touch with the Mot Dag circle, and even though he never became a member of the organisation, he is often counted among its foremost cultural personalities, and Arnulf Øverland and Sigurd Hoel he was labelled as part of the red troika. As opposed to these Krog maintained his radical involvement to his death. During the 1930es, after the end of Mot Dag and its integration into the Norwegian Labour Party, Krog became part of the small community surrounding the journal Oktober. Inspired by the talking statues of Rome he wrote diabolical epistles in Dagbladet, using the pseudonym Pasquino.

Krog spent large parts of World War II in exile in Sweden. There his work included publishing the newspaper Håndslag, a publication produced in Sweden from 1942, smuggled across the border and spread illegally in occupied Norway.

In 1944 he anonymously published the leaflet 6-te kolonne, a publication which after the war, when the writer became known, raised debate and gave birth to in part angry criticism of Krog. In the text Krog attacked the leadership of the resistance movement, who according to him were active in double play in which they attacked the Norwegian Quislings while making money on trading with German war industry themselves. Among other things, he underlined that Milorg did not do industrial sabotage. When the text was republished in 1946, with the name of the author, he also included criticism of the trials after the war, and expressed the view that industrial lords and war profiteers - the sixth column - got away from it too easily.

After the war Krog made his mark as an early critic of Norwegian membership in NATO, and from the start he was among the writers for the newspaper Orientering. He also contributed to other magazines and journals, including Aktuell and Fossegrimen. The latter published a special issue on Krog in 1964, on what would have been his 75thbirthday.

Source:

Wikipedia, no.wikipedia.org, 04.01.2012, http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helge_Krog

Artworks (16)
Title Publiseringsdato Role
Triad 1933, Script – Author
The Blue Paper 1928, Script – Author
On the Way 1931, Script, Drama – Author
Jarlshus 1923, Script, Drama – Author
Come in 1945, Script, One-act Play – Author
The Sounding Shell 1929, Script – Author
Tankeleken Script – Author
The Great We 1917, Script – Author
Don Juan 1930, Script – Author
Break-Up 1936, Script, Drama – Author
On the Sunny Side 1927, Script, Light comedy/slapstick – Author
Hvem vet? Script – Author
Mine damer og herrer 1919, Script, Light comedy/slapstick – Author
Herren i huset 1922, Script – Author
The Farce of Love 1919, Script, Farce – Author
The living and the dead Script – Author