Et åremål i perspektiv: Hundreårsminnet om folkeavstemningen 12-13 november 1905

Abstract

A Centenary in Perspective: Norway's Referendum of 12-13 November 1905. In Norway, 2005 was a year of celebrations, linked, first and foremost, to the fact that 100 years had passed since the peaceful dissolution of the personal union between Norway and Sweden. Despite the absence of broad popular support for the idea that this should merit any celebrations, government and media spent considerable resources on high-profile promotion of the 1905 story, including the side-events leading up to or following the famous 7 June Declaration of the Norwegian Storting (Pariiament). In the context of nation-building, historical milestones tend to take on a flavour of historybuilding, - the stuff that national myths are made of. In the saga of Norwegian nation-building, 1905 had come to play a perhaps surprisingly inflated role. Thus - less surprisingly - in the interpretation handed over to a contemporary audience, the various events of 1905 have been suffused with a series of myths, some of which have assumed the character of national dogmas. In particular, the author explores the myths surrounding the referendum of 12-13 November 1905, and demonstrates how vested interests have been instrumental in consolidating the popular (but false) interpretation that the real issue of the referendum was Norway's constitution (monarchy vs. republic) and not the conditions set forth by Prince Carl of Denmark for accepting the offer made by the Norwegian Government and its Parliament to assume the Norwegian throne. In fact, employing devious tactics, Prime Minister Michelsen succeeded not only in winning a comfortable victory for Prince Carl's candidacy (whereby the Prince became King Haakon VII of Norway), but he also managed to entrench the notion that the referendum above all was a resounding confirmation of a (continued) monarchical constitutional order. 'ITie long-term effect (which is still very much a defining feature of Norway's political self-image) was to give the country's republicans (who, at the onset of 1905 were a dominant force in the Norwegian political discourse) a permanently marginalized position as a fringe movement of eccentrics and certified losers.