Jacob Worm-Müller: the visiting professor
Jacob Stenersen Worm-Müller visited Buckie in May 1942 as part of Ministry of Information sponsored tour speaking about Norway and its fight for freedom. Buckie was one of the most obvious and appropriate places for such a talk to be held.
Worm-Müller was born in Kristiania on Christmas Day 1884. His father was professor of physiology and died when Jacob was five years old. He started lecturing at the University of Kristiania in 1919 and became Professor of History in 1928. He was also involved in politics as a member of the Norwegian Liberal Party and as a delegate to the League of Nations. After the German occupation of Norway, the Nazis demanded that his lectures - on Norwegian independence in 1905 - be cancelled. In light of this, he managed to leave the country and join the Norwegian government-in-exile in London. From 1942 until the end of the war, he edited the magazine The Norseman from London. He was also engaged by the Ministry of Information to deliver a series of talks on Norway around the United Kingdom. He regularly broadcast on the BBC during the war on both home and overseas services. |
On the evening of Thursday, 21 May 1942, the Townhouse Hall was packed to hear Professor Worm-Müller with many of the Norwegians exiles present. Provost Merson was in the chair.
I am glad to come to Scotland and to Buckie, for these are not foreigners, these are kinsmen. Norway [is] putting up such opposition to the Germans … they could safely say that Norway will never be conquered. The government has pledged: Norway will be free or they die in the attempt. |
og nu på norsk...
At the end of the lecture, Provost Merson gave the vote of thanks and suggested that Professor Worm-Müller address his fellow countrymen and women in the audience in Norwegian which he was delighted to do. The event ended with the singing of 'God Save the King' and 'Ja, vi elsker dette landet'.
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After the war, he returned to Oslo but also served as one of the Norwegian delegates to the San Francisco Conference which led to the establishment of the United Nations. He was chairman of the Liberal Party of Norway for seven years until 1952. Worm-Müller was made a Commander of the Order St Olav. He died in November 1963.