Economic Consequences Of The German Occupation Of Norway, 1940–1945
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Since the liberation from the German occupation of 1940–1945, the dominant national narrative has been of the far-reaching exploitation and destruction of the Norwegian economy by the occupant forces. The scholarly basis for this narrative was a book written by Odd Aukrust and Petter Jacob Bjerke in 1945. The narrative formed an important basis for the Norwegian variant of economic reconstruction following liberation and has also dominated historiography. However, Aukrust and Bjerve’s presentation of the bleak situation in 1945 was exaggerated and is, historically speaking, untenable. Another conclusion is that the German occupation initiated a 20-year period in which the Norwegian economy was less open and exposed to internal and external competition than in any other period subsequent to Norway entering the liberal age of free trade and free international capital transactions in the middle of the 19th century.
Source: Scandinavian Journal of History
Author: Harald Espeli
Institution: BI Norwegian Business School
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2059814175