Oslo Old Lodge

Just south of Oslo city center, lies the old lodge Concert hall. In this lodge the trial of Norwegian collaborator and minister president, Vidkun Quisling, was held between August 20 and September 10, 1945. Quisling, who has been the leader of the nationalist party Nasjonal Samling (National Gathering Party) since the mid-thirties, cooperated during the war with the German occupation forces and was charged mainly for treason and murder, but also for theft of state property. He was defended by lawyer Henrik Berg who was initially skeptical about defending ”Norway’s most hated person”. During the trial Quisling was imprisoned in the gun powder tower at nearby Akershus Fortress. Quisling was sentenced to death on September 10, and although he thought the verdict was wrong, he never appealed. The sentence was carried out on the night of October 24, 1945, when he was shot at the gun powder tower at Akershus fortress. He was cremated and the urn with the ashes was kept with Oslo’s police master. In 1959, the urn was taken to Skien and Gjerpen’s cemetery where it was placed in Quisling’s family grave.