Adolf Hoel: President of the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature (1935-1945) and Rector of the University of Oslo (1941-1945)

Biography

Hoel was born in Sørum in Akershus, Norway. He attended Hans Nielsen Hauges Minde in Oslo and the University of Oslo taking his cand.real. examination in 1904. He married Elisabeth Birgitte Fredrikke Thomsen in 1916.

Beginning in 1909 Hoel took part in about 30 Norwegian government-sponsored expeditions to Arctic areas, becoming also the main driving force behind Norwegian scientific activities in East Greenland. Hoel became a fellow of the University of Oslo in 1911 and a docent in 1919. In the second half of the 1920s Hoel took up the cause of Norwegian claims in East Greenland. Together with Gustav Smedal, Hoel eventually became the main leader of the "Greenland case" (Grønlandssaken) that tried to bring East Greenland under Norwegian sovereignty. Inspired by trapper Hallvard Devold the movement began to build a network of trapping stations, combined with surveying and exploring the almost uninhabited area. By 1929 the Norges Svalbard og Ishavsundersøkelser (NSIU) —"Norwegian Svalbard and Arctic Ocean Survey" established by Hoel in 1928, sent well-organized research expeditions to East Greenland. Expedition vessels also supplied the trapping stations with equipment financed by the Arctic Trading Co. (Arktisk Næringsdrift), a company that Hoel had helped to set up.

Nasjonal Samling

In 1933, he became a member of the Nasjonal Samling party of the former minister of defence, Vidkun Quisling, largely due to the Norwegian nationalist approach to the Norwegian occupation of a part of Greenland in the early 1930s. Hoel was appointed professor of the University of Oslo in 1940 and was rector of the university from 1941 to 1945, during the German occupation of Norway. He was the leading Norwegian researcher at Svalbard in the early 20th century, and in 1948 the Norges Svalbard- og Ishavsundersøkelser, which he had founded, became the Norwegian Polar Institute. He was President of the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature from 1935 to 1945.

After the war

In May 1945, Hoel was interned at Ilebu and was only released in April 1946. His treason case first came before the court in May 1949. He was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. The main accusation was his NS membership and that he allowed himself to be appointed rector of the university by the NS authorities.

At the end of the war, Hoel lost all his offices and positions. Several organizations excluded him as a member and he also lost the Order of St. Olav, which he was awarded in 1938. He spent much of his time after the verdict seeking redress and understanding for his situation. Among other things, he published his defense work A Settlement with Countrymen in 1951, where he explained his actions during the war. He also published a number of articles in various journals, both of a scientific and political nature.

In the 1950s, Hoel was engaged by the Norwegian Polar Institute to write Svalbard's history, which was published as a three-volume work in 1966 and 1967, after his death. This was completed and edited by his secretary for several years, Kjeld Myklebust.

Adolf Hoel was hit by a car in Oslo in December 1963 and died of his injuries in hospital in February 1964.