# Åsane (municipality)

Åsane is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1904 until 1972. The 71-square-kilometre (27 sq mi) municipality encompassed the northern part of the Bergen Peninsula, roughly corresponding to the present-day borough of Åsane in the city-municipality of Bergen. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Eidsvåg. The main church for the municipality was Åsane Church. Historically, the area was called Aasene, but with spelling reforms in the Norwegian language, the modern spelling has been Åsane since about 1920.

## History

The large parish of Hammer existed for many centuries and within the parish existed the annex of Aasene. On 1 January 1904, the annex of Aasene (population: 1,625) was separated from the rest of Hammer to become a separate municipality. The original municipality included the northern part of the Bergen Peninsula, except for the coastal areas along the Salhusfjorden and Sørfjorden. On 1 July 1914, most of the northern coastal part of the Bergen peninsula (population: 644) was transferred to Aasene (except for the far northern tip around Tellevik). On 1 July 1938, the far northern tip of the Bergen peninsula around the villages of Tellevik and Hordvik were transferred from Hamre municipality to Åsane.
The new municipality was small, but over the next several decades, there was major population growth due to the growing city of Bergen, located to the southwest, over the mountains. On 1 January 1972, the municipality of Åsane (population: 19,205) was merged into the city of Bergen (the other neighboring municipalities of Arna, Fana, and Laksevåg were also merged with Bergen on the same date).

### Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named Aasene after an old name for the area (Old Norse: Ásar or Ásarnir). The name is the plural form of áss which means "rocky ridge" or "hill". Thus the name (since it was plural) means something like "the hills" or "the ridges". The whole area has been called Aasene for centuries. It likely gained that name since many of the local farms in that area had áss ("hill") in their names, thus the area was known as "the hills".
Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Aasene. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Aasane. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aasane with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Åsane, using the letter Å instead.

## Government

During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

### Mayors

The mayors (Nynorsk: ordførar) of Åsane:
* 1904-1911: Vemund J. Tertnes
* 1911-1913: Konrad Meyer
* 1914-1919: Vemund J. Tertnes
* 1919-1925: Adolf Andersen
* 1925-1925: Johan Birkeland
* 1926-1928: Olav Sellevold (V)
* 1929-1931: Nils Koltveit (V)
* 1932-1935: Olav Sellevold (V)
* 1936-1938: Anton Olsen
* 1939-1941: Olav Sellevold (V)
* 1945-1945: Olav Sellevold (V)
* 1946-1954: Olav Hordvik (V)
* 1954-1955: Steffen J. Toppe (Ap)
* 1956-1959: P. Leif Rutle
* 1960-1965: Kjeld Langeland (H)
* 1966-1971: Henry Andreassen

### Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Åsane was made up of 41 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:
Åsane kommunestyre 1968–1971 :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet) | 16 |
| | Conservative Party (Høgre) | 9 |
| | Christian Democratic Party (Kristeleg Folkeparti) | 4 |
| | Centre Party (Senterpartiet) | 1 |
| | Socialist People's Party (Sosialistisk Folkeparti) | 2 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 9 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 41 |
Åsane kommunestyre 1964–1967 :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet) | 17 |
| | Conservative Party (Høgre) | 10 |
| | Christian Democratic Party (Kristeleg Folkeparti) | 5 |
| | Centre Party (Senterpartiet) | 2 |
| | Socialist People's Party (Sosialistisk Folkeparti) | 1 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 8 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 43 |
Åsane heradsstyre 1960–1963 :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet) | 12 |
| | Conservative Party (Høgre) | 6 |
| | Christian Democratic Party (Kristeleg Folkeparti) | 5 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 6 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 29 |
Åsane heradsstyre 1956–1959 :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet) | 13 |
| | Conservative Party (Høgre) | 4 |
| | Christian Democratic Party (Kristeleg Folkeparti) | 1 |
| | Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet) | 5 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 6 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 29 |
Åsane heradsstyre 1952–1955 :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet) | 8 |
| | Conservative Party (Høgre) | 3 |
| | Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet) | 4 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 5 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 20 |
Åsane heradsstyre 1948–1951 :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet) | 7 |
| | Conservative Party (Høgre) | 3 |
| | Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet) | 4 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 6 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 20 |
Åsane heradsstyre 1945–1947 :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet) | 8 |
| | Communist Party (Kommunistiske Parti) | 1 |
| | Christian Democratic Party (Kristeleg Folkeparti) | 4 |
| | Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgarlege Felleslister) | 7 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 20 |
Åsane heradsstyre 1938–1941* :
| Party name (in Nynorsk) | Party name (in Nynorsk) | Number of representatives |
| | Local List(s) (Lokale lister) | 16 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 16 |
| Note: Due to the German occupation of Norway during World War II, no elections were held for new municipal councils until after the war ended in 1945. |||