Norwegian Riket

> "Norway is a kingdom - we shall become a people."
>
> Minister President of Norway, Founder of Nasjonal Samling, Vidkun Quisling, 1934

## Norwegian Riket of the Norwegian Nation

The North Star of the Germanic Race.

**1942-Present**

### Head of State

Fører
* Vidkun Quisling (1942-1956)
* **Sverre Riisnæs** (1956-Present)

### Head of Government

Minister-President
* Vidkun Quisling (1942-1956)
* **Sverre Riisnæs** (1956-Present)

### Official Languages

Norwegian (official)
 German (co-official)

### Governing Body

**Nasjonal Samling** one-party parliamentary dictatorship

### Government System

Presidential, Parliamentary, Unitary Nasjonal Samling one-party totalitarian state

### Ethnicities

Norwegians [majority]
 Germanics (Germans, Dutch, Belgians, Danes, Swedes, Finns)
 Norwegian Minorities

### Military Command

Forsvarets Overkommando [Armed Forces], Krigsdepartementet [Ministry]

### Military Forces

Hæren
 Sjøforsvaret
 Luftforsvaret
 Hirdens Heimevernet

**Norway**, officially known as the **Norwegian Riket of the Norwegian Nation** (Norwegian: *Norske Riket av den norske nasjonen*), is a country that was established in the aftermath of the Second World War. The country is considered as the successor of the Kingdom of Norway (1814/1905-1940), and the National Government of Norway (1942-1950), and was established in 1950, on Hitler's Imperial Declaration, on which Reichskommissariat Norwegen was disestablished and Norway was granted independence. Under the leadership of the fascist Nasjonal Samling, the newly proclaimed Norwegian Realm modeled itself after Germany's system of governance.

On April 1940, Vidkun Quisling, the Fører of the Nasjonal Samling party attempted a coup d'etat against the Royal Norwegian government on the day of the German invasion in Operation Weserübung. The following day, the German ambassador traveled to the temporary capital of Elverum to demand King Haakon VII's return to Oslo with the intent of appointing Quisling as the new prime minister and dissolving the Nygaardsvold Cabinet. The King resisted, being aware of Quisling's unpopularity amongst the people and the parliament at the time. After a few days, the attempted coup by Quisling failed, and the provisional Nasjonal Samling government was sidestepped in favor of an Administrative Council.

On September 1940, the Reichskommissar of Norway, Josef Terboven, deposed King Haakon VII and the Nygaardsvold Cabinet, banning all political parties other than Nasjonal Samling. Terboven then appointed 11 Provisional Councillors of State from Nasjonal Samling to help administer Norway during the German occupation. The Provisional Councillors of State were not created with the intent of forming an independent government, but rather to serve as a nucleus for a future one-party state under the Nasjonal Samling. Under the Provisional Council, several National Socialist policies were implemented, such as the reorganization of the legal system, law enforcement, labour market, penal code, and system of governance along German lines. In the years between 1940 and 1942, Germany directly occupied Norway.

In 1942, Quisling was appointed as the Minister-President of Norway, assuming the authority of both the exiled King of Norway and the dissolved Parliament. Quisling created a new collaborationist government on February 1942, with the official name of the government being "Den nasjonale regjering". The National Government was not fully independent from Germany, but was considered a step towards complete independence. Quisling dissolved the monarchical institutions, and re-branded them as national institutions. The Royal Palace of Norway and the Official Seal of Norway were appropriated for fascistic purposes.

During the German occupation of 1940-1950, the Nasjonal Samling was divided into two groups: the Nordicists, those who saw Norway as part of a "narrow" group of Nordic race, and the Pan-Germanists, those who saw Norway as part of a "wider" group of Germanic race. In 1942, the leading ideological figure of the Nordicists, Gulbrand Lunde, was assassinated by the German occupational authorities for suspected treason. Soon after, the Pan-Germanists became the dominant ideologists in the Nasjonal Samling. In these years, Minister-President Quisling presented many proposals to Adolf Hitler for plans of Norwegian independence. All of them were rejected, but on one occasion, Hitler promised Quisling that once the Second World War was over, Norway would be granted independence under his helm.

On November 7, 1950, a day before the Imperial Declaration, Hitler and Quisling held a secret meeting to plan the independence of Norway, of which it was decided that Norway should be known as the "Norwegian Realm" to signify permanent political and racial unity between Norway and the Germanic Reich. Quisling agreed to Hitler's proposal, and following Hitler's Imperial Declaration, Norway declared its independence as the "Riket", a Norwegian word which was popularized by British and American media to refer to Norway, in a similar manner to how the German word "Reich" is used to colloquially refer to Germany.

## Military

### **Forsvaret**

During the German Occupation of Norway from 1940-1950, the Norwegians did not have a standing unified armed forces. The military forces which were occupying and defending Norway from foreign invasion was the German Wehrmacht. However, many Norwegians enlisted in military forces such as the Norwegian Legion, the Wehrmacht itself, and the Waffen-SS. Thousands of Norwegians also enlisted in paramilitary organizations such as the Hirden, the flagship uniformed force of Nasjonal Samling and the National Government, and the now-defunct Norwegian SS.

On November 8, 1950, Minister-President Vidkun Quisling announced the Declaration of the Norwegian Realm, which was accompanied by the announcement of the creation of an independent unified armed forces of Norway. The Forsvaret, the Armed Forces of Norway, was created and the responsibilities of the Wehrmacht stationed in Norway were transferred to them. Despite this, the Wehrmacht retained occupation of several military bases, such as G.G.R. Naval Base Nordstern, which was in the city of Nordstern, of which the territory is leased to Germany. The Forsvaret consisted of the Hæren (Army), Sjøforsvaret (Navy), and the Luftforsvaret (Air Force).

The ranks and organization of the Forsvaret were created from the paramilitary organization Hirden, which served as the nucleus for the new National Socialist Norwegian military. As such, the officer corps and leadersip of the Hirden were rapidly promoted to fill the upper ranks of the newly formed Forsvaret. The lack of quality and professionalism from the "Hirden Generals" led to a terrible start for the Norwegian military. Hence, hundreds of Norwegian military officers and leaders were sent to German military academies to strengthen the military leadership of the Forsvaret. In addition, the Forsvaret was supplied with German military equipment and technologies. As such, the Forsvaret is considered by American military analysts as "but a mere extension of the Wehrmacht", paraphrasing the words of US Admiral Arleigh Burke.

On March 16, 1962, Minister-President Sverre Riisnæs announced the creation of the Hirdens Heimevernet (Hirden's Home Guard), a rapid-reaction, territorial defence, and military reserve force of the Forsvaret. The creation of this fourth branch of the military was based on assessments by the Norwegian Krigsdepartementet and the German Reichskriegsministerium regarding the poor readiness of the Norwegian armed forces to deal with a potential joint US-British invasion of Norway. Ironically, the assessments were also made by analyzing the reasons for Norway's lackluster defense of the country from the Wehrmacht's invasion in Operation Weserübung during the Second World War.