Gudmund Harlem

Gudmund Harlem (24 July 1917 – 22 March 1988) was a Norwegian physician and politician for the Labour Party. He was the Norwegian Minister of Social Affairs from 1955 to 1961 and Norwegian Minister of Defence from 1961 to 1965 (except for a short break from August to September 1963). As a physician he spent most of his career at Statens Attføringsinstitutt, serving as director from 1970 to 1977. He was then a professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology and director of NTNF. He was the father of former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former Norwegian Minister of Justice Hanne Harlem.

Early life and political career He was born in Kristiania as a son of Gudmund Harlem, Sr. (1885–1918) and Olga Haug (1887–1942). He finished his secondary education in 1935, enrolled as a student at the University of Oslo in the same year, and graduated with the cand.med. degree in 1946. He fled the country for Sweden in 1943 because of the German occupation, and stayed there until the end of World War II. In the autumn of 1945 he was the leader of the Norwegian Students' Society. He was hired as a physician at Statens Attføringsinstitutt in 1946, and was promoted to chief physician in 1953.

He also became involved in politics. He was a member of the revolutionary group Mot Dag from 1934 to its disestablishment in 1936, and then joined the Norwegian Labour Party A much younger daughter Hanne Harlem, born 1964, has been Minister of Justice (2000–2001).