Konrad Gustav Knudsen

Konrad Gustav Knudsen (19 August 1890 – 16 June 1959) was a Norwegian politician, journalist, and painter. Knudsen is known for inviting the exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky to live at his house after the Norwegian government granted Trotsky political asylum in June 1935.

Biography Konrad Knudsen was born in Drammen to Olaves Knudsen, also a painter, and Gina Larsen. After graduating from a business school in 1904 he worked as a painter in Drammen until 1908, when he moved to the United States. Knudsen lived in the US until 1920, where he worked as a painter, forester and construction worker; in 1917–20 he was editor of the socialist newspaper Social-Demokraten in Chicago.

Knudsen returned to Drammen in 1920 and worked as a painter foreman until 1923, when he became editor of the newspaper Fremtiden. From 1921 he held various positions within the Labour Party, and was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in the 1936 election. Knudsen would remain a member of parliament for the next 21 years. After the war, Knudsen served as a deputy member of the National Audit Office from 1946, He was married to Hilda Holt, with whom he had one daughter, Hjørdis, and one son, Borgar.