Nils Hjelmtveit

Nils Hjelmtveit (21 July 1892–30 October 1985) was a Norwegian educator and politician for the Labour Party. He was mayor of Stokken Municipality, MP from 1925 to 1930, Minister of Education and Church Affairs from 1935 to 1945 and County Governor of Aust-Agder from 1945 to 1961.

Early career He was born at Hopland in Alversund Municipality as a son of farmer Nils Hjelmtveit, Sr. (1861–1911) and his wife Ingebjørg Herland (1865–1893). He graduated from Stord Teacher's College in 1913, and was hired as a teacher in Eydehamn in the same year. He was promoted to headmaster in 1918. In December 1918, he married Karen Adelma Andersen (1894–1991).

National politics From 1919 to 1920 he also published the temperance weekly magazine Egden. Hjelmtveit was a member of the municipal council of Stokken Municipality from 1919 to 1937, and served as mayor from 1923 to 1928 and 1932 to 1935. He also chaired the school board from 1921 to 1922. He was elected to the Parliament of Norway from Aust-Agder in 1924 and 1927, serving two terms. In 1935, when Nygaardsvold's Cabinet assumed office, Hjelmtveit was appointed Minister of Education and Church Affairs.

From 1940 to 1945 Hjelmtveit was exiled in London together with the rest of Nygaardsvold's Cabinet, because of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. Hjelmtveit later defended the cabinet's actions on 9 April 1940, when they fled from the invading Germans. The war memoirs Vekstår og vargtid came in 1969. While exiled he wrote the book Education in Norway, published 1946. He stepped down in June 1945, when Gerhardsen's First Cabinet took over. On 1 December 1945 he became County Governor of Aust-Agder,