Olav Martinius Steinnes

Olav Martinius Knutsen Steinnes (9 January 1886 – 26 June 1961) was a Norwegian educator and politician for the Labour Party and Nasjonal Samling.

He was born at Steinnes in Ørsta Municipality as a son of farmers Knut Olai Olavsen Steinnes (1856–1935) and Berte Sporstøyl (1860–1924). After some years as a laborer he attended Møre Folk High School and then Volda Teachers' College from 1907 to 1910. He worked as a teacher in Vikna Municipality from 1910 to 1912, then in Rjukan. In 1920 he was promoted to school headmaster, still in Rjukan. He remained here until 1935, when he was appointed as school director in the Dioceses of Agder and Stavanger.

He was a member of the executive committee of the municipal council of Tinn Municipality from 1916 to 1925. He was elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1921, representing the constituency of Telemark. He was re-elected in 1924, 1927, 1930 and 1933, with his last term ending in 1936. In January 1928 he was appointed as Minister of Education and Church Affairs in Hornsrud's Cabinet. Hornsrud's Cabinet only lasted until February. While Steinnes was a Minister, his parliamentary seat was filled by Eileif Kolsrud.

On 1 February 1947, during the legal purge in Norway after World War II he was convicted of treason and sentenced to six months in prison and loss of his job.