Paul Koht

Paul Steenstrup Koht (28 August 1844 – 26 August 1892) was a Norwegian educator and politician for the Liberal Party. He was the father of Halvdan Koht, historian and Labour Party politician.

Having developed a penchant for Greek and Roman poetry in his student years, Koht lectured in philology as an adult. He also taught living languages, most notably Norwegian.

Despite the conservative political views of his family, Koht became fascinated by the radical national liberal movement of the late 19th century. His first political activism was manifested in his editing of Tromsøposten; in the late 1870s and early 1880s he chaired the Tromsø Labour Association, which catapulted him into the political limelight. Eventually becoming elected as both city mayor and Member of Parliament, he advocated radical reforms, amongst them common suffrage and the eight-hour day.

Early life and educational career He was born at Bodø in Nordland, Norway. He was the son of Joachim Andreas Koht, a pharmacist, and Johanne Andrea Conradi. Koht finished secondary education in 1861 and graduated with a cand. philol. degree in 1868. Koht's biographer, Bernt A. Nissen, maintained that he developed his literary taste while studying: the circle spending their leisure time in "the green chamber" of the Students' Society had, according to Nissen, a decisive influence on Koht. In a bulletin titled Samfundsblade, Koht—together with Sofus Arctander, Ole Furu and Hans Brecke—recited Ancient Greek and Latin poems. who, two years before the elder Koht's decease in 1892, took his examen artium there, continuing with philological studies in Kristiania. In the parliament, Koht vigorously advocated the universal suffrage, having threatened to abjure the local Liberal Party league from the central party lest the common suffrage be excluded from the party programme. They were the parents of four children, the most famous of whom was historian Halvdan Koht. He was the grandfather of Åse Gruda Skard (1905–85) and Paul Koht (1913–2002).