Hagbard Emanuel Berner

Hagbard Emanuel Berner (12 September 1839 – 24 January 1920) was a Norwegian jurist, politician and newspaper editor. He initiated a series of long-lived enterprises, including the publishing house Det Norske Samlaget, the newspaper Dagbladet and the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights.

Background

Berner was born in Sunndal in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. He was the son of parish priest Ole Christian Berner and Laura Nicoline Collin. The family moved to Akershus in 1850. He married Selma Augusta Hovind in 1871. He was the brother-in-law of both industrialist Hans Mustad and Hans Gerhard Stub (1849–1931), Bishop of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America.

Career

Berner graduated as a student in 1858, and as a jurist in 1863. In Christiania he befriended intellectuals such as Ernst Sars and Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, and became politically active and a supporter of the Nynorsk language. He co-founded the publishing house Det Norske Samlaget in 1868, and was its chairman until 1877.