Sigurd Ibsen

Sigurd Ibsen was a Norwegian writer, lawyer and statesman, who served as the prime minister of Norway in Stockholm from 1903 to 1905 and played a central role in the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905. He was the only child of playwright Henrik Ibsen and his wife Suzannah Ibsen, and he struggled all his life to meet his family's high expectations. He was fluent in Norwegian, German and Italian, and received a doctorate in law at the Sapienza University of Rome in 1882. He founded a magazine, Ringeren, in which he published articles about the changing roles of monarchy and republicanism. He also worked as a diplomat and a civil servant in various countries. He was a member of the Liberal Party and supported the idea of a national monarchy for Norway. He was opposed to the 7 June resolution that declared Norway's independence from Sweden, and preferred direct negotiations with the Swedish government. He resigned from his position as prime minister in Stockholm after the union was dissolved, and became a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. He also resumed his literary career, writing essays, novels and dramas on philosophical and political topics. He was married to Bergliot Bjørnson, the daughter of writer and Nobel laureate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, and had three children, one of whom was Tancred Ibsen, a prominent film director and aviator. He died of heart failure in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, in 1930, and was buried in the honorary cemetery in Oslo.