Kongebjørka
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Royal Birch (Norwegian: Kongebjørka) is a Norwegian national symbol and memorial of the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II. It is located at Glomstua in the city of Molde in Møre og Romsdal, Norway.
King Haakon VII and Crown Prince Olav were photographed by Per Bratland seeking shelter under the birch tree during a German bombing raid during the last weekend of April 1940. The iconic image was spread across the world and inspired further resistance to the occupation. It also inspired the poet Nordahl Grieg, who was also in the area during the bombing, to write his poem Kongen.
In 1955, a memorial was erected near the tree. Close to the Royal Birch is a Peace Grove (Fredslunden) which was inaugurated in 1997. The original birch tree was destroyed by vandals in 1981, but a new birch tree was planted by King Olav V in 1982.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q788422. Authority coordinates are 62.740, 7.127. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 1955, 1997 and 1981.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kongebjørka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.