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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Thorstein Fretheim

Norwegian politician (1886–1971)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 11, 2024
Entity authorityQ7796746 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thorstein John Ohnstad Fretheim (10 May 1886 – 29 June 1971) was a Norwegian acting councillor of state in the NS government of Vidkun Quisling 1940–1941, and minister 1941–1945. Fretheim was a district veterinary by profession. In the post-war legal purges he was convicted of treason and sentenced to 20 years of forced labour, being pardoned in 1951.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Thorstein Fretheim” as norwegian politician (1886–1971). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1886, 1971, 1940, 1941—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1886-05-10. The account is most persuasive where Thorstein, Fretheim and Norwegian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as norwegian politician (1886–1971). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 11, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7796746. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1971, 1940 and 1941.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thorstein Fretheim”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thorstein Fretheim primary sources, Thorstein Fretheim archive and Thorstein research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thorstein Fretheim”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thorstein Fretheim” 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.