Ebbe Hertzberg


Ebbe Carsten Hornemann Hertzberg was a Norwegian professor and social economist. He was also a legal historian and published several works in that field.

Biography

Hertzberg was born at Holmestrand in Vestfold, Norway. He was the son of Johan Christian Linde Hertzberg and Inger Horneman. He attended the University of Christiania. In 1868, he was awarded the Crown Prince's gold medal for a thesis regarding changes in Norwegian judicial institutions. He graduated as cand.jur. in 1870.
He earned a travel scholarship and studied at Uppsala University from 1870. From 1872 to 1873, he studied under legal historian Konrad Maurer at the University of Munich.
He was appointed professor of statistics and economics at the University of Christiania in 1877. He was a short-time government minister during April-June 1884 as a member of the Council of State Division in Stockholm.
In 1886, Hertzberg withdrew from public life and moved away from Kristiania for a decade. Officially, this was motivated by a desire to focus on his research, but in reality he been pushed to resign by the university after admitting to being homosexual. During his exile in Berlin, Holmestrand, Munich and Stockholm, he completed his greatest work, a glossary of historic Norwegian legal terms, Glossarium til Norges gamle love.
In 1896, he returned to Kristiania where in 1903 he became director of Norges Hypotekbank and in 1906 he was appointed as an administrator in the National Archives. In 1901, he was awarded Knight 1st Class and in 1907 was decorated Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.

Selected works