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The
Independence of the Committee
A Committee of Five
| A Political Prize | Why
a Norwegian Nobel Committee? | From
Nomination to Ceremony & Nominators and Campaigns | Professional
Advisers | The Norwegian Nobel committee
has decided...
The committee is formally independent even of the Storting,
and since 1901 it has repeatedly emphasized its independence. However,
as can be seen from the composition of the committee, during the
first decades it was closely linked not only to the Norwegian political
establishment in general, but also to the Government. This was changed
in 1936, when the prize was awarded to the German peace advocate
and Jew, Carl von Ossietzky. That decision was, as expected, highly
controversial and caused sharp reactions from Hitler himself. The
Norwegian Foreign Minister and a former Prime Minister both had
withdrawn from the Committee's discussions in order to emphasize
that the award was not an act of Norwegian foreign policy. The year
after, the Norwegian Storting formally decided to ban members of
the Government from the Committee. A second change was made in 1977,
when the Storting decided that its members should not participate
in nonparliamentary committees appointed by the Storting itself.
Since then the Storting has generally appointed former MPs and other
people with political knowledge and experience to the Committee.
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