Trygve Bratteli

Trygve Martin Bratteli (January 11, 1910 - November 20, 1984) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party.

Bratteli was born in Nøtterøy, where he attended primary school. He was unemployed for some time, worked as a messenger, a whaler, and construction worker. Named as secretary of the Labour Party's crisis committee during the Nazi invasion of Norway, he was arrested by the Germans in 1942 and survived being a Nacht und Nebel prisoner of various German concentration camps from 1943 to 1945.

After returning to Norway in 1945, he became vice chairman of the party, served on the newly formed defense commission, and in 1965 he was made chairman of the Labour Party. He served in the Norwegian Storting from 1950 to 1981, and also minister of finance and transportation. He was Prime Minister of Norway from 1971 to 1972 and from 1973 to 1976. As the first Labour Party prime minister since Einar Gerhardsen's resignation, it fell on his shoulders to set a new tone for Labour governments. Central to his political career was the question of Norway's membership of the European Union. Following the close rejection of membership, he resigned his cabinet.

Trygve Bratteli was considered a skilled politician and a person of integrity. He wrote a number of autobiographical and political books. His memoirs about his time in German concentration camps - Prisoner in Night and Fog - became a bestseller in Norway.