Jonas Anton Hielm

Jonas Anton Hielm (born Dec. 30, 1782, Kristiansand, Nor.—died March 30, 1848, Christiania [now Oslo]) was a political leader who defended Norway’s position within the Swedish-Norwegian union and led an early attempt to form a national reform party with peasant and liberal urban support.

Hielm was elected to the Storting (parliament) in 1830. As part of his effort to forge a political party from urban and peasant elements, he aided in writing a political tract, “Olaboka” (1830; “Ole’s Book”), by John Neergaard, which resulted in a substantial increase in peasant political activity by 1833. The alliance did not come about, however, because of peasant distrust of the liberals. In 1830 Hielm also spoke out against Sweden’s failure to involve Norwegian representatives in the making of union foreign policy as provided for in the Constitution and the Act of Union of 1814. Largely because of Hielm’s individual efforts, this abuse of Norway’s status within the union was ended by the king in the mid-1830s. Hielm was also responsible for another triumph for Norway: the 1838 decision of the king to allow Norwegian merchant ships to fly the Norwegian, rather than the union, flag in all seas. For his effort in that affair Hielm became known as the “liberator of the flag.”