Christiania or Oslo? Such was the battle for the city’s name

In 1924 it was 300 years since King Christian IV founded the city with his name. Now the name dispute left its mark on the city jubilee itself. As early as 1859, historian PA Munch complained about the “new, self-invented and semi-barbaric name Christiania”, and in 1866 the man behind the Nynorsk written language, Ivar Aasen, advocated a name change. He thought Christiania was foreign and tiring to write, and therefore got difficult abbreviations such as Chra and Xania.

After the new Local Government Act of 1921, the power to decide on a name change was given to the Storting. The cities themselves were only given the right to express themselves. (Photo: Oslo Museum)

The Norwegianization of the name, from Ch to K, was adopted by the state authorities in 1877, but not until twenty years later by the municipality. But the target group wanted something more, they wanted the Danish king away from the town name. The name Oslo began to emerge as an alternative.

The Farmers’ Youth Association was founded in Kristiania in 1899 and became an important player in the battle for the town’s name. In the same year, the Swedish Language Association held a large agitation meeting at the Eldorado cinema. In 1913, there were regular fights between Riksmål youth and target people when Det Norske Teatret opened its doors at Rosenkrantzgata 8. The target people’s counterpart was the city citizenry, represented by the Riksmål people, but the Danish era also became the symbol of a dark time for Norway. In this way, the town’s name went straight to the heart of goal strife and city against village.

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The Liberal Minister and goalkeeper Jørgen Løvland was a driving force behind Kristiania changing its name to Oslo. (Photo: Anders B. Wilse/Oslo Museum)

Captain Marcus Thorvald Torkildsen sat on the Aker municipal council for the Samlingspartiet, an electoral collaboration between the Conservative Party, the Moderate Liberal Party and more liberal breakaways from the Liberal Party. In 1907, he proposed to Kristiania’s chairmanship that “our National Capital gets its old one back Norwegian name Osloinstead of this ugly, impractical, Danish Christiania. The district of Oslo had to be changed at the same time to the popular ‘Old Town'”. The following year he tried again together with several others, and asked to get rid of the Kristiania name “this old darkness from our time of degradation”.

At the same time, 330 teams from Norges Ungdomslag sent in signed petitions for a name change. The chairmanship of Kristiania now took up the matter and asked the Kristiania Chamber of Commerce for a statement. The Chamber of Commerce believed that a name change would lead to “much confusion and many disadvantages in the city’s trade relations with foreign countries, in addition to the fact that a number of institutions of a public and private nature have attached their name to the city’s current name”. In 1909, the Board of Directors decided by fourteen to five votes to keep Kristiania as the name of the town.

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Target versus national target and city versus country were central contradictions in the battle for the capital's name. The peasant teams got their own place with Kaffistova from 1901. — Target versus national target and city versus country were central contradictions in the battle for the capital’s name. The peasant teams got their own place with Kaffistova from 1901. (Photo: Herman Christian Neupert/Oslo Museum)

But the war was not over! In 1919, the matter came up again, put forward by Jørgen Løvland, Minister of Church and Education from the Liberal Party. He was leader of Norges Mållag from 1909–1912 and was behind the compulsory written exam in side goals. Now the capital’s name was again on the agenda. The matter came up in the city council, and here the debate was emotionally charged. Mållag people and socialists stood together in the desire for a vernacular language, and to remove the traces of the Danish monarchy. But the proposal was voted down by 52 to 29 votes.

Oslo Norway's capital. Oslo The Capital of Norway. Oslo Capital of Norway. Oslo Die Haupstadt Norwegens. Stamps in the most important world languages to inform about the name change. — Oslo Norway’s capital. Oslo The Capital of Norway. Oslo Capital of Norway. Oslo Die Haupstadt Norwegens. Stamps in the most important world languages to inform about the name change. (Oslo City Archive/The Chairmanship)

When Løvland’s Venstre government was replaced by a Conservative government, there were still strong forces that worked for a name change. The Municipal Act from 1921 established that the towns only had the right to express themselves, and that the decision rested with the Storting. Målfolk raised the issue again, which came up again in the city council in January 1924. The Conservatives now accused the communists of pushing through the Oslo name as a “victory for the radical parties in the city and in the countryside. The victory will symbolize that worker and farmer have discovered their common interests and over the city marsh are reaching out to each other to cooperate and fight against common enemies”.

The Conservative Party and Liberal Liberal Party bound their representatives to vote against the name change, while the Liberal Party and the Labor Party bound their representatives for the Oslo name. The proposal ended with 42 for and 42 against, so that the mayor’s vote decided the battle. “Oslo live” was shouted from the gallery, but the proposal was voted down. On 11 July 1924, the Storting decided by law that Kristiania should be called Oslo from 1 January 1925.

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