Ski – National Identity

[Andreas Follesdal February 1, 1998]

Illustrated by the 1814 Norwegian Constitutional debate on skiing:

Grunnlovsforslag om allmenn verneplikt og lovfestet krav om undervisning i skiløping for alle norske gutter.

One of the suggestions circulated during the Norwegian Constitutional debate of 1814 was mandatory military service and legally sanctioned education in skiing for all Norwegian boys:

Det maa blive en paahvilende Pligt for den geistlige, civile og militaire Øvrighed, overalt i Landet, at opmuntre Landets unge Sønner til idelige Vinter-Øvelser paa Skie.

[The religious, civil and military authorities everywhere in the country must be required to encourage the young Sons of the Country to partake in Winter Exercises on skis.]

Oberst (Colonel) Diderich Hegermann, April 21, 1814. President of riksforsamlingen (the Constitutional Convention) March 18-25 1814. (Den Norske Rigs-Forsamlings Forhandlinger paa Eidsvold i Aaret 1814, Christiania. Hefte 4: 37)

This suggestion did receive some spirited support:

Oberst v. Hegermanns Forslag om Indførelsen af en National-Opdragelse tiltræder jeg med en fra mit Indre sig hævende levende Følelse af Bifald. Det forekommer mig indlysende, at Opdragelsen bor tidlig meddele sin kraftfulde Næring til den Spire i den Unges Hjerte, hvorfra National-Charakteren siden kan opflyde i sin elskeligste Form. …

I Sandhed, slige Planteskoler for Gymnastiken, hensigtsmessigen indrettede, maatte vel regnes iblandt de Dannelses-Anstalter, hvorpaa Nationens Haab og Ære beroede.

[I support Colonel v. Hegermann’s suggestion regarding the introduction of a national education, with a live feeling of acclamation emerging from my innermost being. It appears to me obvious that Education ought to convey its powerful nourishment to that germ in the heart of the young, from which the National Character can flow forth in its most lovable form… Truly, such Greenhouses for gymnastics, prudently constituted, must be regarded among those arrangements of Character formation upon which the Nation’s Hope and Dignity depends.]

Jørgen Aall, May 14 1814. (ibid., Hefte 6: 107-9)

The suggestion was not accepted, receiving 9 votes in favor, 99 against (ibid, Hefte 4:85)

References:

Den Norske Rigs-Forsamlings Forhandlinger paa Eidsvold i Aaret 1814, Christiania.

Olav Christensen: Skiidrett før Sondre: Vinterveien til et nasjonalt selvbilde. Ad notam 1993.