Harald V ascended to the Norwegian throne in 1991 and transformed the monarchy into a nonpartisan, inclusive institution. He passed away on August 28. 2026 at the age of 89. Author Awaatef Abdullah Hassan said, “He opened up a space I didn’t know existed.”1
On my way to work as a lecturer in Steiner pedagogy and anthroposophy, I walk through the palace park in Oslo. Today, I am met by a sea of people, children’s drawings, and flowers. Some have tears in their eyes. King Harald passed away just as the lunar eclipse reached its peak on the morning of September 28. “Since time immemorial, solar and lunar eclipses have been interpreted as omens of changes in power and the death of kings. It is as if the cosmos wanted to emphasize that he was our true monarch, destined by destiny,” wrote the religious studies scholar Jørg Arne Jørgensen.
King Harald, born on February 21, 1937, was the first king born in Norway in 560 years. At the age of three, he fled to the United States with his mother and siblings when Norway was occupied by Germany. The family lived on President Roosevelt’s estate and developed a close relationship with him. One of King Harald’s most vivid memories was standing directly behind President Roosevelt when he was inaugurated for the last time in 1945. He described the president as a sort of grandfather figure who had a profound influence on his childhood.
Harald was in love with a “common” woman: Sonja Haraldsen. The two met in secret for years. The press discovered the relationship, and a heated public debate ensued. Harald wanted to marry the woman he loved and issued his father an ultimatum: Either he would be allowed to marry Sonja, or he would remain unmarried for the rest of his life. Harald got his way, and the wedding took place on August 29, 1968. Following one’s heart and placing love above social norms were central themes in the speech that King Harald delivered nearly 50 years later, in August 2016. It was later described as a masterpiece of inclusive rhetoric. He focused on the right to love the person you love with all your heart, the right to be yourself, and respect for the dignity of all people regardless of what they believe, their gender, their sexual orientation, their culture, or their ethnicity. Harald described modern, diverse Norway in a way that no head of state had done before him.
His answer to the question “What does it mean to be Norwegian?” moved a nation—indeed, the world:
“Norwegians have immigrated from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland, Sweden, Somalia, and Syria. […] Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other. […] Norwegians believe in God, Allah, the universe, and nothingness. […] Norway is you. Norway is us.”2
The young author Awaatef Abdullah Hassan wrote about Harald that, before his speech in 2016, she had always “quietly felt she was an outsider.” But when he “spoke about Norwegianness as something we all carry in different ways, it was as if he opened up a space I didn’t know existed. […] He made it possible to stand in my own identity without feeling like it had to be adjusted to fit in.”3
Not only did gay, bisexual, and lesbian people find affirmation in the king’s speech, but transgender and gender-nonconforming people also found it inclusive. In 2016, King Harald unambiguously and matter-of-factly included the queer community in Norwegian society. When the international press highlighted how unusual this was, the king replied that he had simply described Norway as it is, and that he found it “a little strange” that this should come as a surprise to so many.4 Following the terrorist attack on the queer community in Oslo on June 25, 2022, King Harald once again used his voice to emphasize their place in society. He later explained that the way we, as a society, protect our minorities is “a litmus test of how well the Society functions.”5
The Jewish-Ukrainian-German thinker and politician Marina Weisband also spoke of such a litmus test in a lecture at the Unternehmen Mitte in Basel on November 11, 2024. She said that the state of a democracy and a country could be gauged by how transgender people were handled. Unfortunately, she noted, they were the so-called “canaries” that signaled what was wrong with a system. Weisband illustrated this point using the example of the Jewish minority in Germany during the interwar period. Members of that community did not develop a natural sense of belonging to society. As a result, they became a target for attack by fascist groups. The fascist tactic, she noted, has always been to stigmatize a small minority: an outgroup that could be sacrificed. Weisband asked: How does the Society behave toward transgender people, who are currently being singled out as the first victims?
In this regard, King Harald differs significantly from authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Since the beginning of his last term in office, Trump has rolled back rights that transgender people have fought for. His counterpart in the East compares gender incongruence and the fight for transgender rights to “new strains,” “like the coronavirus.”6
However, the pathologizing of transgender identity is by no means limited to these two so-called “strongmen.” Just as homosexuality was still largely pathologized in the 1970s, we still hear from many quarters today—I myself heard it in 2024 at a conference at the Goetheanum—that the feeling of belonging to a gender other than the one assigned at birth falls within the realm of psychiatry.
There was no reason to expect King Harald to make such statements and thereby, as Hassan wrote, open up a space she didn’t know existed. Far-right political parties, whose racist thinking and ideology of white supremacy are permeated by conspiracy theories about a planned replacement of the European and Western populations, are experiencing strong growth across Europe. Cultural minorities feel the effects of this firsthand every single day. Against this backdrop, it is important that people in positions of power—and this applies especially to a head of state, like King Harald—stand up for the dignity of all people.
In the inaugural address of the new Norwegian monarch, King Håkon, there are signs that he will follow in his father’s footsteps. He emphasized that he “will always strive to understand the life situations of different people” and that he “believes in a Norway where there is room for everyone.”7
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Image King Harald at the opening of the new St. Olav Hospital in Trondheim on June 12, 2010, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Footnotes
- Awaatef Abdullah Hassan, “Ordene hans var et løfte” [His words were a promise], VG, August 30, 2026.
- King Harald V of Norway, “Hagefest i Slottsparken: Velkomsttale” [Garden Party in the Palace Park: Welcome Remarks] (address, Royal Palace Palace Park, Oslo, September 1, 2016), Royal House of Norway.
- See footnote 1.
- Harald Stanghelle, “Kong Harald om verdensutviklingen: – Synes det minner ubehagelig om mellomkrigstiden” [KKing Harald on global developments: “I find it uncomfortably reminiscent of the interwar period”], interview with King Harald V, A-magasinet, Aftenposten, May 4, 2017, updated May 5, 2017.
- King Harald V of Norway, “Stortingsmiddagen 2022: Kongens tale” [2022 Storting Banquet: The King’s Speech] (speech, Oslo, October 27, 2022), Royal House of Norway.
- Vladimir Putin, “Vladimir Putin’s Annual News Conference,” transcript of speech delivered on December 23, 2021, President of Russia, Presidential Executive Office,. [Note: The original quote referred to Russia’s “traditional values” vs. a “caravan of values” that included “cancel culture, rejection of usual concepts like ‘mum,’ ‘dad,’ ‘family’ and even ‘gender.’”]
- Haakon VIII, “Minnetale over Kong Harald V” [Eulogy for King Harald V], address to the Norwegian people, August 29, 2026, Det norske kongehus.
