Terboven and the fate of Quisling — Oslo

With Norway conquered, Hitler appointed a Reichskommissar there in April 1940, Josef Terboven, a senior Nazi official charged with administering it for the Reich. King Haakon VII and the legitimate government are in exile in London. Still to be settled is the question of local power: should reliance be placed on Vidkun Quisling, leader of the collaborationist party Nasjonal Samling, who attempted a radio coup at the very moment of the invasion?

Quisling is awkward. His name is already synonymous with treason, his party is small and unpopular, and his April radio coup collapsed in a few days, the Germans themselves having promptly shelved him. Berlin is wondering: would a despised puppet really serve a quiet occupation? The question sets administrative efficiency against the ideology that pushes for rewarding a local Nazi ally within the "new order."

On September 25, 1940, Terboven delivers a speech setting the organization of power in occupied Norway. He must decide the fate of Quisling and Nasjonal Samling: install Quisling in government, sideline him in favor of a council of commissioners taking orders from the occupier, or maintain the fiction of a neutral Norwegian administration.