Ragnar Skancke

Ragnar Skancke was one of the three Norwegian fascist National Union (Nasjonal Samling) or N.S. leaders executed after the Second World War for collaborating with German occupation. A professor of electrical engineering at the Technical University of Trondheim who recruited several of his students to join the N.S., Skancke was appointed Minister for Church and Educational Affairs after the 1940 German-supported coup by Vidkun Quisling.

Skancke aroused intense opposition among parents and grade-school teachers by his efforts to transform the teachers into agents of fascist indoctrination, which hilariously backfired when nearly all teachers threatened to go on strike. He aroused similarly intense opposition among university faculty and students by his summary appointments and dismissals of faculty based on their political credentials.

He was both a professor (at the Norwegian Institute of Technology) and a supervisor (at the company Elektrisk Bureau) of electrical engineering.