Brekke

This article is about the former municipality in Sogn, Norway. For other uses, see Brekke (disambiguation).

Brekke is a former municipality in the old Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. The municipality has existed two separate times: from 1850 until 1861 and then again from 1905 until its dissolution in 1964. It was located in the northeastern part of the present-day Gulen Municipality in Vestland county. The municipality encompassed about 207 square kilometres (80 sq mi) south of the Sognefjorden, centered on the Risnesfjorden arm that reaches to the south from the main fjord. The administrative center of the municipality was the village of Brekke, located on the southern shore of the Sognefjord, about a 35 kilometres (22 mi) drive from the village of Eivindvik. The main church for the municipality was Brekke Church.^[2]

Brekke Municipality Brekke herad
Former municipality
Brække herred  (historic name)
View of the village of Brekke
Sogn og Fjordane within Norway
Brekke within Sogn og Fjordane
Coordinates: 61°01′07″N 05°27′41″E
Country	Norway
County	Sogn og Fjordane
District	Sogn
Established	1850
• Preceded by	Evenvig Municipality
Disestablished	1 Jan 1861
• Succeeded by	Lavik og Brekke Municipality
Re-established	1 Jan 1905
• Preceded by	Lavik og Brekke Municipality
Disestablished	1 Jan 1964
• Succeeded by	Gulen Municipality
Administrative centre	Brekke
Area  (upon dissolution)
• Total	207 km2 (80 sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1414[1]
Data from Statistics Norway

History

The parish of Brekke was originally established as a municipality in 1850 when it was split off from the municipality of Evindvig. Initially, Brekke had a population of 898. In 1861, Brekke (population: 898) was merged with neighboring municipality of Lavik (population: 926) to form the new municipality of Lavik og Brekke. On 1 January 1875, a part of Klævold municipality with 90 inhabitants was moved to Lavik og Brekke.^[3]

On 1 January 1905, the municipality of Lavik og Brekke was split (back) into two parts, Lavik (population: 1,182) and Brekke (population: 982). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Brekke municipality ceased to exist when it was merged with Gulen, the neighboring municipality to the west, forming a new, larger municipality of Gulen. Before the merger, Brekke had a population of 782.^[3]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Brekke farm (Old Norse: Brekka) since the first Brekke Church was built there. The name is identical to the word brekka which means "slope". Historically, the spelling of the name was not formalized until the 1800s, so spellings such as Breche, Bræcke, and Brække were also used.^[4][5]

Government

During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[6]

Mayors

The mayors of Brekke:^[7]

• 1850-1855: Ola Mathiasson Asheim
• 1856-1859: Lasse Hermundson Fram-Brekke
• (1861-1905: Part of Lavik og Brekke)
• 1905-1910: Johannes L. Wergeland
• 1911-1916: Ivar Sjurson Haugland
• 1917-1919: Ola K. Indre Oppedal
• 1920-1922: Mons Hanson Ytre Takle
• 1923-1925: Ola K. Indre Oppedal
• 1926-1928: Mons Hanson Ytre Takle
• 1929-1931: Ola K. Indre Oppedal
• 1932-1934: Mons Hanson Ytre Takle
• 1935-1937: Sjur I. Haugland
• 1938-1943: Nils R. Dale
• 1943-1945: Berner Ellingsen
• 1945-1945: Nils R. Dale
• 1946-1959: Torvald Hjellum
• 1959-1963: Tormod Tynning

Municipal council

The municipal council (Heradsstyre) of Brekke was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Brekke heradsstyre 1960–1963 ^[8]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	2
	Centre Party (Senterpartiet)	7
	Liberal Party (Venstre)	4
Total number of members:		13

Brekke heradsstyre 1956–1959 ^[9]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	2
	Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet)	5
	Liberal Party (Venstre)	6
Total number of members:		13

Brekke heradsstyre 1952–1955 ^[10]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	3
	Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgarlege Felleslister)	8
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	1
Total number of members:		12

Brekke heradsstyre 1948–1951 ^[11]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	3
	Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgarlege Felleslister)	9
Total number of members:		12

Brekke heradsstyre 1945–1947 ^[12]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	2
	Farmers' Party (Bondepartiet)	2
	Liberal Party (Venstre)	2
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	6
Total number of members:		12

Brekke heradsstyre 1938–1941* ^[13]  

Party name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	6
	Joint List(s) of Non-Socialist Parties (Borgarlege Felleslister)	5
	Local List(s) (Lokale lister)	1
Total number of members:		12
Note: Due to the German occupation of Norway during World War II, no elections were held for new municipal councils until after the war ended in 1945.

Notable people

• Peder Furubotn (born 1890 in Brekke), a Communist and anti-Nazi resistance leader

See also

• List of former municipalities of Norway

References

1. Bolstad, Erik; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (26 January 2023). "Kommunenummer". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget.
2. Askheim, Svein, ed. (23 September 2019). "Brekke - Gulen". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
3. Jukvam, Dag (1999). Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå. ISBN 9788253746845.
4. Arthur, Ross G. (2002). English-Old Norse Dictionary (PDF). Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. Rygh, Oluf (1919). Norske gaardnavne: Nordre Bergenhus amt (in Norwegian) (12 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. pp. 190–193.
6. Hansen, Tore; Vabo, Signy Irene, eds. (20 September 2022). "kommunestyre". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
7. "Ordførarar i Gulen kommune". NRK Fylkesliksikon (in Norwegian). 19 January 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
8. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1959" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1960. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
9. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1955" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1957. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
10. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1951" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1952. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
11. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1947" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1948. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
12. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1945" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1947. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
13. "Kommunevalgene og Ordførervalgene 1937" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Oslo: Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1938. Retrieved 11 May 2020.

External links

• Weather information for Brekke Archived 20 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in Norwegian)
• Map of the Municipality of Brekke