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Norway

Princess Märtha Louise: “A Nazi killed himself in my room”

This week, Princess Märtha Louise, daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja was a guest in an Norwegian podcast. Among other things, the Norwegian princess talked about being highly sensitive with Märtha Louise saying that she only understood that she was highly sensitive when she was an adult.

The princess says that King Harald and Queen Sonja have been very accepting of her sensitivities. And she referred to her childhood, too. When Princess Märtha Louise was younger, the royal family lived at the Skaugum Estate in Asker just outside Oslo. It was when that the princess was talking about her childhood that a special story emerged.

The princess says in the podcast: “I saw very special thing in my room. I was terrified when I slept at night. I got suffocating sensations and everything like that. It was only in adulthood that they, King Harald and Queen Sonja, told me that it one of the Nazis had committed suicide in my room. That is why I had nightmares there, I understand that now”.

During Second World War, German Nazis lived on the Skaugum estate. Among them, Josef Terboven, lived on the property in Asker. Josef Terboven was a Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving Gauleiter of Gau Essen and the Reichskommissar for Norway during the German occupation. With the announcement of Germany’s surrender, Terboven committed suicide on 8 May 1945 by detonating 50 kg of dynamite in a bunker on the Skaugum Estate. A number of other Germans took their own lives on the property the same day, and one of them was in what was to become Princess Martha Louise’s bedroom.

According to researchers, high sensitivity is a personality trait that seems to be present from birth, and people who are highly sensitive often have a complex inner life.

About author

Senior Europe Correspondent Oskar Aanmoen has a master in military and political history of the Nordic countries. He has written six books on historical subjects and more than 1.500 articles for Royal Central. He has also interview both Serbian and Norwegian royals. Aanmoen is based in Oslo, Norway.