This page has been automatically translated.
Einar Engebretsen was born in 1925. He grew up in Oslo with his parents and younger sister Rigmor. His parents, Ruth and Erling, were involved in the Oxford Movement, and meetings were held in their apartment in Oslo from the age of nine. In 1947, after graduating as a graphic designer from the National School of Crafts and Art Industry in Oslo, Einar was offered the position of newspaper artist at Arbeiderbladet by the editor himself, Rolf Gerhardsen. He declined, as he had already accepted his friend Viktor Sparre's offer to join and start an artist group in the international movement Moral Rearmament in Caux, Switzerland. He was supposed to stay for 14 days, but he ended up spending 14 years abroad as a full-time unpaid worker in MRA.
During the occupation of Norway in World War II, Einar and a friend were arrested and tortured by the Germans. Nevertheless, he chose to travel to Germany, to the Ruhr area in 1947, to work on reconciliation between Germans and French. He participated and helped organize large reconciliation conferences where Germans and French could meet and start working towards a peaceful future. The consequence of this work was the creation of the European Coal and Steel Union. It became the forerunner of today's EU. Later, he traveled with plays around America, Hollywood and Broadway. In an interview with Tønsbergs blad, he said: In the first years after the war, people here in Europe were keen to get the Americans to invest in helping us. In the wake of the war, we needed a helping hand and in our own special way we did our bit to get the Americans on board. In 1962, Einar became seriously ill and had to return to Norway to take it easy. He received a letter from Peter Howard encouraging him to write, which led him to start writing for newspapers at home and abroad, on ethical and moral topics. Here he also got to use his drawing skills, his sense of humor and the opportunity to earn a small income after many years of being unpaid. Viktor Sparre wrote about him: "Einar Engebretsen does not preach morality. He reveals the comical nature of self-righteousness and the half-morals of which we are all, to a greater or lesser extent, a part. He makes us laugh and sometimes cry at ourselves by recognizing that he himself is the biggest clown."
Einar lived in Sande for 40 years, where he actively participated in the local community and for 30 of those years, he and Mette Enge, also a cartoonist, ran an exhibition space where they invited people from all walks of life to the exhibition which consisted of drawings, articles, MRA archives, books... and there was always time for a good chat. Many of Einar's old MRA friends from far and wide were also frequent visitors. As an artist and philanthropist, he received the cultural award from Sande municipality in 2014. He had always dreamed of moving to Nøtterøy, where his family had lived for hundreds of years. In 2019, at the age of 94, he and Mette decided to move and bring the exhibition to Nøtterøy. It was hung up and he continued to have new and old friends visit the exhibition. To his delight, inspiration and annoyance, as he always said.
Einar died in 2024, aged 98. For the future, the exhibition will be open to the public and run in the same way as before, by Mette.
