This large granite sculpture was unveiled in 1950. The artist is Stinius Fredriksen. It depicts President Roosevelt about 2x lifesized sitting in an armchair. He looks older than normally depicted and wears a long cloak over his suit. He appears to be looking at something in the distance. The plinth is a large cube..made from the same material as the statue and has the inscription:
"FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT" with a relief of two crossing laurels.
This website (
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"The Franklin Roosevelt monument is on the south end of the corso by the docklands in Oslo city. I thought it rather odd on discovering it. Why the hec is there a huge American President carved in stone sitting on one of Oslo’s prime real estates – on the high ground over looking the Nobel Peace Centre and the Oslo Town Hall? Franklin Roosevelt must have made a big impression on the Norwegian people.
It just so happens that Roosevelt redeemed the Norwegian people from the negative opinions of America by his high regard and praise of Norway during World War II. An article written by the journalist Leland Stowe that was printed in several US papers smeared the character of the Norwegian people in regards to the Nazi invasion of Norway. However, like many outsiders, Stowe, misunderstood the Norwegians around him and when Nazis were invading Oslo he wrote comments like ‘we could see this stunned look of incomprehension in their upturned faces’ and ‘bewildered citizens looked dumbly on’. His questionings suggested that Norwegians did nothing and that they even helped Norway get invaded. In 1940, Roosevelt had already praised the Norwegian Resistant Fighters, but in September of 1942, he declaired in a speech:
If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought, let him look to Norway. If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted, let him look to Norway; and if there is anyone who doubts the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway."
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