Niels Mathias Rye

Niels Mathias Rye (24 August 1824 - 6 February 1905) was a Norwegian politician.^[1]

He was born at Bø i Telemark in 1824, as the son of Lieutenant Colonel Johan Mathias Rye (1793–1860) and Christiane Elisabeth Sparre, née Gasmann. He married Thale Cathrine Rye, daughter of former President of the Storting Johan Henrik Rye.

Having graduated as cand.jur. from the University of Christiania in 1846, he started a career as a civil servant in Norwegian government ministries. He started as a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, who handled postal affairs. He eventually advanced to higher positions, being appointed head of division in the General Post Directorate in 1857. This agency existed only from 1857 to 1860. In 1860 he moved to the Ministry of the Navy and Postal Affairs, the new name of the ministry following a restructure, and became deputy secretary (ekspedisjonssekretær) in 1863.

In 1869 Rye left his position to become County Governor of Søndre Bergenhus (today named Hordaland).^{[citation needed]} In 1877 he was elected to the Norwegian Parliament, representing the constituency of Bergen.^[2] He served a two-year term, but was not re-elected. Instead he returned to a post as County Governor, this time in Bratsberg (today named Telemark) to which he had been appointed in 1877. In 1880 he moved on to be County Governor of Kristiania diocese county.

However, Rye was not gone from the national political scene. He was appointed acting Minister of the Interior from 21 March to 3 April 1884, and acting Prime Minister from 29 March to 3 April 1884. This was a turbulent year in Norwegian politics: Rye replaced Ole Andreas Bachke, who himself was acting Prime Minister following the impeachment case of the cabinet Selmer. On 3 April a new cabinet Schweigaard was finally constituted. It lasted only two months, being replaced by the Liberal cabinet Sverdrup on 26 June.

He died in February 1905, weeks after his retirement from the position of diocesan governor of Kristiania. He was buried at Vår Frelsers gravlund.

References

1. ^ Unless otherwise noted, the entire article is based on the Niels Rye biography at regjeringen.no
2. ^ Niels Mathias Rye born 1824 - Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD)

Preceded by Hans J. C. Aall	County Governor of Bratsberg 1877–1880	Succeeded by Ulrik Frederik Arneberg
Preceded by August Christian Manthey	County Governor of Kristiania 1880–1905	Succeeded by Otto Albert Blehr
Preceded by Niels Petersen Vogt	Minister of the Interior (acting) March 1884–April 1884	Succeeded by Thomas Cathinco Bang
Preceded by Ole Bachke (acting)	Prime Minister of Norway (acting) March 1884–April 1884	Succeeded by Christian Homann Schweigaard

Persondata
Name	Rye, Niels Mathias
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	24 August 1824
Place of birth	Bø, Telemark
Date of death	6 February 1905
Place of death