Housing and Heart - Erling Næss (1895-1992)

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The article was first published on Skeivopedia on May 18, 2020.

He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, and he didn't engage with women. Well, except for a three-year, not particularly successful marriage to a Salvation Army lady after the war. This is the second part of a series about the pioneer Erling Næss and his time. The activist and journalist Svein Skeid is behind the series, which is based on unique interview material, and was first presented on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the queer movement in Norway. 

"Mother in Need"

Erling himself believed that abstaining from women and alcohol was the reason for his old age and sharp memory when I interviewed him for the newspaper Fritt Fram in 1990.

If one is to believe the local press in Sogn og Fjordane where he grew up, Erling Næss (August 3, 1895 - July 12, 1992) was a hardworking and energetic person. He often mediated and visited people who were in prison. He took many initiatives for temperance work and was involved in the Protection Association for young people who had come into conflict with society.

Erling helped many. Perhaps it is not surprising that he was nicknamed "Mother in Need" by his own.

-Today, few people owe me money, Erling said two years before his death.

He had lent a guy a 10-kroner note, which was a large sum at the time. This spread in the community: - Oh God. I have borrowed a 10-kroner note from a really wonderful guy. After this, Erling got the name "Mother in Need" and it stuck with him ever since.

Poverty and Upbringing in Western Norway

Erling Næss's 97-year-long life is fascinating, not least because his personal class journey from the son of a cotter in Outer Sogn to a wealthy property owner with 12 properties ran parallel to the class journey of homosexuals from stinking urinals to an organized gay movement and formal rights.

Erling came from Western Norway to Kristiania as a sexual refugee, away from deep poverty, and perhaps also to escape an unpleasant stepmother.

He was born at his mother's home in Balestrand as the fourth of seven siblings. But the family soon moved to his father's home in Kjørevika in Hyllestad, on the Næss farm, where the boy grew up.

His father, Ivar Monsen Næss, was a cotter with six cows, some chickens, goats, and a horse. The outbuilding in the middle to the left in the picture was home to nine people. They got warmth from the livestock next door. Outside, they had an oven for cooking.

His mother, Lukrits Hansdatter, died when Erling was 13 years old. The new stepmother was reportedly not kind to the children, and Erling ran away at the age of 14 through the attic hatch and took the county boats to Skjerjehamn south of the Sognefjord. He did not thrive there, and the journey continued to Bergen.

At the age of 15, the archives show that Erling was placed for care on a neighboring farm as "publicly supported," and the following year he registered his move to Gulen.

Via Rjukan to Kristiania

He became aware of his sexual orientation at the age of 17 after he had moved to Rjukan. The bathhouse at the factory where he worked was full of naked men, and for the first time, he felt this wonderful and strange feeling of what was right for him.

Erling thought he was the only one in the world with such feelings until he met a guy with the same interest as himself. It was at a coach station where he was going to spend the night. He was supposed to share a room with another man in a room with only one bed. Erling offered to sleep on the floor but was immediately offered to share the bed. "You can lie next to me." After half an hour, there was contact between them.

-It was an incredible feeling, Erling said. But afterward, I became nervous. I thought the whole world knew about what had happened.

Erling told me that he moved to Kristiania in 1915, but the archives show a moving notice to Sofies gate 10 near Bislett in Oslo as early as April 14, 1913.

For many, it was tough economic times, and the archives from the poor relief committee show that Erling was temporarily supported as late as 1922.

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From Chocolate Dealer to Property Owner

The economic turnaround came when Erling started the Fruit & Chocolate Shop at Pilestredet 29 in 1918. He ran this shop for seven years. In the 1930s, he had a total of three shops.

Eventually, he earned enough to buy apartment buildings. At most, he owned a total of 12 properties.

-You could get an apartment building for 15,000 kroner back then, Erling says. There was no fortune to be made from rental income. A large two-room furnished apartment could cost 33 kroner a month. The workday was usually 16-18 hours.

One of these buildings was Dalsbergstien 21, where Næss ran a hostel for 28 years from 1930. He could have up to 69 guests at most.

-After staying there for eight days, we gave a ten percent discount on the rent. There was a great shortage of both jobs and housing back then, says Erling.

-At my place, they could stay for four weeks, and then they had to move to another place to comply with the law. Often, they moved back to me later. All kinds of people lived here, including several policemen.

-Many homosexuals lived with me over the years. Often, they wrote to me after they had moved out and told me about their orientation. We had to keep a very low profile. Once, a man, probably from the police, came to the door and asked what kind of people lived here. I showed him around, including the police uniforms hanging in the hallway. He was probably there to warn me.

Erling Næss has no direct descendants, but perhaps the homosexuals and people who had fallen on hard times became his children.

On his 75th birthday, Sogn Dagblad wrote:

Erling Næss always finds an excuse for those who have fallen out with society. "Try to find the cause of the evil - try them with good, no one is hopeless, let us lead them on the right path." That is Næss's motto.

For many, Erling Næss truly became a "Mother in need." With his warm room for frozen night wanderers, Bislett hostel functioned almost as an unofficial gay house for 28 years.

Read more about Erling Næss's role in the establishment of a Norwegian gay organization in 1950.

Erling Næss died in 1992, two years after I interviewed him. He is buried at Bekkelaget cemetery along with descendants of Erling's youngest sister Lydia.

In the third part of this series, we can read about the homosexual subculture in Norway, which may have emerged earlier than has been possible to document so far.

By the way:

Erling Næss was active until the end and typically loved to walk. At 94 years old, he was to be honored at the Edderkoppen theater during Oslo Pride. I asked: - How did you get here? Did you take a taxi?

No, I walked, Erling replied. He had walked all the way from St. Hanshaugen to St. Olavs plass, and indeed he walked all the way home again too.. uphill.