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Home > Histories & Narratives > Minnesotans > Minnesotans and the Holocaust > Liberation Scenes > Reidar Dittmann

Curriculum Vitae

Reidar Dittmann

Professor Emeritus of Art History and Norwegian, St. Olaf College

Biographical and Educational Information

January 15, 1922	Born in Tonsberg, Norway
June 1941-1942	Following graduation from the Upper Secondary School, Studied music at Oslo University and Oslo Conservatory of Music.
1940-1945	During German occupation member of the Resistance Movement;Apprehended and deported to Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar in Germany. Released near the end of the war.
1945-1948	Recipient of a St. Olaf College scholarship awarded 'a Norwegian whose studies had been interrupted by wartime activities.' Studied with F. Melius Christiansen and graduated with the degrees B. of Music and B. of Arts. Graduate studies in music composition with Donald Fergusan, Univ. of Minesota
1955-1960	Choral works performed by St. Olaf music organization (the Manitou Singers)
1948-1949	On leave from St. Olaf, instructor and consultant in music and art at the Haile Selassie Secondary School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1964-1975	Director of International Studies. Developed Semester programs in Europe, the Near East amd the Far East and a Global Semester
1975-1988	Director the St. Olaf Gallery Program
1975 to 1933	Professor of Art History
Graduate Degrees	M.A. and Ph.D. both at The University of Washington

Publications

1968	Rolf Stenersen's Edvard Munch: Close-Up of a Genius. Translated and Edited. Oslo, Gyldendal
1970	The Educational System of Norway. Washington, DC.
1978	Munch and Ibsen. Northfield, Minnesota
1981	Structures of Influence, Essays on August Strindberg. Contributor. University of North Carolina Press
1982	Eros and Psyche: Strindberg and Munch in the 1890s. Ann Arbor, Michigan
1988	Great Personalities Renaissance to the Present. Contributor. Los Angeles, Salem Press
1990	Witness to the Holocaust. Contributor to a series of essays by concentration camp survivors. Boston, Twayne
1990	International Dictionary of Art and Artists. Principal contributor. London, St. James Press
1994	Edvard Grieg Now. Contributor. St. Olaf College Press
1998	The Work of His Hands. Biography of Surgeon and sculptor Kaare Nygaard by Inge Eidsvag. Translated and edited. St. Olaf College Press

Awards and Lectureships

	Member Phi Beta Kappa
1950 to present	Lecturer and panelist throughout Minnesota at Memorial Observations, high school and college workshops on The Holocaust
1968	Minnesota Jewish Community Center and the B'nai Brit award for efforts on behalf of Lutheran-Jewish Relations
1977	Awarded the St. Olav Medal by the King of Norway
1978	National Endowment for the Humanities grant for study with H. W. Janson at the Swiss Institute of Art History, Zurich
1987	Interviewed on Public Television's program Triumph of Memory
1988	The Norway-America Heritage Foundation Lecture Award for lecturing at universities and museums throughout Norway
1984 to the present	Visiting lecturer, Oslo International Summer School
1985 to the present	Listed in Who is Who in America,Who Is Who in the Midwest, and Who is Who in the Humanities
1991	Included in Selected Gentile Biographies in the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC
1993	Instructor at Holden Village Lutheran Retreat Center in the Cascades of Washington State
1993	Official participant in the Opening of the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1993-95	Leader of St. Olaf College Continuing Education Elderhostels and travel programs in the United States, Scandinavia, and Italy
2000	Recipient of the first St.Olaf International Studies Award