Louis Bentzen

Louis Bentzen was born as the son of a print shop owner in Vestre Aker, now a suburb of Oslo. He graduated from school in 1883 and became an Army officer in 1887. For the next two years, he attended the Gymnastic Central School in Kristiania and later graduated from the Central Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm in 1894. As an Army officer, he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1898, major in 1911, and lieutenant colonel in 1917.

Bentzen was a gymnastics teacher at various schools in Kristiania and instructor for the Kristiania Gymnastics Association until 1904. After working as a teacher at the Gymnastic Central School for several years, he served as the school’s manager from 1904-15. In this position, he led the Norwegian gymnastics team at the Intercalated Games at Athens in 1906 and was a member of the jury at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. During this period, he was also an instructor for the Norwegian Life Saving Society. Bentzen was then director of the State Gymnastics School from 1915-31, and subsequently chairman of the supervisory board from 1932-37. From 1904-27, he was also State Gymnastics Inspector. In addition, he published tables and regulations for gymnastics and fencing for the Army and for schools.

Bentzen held additional honorary positions including chairman of the community and welfare association of Blommenholm in Bærum municipality, chairman of the Tjalve Sports Club and board member of the Central Association for the Promotion of Sports. In 1895, he married Elin Dorothea Charlotta Klintberg and, after her early death in 1906, Thora Magdalene Hals Olsen, a dancing teacher, in 1918. With his first wife, he had a daughter and two sons, one of which died in his infancy. In 1894, Bentzen also became the father of an illegitimate daughter, who died at age 21.