Anders Behring Breivik
Who was Anders Behring Breivik?
Norwegian far-right terrorist who killed 77 people in coordinated attacks in Oslo and Utøya on July 22, 2011.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Anders Behring Breivik (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Anders Behring Breivik was born on February 13, 1979, in Oslo, Norway. He grew up in the city's western area and went to Hartvig Nissen School before enrolling at Oslo Commerce School. He later attended courses at the University of Oslo and Molde University College but didn't finish a traditional academic path. As a teenager, he was arrested for graffiti, showing early signs of ignoring legal rules. He later joined the anti-immigration Progress Party and led its Vest Oslo youth branch in 2002 but left in 2006, feeling the party wasn't radical enough on immigration and Islam.
In the mid-2000s, Breivik tried to become an entrepreneur and trader, starting a company that eventually failed. By 2009, he reported no income. He joined a gun club in 2005, which he later used to legally get firearms. In the years that followed, he planned a major terrorist attack, racking up about 130,000 euros on credit cards to buy weapons, supplies, and gear. He also spent a lot of time writing a long ideological manifesto, which he sent out electronically the morning of his attacks.
On July 22, 2011, Breivik carried out two coordinated attacks in Norway. He first set off a car bomb in Oslo's Regjeringskvartalet, the government quarter, killing eight people and injuring dozens more. Then he went to the island of Utøya and attacked a summer camp run by the Labour Party's youth wing, the Workers' Youth League, killing 69 people. In total, 77 people died, and more than 323 were injured. He was captured by police on the island and surrendered without a struggle.
Breivik was tried in Oslo in 2012. Two groups of forensic psychiatrists gave differing evaluations: the first said he had paranoid schizophrenia, which would lead to a psychiatric sentence rather than prison, while the second said he wasn't psychotic during the attacks and had narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders. The court accepted the second evaluation, found him legally competent, and convicted him on all charges. He was sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention, the longest civilian penalty in Norway, which can be extended if considered a continuous threat to society.
Since being imprisoned, Breivik has challenged the Norwegian Correctional Service legally, claiming his confinement conditions breach the European Convention on Human Rights. A partial ruling in his favor in 2016 was overturned on appeal. Other challenges, including ones about prison isolation raised in 2024, have also been unsuccessful. He continues to promote far-right and neo-Nazi views from prison and has sought various legal means to improve his conditions and gain more attention for his political beliefs.
Before Fame
Breivik grew up in west Oslo during the 1980s and 1990s, a time of major demographic and political changes in Norway due to increased immigration. After his parents divorced, he was mostly raised by his mother. As a teenager, he got involved in graffiti culture and was arrested at age 16. He also mingled with Oslo's hip-hop scene before moving towards far-right politics as an adult.
He first got involved in politics through the Progress Party, joining as a young man because of its anti-immigration stance. When he found the party not extreme enough for his views, he left conventional politics and began radicalizing through online networks and far-right books. His business efforts in the 2000s didn't give him financial or personal stability, and he increasingly focused on planning violent actions, which he saw as a revolutionary act against what he believed was the Islamization of Europe.
Key Achievements
- Perpetrated the 2011 Norway attacks, the deadliest terrorist act in Norway since World War II, killing 77 people across two coordinated strikes
- Authored 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, a 1,500-page manifesto that became a widely studied document in terrorism research and far-right radicalization studies
- Became the first individual sentenced under Norway's preventive detention provisions in a high-profile terrorism case, establishing legal precedent for indefinite confinement
- Chaired the Vest Oslo youth branch of the Progress Party in 2002, representing early formal political engagement before his radicalization intensified
- Produced the Knights Templar 2083 video, an early example of terrorist propaganda using cinematic production techniques to disseminate extremist ideology
Did You Know?
- 01.Breivik financed his attacks almost entirely through personal credit card debt, accumulating roughly 130,000 euros without drawing significant attention from financial authorities.
- 02.His manifesto, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, runs to approximately 1,500 pages and was emailed to thousands of recipients on the morning of the attacks.
- 03.He used his membership in a Norwegian gun club, joined in 2005, as a legal basis to acquire the weapons he later used at Utøya.
- 04.The two forensic psychiatric evaluations conducted before his trial reached opposite conclusions about his mental state, prompting an unusually public debate in Norway about psychiatric assessment in criminal proceedings.
- 05.He also produced a video titled Knights Templar 2083, a cinematic-style trailer presenting himself as a crusader warrior, which he distributed alongside his written manifesto.