Background
He was the son of the author Vilhelmine Ullmann, brother of the feminist Ragna Nielsen and the great grandfather of actress Liv Ullmann.
He was the son of the author Vilhelmine Ullmann, brother of the feminist Ragna Nielsen and the great grandfather of actress Liv Ullmann.
He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1875, after which he worked as a teacher at the Folk High Schools Skulestad, Østre Moland, Landvik, Bratsberg, Drangedal, Gjerpen and Vinje. The liberal Folk High School in Seljord was his work (1880), where he worked for a more vocational approach to the study. In this period, he was also chairman of the publisher Det Norske Samlaget, as well as editor for the newspaper Varden.
His pedagogy was influenced by North. F. South. Grundtvig"s ideals, where theology and learning was seen as a voluntary act, and obligatory examns were replaced by voluntary self-evaluation.
He was also a spokesman of the ideas of Henry George. Together with Wollert Konow, he was central in Norwegian Peace Association (Norwegian: Norges Fredslag) and was later (in 1890) behind the establishment of The Parliament"s Peace Association (Norwegian: Stortingets Fredsforening) and The Peace Letter to the King (1890).
From 1902 until he died, he was county governor of Bratsberg amt. Viggo Ullmann was the great grandfather of Liv Ullmann, whose father was an engineer with the same name, Viggo Ullman.
He was the leader of the party Venstre (1893-1894 and 1898-1900), Member of Parliament for Bratsberg 1898-1900, Venstre"s parliamentary leader 1893-1894 and President of the Storting 1892-1894, 1897 and 1898-1900.
Ullman was First Deputy Member of the Nobel Committee (August 7, 1897 - June 5, 1900).