Career
He was a plate worker by vocation, and worked in Hamar. He was elected to Hamar city council in 1917, and as the socialists gradually gained ground in the city council he became deputy mayor in 1932–1933. He was promoted to mayor of Hamar in 1935, when his predecessor Sigurd Pedersen was hired as burgomaster and as such was no longer eligible.
The majority of Hedmark Communist Party did not agree, but Bakken was instrumental when the minority rejoined the Labour Party in 1927.
During the early stages of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, in 1940, Bakken was deposed as mayor. In January 1944 he was arrested by the authorities and imprisoned in Grini concentration camp until May.
He was then shipped to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and remained here until the liberation of the camps. After the war he returned to his legitimate position as mayor, but relinquished it in 1946.
He died in 1954.