Norwegian prime minister during the 1920s and '30s and shipping magnate considered to be the outstanding statesman of his time in Norway.

Educated at Oslo University, Mowinckel entered public life as a town councillor and then as president of the council of his native city, Bergen. In 1906 he was elected to the Storting (Parliament) as a member of the Venstre (Liberal) Party, and he also served as president of the Storting for several years. In 1911 he was instrumental in founding the Norwegian–America shipping line, and in 1925 he became a member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

Mowinckel was three times prime minister of Norway (1925–27, 1928–31, 1933–35) and also held the post of minister of foreign affairs during these periods. He took the initiative for the Oslo Convention in 1930 to encourage free trade between the Benelux and Scandinavian countries, thus anticipating postwar efforts toward European economic union. Mowinckel condemned the menace of Nazism, and when Germany overran Norway in 1940 he escaped with the government-in-exile. He died while representing his country in the United States.