Josephine Thrane

Josephine Thrane (née Buch; 5 April 1820 – 30 September 1862) was a Norwegian teacher and political activist.

Maria Josephine Buch was born in the Bragernes neighborhood of Drammen, Norway. She was the daughter of Johann Herman Krefting Buch (1776-1838) and Johanne Frideriche Falster (1781-1828). In 1841, she was married to Marcus Thrane. They settled in Lillehammer where she had been working as a governess. From 1841 to 1846 they were running a private school for boys and girls. From 1854, she worked for the periodical Arbeider-Foreningernes Blad, which her husband had started in 1849.

Her husband was the leader of the first Norwegian labor movement. During the time when her husband was imprisoned as a labor agitator (1855-1858), she worked hard to get him pardoned. She was also editor of Arbeider-Foreningernes Blad during this period. She suffered from both cholera and tuberculosis and died in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1862 at the age of 42.