in the perfectability of human beings, as prompted "the greatest religions", and he started to feel solidarity with the labour movement and the working classes, leading to the radicalisation of his views: from 1900 he voted for the Norwegian Labour Party, and had four years prior to that began to consider himself a socialist. While living in the United States, he developed a form of historical materialism, which led to a fusion of history scholarship and political views. He viewed the Liberal Party as an important agent in Norwegian history, since it pronounced the rights of the farmers, but he now viewed the working class as the next class to be included in the political life, and specifically through the Labor Party. In Koht's Liberal Party period, he cooperated with some of their more radical members, among them Carl Jeppesen, who later would join the Labour Party. He joined the Labour Party when he returned from the United States and moved to Bærum in 1909. He lived with his family in Stabekk, but commissioned a house in Lysaker in 1910. The house, designed by architect Arnstein Arneberg, was dubbed "Karistua". The university offered him no office, so he had to conduct his research at home. Koht served as a member of Bærum municipal council in the terms 1916–1919, 1928–1931 and 1931–1934. In 1952 he wrote the 50-year history of Bærum Labour Party. Foreign affairs politician Internationally, Koht tried to prop up the institutions that maintained public international law. In 1923 he participated in the arbitrations between Denmark and Norway about the disposition of Eastern Greenland. Sovereignty was claimed by Denmark. Koht teamed up with the conservative politician C. J. Hambro, who had edited Nordmanns-Forbundets tidsskrift to which Koht had contributed. The negotiations led to an agreement on Norwegian trade rights in the area, but a question of sovereignty over Eastern Greenland remained unsolved. In 1931, forces in and outside of the then-Agrarian government annexed "Erik the Red's Land". In the 1930s Koht became the foremost international politician of the Labour Party. He positioned himself in the Labour Party as the prospective Minister of Foreign Affairs should the party form a government. He did so because fellow historian and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1928, Edvard Bull Sr., had died, making Koht the "Foreign Minister-designate". The Labour Party also polled well in the 1933 Norwegian parliamentary election, leading them to prepare