Marcus Møller Thrane (14 October 1817 – 30 April 1890) was a Norwegian author, journalist, and the leader of the first labour movement in Norway.

Shortly after his birth, his father, a merchant and managing director in Norges Rigsbank, was arrested for involvement in corruption, which devastated the family's reputation.

After finishing the examen artium (university admission exam) in 1840 and a brief period as a student of theology, Thrane and his new wife, Maria Josephine Buch, moved to Lillehammer in 1841, where they ran a private school.

In March 1847, Thrane came to Åmot in Modum, where he began work as a teacher for the workers' children at the large industrial company, Blaafarveværket.

The union asked for universal voting, the extension of mandatory military service to those with property, equality before the law, better schools, low or no border taxes on necessary goods, such as grains, and special support for poor farmers in the form of arable land on reasonable terms.

The imprisonments and internal tension resulted in the end of the movement, and Thrane's attempts of revitalizing it after his release from prison were unsuccessful.

On May 2, 1866, John Anderson purchased the subscription lists of the foundering Norske-Amerikanerne to start the Norwegian language newspaper Skandinaven.

He published a satirical depiction of the visit of the Norwegian author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, which he called "The Old Wisconsin Bible" (Den gamle Wisconsin-bibelen).

[7] Years later in 1949, Thrane's coffin was sent to Norway, where he was buried and remains today in Vår Frelsers Gravlund in Oslo.