Olav Martinius Knutsen Steinnes (9 January 1886 – 26 June 1961) was a Norwegian educator and politician for the Labour Party and Nasjonal Samling.

After some years as a laborer he attended Møre Folk High School and then Volda Teachers' College from 1907 to 1910.

In January 1928 he was appointed as Minister of Education and Church Affairs in Hornsrud's Cabinet.

In a letter to Kaare Fostervoll in the autumn of 1945, he said that his "series of inventions" would "bring honor and benefit to me and my country.

[2] On 1 February 1947, during the legal purge in Norway after World War II he was convicted of treason and sentenced to six months in prison and loss of his job.