Wollert Konow was mayor of Fana most of the time between 1880 and 1901, and was in 1877–1879 Deputy to the Parliament for Søndre Bergenhus amt (now Hordaland). He served as Minister of Agriculture in 1910 and Minister of Auditing 1910-1912. He was Odelsting president 1884–1887 and President of the Storting in 1888 and again from 1897 to 1899. He was a central board member of the Liberal Left Party from 1909 to 1912. Wollert Konow served as Prime Minister over a two year period as leader of a coalition which combined elements of two competing parties; "Høgre" and "Frisindede Venstre". Konow's coalition government came to an end in 1912 after he declared his sympathies for the rural language form "Landsmål" during the height of the Norwegian language conflict causing conflict with "Riksmål" supporters.