Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss (born 6 April 1839 at Tangen, Drammen, died 9 November 1907 in Christiania) was a Norwegian theologian, educator, author and humanitarian and missionary leader, who was a major figure in girls' education in Norway in his lifetime.
He was headmaster and owner of Nissen's Girls' School (1872–1907/1903) and head of its affiliated women's teachers college, the first higher education institution open to women in Norway. He was also a lecturer at the Norwegian Military Academy. He was chairman of the Norwegian Santal Mission (1887–1907), in succession to Oscar Nissen, and founded and edited the journal Santalen. He also wrote and edited several schoolbooks in Norwegian and German, including the reading book series Læsebog i Modersmaalet, that was one of the most widely used schoolbooks in Norway for over half a century. A village in India, Pauspur (Pausspur), was named in his honour. He was a member of the government-appointed committee which proposed the Higher School Act, adopted in 1896.
Nissen's Girls' School in Niels Juels gate 56 at Frogner, Oslo. The property was bought by Bernhard Pauss in 1897, who commissioned the construction of the building, which was completed in 1899
Upon graduating from the university in 1865, he became a teacher at Nissen's Girls' School, a private girls' school in Christiania. In 1872 he succeeded the school's founder Hartvig Nissen as one of three co-owners and joint headmasters, and he ultimately became the sole owner and headmaster. In 1903, the school was sold to the company that owned the neighbouring Frogner School, but Nissen's Girls' School was managed independently and he remained as headmaster until his death four years later.
During his time as headmaster, the school became the first in Norway to offer examen artium, the university entrance exam, for women. Nissen's Girls' School was also the first institution—ahead of the University—to provide tertiary education for women in Norway, through its affiliated teachers college, headed by Pauss. During the late 19th century, the college educated a significant proportion of all female teachers in the country. He bought the property where the school is now located in Niels Juels gate 56 in 1897 and commissioned the construction of the school's new building, designed by Henrik Nissen.
He lectured in German and religion at the Norwegian Military Academy from 1868 to 1882. He was also a member of the board of directors of the School for Young Ladies in Christian Augusts Gade.
He was described as a very kind man who was well liked by his pupils and staff. Former pupils erected a grave monument for him at Vår Frelsers gravlund.[2]
From 1890, he was a member of the government-appointed committee which proposed the Higher School Act, adopted in 1896, and served in the sub-committee tasked with matters relating to girls' schools, with Ragna Nielsen og Henriette Wulfsberg.[3]
Books
Bernhard Pauss published numerous schoolbooks. Together with Hartvig Lassen, he edited the reading book series Læsebog i Modersmaalet (from 1884), which became one of the most widely used in Norway over a period of around 80 years. It was published eight years before Nordahl Rolfsen's Læsebog for Folkeskolen, and was more strongly characterized by the continuity from the Danish literary heritage, although it also featured the first contours of the Norwegian literary golden age.[4]
Chairman of the Norwegian Santal Mission
Bernhard Pauss was chairman of the Norwegian Santal Mission, a humanitarian and missionary organisation that was active among the Santhal people of India, from 1887 to 1907, in succession to Oscar Nissen. He was also the first editor of its journal, Santalen ("The Santal"), from 1883 to 1907.[5] After his death, his wife Henriette Pauss succeeded him as editor of the journal and board member of the Norwegian Santal Mission.
A village in Assam, India, Pauspur (also spelled Pausspur), was named in his honour by missionaries of the Santal Mission.[6][7] The village received this name in the late 19th century and still carried the name as of the 1950s.[8]
A member of the Norwegian patrician Paus family, he was a son of shipmaster and ship-owner from Drammen Nicolai NissenPauss (1811–1877) and Caroline Louise Salvesen (1812–1887), a daughter of the shipmaster and privateerBent Salvesen and a granddaughter of the major Drammen timber merchant Jacob Fegth. He was of no relation to either Hartvig Nissen or Oscar Nissen, but was descended from district judge of Upper Telemark Hans Paus (1721–1774) and Danish-born Andrea Jaspara Nissen (1725–1772), a descendant of Nikolaj Nissen and whose family were estate owners in Jutland. He was a male-line descendant of the priests Peder Paus, Povel Paus and Hans Paus, and was also a descendant of the Danish war hero Jørgen Kaas, of the topographer Arent Berntsen, and of statesmen such as Eske Bille, Claus Bille, Jørgen Lykke and Mogens Gyldenstierne.
His son, surgeon, hospital director and President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus
In 1865, he married Augusta Thoresen in Geneva; she was a daughter of the Christiania timber merchant Hans Thoresen. Their only son Evald Pauss died as a medical student from diphtheria, a disease contracted as a student. Augusta died in 1875.
Bernhard Pauss with his second wife and their children, photographed by Gustav Borgen ca. 1900
Grave of Bernhard Pauss, his two wives Augusta Pauss and Anna Henriette Pauss, and oldest son Evald Pauss, at Vår Frelsers gravlund
Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss was the grandfather of, among others, the surgeon, humanitarian and Grand Master of the Norwegian Order of Freemasons Bernhard Cathrinus Paus (1910–1999), of the industrial leader Bernhard Paus (1909–1970), of the diplomat and industrial leader Vilhelm Paus (1915–1995) and of the humanist Henriette Bie Lorentzen (1911–2001).
He was the brother of ship-owner and merchant in Svelvik Ismar Mathias Pauss (born 1835) and Nicoline Louise Pauss, married to ship-owner, Member of Parliament and Norway's largest sail manufacturer Peter Hannibal Høeg. He was a godfather to his nephews Alf and Nicolay Nissen Paus, who founded the Paus & Paus industrial company.
In his lifetime, the family name was spelled Pauss, but his children reverted to the older spelling Paus, used by other family branches.
Nissens Pigeskole og Privatseminar, Christiania, 1900
Related Research Articles
The Paus family is a Norwegian family that first appeared as members of the elite of 16th-century Oslo and that for centuries belonged to Norway's "aristocracy of officials" as members of the clergy and legal profession, especially in Upper Telemark. Family members later became involved in shipping, steel and banking. The family is particularly known for its close association with Henrik Ibsen.
Nikolai Nissen Paus was a Norwegian surgeon, hospital director and humanitarian. He was the director of Vestfold Hospital from 1918 to 1947, building and decisively shaping the institution. He served as President of the Norwegian Red Cross, President of the Norwegian Florence Nightingale Committee and chaired several governmental committees. He led and took part in the Norwegian humanitarian effort in Finland during the Winter War as the head of the Norwegian Red Cross field hospital. He also served on the executive board of the Norwegian Medical Association. He received the Order of St. Olav for his "long-standing and distinguished humanitarian work" in 1948 and was described by Aftenposten as "one of the country's preeminent physicians" on his death.
Bernhard Cathrinus Paus was a Norwegian orthopedic surgeon and humanitarian.
Events in the year 1848 in Norway.
Hartvig Nissen was a Norwegian gymnast primarily active in Norway and the USA. He later pursued a career in politics.
Ole Hartvig Nissen was a Norwegian philologist and educator. He founded Nissen's Girls' School in Christiania in 1849. In 1865 he became director-general in the Ministry of Education, while remaining one of three joint headmasters of Nissen's Girls' School until 1872. In 1873 he was appointed to the prestigious position as rector of Oslo Cathedral School.
Jacob Benjamin Wegner was a Norwegian business magnate, estate owner and timber merchant.
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The Hartvig Nissen School, informally referred to as Nissen, is a gymnasium in Oslo, Norway. It is located in the neighborhood Uranienborg in the affluent West End borough of Frogner. It is Norway's oldest high school for girls and is widely considered one of the country's two most prestigious high schools alongside the traditionally male-only Oslo Cathedral School; its alumni include many famous individuals and two members of the Norwegian royal family.
George Wegner Paus, often known as George Paus, was a Norwegian lawyer, mountaineer, skiing pioneer, sailor, rower, poet, diplomat and business executive.
The Norwegian Santal Mission was a Norwegian humanitarian and missionary organisation that was mainly active in India, particularly among the Santhal people. It was affiliated with the (Lutheran) Norwegian State Church and existed from 1867 until it merged with other organisations to form Normisjon in 2001. The Norwegian Santal Mission has operated schools and hospitals in India and Bhutan.
Hans Thoresen was a Norwegian timber merchant and ship-owner in Christiania, Norway. He became a burgher in Christiania in 1790 and built a large timber business in the city.
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Santalen was a magazine published by the Norwegian Santal Mission from 1883 to 2001. The journal was founded and edited by Bernhard Pauss, who was also the chairman of the Norwegian Santal Mission's central committee from 1887 to 1907. Following his death his widow Henriette Pauss became editor. The journal had a circulation of around 5,000 in the 1880s and 14,000 in 1977. In 2001 the Norwegian Santal Mission merged to become part of Normisjon, and the publication was succeeded by Agenda 3:16.
Wegner is a Norwegian family whose members have been noted as business magnates, estate owners, timber merchants and lawyers. The Norwegian family is descended from the industrialist Benjamin Wegner and his wife Henriette Wegner, a member of the Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg. Born in Königsberg, Benjamin Wegner worked as a businessman in London and Berlin before moving to Norway in 1822 to become managing director and a co-owner of Blaafarveværket, that became Norway's largest mining company and largest industrial company overall under his leadership. He thus was one of the most important early industrial pioneers in the newly independent Norway and one of Norway's leading industrialists from the early to mid-19th century. He also owned Frogner Manor and was a major co-owner of Hassel Iron Works, the Juel, Wegner & Co. timber company and the large Hafslund manor and estate that included around 340,000 decares of forest. He also served as consul-general of the city-states of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen.
Læsebog i Modersmaalet, later titled Hjemme og ute and Heime og ute, was a reading book series that was published in numerous editions between 1884 and 1958 and that was widely used in the school system of Norway for around 80 years. The work's original authors were Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss and Hartvig Lassen. After Lassen's death, the series was edited by Pauss and Andreas Martin Corneliussen, and after Pauss' death by Corneliussen and Olaf Ellefsen. From 1921, the work was edited by Mathilde Munch and Sven Svensen and retitled Hjemme og ute. At times, the series was used by half of all pupils in Norwegian schools.
Anna Henriette "Jette" Pauss, née Anna Henriette Wegner, was a Norwegian teacher, editor, humanitarian and missionary leader and estate owner. With her husband Bernhard Pauss, she was a major figure in girls' education in Norway in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She served as headmistress of the country's preeminent educational institution for girls and women, Nissen's Girls' School, and was extensively involved in other schools and organizations. She was also editor of the journal Santalen and one of the key leaders of the Norwegian Santal Mission that ran schools, hospitals and social projects in India. She was one of the co-owners of Hafslund Manor with two of her siblings until 1894.
Augustin Thoresen Paus was a Norwegian engineer and industrial leader who played a key role in hydropower development in Norway through the first half of the 20th century. He graduated as an officer from the Military Academy and as a civil engineer from Dresden, starting his engineering career at Norsk Hydro as an associate of Sam Eyde during the development of the Rjukan industrial facilities. From 1918, he led the construction of the hydroelectric Rånåsfoss power plant, one of the largest in Europe. Upon its completion in 1922, he became the first managing director of Akershus elektrisitetsverk, a position he held until his death. He was described as the "absolute ruler" of the industrial community that emerged at Rånåsfoss. He also held several other positions in the Norwegian power industry and was described as "one of the most prominent leaders in the Norwegian energy industry." He served as chairman of Glommens og Laagens Brukseierforening, Foreningen Samkjøringen—the precursor to the Nordic electricity exchange Nord Pool—the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, and several power companies.
Olav Eduard Pauss was a Norwegian ship-owner, shipbroker and consul in Sydney, Australia. He served as the consul of Sweden and Norway in New South Wales and Queensland from 1902 to 1905 and as the Norwegian consul from 1905 to 1928. He also acted as Danish consul for two separate periods and as Swiss consul. At his death he was described as "one of the best known shipping men in Australia."
Henriette Wegner, née Henriette Seyler, was a Norwegian businesswoman and philanthropist. She was a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg and moved to Norway in 1824 when she married the industrialist Benjamin Wegner. She was briefly a co-owner of Berenberg Bank, and became one of the wealthiest women of Norway on her husband's death as the main owner of one of the country's largest forest estates.
References
↑ Festskrift i Anledning af Gymnasiesamfundet Fraternitas' 50-Aarsjubilæum, Drammen, Samfundet, 1901
↑ Einar Boyesen (ed.): Nissens pikeskole 1849–1924, Oslo 1924
↑ Vilhelm Haffner, Innstillinger og betenkninger fra kongelige og parlamentariske kommisjoner, departementale komiteer m.m.; 1814–1924, p. 412, Fabritius, 1925
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