page_title: Bernhard Pauss
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Bernhard Pauss / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Portrett av Anna Henriette Paus, f. Wegner (1841–1918), olje på lerret Inventarnr. OMu.k00040 Signatur: E.E. 1916 Eier: Oslo Museum
context_page_description: Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss 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 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, in succession to Oscar Nissen, and the first editor-in-chief of its 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, was named in his honour. He was a member of the government-appointed committee which proposed the Higher School Act, adopted in 1896.
context_section_description: A member of the Norwegian patrician Paus family, he was a son of shipmaster and ship-owner from Drammen Nicolai Nissen Pauss (1811–1877) and Caroline Louise Salvesen (1812–1887), a daughter of the shipmaster and privateer Bent 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.
  
  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.
  
  In 1876, he married Anna Henriette Wegner (1841–1918) in Christiania; she was the youngest daughter of the industrialist Benjamin Wegner and Henriette Seyler, and a granddaughter of the prominent Hamburg banker L.E. Seyler, co-owner of Berenberg Bank. They were the parents of the surgeon, hospital director and President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus, the engineer and CEO of Akershus Energi Augustin Thoresen Paus and the lawyer and Director at the Norwegian Employers' Confederation George Wegner Paus, as well as the daughters Henriette Wegner Paus, married to private school owner (Frogner School, Nissen's Girls' School, Haagaas School) Theodor Haagaas, and Karoline Louise Paus, married to barrister Thorleif Ellestad.
  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).
  His second wife was a goddaughter of Countess Karen Wedel-Jarlsberg, Prime Minister Nicolai Johan Lohmann Krog, President of the Parliament Søren Anton Wilhelm Sørenssen, banker Johannes Thomassen Heftye, Prime Minister Frederik Stang, the King's aide-de-camp Hans Christian Rosen, Marie Schjøtt and Henriette Benedicte Løvenskiold.
  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.
caption: His second wife Anna Henriette Wegner (1841–1918), a daughter of the industrialist Benjamin Wegner
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