Bernhard Cathrinus Pauss | |
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.jpg) B.C. Pauss, photographed by Gustav Borgen | |
| Born | 6 April 1839 Tangen, Drammen |
| Died | 9 November 1907 (aged 68) |
| Resting place | Vår Frelsers gravlund |
| Known for | Theologian, educator, author and humanitarian and missionary leader |
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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.
The son of shipowner from Drammen Nicolai Nissen Pauss, he was married in his first marriage to Augusta Thoresen, a daughter of the timber merchant Hans Thoresen, and in his second marriage to Anna Henriette Wegner, a daughter of the industrialist Benjamin Wegner and Henriette Seyler, a member of the Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg. He was the father of the surgeon and President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus, of the industrial leader Augustin Paus and of the director at the Norwegian Employers' Confederation George Wegner Paus.