Paus family

The Paus family (pronounced [ˈpæʉs]), also styled de Paus or von Paus, is a Norwegian family that emerged as an aristocratic priestly family from Medieval Oslo in the 16th century. For centuries, it belonged to the "aristocracy of officials," especially in the clergy and legal professions in Upper Telemark. Later generations entered shipping, steel, and banking, becoming steel magnates in Oslo. The family's best-known members are Henrik Ibsen and Ole Paus. The name is recorded in Oslo from the 14th century and likely derives from a metaphorical use of the Middle Low German word for pope—perhaps meaning "the pious one"—reflecting foreign influence and name satire in medieval Oslo.

The priest brothers Hans (1587–1648) and Peder Povelsson Paus (1590–1653) from Oslo have long been known as the family's earliest certain ancestors. In Slekten Paus, Finne-Grønn identified their grandfather as Hans Olufsson (d. 1570), a canon at St Mary's Church who held noble rank and served as a royal priest both before and after the Reformation. Peder Povelsson Paus came to Upper Telemark as parish priest of Vinje in 1618, became provost of Upper Telemark in 1633, and was the ancestor of the extant family; in the 17th century the family also used the name Vind (Wind) after the parish of Vinje. From the 17th to the 19th century, the family were among the foremost of the regional elite, the "aristocracy of officials" in Upper Telemark, where family members served as priests, judges and other officials, often across generations. The family held the district judgeship—the region's chief governmental and judicial office—for 106 years (1668–1774). It was a meritocratic elite defined by education, priesthood, and service to the state, and the apex of the social order of Upper Telemark.

From the late 18th century, family members became ship's captains, shipowners, merchants and bankers in the port towns of Skien and Drammen. In the 19th century, family members became prominent steel industrialists in Christiania. The steel magnate Ole Paus had the Villa Paus built at Bygdøy and was the father of the adventurer and consul in Vienna Thorleif (von) Paus, who became the father of General Ole (von) Paus and the grandfather of the singer-songwriter Ole Paus. Other family members founded the industrial company Paus & Paus. Family members have also owned or co-owned several other major companies, including Norway's largest shipping company Wilh. Wilhelmsen. Since the early 20th century family members have owned half a dozen estates and castles in Sweden, of which Herresta is still owned by the family; this branch is descended from Leo Tolstoy. Christopher (de) Paus, a papal chamberlain and heir to one of Norway’s largest timber companies, donated the Paus collection of classical sculpture to the National Gallery, and was made a count by Pope Pius XI in 1923. Pauspur, a village in India, was named after the family in the 19th century; Pauspur Church was built there. The family has used several seals and coats of arms, including a vigilant crane on Povel Paus’s 1661 Sovereignty Act seal and, later, a bull’s head with a golden star.

The family's best-known descendant is the playwright Henrik Ibsen, who immortalized them in his literature. Both of Ibsen's parents belonged to the family, either biologically or socially, and it was their closest kin group. Through the Paus family, Ibsen's parents were raised as "near-siblings." He named or modelled various characters after family members, and episodes and motifs in several of his dramas—notably Peer Gynt, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, and Hedda Gabler—were inspired by Paus family traditions and events in the closely connected households of Ole Paus and Hedevig Paus in the early 19th century. The Paus family features prominently in Ibsen studies. According to Jon Nygaard, the rise of "the new puritanical civil servant state," marked by the ethos of "Upper Telemark, the Paus family," is a major theme in Ibsen’s work.