Herman Paus

Herman Christopher Paus (4 May 1897 – 11 March 1983) was a Norwegian competitive skier, who was among the pioneers of Nordic combined and ski jumping in the 1910s and 1920s. He later moved to Sweden where he bought the major estate Herresta near Stockholm from a relative. A relative of playwright Henrik Ibsen, Herman Paus was married to Leo Tolstoy's granddaughter Tatiana Tolstoy-Paus; as such he was the son-in-law of Count Lev Lvovich Tolstoy.

Herman Paus
Born(1897-05-04)4 May 1897
Bygdøy, Norway
Died11 March 1983(1983-03-11) (aged 85)
Herresta, Sweden
Nationality
Spouse(s)Countess Tatiana Tolstoy

Career

He grew up at Bygdøy near Oslo; his father Karl L. Paus was an engineer and steel industrialist, and a first cousin of playwright Henrik Ibsen. Since the late 1910s Herman Paus was active in competitive skiing in Norway as a member of SFK Lyn;[1] he participated in numerous national and international competitions.[2] He received the Lyn honorary award in 1926, along with then-Crown Prince Olav.[3] In the 1920s he was active in Swedish competitive skiing as a member of Djurgårdens IF.[4][5] Norwegian newspapers mentioned his skiing career over 400 times between 1916 and the late 1920s.

Herman Paus was educated as an agronomist at Vinterlandbruksskolen in Christiania, then at Pederstrup in Denmark and Valinge manor in Sweden. In 1923 he became manager of the Herresta estate, owned by his relative, papal chamberlain and count Christopher Tostrup Paus, who spent most of his time in Rome.[6] They were paternal second cousins, but Christopher Tostrup Paus was also his mother's first cousin; both were descended from wealthy timber merchant Christopher Tostrup. In 1938 Christopher Tostrup Paus sold Herresta to Herman Paus. Herman and Christopher Tostrup Paus donated various portraits to the Ibsen Museum, including a portrait of Ibsen's sister Hedvig Ibsen.[7]

In early 1940 the engagement between Herman Paus and Countess Tatiana Tolstoy was announced; a member of the Tolstoy family, Tatiana was the last surviving grandchild of Leo Tolstoy. She was born on her grandfather's estate Yasnaya Polyana—where he wrote both War and Peace and Anna Karenina—but moved to Sweden in 1917. Herman and Tatiana Paus had four children, and their descendants own the Herresta and Näsbyholm estates in Södermanland; their daughter Tatiana Paus is known as one of the personal friends of the King and Queen of Sweden.[8][9] Herman Paus' brother Karl Paus owned Närsjö manor in nearby Eskilstuna.[6]

References
  1. Lyn gjennem 40 år. Klubben. 1936. passim.
  2. Indtrøndelagen 23 December 1920. p. 1. "Herman Paus som allerede har gjort sig berømt i Holmenkolløpene og internationale løp"
  3. Lyn i 100. Lyn. 1996. p. 354.
  4. Asker og Bærums Budstikke 4 January 1924 p. 2. "Djurgaardens idrætsforening, Stockholm, blir representert av Lyns kjendte hopper Hermann [sic] Paus".
  5. "Herman Paus seirer i Stockholm". Dagbladet 21 January 1924 p. 8
  6. Magister Salomon Gjør og hans efterkommere
  7. Tiaarsskrift. Fylkesmuseet for Telemark og Grenland. 1934. p. 49.
  8. Puzin, Nikolai (1998). The Lev Tolstoy House-Museum In Yasnaya Polyana.
  9. "Tanja Paus och Sonja Ceder till minne," Svenska Dagbladet, 11 March 2007
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