Ole Paus (general)

Ole Otto Paus (26 October 1910 – 6 April 2003), also known as Ole de Paus, was a Norwegian General, diplomat and NATO official. He was head of the army group in the military intelligence service of the exile Norwegian High Command in London during the Second World War. He served as a military attaché in Stockholm and Helsingfors during the 1950s, and was commander-in-chief in Central Norway from 1964 to 1971. From 1971 to 1974 he was Land Deputy of the Allied Forces Northern Europe, i.e. the Norwegian representative in the NATO military command for Northern Europe.

Ole (de) Paus was born and grew up in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He was a member of the Norwegian patrician Paus family, and was the son of the Norwegian Consul-General in Vienna, Thorleif (de) Paus, and a Viennese mother of Jewish descent, Gabrielle ("Ella") Stein. He was named for his grandfather, the steel industrialist and banker Ole Paus (who was a first cousin of Henrik Ibsen). The family name was usually spelled de Paus (and sometimes von Paus) during his childhood in Austria-Hungary, but after he moved to Norway at the age of 19 he was known as Ole Paus. He was the father of the singer Ole Paus.

He graduated from the Theresianum in 1929. He subsequently moved to Norway at the age of 19. After learning Norwegian, he attended the Norwegian Military Academy and graduated as an officer in 1932. He graduated from the Norwegian Military College in 1938, from the Senior Officers' School in the United Kingdom in 1947, and attended the NATO Defence College in Paris in 1963.

During the Second World War, he joined the exile Norwegian High Command in London, where he served in the military intelligence service as head of the army group, in succession to Paal Frisvold.

In 1949 he served in the Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany. He served as the Norwegian military attaché in Stockholm from 1953 and Helsingfors from 1954. He was commander-in-chief in Central Norway from 1964 to 1971. From 1971 to 1974 he was Land Deputy of the Allied Forces Northern Europe, i.e. the Norwegian representative in the NATO military command for Northern Europe (Denmark, Norway, Northern Germany and the Baltic Sea).

• 1932: Lieutenant
• 1943: Captain
• 1945: Major
• 1951: Lieutenant colonel
• 1956: Colonel
• 1964: Major general

• Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, 1973
• Commander of the Order of the Sword
• Several others