Elisabeth Pauli

Pauli was born to landowner and military official Heinrich Pauli (1867–1924) and his wife Maria Johanna Pauli (née Bürgers; 1889–ca. 1950). She was educated at a school for upper-class girls in Cologne, followed by a six-month course at the Großherzogin Luise-Haushaltungsschule in Baden-Baden. She then enrolled at the Kölner Werkschulen, the Cologne Art and Craft Schools. During this time she spent three months at the Institut du Panthéon in Paris to study French. In addition, she took private lessons with designers Fritz August Breuhaus and Johannes Itten.

From 1928 to 1930 she worked as a designer of interior textiles in Hans Heinz Lüttgen's workshop in Cologne. She then was appointed artistic leader of the exhibitions of the Cologne Fair (Messeamt), where she oversaw the exhibitions "Das Kind" and "Schutz von Eigentum und Leben". On 1 January 1933 Pauli was employed at the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt am Main as an artist and draughtswoman. She took part in the expeditions of the institute led by Leo Frobenius and later Adolf Ellegard Jensen, during which she copied rock art, drew images and maps of the material culture studied by the expeditions, and took photographs and films of the expedition members as well as the people they studied.

During the Second World War many male Frobenius Institute members, including management, were drafted into military service. In their absence Karin Hahn-Hissink took charge of the institute, assisted by Pauli, Hildegard Klein and Hertha von Dechend. They ensured the survival of the institute and its valuable collections. Pauli had a close friendship with Hissink.

After the war she again participated in the institute's expeditions, not only as artist and photographer, but also as anthropologist, organiser and coordinator.

Pauli was a member of the following Frobenius Institute expeditions:^[1]

• 1933: Libyan Desert ("Libyen II")
• 1934-1935: Transjordan and Libyan Desert
• 1934: southern France and eastern Spain
• 1936: northern and northwestern Spain
• 1936: Val Camonica, Italy ("Italien II")
• 1937: Val Camonica and Istria ("Italien III")
• 1950-1952: southern Ethiopia ("Äthiopien II")
• 1954-1955: southern Ethiopia ("Äthiopien III")

The archives of the Frobenius Institute hold many drawings, paintings, pre-studies, reports, notes and photographs by Pauli.^[2] She was for many years one of the constants in the institute, where she created a pleasant working atmosphere and kept warm interpersonal contacts with the other institute members.

In 1952 Pauli married Adolf Ellegard Jensen (1899–1965), then director, with whom she had long collaborated in the institute and on expedities.

In 1933 Pauli copied rock paintings in the "Cave of Swimmers" in the het Gilf Kebir plateau in the Western Desert of Egypt,^[3] made famous by the 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje and 1996 film The English Patient. The Hungarian Count and desert explorer László E. Almásy invited Frobenius, Hans Rhotert and Pauli to examine the rock art he discovered here.

Throughout her career at the Frobenius Institute Pauli is mentioned by her first given name, Elisabeth, while her family called her Lotte (after her second given name, Charlotte). After marrying she continued to use her birth name; occasionally she was referred to as Elisabeth Jensen. In the institute she had the nickname "Paulus" (in line with colleague Helmut Petri, nicknamed "Petrus").^[4]