During the Cold War he served as a military attaché in Stockholm and Helsingfors during the 1950s, was promoted to general in 1964 and was commander-in-chief in Central Norway from 1964 to 1971.

He was born and grew up in Vienna, Austria-Hungary as the son of the Norwegian Consul-General in Vienna, Thorleif (von) Paus, and a Viennese mother of Jewish descent, Gabrielle ("Ella") Stein.

August Stein left the Jewish Community of Vienna in 1877[1] and he and his children were baptized as Catholics in 1885/86.

The particle von in the country was a privilege of the Austro-Hungarian nobility and foreigners deemed to be of equivalent status; his father had moved to Vienna as a consular official and been registered under that name by the foreign ministry.

[3][4][2] 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.