Birth and childhood in Vienna
Wolfgang Pauli was born in Vienna on 25 April 1900. His mother Bertha, née Schütz, worked as a freelancer with a Vienna newspaper. In 1906 she gave birth to Hertha, who would go on to make a name for herself in the United States as an author. Wolfgang Pauli was baptised a Roman Catholic.
His father Wolfgang Joseph, a well-known doctor and chemistry professor, came from a Jewish family from Prague but had had his name changed and had converted to Catholicism.
Pauli was brought up in an intellectually very stimulating atmosphere. At an early age he showed a great gift for mathematics and science that was encouraged by a private tutor who provided additional instruction in maths.
