ENGLISH - Caprichos Daneses

BORN 16-12-1905 – DIED 17-04-1996
Piet Hein was born on 16.12.1905 in Copenhagen, the only
child of graduate engineer Hjalmar Hein and eye specialist
Estrid Hein. Along with another engineer, his father owned
the development firm Hein & Møller-Holst, where he made
use of his talents as an inventor (HeinHolst lifts). His mother
was one of the first female doctors in Scandinavia; she was
politically active and was chairwoman of a number of social
commission in the League of Nations. The family lived in the
house at Gammel Torv 10-12, Copenhagen, which the firm
had built.
There are indications that Piet Hein had quite an unusual
childhood. He relates, for example, that at the age of 5-7
he assisted his mother at an eye operation on his nurse. The
girl had had her blind eye removed in an operation a couple
of weeks previously, and now little Piet stood on a chair
holding the empty eye cavity of his nurse open while his
mother removed the stitches from the rear wall of the eye.
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