ENGLISH - Caprichos Daneses

Piet Hein began to draw at an early age. The first drawings,
hidden away to this very day, are from the age of five. He
completed his upper secondary education at Metropolitanskolen
in 1924 and began the compulsory preliminary philosophy
studies at the university. At the same time, he had
private drawing lessons to help him get in at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (he draw, among other things,
sculptures at the Glyptotheque) – but to no avail. This did
not disconcert him, however. He continued to Stockholm,
where he was accepted at Kungliga Svenska Konsthögskolan,
with Albert Engström as teacher. He lived with his aunt and
uncle – Emma and Erik Scavenius – in Stockholm while attending
the college.
After his stay in Sweden, it was his talent for the exact
sciences that was to be put to the text. He began to study
physics and epistemology at the University of Copenhagen
and studied and worked at the Niels Bohr Institute. Subsequently,
it was the practical use of technology that appealed
to him. He made various discoveries, for which he sought
patents, worked in a professional capacity in connection
with various companies – and began to write more. He himself
says that from that time on, he spent 50% of his time
writing and 50% on the technical side of things.
Throughout his life, Piet Hein was actively interested in the
cause of minorities and in peace between the great nations
– an attitude he demonstrated with his famous Grook
Co-existence or no existence. For twenty years, he was a
member of the executive committee of The Open Door, was
co-founder of the League for Tolerance and chairman of the
Danish branch of the World Movement for World Federation.
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