Thomas Steensen

Thomas Steensen was born in Bredstedt in 1951. After completing secondary school, he initially worked as an editor for the Husumer Nachrichten newspaper and as a correspondent for the German Press Agency. From 1977 to 1985, he studied history, Frisian philology, political science and sociology at the University of Kiel, where he received his doctorate in 1985. He subsequently directed a historical exhibition project at the Nordfriesland Foundation. Steensen taught at the universities of Kiel and Flensburg and headed the Nordfriisk Instituut from 1987, serving as its director from 1992. From 1999, he was also an honorary professor at the University of Flensburg. In 1987, he received the Conrad Borchling Prize from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F. V. S. in Hamburg.