Paul Steenstrup Koht

Who was Paul Steenstrup Koht?

Paul Steenstrup Koht was a Norwegian educator and politician for the Liberal Party. He was the father of Halvdan Koht, a Marxist historian and Labour Party politician.

Having developed a penchant for Greek and Roman poetry in his student years, Koht lectured in philology as an adult. He also taught living languages, most notably Norwegian. In 1871 he married Betty Giæver, a merchant's daughter one year his junior; the couple were drawn together by a shared passion for languages.

Despite the conservative political views of his family, Koht became fascinated by the radical national liberal movement of the late 19th century. His first political activism was manifested in his editing of Tromsøposten; in the late 1870s and early 1880s he chaired the Tromsø Labour Association, which catapulted him into the political limelight. Eventually becoming elected as both mayor of the city and member of Parliament, he advocated radical reforms, amongst them common suffrage and the eight-hour day.