Johannes Steen

Johannes Wilhelm Christian Steen (22 July 1827 - 1 April 1906) was a Norwegian politician and educator who served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1891 to 1893 and from 1898 to 1902.

He was born in Christiania (now Oslo, Norway). He grew up in Vesteraalen as the son of Judge and Member of Parliament John Svaboe Steen (1798– 1872). His brother Frederik Steen was also a member of Parliament.

He was a cand.philol. at the University of Christiania in 1848. Over the next 42 years, Steen combined his profession as teacher and educationist with a political career. He served as a teacher in Bergen (1850-55) and Tromsø (1855-1866). He was mayor of Tromsø (1856-1862) and (1864-1866). From 1866 he was rector of Stavanger Latin School. He was mayor of Stavanger (1872-1883) and (1885-1890.)

In 1859 he was first elected member of the Storting for Tromsø. In 1868, Steen was elected to the Storting for Stavanger. From 1871, the Storting became increasingly marked by political struggle. Steen first became Prime Minister in 1891. In 1894, Steen was re-elected to the Storting from Trondheim. He subsequently held the position of Prime Minister from 1898–1902. Steen's final administration was responsible for the 1902 Land Sales Act, which limited the buying or leasing of state-owned land to fluent Norwegian speakers, barring the Saami people from the purchase of their traditional hunting and grazing grounds.

He was married in 1849 to Elise Henriette Stoltenberg (1826-1896). He died in 1906 at Voss in Hordaland, Norway.

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