Paul Steenstrup Koht
| Paul Steenstrup Koht | |
|---|---|
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| Member of Parliament for Skien |
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In office 1889–1891 |
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In office 1892–1894 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
28 August 1844 Bodø, Norway |
| Died | 26 August 1892 (aged 47) Skien, Norway |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Spouse(s) | Betty Giæver |
| Children | Four, amongst them Halvdan Koht |
| Profession | Educator, Politician |
Paul Steenstrup Koht (28 August 1844 – 26 August 1892) 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.
He was born in Bodø, the son of Joachim Andreas Koht, a pharmacist, and Johanne Andrea Conradi. The young Koht finished secondary education in 1861 and graduated with a cand. philol. degree in 1868. Koht's biographer, Bernt A. Nissen, maintained that he developed his literary taste while studying: the circle spending their leisure time in "the green chamber" of the Students' Society had, according to Nissen, a decisive influence on Koht. In a bulletin titled Samfundsblade, Koht—together with Sofus Arctander, Ole Furu and Hans Brecke—recited Ancient Greek and Latin poems.
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