Friedrich Schleiermacher was so much struck by their excellence that he endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to obtain for Steffens a chair in the new Berlin University in 1804, in order that his own ethical teachings should be supported in the scientific department.

This principle he endeavoured to deduce from his knowledge of geology, in contrast to Lorenz Oken, who developed the same theory on biological grounds.

His chief scientific and philosophical works are: During the last five years of his life he wrote an autobiography, Was ich erlebte, and after his death his Nachgelassene Schriften (1846) was published.

However, with the emergence of the Anthropocene, Steffens' ideas have been rediscovered as a source of inspiration for interdisciplinary perspectives on ecology and the earth sciences.

The professorship was established in connection with the state visit of German President Roman Herzog in Norway in 1998, on the initiative of Lucy Smith, the Rector of the University of Oslo.

[6] The purpose of the professorship is to promote academic cooperation between Norway and Germany in the fields of humanities and social sciences, "in the spirit of Henrik Steffens."