In 1933, she successfully passed the Staatsexamen for teaching at secondary schools and received her doctorate in 1934 with a thesis on the topic of "Klangstil des Mozartorchesters".
After her political escape from the Soviet occupation zone in 1948, she obtained a position as Studienrat at the Labenwolf-Oberrealschule in Nuremberg, an arts grammar school, from 1950 to 1951.
After her retirement in 1974, Thieme decided to undergo gender reassignment in 1976 at the age of 67 and adopted the female first name Kerstin.
[1] After the Second World War, Thieme's compositional activities focused primarily on vocal music and orchestral works.
[2] Among Thieme's important works are Canticum Hoffnung, a triptych for soprano solo and mixed choir (1973) based on texts by Nelly Sachs and the Requiem, the premiere of which took place in Nuremberg in 1998.