From 2017 to February 2022, he was Deputy Director of the Center for Sociocultural Research at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow.
He completed his psychology studies in 1980 at Berlin University of Technology with an MA-equivalent diploma (thesis supervisor Professor Jürgen Bortz).
After receiving his diploma, Boehnke first worked as a research associate at the Institute of Psychology at Berlin University of Technology and then in positions equivalent to an assistant, later associate professor at the Institute of General and Comparative Educational Science at the Free University of Berlin.
He has published 14 monographs and 7 edited volumes, about 170 peer-reviewed journal articles, and a similar number of book chapters.
His father was a member of middle management in a pharmaceutical wholesale company, and his mother was a high school teacher.