Ferdinand Hahn was born in 1926. He studied theology in Mainz, Gottingen, and Heidelberg and speaks particularly of the debt which he owes to his teachers, Professor Ernst Kasemann and Professor Gunther Bornkamm. From 1954-1956 he served in the ministry of the church. In 1956 he was made assistant to Professor Bornkamm in the Theological Faculty of the University of Heidelberg and in 1964 was appointed Professor of New Testament in the University of Kiel.