Sabine Toppe, born in 1962, has a degree in education and educational science. She is a professor at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin, specialising in the history and theories of social work, childhood and family, gender and social work, educational and upbringing processes in the life course, youth welfare and school, poverty and social exclusion. She is the academic director of the Alice Salomon Archive at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin.
She first studied social studies/politics and German language and literature, and later social education/social work at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. After graduating, she worked as a social pedagogue in a women's shelter and a girls' shelter as well as in social counselling at the intersection of kindergarten, school and family. She continued her research on topics such as the social exclusion of children and adolescents, changes in educational and socialisation processes within and outside the family, or changes in parental and gender images from a historical and current perspective. With a scholarship from the Heinrich Böll Foundation, she completed her doctorate in the field of welfare state, gender relations and educational processes. She then taught and researched at various universities in the fields of education and educational sciences and social work.
Sabine Toppe is active in the field of child and youth policy and as a critical researcher. She is currently a member of the board of the Women's and Gender Studies Section of the German Society for Educational Science and heads a research group in the field of social work and schools.
Sabine Toppe has been associated with the Heinrich Böll Foundation for many years, first as a scholarship holder, later as a trusted lecturer and selection committee member in the Foundation's study programme, and since 1996 as a member of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Bremen. She is currently a member of the state board.
Sabine Toppe was a member of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's General Assembly between May 2015 and 2023.