Johansen's mother was of
German and
Estonian descent, and her father,
Paul Johansen, was of
Danish descent. Due to the occupation of Estonia by the
Soviet Union as part of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, her family moved to
Nazi Germany in 1939. After
World War II, she began studying in
Hamburg in 1947. Her father found a job as a professor and recommended her to study ethnology, which would become her major. After she completed her doctorate, she became a translator for the
German Red Cross before serving as a scientific assistant at the
Museum am Rothenbaum from 1954 to 1955. After that, she conducted field research in Turkey, where she lived with a family of nomads and was a visiting professor in
Istanbul in 1970. Johansen directed the ethnology department at the
University of Cologne from 1973 to 1990 and served on the ethnology committee of the
German Research Foundation from 1976 to 1980. From 1981 to 2001, she was on the selection committee of the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and chaired the from 1985 to 1989. In 2018, she was presented with a gold medal from the
Russian Geographical Society by
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ulla Johansen died in
Cologne on 14 February 2021 at the age of 93. ==Works==