Herbert Steffen, born 1934 in Mastershausen/Hunsrück, studied business administration at the University of Cologne. In 1969 he took over management of the company "Steffen Möbel", which he expanded into one of the best-performing bedroom furniture suppliers in Germany. In 1973 he introduced company profit sharing for employees, and in 1990 Steffen AG went public.

At the end of the 90s, Herbert Steffen left the company. A former member of the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Trier, Steffen became an increasingly prominent patron after leaving the church, e.g. for the writer and church critic Karlheinz Deschner from the early nineties. In 1994 he was awarded the "Federal Cross of Merit" of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2004 he founded the Giordano Bruno Stiftung, which he has led since then as its first chairman. In 2012 he was awarded the "Ludwig Feuerbach Prize" of the Bund für Geistesfreiheit Augsburg for his commitment to humanism and enlightenment (read here the laudation for the prizewinner by Gerhard Czermak).

On November 18, 2022, Herbert Steffen died at the age of 88. See the epitaph by his friend and companion Michael Schmidt-Salomon, "The End of an Era".