Max Naumann was a German lawyer, politician, and publicist who founded the League of National-German Jews in 1921. A decorated Bavarian army officer in the First World War, he advocated total Jewish assimilation into German nationalism, opposed Zionism, supported the National Socialists during the early 1930s, and was briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo in 1935.
Background
Ethnicity:
Naumann was born into a Jewish family and publicly identified with the German Jewish community while advocating complete assimilation into the German nation.
Max Naumann was born on January 12, 1875, in Berlin, the son of Markus Naumann and Mathilde Naumann, née Herrmann. He came from a long-established West Prussian Jewish family and grew up in the capital of the German Empire, where Jewish civic integration and debates over emancipation, nationalism, and communal identity shaped the political environment of his adulthood.
Naumann completed his secondary education at the Friedrichs-Werdersches Gymnasium in Berlin, receiving his Abitur in 1893. His later public career remained centered in Berlin, where he practiced law, edited political publications, and organized the League of National-German Jews. He died in Berlin in May 1939 from cancer and was buried at the Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf.
Education
Naumann attended the Friedrichs-Werdersches Gymnasium in Berlin and completed his secondary education with the Abitur in 1893. The gymnasium belonged to the classical German secondary-school tradition that prepared students for university study and the state professions.
He studied law at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin from 1893 to 1899. The university, founded in 1810 as a reform institution of the Prussian state, was one of Germany's leading centers of legal and historical scholarship. Naumann submitted his dissertation, Der Erbeinsetzungsvertrag in seinen Beziehungen zum Noterbenrecht, to the University of Erlangen and received the degree of Doctor of Law in 1899. Erlangen, founded in 1743, was an established German university with a long tradition in the humanities, law, and the sciences.
Career
After completing his legal studies, Naumann was admitted to the bar and established a legal practice in Berlin. He also worked as a notary until 1933, when the Nazi authorities removed his authorization, and he continued practicing as a lawyer until 1935. The withdrawal of his professional rights followed the Nazi regime's legal exclusion of Jewish lawyers from the German legal profession.
Naumann served in the Bavarian Army as a reserve officer. Because unbaptized Jews were excluded from reserve-officer commissions in Prussia, he completed his one-year voluntary military service in Munich in 1897. He entered the First World War as an infantry officer in 1914, became a captain in 1916, and served as a war-court councillor with the Government of Prussia. He received the Iron Cross, First and Second Class, and the Bavarian Military Merit Order, Fourth Class, in 1918. After the war he served as a division leader in the Charlottenburg residents' militia.
In October 1920 Naumann published Vom nationaldeutschen Juden, a political program calling for the complete assimilation of Jews into German national life. On March 20, 1921, he founded the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden with fellow German Jewish nationalists and served as its chairman until 1926 and again from 1933 to 1935. The organization opposed Zionism, Jewish socialist and left-wing intellectual currents, and immigration from Eastern Europe, while presenting German patriotism and cultural assimilation as the future of German Jews.
From 1922 to 1934 Naumann edited Der nationaldeutsche Jude, the league's periodical and principal organ. His writing became increasingly aligned with the radical right during the final years of the Weimar Republic. He supported the National Socialist movement as a vehicle for national renewal, but the Nazi regime rejected the league's demand that assimilated Jews be accepted as members of the German national community.
The Gestapo dissolved the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden in 1935 on the grounds of alleged hostility to the state and arrested Naumann at Columbia-Haus. He was released after several weeks. His legal practice ended after his release, and he spent his final years in Berlin while suffering from cancer.
Achievements
Founded the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden in Berlin on March 20, 1921, creating a German Jewish nationalist organization that advocated complete assimilation into the German national community and opposed Zionism.
Led the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden during its principal periods of activity, from 1921 to 1926 and again from 1933 until its dissolution by the Gestapo in 1935.
Served as the principal editor and public spokesman of Der nationaldeutsche Jude from 1922 to 1934, using the periodical to advance the league's assimilationist and nationalist program.
Served as a decorated infantry officer and military legal official during the First World War, attaining the rank of Captain and receiving German and Bavarian military decorations.
Works
essay
Der Weg zum Deutschtum. Über das alteingesessene Judentum in Deutschland
(Essay in which Naumann discussed the position of long-est...)
1933
periodical
Der nationaldeutsche Jude. Mitteilungsblatt des Verbandes Nationaldeutscher Juden e.V.
(The monthly organ of the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden,...)
1922
political pamphlet
Die nationaldeutschen Juden nach dem 19. August 1934
(A lecture and pamphlet presented for the Verband national...)
(Political program in which Naumann presented his concept ...)
1920
Sozialismus, Nationalsozialismus und nationaldeutsches Judentum
(Political essay examining socialism, National Socialism, ...)
1932
Religion
Naumann's public identity was shaped by Jewish ancestry and membership in German Jewish society, but his political writings emphasized national belonging and assimilation rather than religious observance. He distinguished Jewish religion from ethnic and national identity and opposed Zionism, which he regarded as incompatible with the complete integration of Jews into the German national community.
Politics
Naumann was a member of the German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei), a liberal-conservative and economically liberal party active during the Weimar Republic. His political outlook combined German nationalism, opposition to Zionism and Jewish particularism, hostility toward Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and support for the complete assimilation of Jews into the German Volksgemeinschaft.
In 1921 he founded the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden, or League of National-German Jews, and led it from 1921 to 1926 and again from 1933 to 1935. The organization rejected Jewish nationalism and sought recognition for Jews who regarded themselves as fully German. During the early 1930s Naumann moved toward the radical right, endorsed the National Socialist Party as the force capable of restoring German national power, and urged cooperation with Hitler's regime despite its persecution of Jews. The Nazi racial ideology made that cooperation impossible: the organization was dissolved by the Gestapo in 1935, and Naumann was briefly imprisoned in Columbia-Haus.
Views
Naumann's central political idea was that Jews in Germany should abandon separate national or communal identity and identify completely with German culture and the German nation. In Vom nationaldeutschen Juden he divided German Jews into competing orientations, placing the fully assimilated national German Jew at the center of his preferred model.
He treated Zionism and Jewish particularism as political dangers because he believed they strengthened the view that Jews formed a separate nation. His later thought fused assimilationism with authoritarian German nationalism, anti-communism, and admiration for the National Socialist promise of national renewal. This position led him to support a movement whose racial ideology ultimately excluded him and the organization he founded.
Membership
Naumann belonged to the Burschenbund Brandenburgia, a Berlin student fraternity, from the beginning of his university years, and was also associated with the Deutsche Gesellschaft. The fraternity represented the organized student associations through which university students formed social and civic networks, while the Deutsche Gesellschaft was a Berlin cultural and national association.
His membership in the German People's Party and founding role in the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden are treated as political affiliations rather than ordinary association memberships.
Joined the Berlin student fraternity at the beginning of his university studies.
Burschenbund Brandenburgia
,
Germany
1893
Deutsche Gesellschaft
,
Germany
Personality
Naumann was a forceful and uncompromising political polemicist. His writings and organizational work reveal intense German nationalism, hostility toward Zionism and Jewish particularism, and a persistent commitment to assimilation even as Nazi policy made his position increasingly untenable.
Quotes from others about the person
Joachim Prinz later recalled having encountered Naumann many times and described him as the leader of the association of National Socialist Jews. The description reflected the sharp opposition between Prinz's Jewish communal outlook and Naumann's nationalist assimilationism.
Interests
Politicians
Adolf Hitler
Connections
Naumann was the son of Markus Naumann and Mathilde Naumann, née Herrmann. He maintained professional and political connections with Alfred Peyser and Samuel Breslauer in the leadership of the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden, and with Walter Laaser, who served as editor of the league's periodical while Naumann was its publisher.
He was acquainted with Berlin police vice president Bernhard Weiß and maintained political contact with August Winnig after 1933, seeking influence on behalf of Jewish Germans. Naumann was also associated with Kurt Rosenow, who was described as his friend, and had a public dispute with Rabbi Joachim Prinz, whom he sued for defamation after Prinz criticized him.
Father:
Markus Naumann
Mother:
Mathilde Naumann
Her maiden name was Herrmann.
Friend:
Kurt Rosenow
Rosenow and Naumann were described as friends.
Collegue :
Alfred Peyser
Peyser served on the leadership of the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden.
Collegue :
Samuel Breslauer
Breslauer was deputy chairman of the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden.
Collegue :
Walter Laaser
Laaser served as editor of Der nationaldeutsche Jude from 1930 to 1933 while Naumann was its publisher.
References
Naumann, Max — Deutsche Biographie
Biographical account of Naumann's legal career, military service, political affiliations, leadership of the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden, support for the radical right, and imprisonment by the Gestapo.
1997
Max Naumann — DAjAB
Research profile documenting Naumann's birth and death dates, family, education, legal practice, military service, political and professional associations, publications, and contacts.
Naumann, Max [Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung digital collections]
Reference profile identifying Naumann as a German politician, jurist, and publicist, founder and chairman of the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden, and editor of its periodical from 1922 to 1934.
