Career
Politics Max Sievers opposed the first world war and was an unwilling participant and suffered an arm injury in 1915. The experiences during the war led him to become politically active. In 1920, he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) even serving as a secretary of its headquarters when needed.
However, he was strongly critical of the March Action (attempted Putsch) and as a result left the organization for the Kommunistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft, a group of communists who opposed the tactics of the KPD. However, the group began falling apart, and by 1927 Sievers had returned to the Communist party of Germany (KPD).
During the post-Reichstag fire crackdown he was placed into "protective custody" and the party was thrown into disarray. Unlike most communist activists, Sievers was released a few months later and left for Belgium.
Freethought In 1922 he became active in the organization, Union of Freethinkers for Cremation (VdFfF), gaining an administrative position. He started the freethought publication "Der Freidenker" in 1925.
In 1927 he was elected as chairman of the German Freethinkers League.
By 1930 the organization boasted 600,000 members and took on the new name. Sievers opposed the Nazi government in his freethought articles, writing of the Reichskonkordat as an "alliance" between the Nazi government and the clergy and promoting the idea they be replaced with a Soviet model. He wrote the book "Unser Kampf gegen das Dritte Reich" to outline many of his objections with the third reich.
Max Sievers immigrated to the United States in 1939, but he could not get a visa, so he returned to Belgium.
