Kreutzberger, Max.

Variant names

Biographical notes:

Max Kreutzburger was born on January 31, 1900 in Königshütte, Germany (now Chorzów, Poland). There he attended the local Oberrealschule, and graduated in 1917. He joined the military, but World War I ended soon thereafter.

After leaving the military Max Kreutzberger attended the Universities of Freiburg, Munich, and Breslau, where he studied philosophy, history, and political economics. In 1925 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Breslau (now in Wroclaw, Poland). He then dedicated himself to Jewish social work and studied law on the side.

In 1925 he became head of the social policy department of the Zentralwohlfahrtstelle der deutschen Juden (Central Welfare Agency for German Jews) and in 1928 became the manager of the organization. The Zentralwohlfahrtstelle belonged to the Liga der freien Wohlfahrtspflege (League of Free Welfare Services), whose members included non-Jewish agencies as well, such as Caritas, the Innere Mission, and the Arbeiterwohlfahrt . During these years he worked on questions of law and social policy, and published works that fell into these fields. In his capacity as manager of the Zentralwohlfahrt he involved himself in the work of the Internationales Arbeitsamt in Geneva. In 1933 Max Kreutzberger became head of the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden, the head of organizations of Jews in Germany. By the end of 1935 he had left Germany with his wife Lisbeth and son Daniel and emigrated to Palestine. There he became General-Secretary of an organization of German Jews who had emigrated to Palestine, the Hitachduth Olej Germania, and involved himself specifically with the topics of colonization and settlement. He remained in this position until 1948.

In 1948 Max Kreutzberger went to Germany as the Director of the Jewish Agency in Germany especially to work on questions of law and restitution. In 1955 he gave up this position and went to America to further his historical studies and in 1957 became Director of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. He died in Locarno, Switzerland in 1978.

From the guide to the Max Kreutzberger Collection, 1848-1998, (Leo Baeck Institute)