Plaut, Max, 1907-1974

Dr. Max Plaut was born on October 17th 1901 as the oldest of 5 siblings in Sohrau in Upper Silesia (now Żory, Poland) to Raphael and Else Plaut.

After finishing high school in Marburg Max Plaut moved to live with his parents in Hamburg, where he commenced an education and apprenticeship at M.M. Warburg and Co. Banking House. In order to pursue further studies he temporarily left the company to write his doctorate in law, which he finished in 1928. He resumed his job at Warburg and Co. before he finally resigned in 1930. Apart from his academic profession Plaut was involved in different organizational fields of the Jewish Community in Hamburg until the year 1942. Starting as a volunteer in 1930 he was elected secretary to the German-Israelite Community in 1933. After the forced centralization of the different Jewish Communities to the Jüdischen Religionsverband Hamburg e.V. he practically oversaw the whole Jewish Community of the city of Hamburg. In 1942 the Gestapo merged the Jewish Communities of northern Germany into the Bezirksstelle Nordwestdeutschland of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland and appointed Plaut to be in charge. In 1944 Plaut was incarcerated in northern Bavaria together with his mother and was only allowed to leave for Palestine due to an exchange of German Templers living in Palestine.

In 1950 Plaut moved back to Germany. He was elected vice president of the Jewish Community in Bremen where he lived until 1965 before he moved back to Hamburg. Max Plaut died in Hamburg in 1974.

From the guide to the Max Plaut Collection, 1944-after 1973, bulk 1944-1950, (Leo Baeck Institute)