Alfons Goldschmidt (28 November 1879,

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

– 20 or 21 January 1940,

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

journalist, economist and university lecturer.

Life

Goldschmidt was born in

. He was finance editor for Rudolf Mosse's

Berliner Tageblatt The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the '' Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time. History The ''Berli ...

, and held the chair of economics at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

. In 1919 he was one of the founders of the League for Proletarian Culture. He was co-editor of '' Räte-Zeitung'' with Leo Matthias. He travelled to the

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

in 1920, arriving in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

on 1 May. He was chairperson of the German section of

Workers International Relief The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...

. A heart attack claimed his life on Sunday in Mexico City. The German-American Writers Association, of which he was a member, made the announcement. Goldschmidt's books were set on fire by the Nazis. He had been invited by the Mexican government to teach at the University of Mexico City for a year.

Works

* ''Die Wirtschaftsorganisation Sowjet-Russlands'' (1920) Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt *
Moskau 1920; Tagebuchblätter
' (1920) Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt * ''Argentinien'' (1923) Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt * ''Mexiko'' (1925) *
Auf Den Spuren Der Azteken
' (1927) *
Whither Israel?
' (1934) New York, (with a foreword by

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

) * ''The fate of trade unions under fascism'' (1937) New York: Anti-fascist literature committee * ''Grosse Liebe, weite Welt oder zwischen Rio Bravo und Moskwa : Reise- u. Zeitbilder 1920-1940'' (1974) Berlin : Buchverlag Der Morgen

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldschmidt, Alfons 1879 births 1940 deaths Anti-fascism in Germany German people of Jewish descent