Max Rudolf Kaufmann (29 April 1886 in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland – 1963 in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, Germany), was a Swiss author, translator from Turkish, and journalist, who worked and published in Switzerland, Turkey, the United States and Germany.

Life

Kaufmann was born on 29 April 1886 in

and studied philology in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1907. After some years as journalist in Paris, he moved to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

in 1910, where he joined the editorial staff of Osmanischer Lloyd, the German language newspaper co-founded and managed by Dr. Friedrich Schrader, who served as his mentor. He was a German liberal democrat and a sympathizer of the German SPD, Kaufmann soon criticized the arrogant and imperial behaviour of official German representatives in Turkey. He was rather soon fired by the owners of Osmanischer Lloyd (the German Foreign Office and the consortium of the Baghdad Railroad Project), but continued working for various newspapers as a correspondent, including

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

and

Frankfurter Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' (, ) was a German-language newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. It emerged from a market letter that was published in Frankfurt. In Nazi Germany, it was considered the only mass publication not completely control ...

. The chief correspondent at that time of Frankfurter Zeitung was Paul Weitz, a key figure in German diplomacy at that time and main adversary of Hans Humann. After German intelligence got hold of a letter where he openly expressed these critical views right in the middle of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, in 1916, Kaufmann was deported by the Turkish authorities allied with Germany to Ankara, and later expelled from Turkey. Schrader was fired from the editorial board of Osmanischer Lloyd one year later. Back in Germany, Prof. Dr. Eugen Mittwoch, who just had become head of German

Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient The Intelligence Bureau for the East () was a Imperial Germany, German intelligence organisation established on the eve of World War I dedicated to promoting and sustaining subversive and nationalist agitations in the British Indian Empire and th ...

, the semi-official German Intelligence and propaganda organisation for the Middle East, immediately hired Kaufmann. After the end of World War I, Kaufmann stayed in Berlin and worked for

Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung ''Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (often abbreviated to DAZ) was a German newspaper that appeared between 1861 and 1945. Until 1918 the title of the paper was ''Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung''. Although Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founder ...

, at that time the leading liberal-conservative Berlin newspaper. He worked as deputy editor in chief for some time, until he was fired after the newspaper was bought by the powerful Stinnes trust, and Hugo Stinnes had made Hans Humann, the former German military attache in Constantinople, and back then the main adversary of Weitz, Schrader and Kaufmann, the CEO of the DAZ publisher. In 1925 Kaufmann moved to the United States, where he became a correspondent of Hamburger Fremdenblatt, at that time Germany's leading business and commerce newspaper, and also served as editor of a German-language daily newspaper in Newark, New Jersey, the New Jersey Freie Zeitung. After the end of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

in 1933, Kaufmann discontinued his work for German media and moved back to his native Switzerland, where he worked for different local papers and also as a librarian at the University Library in Basel. In 1952, the Adenauer government in Bonn formed Inter Nationes as an organisation to increase Germany's reputation in countries at that time allied with West Germany. Kaufmann moved to Bonn in order to manage the Middle Eastern department of that organisation. At the same time he became active in the Deutsch-Türkische Gesellschaft (German Turkish Society), where he became publisher of the regular proceedings of that association. In Germany, Kaufmann was decorated with the

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first President of the Federal Republic ...

by President

Theodor Heuss Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His civil demeanour and his cordial nature – something of a contrast to German nati ...

, who was himself a former journalist and had been active in Constantinople during World War I. Kaufmann died in 1963 in Bonn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaufmann, Max Rudolf Swiss philologists Swiss orientalists Writers from Basel-Stadt 1886 births 1963 deaths Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century philologists Swiss expatriates in France Swiss expatriates in the Ottoman Empire Swiss expatriates in the United States Swiss expatriates in Germany Frankfurter Zeitung people Neue Zürcher Zeitung people Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung