Max Nordau - Biography

Biography

Nordau was born Simon Maximilian, or Simcha Südfeld on 29 July 1849 in Pest, then part of the Austrian Empire. His father was Gabriel Südfeld, a Hebrew poet. His family were religious Orthodox Jews and he attended a Jewish elementary school, then a Catholic grammar school, before receiving a medical degree from the University of Budapest in 1872. He then traveled for six years, visiting the principal countries of Europe. He changed his name before going to Berlin in 1873. In 1878, he began the practice of medicine in Budapest. In 1880 he went to Paris. He worked in Paris as a correspondent for Die Neue Freie Presse, and it was in Paris that he spent most of his life.

Before entering the university, he had begun his literary career at Budapest as contributor and dramatic critic for Der Zwischenact. Subsequently, he was an editorial writer and correspondent for several other newspapers. His newspaper writings were collected and furnished the material for his earlier books. He was a disciple of Cesare Lombroso.

Nordau was an example of a fully assimilated and acculturated European Jew. He was married to a Protestant Christian woman and, despite his Hungarian background, he felt affiliated to German culture, writing in an autobiographical sketch, "When I reached the age of fifteen, I left the Jewish way of life and the study of the Torah... Judaism remained a mere memory and since then I have always felt as a German and as a German only."

Nordau's conversion to Zionism was eventually triggered by the Dreyfus Affair. Many Jews, amongst them Theodor Herzl, saw in the Dreyfus Affair evidence of the universality of Anti-Semitism.

Nordau went on to play a major role in the World Zionist Organisation; indeed Nordau's relative fame certainly helped bring attention to the Zionist movement. He can be credited with giving the organisation a democratic character.

After the outbreak of the World War I, he was, being a native of Hungary, accused of German sympathies. He denied the charge, and afterward went to reside in Madrid. An attempt to assassinate him was made in the latter part of 1903.