Max Hamburger Collection

The collection primarily documents Max Hamburger’s intellectual work on the relationship between ancient philosophy and modern jurisprudence. It also shows the efforts of an émigré scholar to promote himself to universities, publishers, granting agencies, and other scholars in the field. There is very little personal material in this collection. The main document types are correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, and research notes.

The bulk of the collection consists of Hamburger’s writings. His professional written work was initially about German law, and was published in newspapers and law journals. In the early 1930s, his focus switched to classical Greek authors, in particular Aristotle’s influence on modern jurisprudence. Most of the manuscripts, typescripts, and research notes in this collection relate to this area of inquiry. Outside of his scholarly work, he wrote poetry about the ancient Greeks, history, and classical music, and also completed an unpublished biography of Mozart, “Music’s Universal Genius.”

The correspondence found throughout the collection contains some scholarly discussion, particularly with Sir David Ross and Huntington Cairns, but it focuses primarily on the administrative work of an independent scholar. It documents Hamburger’s struggles to find publishers for his work, attempts to obtain a tenured professorship within the New School and elsewhere, applications for grants and stipends, and efforts to build a professional network.

This collection also contains material relating to Hamburger’s teaching career at the New School for Social Research. He was a lecturer in the department of political science 1949 to 1967. He specialized in legal history and ancient law, particularly Aristotle’s influence on modern jurisprudence.

In addition, this collection documents Hamburger’s personal and professional involvement with claims for restitution of losses suffered under the Nazi regime. Personally, he was able to secure a pension from the German government, and, after a protracted legal struggle complicated by his ex-wife’s involvement, to receive restitution for property he was forced to leave behind in Wuerzburg. His professional engagement with restoration, as a legal scholar, included informal advice to German-Jewish tobacco magnate Eugene Garbaty on his restitution case, as well as a scholarly article outlining a legal basis for restitution claims.

The collection also includes a few documents about Hamburger’s personal life, such as biographical statements, curricula vitae, a short newspaper profile, his Juris Doctor diploma, and personal correspondence.

The majority of the collection dates from his time in the United States (1948-1970), with some materials from his decade in England (1939-1948). The only significant portion of the series that relates to Hamburger’s life in Germany is in the Writings subseries, which contains newspaper and journal articles he published during the 1920s and early 1930s.