{{Short description|German political scientist and sociologist}} {{Infobox academic | name = Sigmund Neumann | honorific_suffix = | image = Sigmund_Neuman_Portrait.jpg | image_size = | caption = Sigmund Neumann, c. 1930s | birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|05|01|df=yes}} | birth_place = Leipzig, German Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1962|10|22|1904|05|01|df=yes}} | death_place = Middletown, Connecticut, U.S. | spouse = Anna Kuritzkes | children = Eva Jane Neumann | occupation = Political Scientist, Scholar, Humanitarian Sociologist, Professor of Political Science | alma_mater = | work_institutions = {{Plainlist| * Columbia University * Harvard University * Wesleyan University * Deutsche Hochschule für Politik * London School of Economics }} | influences = Robert Michels | influenced = | module = }}
'''Sigmund Neumann''' (May 1, 1904 - October 22, 1962), born in Leipzig, Germany, was a Political Scientist, Scholar, Humanitarian Sociologist, Professor of Political Science, and member of the Hochschule für Politik in Berlin, Germany (1930–1933). He married Anna Kuritzkes in 1929, with whom he fathered his daughter, the psychoanalyst Eva Jane Neumann, on May 13, 1935. thumb|upright=1|Sigmund Neumann with Anna (Kuritzkes) Neumann on their wedding day
In 1932 Neumann wrote his first book, ''Die Parteien der Weimarer Republik'' (“The Parties of the Weimar Republic”). Following Adolf Hitler’s decrees against Jewish intellectuals, lawyers, and writers, Neumann emigrated first to London, where he taught at the London School of Economics (1933–1934), then to the United States. In 1935 he secured a visa through NBC broadcaster Edward Morrow. This connection also resulted in his being invited to teach at Wesleyan University in May 1934. During his tenure at Wesleyan, Neumann served as Lecturer of Government & Social Science (1935–1962), as well as Professor of Government (1944–1962).<ref>[http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=div&did=History.PromPerils.i0003&isize=text University of Wisconsin-Madison], Neumann, Sigmund, 1904- / Germany: promise and perils (1950). Retrieved 6 December 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Boyd |first=Richard W. |date=February 2005 |title=A Brief History of the Government Department, Wesleyan University — List of Faculty Members since 1935 |url=http://www.wesleyan.edu/gov/history.htt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706012612/http://www.wesleyan.edu/gov/history.htt |archive-date=July 6, 2012 |url-status=dead |access-date=6 December 2011 }}</ref>
A gifted scholar of government and politics,<ref>[http://www.openingdoorschanginglives.org/charles.htm Charles Summer Stone, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426031957/http://www.openingdoorschanginglives.org/charles.htm |date=2012-04-26 }}, Profile, paragraph 3. retrieved 6 December 2011.</ref> Neumann was the author of many books. He published the groundbreaking ''Permanent Revolution: A Total State of War'', the first of his works to be published in English, in 1942. The definitions of authoritarianism, fascism, and totalitarianism were among the first in the world to be analyzed and explained. In 1946 he wrote ''The Future in Perspective'', in which he explored the Second Thirty Years' War perspective on World War I and World War II. He co-authored ''Introduction to the History of Sociology'' (1948) and contributed to ''Modern Political Parties'' and ''Approaches to Comparative Politics'' (1956), a collaboration between several authors.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Neumann |first=Sigmund |year=1949 |title=The Structure and Strategy of Revolution: 1848 and 1948 |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6337424 |journal=The Journal of Politics |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=532–544 |doi=10.2307/2126140 |jstor=2126140 |s2cid=154977169 |access-date=6 December 2011|url-access=subscription }}.</ref>
thumb|Neumann with students at Wesleyan University
In addition to his teaching and research, he served as director of the Center for Advanced Studies (now the Center for Humanities) (1959–1962), restarted and supervised the Wesleyan Press Archives in the Public Affairs Center (beginning in 1958), and became a mentor to many students, including Hannah Arendt in the 1950s.<ref>[http://library.wcsu.edu/cao/search.tkl?field_query1=dc.subject&query1=neumann%20sigmund Connecticut Archives Online], Center for Advanced Studies Records, 1958-1969, Press Archives Records, 1957-1975, Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University, Retrieved 6 December 2011.</ref><ref>[http://www.openingdoorschanginglives.org/charles.htm Charles Summer Stone, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426031957/http://www.openingdoorschanginglives.org/charles.htm |date=2012-04-26 }}, Profile, paragraph 3. Retrieved 6 December 2011.</ref> He also worked as a visiting professor at Amherst, Columbia, Harvard, Mount Holyoke, Princeton, Tufts, and Yale.
Aside from his writing, Neumann contributed directly to politics. He served as consultant to the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (1942–1945) and, upon his return to Germany in 1947, was involved with the Marshall Plan, helping to establish a democratic West German government. He was awarded honorary doctorates by both Munich and Berlin Universities following his return to Germany in 1949.
thumb|Sigmund Neumann's headstone in Indian Hill Cemetery
==Death== Neumann died peacefully in Middletown, CT on October 22, 1962, and is buried in Wunne Wah Jet, or Indian Hill Cemetery, with a headstone that reads: <poem> ''A man of angel's wit and singular learning;'' ''I know not his fellow.'' ''For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability.'' ''And as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes;'' ''And sometimes of as sad a gravity;'' ''A man for all seasons.'' </poem>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Notes== * {{NDB|19|161|162|Neumann, Sigmund|Peter Lösche}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Sigmund}} Category:1904 births Category:1962 deaths Category:Burials at Indian Hill Cemetery Category:Writers from Leipzig Category:German sociologists Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Wesleyan University faculty Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Category:20th-century German political scientists Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Category:20th-century German male writers