Author, Zionist Leader, Physician, and Social Critic. Born Simon Maximilian Südfeld in Pest, Hungary, the son of Gabriel Sudfeld, an Orthodox rabbi of Sephardi origin and a poet. His family were religious Orthodox Jews and he attended a Jewish elementary school, then a Catholic grammar school, he received a medical degree from the University of Budapest in 1872. In 1880 his studies took him to Paris where he opened a practice, even though it was in the literary field that he was to make a name for himself. Max was considered a controversial author due to his attacks on contemporary European art, social and political behavior, his Conventional Lies of Society, written in 1883, was an attack on irrationality, and egotism which he perceived as the evils of his time. By 1898, his literary works were translated into some 18 languages. He was married to a Protestant Christian woman and, despite his Hungarian background, he felt affiliated to German culture. Max went on to play a major role in the World Zionist Organisation; his 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. His major work Degeneration, is a moralistic attack on the so called degenerate art, as well as a polemic against the effects of a range of the rising social phenomena of the period, such as rapid urbanization and its perceived effects on the human body. In 1920 Max had returned to Paris and died there at the age of 73 after a long illness.
Author, Zionist Leader, Physician, and Social Critic. Born Simon Maximilian Südfeld in Pest, Hungary, the son of Gabriel Sudfeld, an Orthodox rabbi of Sephardi origin and a poet. His family were religious Orthodox Jews and he attended a Jewish elementary school, then a Catholic grammar school, he received a medical degree from the University of Budapest in 1872. In 1880 his studies took him to Paris where he opened a practice, even though it was in the literary field that he was to make a name for himself. Max was considered a controversial author due to his attacks on contemporary European art, social and political behavior, his Conventional Lies of Society, written in 1883, was an attack on irrationality, and egotism which he perceived as the evils of his time. By 1898, his literary works were translated into some 18 languages. He was married to a Protestant Christian woman and, despite his Hungarian background, he felt affiliated to German culture. Max went on to play a major role in the World Zionist Organisation; his 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. His major work Degeneration, is a moralistic attack on the so called degenerate art, as well as a polemic against the effects of a range of the rising social phenomena of the period, such as rapid urbanization and its perceived effects on the human body. In 1920 Max had returned to Paris and died there at the age of 73 after a long illness.
Bio by: Shock
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