GUMBEL, EMIL JULIUS

(1891-1966)

mathematician and pacifist; his doc-umentation on political murders, published in 1922, established him as one of Germany's noted pacifists. Born to a Munich banker, he completed studies in mathematics and economics in July 1914, just before volunteering for military service. The war soon converted him to pacifism; in 1915 he joined theBund Neues Vaterland, an organization committed to Franco-German understanding.

By January 1922, when theBundbecame theDeutsche Liga fur Menschen-rechte(German League for Human Rights), Gumbel was widely reviled for promoting reconciliation with France and disclosing information onFemege-richt* and the Black Reichswehr.* Among his significant writings wereVier Jahre Luge(Four years of lies), published in 1919, andVier Jahre politischer Mord(Four years of political murder), published in 1922.He dealt with the same themes, both in Germany and abroad, in lectures presented before pacifist groups and articles published inDie Weltbuhne,*Menschenrechte, and several newspapers.*

In 1923 Gumbel completed hisHabilitationin statistics at Heidelberg. Ap-pointedPrivatdozentat the university, he was soon in trouble with colleagues and students for comments made about the war. Although his scholarship in mathematics bred international esteem, when Baden's Education Ministry reluc-tantly appointed himausserordentlicher Professorin 1931, Heidelberg's social politics spawned a right-radical student campaign (supported by a faculty ma-jority) that demanded his termination. In mid-1932 riots finally forced the uni-versity to dismiss its embarrassing professor. An invitation to teach in Paris was followed in 1934 by appointment asMaître de Recherchesat Lyons. Fleeing to the United States in 1939, he taught during 1940-1966 at several colleges (in-cluding Columbia University). Also interested in philosophy, he translated Ber-trand Russell into German.