{ "id": "epw9rfqphv", "slug": "otto-lehmann-russbuldt", "title": "Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt", "updated": "2026-10-15", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.media", "label": "Broadcasting and journalism", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.media" }, { "id": "society.media.journalism", "label": "Journalism and press", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.media.journalism" }, { "id": "society.media.journalism.journalists_people", "label": "Journalists and their taxonomy", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.media.journalism.journalists_people" }, { "id": "society.media.journalism.journalists_people.alpha-a-to-ma", "label": "Surnames A to Ma", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.media.journalism.journalists_people.alpha-a-to-ma" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.society.media", "label": "Western Europe · 1800 to 1945: Broadcasting and journalism", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.society.media", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800", "label": "Western Europe · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.society" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.society.media", "label": "Broadcasting and journalism", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.society.media" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt (1873–1964) was a German pacifist journalist who co-founded the Bund Neues Vaterland in 1914 and led its successor, the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte.", "snippet": "Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt (1873–1964) was a German pacifist journalist who co-founded the Bund Neues Vaterland in 1914 and led its successor, the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte.", "node": "society.media.journalism.journalists_people.alpha-a-to-ma", "markdown": "# Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt\n\n**Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt** (full name Otto Gustav Albert Willy Lehmann-Russbüldt; 1 January 1873, Berlin – 7 October 1964, Berlin) was a German pacifist journalist and political publicist who co-founded and led the Bund Neues Vaterland in 1914 and served as General Secretary of its successor, the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte, until 1926.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) Driven into exile by the Nazis, he spent the years from 1933 to 1951 abroad, returned to Berlin in 1951, and was twice nominated for the [Nobel Peace Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/nobel-peace-prize).[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [2](https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=15617)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Born / died | 1 January 1873, Berlin; 7 October 1964, Berlin[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) |\n| Signature organization | Co-founder and chairman (with Kurt von Tepper-Laski) of the Bund Neues Vaterland, November 1914; General Secretary of the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte until 1926[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [3](https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/51292) |\n| Best-known book | *Die blutige Internationale der Rüstungsindustrie* (1929), translated into eleven languages[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [4](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZU7TIPK445TPKPGXLGGAX7NB4YOSJ4D3) |\n| Nazi persecution | Arrested 28 February 1933, imprisoned with Carl von Ossietzky in Spandau; expatriated August 1933 on the first list, alongside Kurt Tucholsky[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [4](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZU7TIPK445TPKPGXLGGAX7NB4YOSJ4D3) |\n| Exile writing | *Germany's Air Force* (1935), an exposé of the secret German aircraft program; *Aggression: The Origin of Germany's War Machine* (1942)[5](https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719090790.003.0007) • [6](https://data.cerl.org/thesaurus/cnp02027852) |\n| Recognition | Nobel Peace Prize nominations 1956 and 1957; Große Bundesverdienstkreuz 1953; first Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medaille (year disputed, 1962 or 1964)[2](https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=15617) • [7](https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=7171&mode=) • [1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [4](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZU7TIPK445TPKPGXLGGAX7NB4YOSJ4D3) |\n| Archives | Unpublished memoirs *Mein Leben* at the Archiv der sozialen Demokratie, Bonn; 100 manuscript items in Kalliope; correspondence in the British Library's Wickham Steed and Cecil of Chelwood papers[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [8](https://kalliope-verbund.info/gnd/116873310) • [9](https://snaccooperative.org/view/50610343) |\n\n## Early life and journalism\n\nAt eighteen he found a second home with the [Mecklenburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/mecklenburg) family Rußbüldt and later added their name to his own, the hyphenated form under which all his work appeared.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) His first public commitment was freethought rather than peace: he was secretary of the Giordano-Bruno-Bund, founded in 1900 by Wilhelm Bölsche and Bruno Wille, earned his living as a mail-order bookseller of freethinking literature and as a freelance parliamentary reporter, and in 1913 received a one-week prison sentence for blasphemy arising from his 'Konfessionslos' church-secession activism.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) He became a long-time regular contributor to the *Weltbühne*.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n\n## World War I and the Bund Neues Vaterland\n\n**The founding.** In November 1914, a few months into the war, he joined Kurt von Tepper-Laski and others in founding the Bund Neues Vaterland (BNV), opposing annexationist war aims and demanding an immediate peace of understanding.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung's history of the League names Tepper-Laski and Lehmann-Rußbüldt as its initiators and chairmen, while noting that both are today familiar only to specialists.[3](https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/51292) The membership list shows how wide the BNV's reach was: Georg Graf von Arco, Eduard Bernstein, Hans Delbrück, Albert Einstein, Kurt Eisner, Hellmut von Gerlach, Robert Kuczynski, Ernst Reuter, and [Hans Wehberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/hans-wehberg) all belonged.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) The military authorities banned the Bund for a time in 1916 through the Oberkommando in den Marken.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n\nLehmann-Russbüldt wrote one of the Bund's first program texts, *Die Vereinigten Staaten von Europa* (1914), already carrying the federalist theme that ran through his career.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n\n## Weimar years: the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte\n\nThe BNV was refounded in 1918, and in 1922 it emerged as the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte; Lehmann-Russbüldt was its General Secretary until 1926.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) He wrote the Liga's programmatic work *Die Brücke über den Abgrund* (1922) and, in 1927, its history *Der Kampf der Deutschen Liga für Menschenrechte für den Weltfrieden 1914–1927*, which later scholarship on German pacifists in the First World War cites as a primary source for the Bund's program.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [10](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002200947501000105)\n\nHis most influential book came in 1929: *Die blutige Internationale der Rüstungsindustrie*, directed against illegal rearmament and the Schwarze Reichswehr, was translated into eleven languages.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [4](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZU7TIPK445TPKPGXLGGAX7NB4YOSJ4D3) The Bundesarchiv's Reich Chancellery records confirm the biographical spine of this period: co-founding of the Bund in 1914, the later Liga, and the 1933 emigration to Great Britain.[11](https://apps.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/00103/adr/adrhl/kap1_5/para2_69.html) His antimilitarist activity brought multiple treason investigations, and a 2026 volume in the series Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts examines the Reichsgericht verdicts against pacifist critics of illegal rearmament in the [Weimar Republic](https://www.edgepedia.org/weimar-republic), the category of prosecution into which his case fell.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [12](https://doi.org/10.1515/jjzg-2026-0012)\n\n## Nazi persecution and exile\n\n**Arrest and flight.** He was arrested the day after the [Reichstag fire](https://www.edgepedia.org/reichstag-fire), on 28 February 1933, and imprisoned with [Carl von Ossietzky](https://www.edgepedia.org/carl-von-ossietzky) in Spandau.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) After a second brief imprisonment he was mistakenly released, fled abroad at the end of March 1933, and was stripped of German citizenship in August 1933; his name stood together with Tucholsky's on the Reich's first expatriation list.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [4](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZU7TIPK445TPKPGXLGGAX7NB4YOSJ4D3)\n\nThe exile route is the least settled part of his biography. The NDB article has the sixty-year-old reaching England in November 1933; the Kalliope union catalog and the CERL authority record instead place him in the Netherlands from 1933 and in England from about 1938 to 1951.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [8](https://kalliope-verbund.info/gnd/116873310) • [6](https://data.cerl.org/thesaurus/cnp02027852)\n\nIn exile he continued the work the Nazis had interrupted. He published *Germany's Air Force* (1935), an exposé of the secret German aircraft program in contravention of the [Treaty of Versailles](https://www.edgepedia.org/treaty-of-versailles), warning against the dangers to peace posed by German rearmament, followed by *Hitler's Wings of Death* (1936), *Der Krieg als Geschäft* (1938), and *Aggression: The Origin of Germany's War Machine* (1942).[5](https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719090790.003.0007) • [1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [6](https://data.cerl.org/thesaurus/cnp02027852) He wrote for émigré papers such as the *Pariser Tageszeitung* and *Das Andere Deutschland*, and edited the Liga's *Rundbriefe des Flüchtlings* from 1941 to 1946.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n\nBritish intelligence took an interest from the other side: MI5 investigated his activities, his British contacts such as the former editor of *The Times* Wickham Steed, his sources, and his collaborator, the refugee bacteriologist and fellow pacifist Helmuth Simons; the two pacifists are covered in one joint MI5 file to this day.[5](https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719090790.003.0007) Politically he collaborated at times with Karl Höltermann's parliamentary group, Kurt Hiller's Freiheitsbund deutscher Sozialisten, and Wickham Steed on a German Volksfront effort around 1935/36, but broke with the Communists around 1943.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n\n## Writings and ideas\n\nHis roughly thirty titles from 1901 to 1956 range from the federalist peace program of *Die Vereinigten Staaten von Europa* (1914) and *Die Brücke über den Abgrund* (1922) to the disarmament exposé *Die blutige Internationale der Rüstungsindustrie* (1929, eleven languages) and the English-language rearmament books of 1935 to 1942, and to the late appeal *Wie gewinnen wir den Frieden* ([Frankfurt](https://www.edgepedia.org/frankfurt), 1956/57), which he sent to [Werner Heisenberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/werner-heisenberg) in April 1957 with thanks and comment on the Göttinger Erklärung; the letter is preserved in the Heisenberg papers.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) • [4](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZU7TIPK445TPKPGXLGGAX7NB4YOSJ4D3) • [5](https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719090790.003.0007) • [13](https://kalliope.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/de/ead?ead.id=DE-611-HS-3790931)\n\n## How he compares with Quidde, Gerlach, and Hiller\n\n[Ludwig Quidde](https://www.edgepedia.org/ludwig-quidde) rose through the established German Peace Society, became its president in 1914 for fifteen years, was charged with treason during the war, led the German Peace Cartel of twenty-one organizations after it, and in Geneva exile (1933–1941) founded the Comité de secours aux pacifistes exilés.[14](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1927/quidde/biographical/) Lehmann-Russbüldt's institutional home was instead the BNV and the Liga, a parallel track within the same movement.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n\nWith Kurt Hiller the relationship in exile was collaboration rather than rivalry: he worked with Hiller's Freiheitsbund deutscher Sozialisten and Höltermann's group in the Volksfront effort of 1935/36.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en) With Einstein, Gerlach, Reuter, and Bernstein he shared BNV membership from 1914.[1](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Lehmann-Rußbüldt, Otto, NDB article, Deutsche Biographie](https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz49885.html?language=en)\n2. [Nomination Peace 1957 27-0, Nobel Prize nomination archive](https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=15617)\n3. [Against Militarism! – Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung](https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/51292)\n4. [Otto Lehmann-Rüssbüldt: Die Blutige Internationale der Rüstungsindustrie, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek](https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZU7TIPK445TPKPGXLGGAX7NB4YOSJ4D3)\n5. [No more peace: Otto Lehmann-Russbueldt and German rearmament (book chapter)](https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719090790.003.0007)\n6. [CERL Thesaurus – Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt](https://data.cerl.org/thesaurus/cnp02027852)\n7. [Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt, Peace 1956, Nobel Prize nomination archive](https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=7171&mode=)\n8. [Kalliope-Verbund: Nachweis zu Lehmann-Russbüldt, Otto (1873-1964)](https://kalliope-verbund.info/gnd/116873310)\n9. [SNAC – Russbueldt, Otto Lehmann-, active 1902-1958](https://snaccooperative.org/view/50610343)\n10. [Doves Among the Eagles: German Pacifists and Their Government During World War I, Journal of Contemporary History (1975)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002200947501000105)\n11. [Akten der Reichskanzlei, Weimarer Republik: Lehmann-Russbüldt, Otto (Gustav Albert Willy), Bundesarchiv](https://apps.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/00103/adr/adrhl/kap1_5/para2_69.html)\n12. [Publizistischer Landesverrat in der Weimarer Republik (Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts, Bd. 129)](https://doi.org/10.1515/jjzg-2026-0012)\n13. [Kalliope: Brief von Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt an Werner Heisenberg, April 1957](https://kalliope.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/de/ead?ead.id=DE-611-HS-3790931)\n14. [Ludwig Quidde – Biographical, NobelPrize.org](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1927/quidde/biographical/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Broadcasting and journalism › Journalism and press › Journalists and their taxonomy › Surnames A to Ma*\n\n*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/otto-lehmann-russbuldt", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/otto-lehmann-russbuldt.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/otto-lehmann-russbuldt. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt](https://www.edgepedia.org/otto-lehmann-russbuldt)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/otto-lehmann-russbuldt](https://www.edgepedia.org/otto-lehmann-russbuldt). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/otto-lehmann-russbuldt. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt was a German pacifist journalist who co-founded the Bund Neues Vaterland in 1914 and led its successor, the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte." }