As the 120th anniversary of Alex Natan’s birth on 1 February 1906 approaches, the Leo Baeck Institute London invites people to discover his extraordinary life through our 2024 Lecture Series talk by Professor Kay Schiller. Natan was a gay athlete, antifascist thinker and sportswriter in Weimar Berlin who lived much of his life on the margins. He fled Nazi Germany, spent time as a refugee in pre-war London, was held in internment camps during the Second World War, and later worked as a teacher in the Midlands and as a journalist in post-war Britain and West Germany.
Professor Schiller, from Durham University, describes Natan as “the quintessential outsider”. From German athletics to exile communities in Britain, Natan was always slightly apart. Born into a Jewish upper-middle-class family in Berlin with ties to the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, he earned the nickname “the fastest Jew in Germany”. His career came to an abrupt halt in 1931 when he joined a communist-led sports event, prompting Nazi officials to ban him from mainstream athletics. He fled Germany soon after Hitler came to power.
Schiller’s lecture, delivered at Senate House in London in October 2024, draws on his 2022 biography of Natan. Although Natan was never a leading athlete, activist or writer, his life reflected many of the upheavals of the 20th century. The talk’s highlights include Natan’s 1932 essay criticising militarised sport, his four years of internment in Britain - where he was monitored by MI5 because of his sexuality - and his post-war career teaching at King’s School Worcester while contributing to West German publications. Schiller celebrates Natan’s “fighting spirit, resilience and adaptability” as qualities that still resonate today.
Listen to the full lecture from our 2024 series, hosted with the German Historical Institute London. Find Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts links at https://www.lbilondon.ac.uk/schiller-24.
