Neumann's Biography

Born in Berlin on January 23, 1905, Erich Neumann was the youngest of three children. His father, Edward, was a flour merchant; his mother, Zelma, a homemaker. Among his family, he alone was drawn to Judaism. As a young student in Berlin, Neumann immersed himself in philosophy, psychology, the arts, and Jewish thought. Between 1921 and 1929, he began to write—poetry, and eventually, a novel.

From 1923 to 1926, he pursued studies at the University of Berlin, exploring psychology, philosophy, pedagogy, art history, literature, and Semitic studies. In 1926, he moved to the University of Erlangen in Nuremberg, where he earned his doctorate in philosophy with a dissertation on the mystical language of Johann Arnold Kanne—published under the subtitle Ein Vergessener Romantiker (The Neglected Romantic).

During his academic years, Neumann read both Freud and Jung. His interest in psychology deepened, and determined to pursue it professionally, he enrolled in medical school at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, completing his studies in 1933. Alongside his academic pursuits, Neumann was captivated by Hasidism and increasingly committed to Zionist ideals—so much so that immigration to Palestine became inevitable. Despite completing his medical studies, he was denied his degree. Anti-Semitic laws in Germany at the time barred him from the mandatory internship.

In 1933, Neumann and his wife, Julie, took their one-year-old son Micha and began their journey to the Promised Land.

Earlier that year, Neumann had attended a Berlin seminar by C. G. Jung on dream analysis. Enthralled by Jung's ideas, he arranged a stop in Zurich en route to Palestine. There, on October 3, 1933, he met Jung for the first time—a meeting that led to seven months of personal analysis and training, first with Jung, then with Toni Wolff. As Neumann prepared to leave for Tel Aviv, Jung’s appreciation for him was already evident. He gifted Neumann a rare, privately printed copy of Seven Sermons to the Dead, shared only with a select few students and confidants.

In May 1934, Neumann rejoined Julie and Micha, who had arrived in Tel Aviv a few months earlier. He opened a small practice in their home. Patient numbers were scarce, and to support his family, he also began lecturing to a German speaking audience in his living room. Between 1934 and 1947—a period of thirteen years—he did not return to Europe. In a later letter to Jung, Neumann described this time as one of profound intellectual isolation. Writing in German while living in a Hebrew-speaking culture, he developed his depth-psychological ideas in solitude. But rather than impede him, the isolation became a crucible for theoretical independence. He read voraciously, and those years of private study bore lasting fruit in the form of his later writings.

Neumann returned briefly to Europe in 1936, but only in 1947 did he begin to reconnect with the postwar intellectual world. At the urging of his close friend Gerhard Adler, Jung was petitioned to invite Neumann to speak at the Eranos conference. The invitation came a year later, thanks to Jung’s personal efforts with immigration authorities.

In the summer of 1947, Neumann and Julie stayed with Adler in Ascona, where he was introduced to Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn—the founder and spirit of the Eranos gatherings. Their first meeting was decisive. Deeply impressed, Fröbe-Kapteyn consulted Jung and invited Neumann to deliver a lecture the following year. In 1948, Neumann gave his first Eranos lecture, Mystical Man, and went on to present annually until 1960, when he delivered his final talk, The Psyche as the Place of Creation, just months before his death.

Eranos conferences were ten-day gatherings of Europe’s leading thinkers in the humanities. After Jung’s retirement, Neumann emerged as the central figure. The lakeside setting, the depth of dialogue, and the wide-ranging themes formed a rich environment for Neumann to explore and articulate the existential, phenomenological, and metapsychological ideas that became his hallmark—many of which are preserved in the Eranos essays.

In October 1960, shortly after giving his last lecture at Eranos, Neumann was informed by doctors in London that he was gravely ill. He died at home in Tel Aviv on November 5, 1960.

His wife Julie wrote to Fröbe-Kapteyn, describing his final weeks. Believing his illness to be kidney-related, they were grateful he felt no pain. Only after his death was kidney cancer diagnosed. Her letter closed with these words:
“He passed away softly on Saturday, November 5, at 11:20 p.m. I was with him.”