“I’ve decided not to sleep much anymore. Because this is not the time to be asleep,” Professor George Leitmann remarked to me on a sunny February afternoon in Northern California. When I met George, he was ninety-nine years old. Born in Austria in 1925, he fled from Nazi Germany at the age of fifteen, crossing the Atlantic and landing in New York City. His father did not make it; he perished in a concentration camp.
When George was nineteen, he enlisted in the US Army and returned to Europe. He was among the troops who liberated the Landsberg concentration camp, one of the eleven Dachau satellites. After the war, he served as an interrogator at the Nuremberg Trials at just twenty years old. He questioned high-ranking military figures such as General Heinz Guderian, former guards at concentration camps, and Margarete Himmler, the widow of Heinrich Himmler, the chief architect of the Holocaust.
Later, George went onto a distinguished career as a professor of engineering science at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in optimal control and dynamic game theory. And he became a Humboldtian, researching, and forming lasting friendships in the country that had once murdered his father. For decades, George worked to foster transatlantic relations. He built intellectual and human bridges between Germany and the United States that continue to shape bilateral understanding to this day. Recognizing the need for a stronger organizational presence of Humboldt alumni in the United States, Leitmann became the founding president of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America in the late 1980s.
At a time when the Cold War still cast a long shadow and US–German relations were rapidly evolving, George’s initiative was visionary. He understood that alumni of the Humboldt Foundation—individuals who had lived, researched, and taught in both countries—formed a vital reservoir of goodwill and mutual understanding. Under his leadership, the association created opportunities for continued scholarly exchange, fostered alumni networks across the United States, and laid the foundation for what would later become American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: a professional and philanthropic organization devoted to advancing the transatlantic mission of the Humboldt Foundation.
George’s efforts were not merely administrative; they were deeply human. He believed that science and research could transcend political ideologies and national boundaries, and he embodied the principle that diplomacy does not belong solely to states—it can also belong to scientists, educators, and civil society. In this spirit, he mentored younger scholars, welcomed visiting researchers from Germany, and continued to advocate for the power of academic mobility long after his formal retirement. His work helped ensure that Humboldt alumni in the United States remained connected not only to Germany, but also to each other, creating a durable web of transatlantic relationships that has withstood political headwinds and shifting institutional landscapes.
Today, as we face rising tides of nationalism, populism, and suspicion of international cooperation, George’s life story resonates more than ever. At a time when political rhetoric often emphasizes division and isolation, his legacy reminds us that individual action—rooted in empathy, intellectual openness, and historical awareness—can foster connection across even the deepest divides. George Leitmann was not naïve about the challenges of our world; after all, he had lived through some of its darkest chapters. Yet he chose collaboration over cynicism, and bridge-building over bitterness. That choice is a testament both to his character and to his enduring contribution to transatlantic relations.
I had the privilege of sitting for hours with George at the small bistro in his senior residence in Berkeley. Gazing out the window, he sighed before turning to me with a look of concern. “I’m pessimistic,” he admitted. He saw parallels today to what he had witnessed before. Our free democracies, founded on the rule of law, are under threat—threatened from within. Democracies can turn into dictatorships. As we discussed this, we thought about both sides of the Atlantic.
George politely expressed frustration that few seemed willing to heed his warnings. “I think it’s psychological,” he reflected. “Everyone is consumed by their own little problems. People just want to be happy. They want to shield themselves from the unpleasant. Until it’s too late.”
During our conversation, we agreed on the importance of applying the lessons of the past to the present to ensure a peaceful, free, and sustainable future. “There is no collective guilt for a society over horrific actions in a dark past,” George asserted. “But there is a collective responsibility to keep that memory alive—so it doesn’t happen again.”
A few months later, on May 19th, George passed away—just days before his one-hundredth birthday.
In honoring Professor George Leitmann, we pay tribute not only to an outstanding scholar, but also to a role model for how a single life, with humility and perseverance, can help shape the course of international understanding. His example challenges us to look beyond our borders, to seek common purpose in shared knowledge, and to invest in the people-to-people relationships that underpin lasting peace. In a fractured world, his legacy remains whole—and wholly inspiring.
