| Max Tau | |
| Birth Date: | 19 January 1897 |
| Birth Place: | Bytom, Beuthen, Upper Silesia, German Empire (present-day Poland) |
| Death Place: | Oslo, Norway |
| Nationality: | Norwegian and German |
| Known For: | Building cultural relations between Norway and Germany |
| Alma Mater: | University of Kiel |
| Employer: | Grundt Tanum, Aschehoug |
| Occupation: | Publisher and writer |
| Years Active: | 1928–1976 |
| Parents: | Nathan Tau (1870–1941) and Julie Julius (1874–1942 |
Max Tau was a German–Norwegian writer, editor, and publisher.
Tau grew up in an environment characterized by what he later termed the "Jewish-German" symbiosis, in a Jewish household heavily influenced by the Jewish enlightenment. He studied literature, art history, philosophy, and psychology at universities in Berlin, Hamburg, and Kiel. He earned his doctorate at the University of Kiel, defending a dissertation on the German writer Theodor Fontane. With the assistance of Mildred Fish Harnack, an American active in the Red Orchestra anti-Nazi resistance group, Tau emigrated to Norway in 1935.[1] During the Nazi-German occupation of Norway, he was a refugee in Sweden and returned to Norway after the war. He was noted for his contribution to promoting literary exchange between Germany and Norway, especially in the context of reconciliation after World War II. He obtained Norwegian citizenship while in exile in Sweden in 1944.[2]