| Rudolf Binding | |
| Birth Place: | Basel, Switzerland |
| Birth Date: | 13 August 1867 |
| Death Date: | 4 August 1938 |
| Death Place: | Starnberg, German Reich |
| Notable Works: | A Fatalist at War |
Rudolf Georg Binding (13 August 1867 – 4 August 1938) was a German writer. During World War I, he served as a cavalry master and staff officer. He was primarily known for his diary which he wrote during his time in the war.
Binfing was born in Basel, Switzerland, and died in Starnberg. He studied medicine and law before joining the Hussars. On the outbreak of the First World War, Binding, a forty-six years old, became commander of a squadron of dragoons. Except for a four-month period in Galicia in 1916, Binding spent the war on the Western Front.
Binding's diary and letters, A Fatalist at War, was published in 1927. His collected war poems, stories and recollections were not published until after his death in 1938.
Binding was never a member of the National Socialist Party and publicly dissociated himself from one of its actions; but his relationship to it was ambiguous, for he saw it at times as an aspect of national revival.
In 1928 he won a silver medal in the art competitions of the Olympic Games for his "German: Reitvorschrift für eine Geliebte" (Rider's Instructions to his Lover).[1]
From 1933 his private secretary and English interpreter was Elisabeth Jungmann a Jewish German. Binding had hoped to marry Jungmann but was prevented from doing so by the Nuremberg Laws.[2] She became the second wife of Sir Max Beerbohm in 1956.
In October 1933 Binding signed the German: [[Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft]] declaring loyalty and support to Adolf Hitler.
He was on friendly terms with the English writer A.P. Herbert, to whom he was introduced by Wilhelmine Arnold-Baker. They found that they had been within yards of each other in opposite trenches during the war.