Julian Gumperz (May 12, 1898 in New York City – February 1972 in Gaylordsville, Connecticut) was a United States-born German sociologist, communist activist, publicist, and translator.
In her autobiography she described him as being refined, soft-spoken, and a sensitive young man, not hardened by politics although he too then belonged to the left circle.
Gumperz returned to Germany with a favorable report, assuring Max Horkheimer and the others that the Institute’s endowment, which still brought in about $30,000 a year, would be enough to guarantee survival in depression era America.
In 1919 Gumperz and Karl Otten founded the Berlin monthly publication Der Gegner ("The Opponent").
The communist uprising in Berlin in 1918, crushed by the government, had given rise to these satirical, radical, and political reviews.