[1] Hartung is chairman of the Athletes Commission of the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the founding president of Athleten Deutschland e.V.

[citation needed] With Athletes Germany, Hartung achieved a victory over IOC before the Federal Cartel Office.

[3] Following public criticism, the German Armed Forces have changed their sports promotion program after talks between Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen, Silke Kassner and Max Hartung.

[citation needed] Hartung drew attention to himself around the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

He was the first athlete in the world to declare, before the official decision of the IOC, that he would not compete in the Olympic Games in July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, out of consideration for the population living in Japan and global public health.