Unlike similar organisations, the German branch of the New Commonwealth Society was allowed to promote its ideas and continue its activities in Nazi Germany until it was dissolved in mid-1938.
[1] Notable members of the organisation include its founder, Lord Davies, Winston Churchill and George Barnes, and eminent scholars such as Albert Einstein, Otto Neurath, Hans Kelsenand Alfred Verdross.
[4] Its inaugural executive committee consisted of Davies and one member from each of the larger national branches: former leader of the Labour party George Barnes for Britain, journalist Henry de Jouvenel for France, liberal activist Ernst Jäckh for Germany, and businessman Oscar Terry Crosby for the United States.
[2][5][6] Notable members also included Eyvind Bratt from Sweden, J. J. van der Leeuw from the Netherlands, and distinguished academic scholars such as the émigré Albert Einstein, Norman Bentwich, Nicholas Murray Butler, George Scelle, Hans Kelsen,[7] Alfred Verdross, who founded the Austrian branch in 1937,[8] and Otto Neurath.
[10] The New Commonwealth Society challenged the prevailing notion of absolute national sovereignty, arguing that it was a major obstacle to the prevention of war.