Museum director and expert of decorative arts (especially ceramics and porcelain), expressionism, and museum concepts. Max Sauerlandt was born in 1880 to Max Saurelandt, a timber merchant, and Marie Plath (Sauerlandt). Sauerlandt was born into the Protestant faith. Growing up in Hamburg, he attended Matthias-Claudius-Gymnasium and received his abitur in 1898. He spent his first five semesters of study in Marburg and Berlin learning about classical philology, then the next four semesters in Munich and Berlin studying art history.