Johannes Neumann was born in Königsberg in 1929. He studied philosophy, history, sociology, and theology in Munich and Freiburg. He received his PhD and habilitation from the Institute of Canon Law at University of Munich. Neumann was initially professor of canon law in Tübingen. After splitting with the church and returning the missio canonica he became professor of sociology of law and religion in 1977. Neumann was a founding member and 1st chairman of the International Erich Fromm Society, member of the Humanistische Union, the Gesellschaft für kritische Philosophie Nuremberg, and the Ludwig Feuerbach Society. In 2000 he was awarded IBKA's Erwin Fischer Prize with his wife Ursula Neumann.

Neumann died on May 5, 2013. He had been a member of the gbs advisory board since 2004 and was also significantly involved in the founding of the gbs, which Michael Schmidt-Salomon illustrated in his eulogy to Johannes Neumann entitled "A Gentle Revolutionary".

Publications (selection):

• Arbeit im Behindertenheim: Situationsanalyse u. Strategien zu ihrer Humanisierung / Univ. Tübingen, Soziolog. Seminar. Johannes Neumann (ed.), 1988
• Toleranz und Repression: zur Lage religiöser Minderheiten in modernen Gesellschaften / Johannes Neumann ... (ed.), 1987
• Grundriß des katholischen Kirchenrechts, 1981
• Wissenschaft an der Universität heute (ed.), 1977
• Menschenrechte - auch in der Kirche? 1976
• Das Kirchenrecht, Chance und Versuchung, 1972
• Braucht die Kirche ein Recht? Funktion u. Grenzen d. Rechts in d. Kirche / Johannes Neumann antwortet Ingo Hermann, 1970