Background
Georg von Hertling was born in Darmstadt on August 31, 1843, the son of a Hessian privy councillor; the family had been ennobled in 1745 in the Rhenish Palatinate.
Georg von Hertling was born in Darmstadt on August 31, 1843, the son of a Hessian privy councillor; the family had been ennobled in 1745 in the Rhenish Palatinate.
For a time Herding considered entering the priesthood, but instead, he turned to philosophy at Munster, Munich, and Berlin.
In 1867 he accepted a position at Bonn University, but was denied promotion owing to his defense of the Catholic Church during Bismarck's struggle with Rome (Kulturkampf). In that same year Hertling founded the Gorres Society for the advancement of learning in Catholic Germany; he remained its head until his death in 1919. In 1882 Hertling received a politically motivated appointment as professor of philosophy at Munich University.
Hertling became increasingly active in politics. In 1877-1890 and again in 1896-1912 he represented the Center party in the Reichstag, leading his party's parliamentary caucus from 1909 to 1912. Hertling had been a passionate protagonist of Ludwig Windthorst, but in time he sought to bring the Center party into the mainstream of German national politics. Specifically, he was the only Bavarian Center delegate who voted for Admiral Alfred Tirpitz's first navy bill in 1898.
Hertling's career entered yet another phase on February 9, 1912, when he accepted the post of Bavarian minister president under Prince Regent Luitpold, thereby ushering in a parliamentary regime at Munich. Hertling was instrumental in persuading Prince Regent Luitpold to accept the Bavarian Crown as King Ludwig III in November 1913. The minister president played no role during Germany's decision to go to war in July 1914, and he staunchly defended Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg in July 1917 against attacks from both the military and the Reichstag.
Hertling was mentioned as possible successor to Bethmann Hollweg in July 1917, mainly owing to the astute lobbying efforts of the Bavarian envoy to Berlin, Count Hugo Lerchenfeld-Kofering. The Bavarian minister president refused to leave Munich.
Only after the abysmal failure of Chancellor Georg Michaelis to steer an independent course between generals and the parliamentary majority did Hertling agree on November 1, 1917, to accept the nation's highest political office; he served concurrently as Prussian prime minister.
Hertling's one-year stint as chancellor was not a success. He was already seventy-four years old and plagued by ill health. Moreover, his own party under the leadership of Matthias Erzberger provided little support. Hertling did not view favorably the development of a parliamentary majority bent on reforming the iniquitous Prussian three-class voting system. The chancellor also proved utterly unable to assert his will against General Erich Ludendorff's vast annexationist schemes in the east, embodied in the Draconian settlements of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest. Never certain that he was the right man for the job, Hertling seized upon the military setbacks in the west to resign on October 3, 1918, in favor of a fellow South German, Prince Max von Baden. Hertling retired to his estate in Ruhpolding, Upper Bavaria, to write his memoirs, but died on January 4, 1919.