Maximilian Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm Margrave of Baden also known as Max von Baden, was a German prince and politician. He was heir to the Grand Duchy of Baden and in October and November 1918 briefly served as Chancellor of the German Empire.
Background
Maximilian Margrave of Baden was born in Karlsruhe on July 10, 1867, cousin of the childless Grandduke Frederick II of Baden. Maximilian was a member of the House of Baden, the son of Prince Wilhelm Max (1829–1897), third son of Grand Duke Leopold (1790–1852) and Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg (1841–1914), a granddaughter of Eugène de Beauharnais. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Maximilian de Beauharnais, and bore a resemblance to his cousin, Emperor Napoleon III.
Education
Max received a humanistic education at a Gymnasium secondary school and studied law and cameralism at the Leipzig University.
Career
Max embarked upon a military career, but in 1911 quit the service as brigade commander and instead pursued a doctorate of jurisprudence. In 1907 he became the heir presumptive to the throne of Baden; as such he automatically served as president of the Upper House at Karlsruhe. Concurrently, Max was a frequent guest of the Wagners in Bayreuth, and he greatly treasured their son-in-law, Houston Stewart Chamberlain.
Max von Baden, like other German princes, had virtually no influence upon the course of events in July 1914. He basically believed in Germany's innocence, arguing that Serbian complicity in the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand as well as the precipitous Russian general mobiliza-tion had forced war upon Berlin. Once the fighting started, Max worked diligently to alleviate the plight of thousands of prisoners of war in Germany. Early in 1915 he began to recognize the need for a conciliatory peace. Influenced by men such as Paul Rohrbach, Kurt Hahn, and Johannes Muller, the prince opposed the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917 for fear that it would bring the United States into the conflict. On the other hand, he was, not surprisingly, a staunch monarchist and an opponent of democratic, parliamentary government for Germany.
After the fall of Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg in July 1917, Max was considered a possible successor, but the highest political office in the land came to him only on October 3, 1918, after the dismissal of the inept Count Georg von Hertling, a fellow south German. It is not unfair to state that Max was appointed chancellor because neither the kaiser, nor the generals, nor the parliamentary majority (Center, Progressives, Social Democrats) could agree on a rival candidate.
Rarely has a politician been appointed in more trying circumstances. The great spring offensive in France had been repulsed, the army's morale was rapidly deteriorating, the home front was racked by strikes and plagued by hunger, and the issue of parliamentary reform for Prussia continued to divide the political parties. Ironically, Max, a prince of the blood, on October 28 was to become the head of the first parliamentary government in German history after Wilhelm II agreed to institute cabinet responsibility and to curb his own powers in foreign and military affairs. Above all, Max's rhetoric was conventional and pale; as a wartime leader he was not of the same cut as the fiery David Lloyd George or Georges Clemenceau.
Already on the day before he was officially installed as chancellor, Prince Max had been brutally informed by the kaiser: "The Army Supreme Command considers it necessary, and you have not been summoned here to make any difficulties for the Army Supreme Command." Dutifully, on October 3/4 the chancellor appealed to President Woodrow Wilson for an end to the war on the basis of the Fourteen Points. In notes dated October 8, 14, and 24, the U.S. president called on Germany to evacuate all occupied territories, to curtail the submarine offensive, and to make no effort to reinforce her armies. Unfortunately, the prince's frail constitution failed him during these perilous days: he was bedridden from October 22 to 29. Yet surprisingly, on October 26 the kaiser concurred with his chancellor and forced the resignation of General Erich Ludendorff, Germany's "silent dictator" since the fall of 1916. But three days later, Wilhelm took advantage of Max's illness to slip out of Berlin and to join army headquarters at Spa.
Max on November 1 completely broke down physically and mentally for thirty-six hours after a bitter telephone exchange with the kaiser concerning that leader's future as German emperor and Prussian king. When the chancellor recovered on November 3, he was a changed man, no longer directing but merely observing the course of German affairs. On November 5 Wilson finally agreed to accord Germany the needed armistice, but the following day Friedrich Ebert of the Social Democrats informed Max that his party demanded the kaiser's abdication by the morning of November 9. Every day, every hour then became crucial. As successor to the throne of Baden, Max felt hesitant to call upon Wilhelm to abdicate; a belated attempt to force this role upon Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse failed for similar reasons. Still, Max hoped that a timely abdication might at least secure the throne for Wilhelm's eldest grandson under a regent, but the monarch refused to consider this alternative. By now even the military commanders, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Wilhelm Groener, were counseling abdication and exile, as the army no longer stood behind the emperor.
Wilhelm dawdled. In Berlin workers on the morning of November 9 poured into the streets to demand an end to the war. At noon on that day, having only vague hints from the army that Wilhelm would indeed abdicate, Max publicly announced the abdication of both Wilhelm II and Crown Prince Wilhelm for Prussia and Germany, and that a regency would be established for the crown prince's eldest son. Later that afternoon Philipp Scheidemann of the Social Democrats proclaimed the birth of the German republic, thereby frustrating Max's plans for a constitutional monarchy. In the end, the prince turned the reins of government over to Ebert and declined to assume the proposed regency.
Max's actions of November 9 later earned him the enmity not only of Wilhelm II and Crown Prince Wilhelm but also of army leaders, Conservatives, fellow princes, and Pan-Germans. Their denunciations were extremely unfair. When Max finally acted, it was not only with the greatest reluctance but also with the full knowledge that the fleet had mutinied, that rebellious sailors had seized the major ports, and that the ruling princes of Braunschweig and Bavaria had already abdicated in the face of revolution. If anything, Max's pronouncement constituted a simple recognition of existing conditions. He retired to his castle at Salem to write his memoirs. Prince Max died there on November 6, 1929, at the age of sixty-two.
Max von Baden was not a man of action, not a great statesman. Sensible, decent, honest, straightforward, he administered the six-week transition period in German history from the Hohenzollern Empire to the Weimar Republic. Neither his physical constitution nor the military situation permitted any other course.
Connections
Maximilian was married to Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland, eldest daughter of Ernest Augustus II of Hanover and Thyra of Denmark, on 10 July 1900 in Gmunden, Austria-Hungary. The couple had two children:
Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden (1 August 1902 – 29 January 1944); married Prince Wolfgang of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse-Kassel, designated King of Finland, and Princess Margaret of Prussia; no issue. Marie Alexandra was killed in a bombing of Frankfurt by the Allies of World War II.
Prince Berthold of Baden (24 February 1906 – 27 October 1963); later Margrave of Baden; married Princess Theodora, daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Through his marriage to Princess Theodora, Prince Berthold was the brother-in-law of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.