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Prince Max (of Baden)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"MAX (OF BADEN), Prince (1867-), was born on June To 1867 at Baden-Baden, the son of Prince William of Baden. As the nearest agnate to the reigning Grand Duke, of whom he was a cousin twice removed, he was heir presumptive to the grand-ducal throne. He studied law and then entered the army, in which he attained the rank of lieutenant-general on quitting the service in 1911. On the outbreak of the World War he was promoted to the honorary rank of general of the cavalry. From 1907 to 1918 he was president of the First Chamber of the Baden Diet. His family had always had English friends, and during the war Prince Max played a useful. part behind the scenes in helping to improve conditions for English prisoners in Germany. He played a similar part on behalf of German prisoners, especially in Russia, where he was able to obtain some amelioration of their treatment. On Oct. 3 1918, when the old regime was already tottering to its fall and the German armies in France were being driven back towards the frontier, he was appointed Imperial Chancellor, partly no doubt because of the moderating role he had adopted earlier in the war when the probability of peace was being discussed. It fell to his lot to initiate the negotiations for the Armistice, and also to carry through in hot haste those alterations in the old constitution which had long been demanded by the Liberals and the Socialists, but which now came too late to avert the fate of the empire and the Prussian Monarchy. It also became his duty to put pressure upon the Emperor in order to induce him to abdicate. As the Imperial decision was delayed from day to day and the revolution became imminent, he had to take it upon himself to declare, on Nov. 9 1918, the abdication of William II. as German Emperor and as King of Prussia. For a moment it seemed as if he were about to assume the regency, perhaps on behalf of the Crown Prince's eldest son, a young boy, but the hopelessness of such an expedient having become apparent he handed over the control of the Government (Nov. io) to the majority Socialist leader Ebert, who became the president of the German Reich. The sincerity of Prince Max's liberalism came into question after a private letter full of anti-democratic sentiments, which during the war he had addressed to his cousin Prince Alexander Hohenlohe, had been published by the latter in the Swiss press. He continued after the revolution to publish occasional articles dealing with the situation in Germany before the revolution, and in particular with Ludendorff's action in urging the Government on Oct. 1 1918 to ask for an immediate armistice, and then eight days later, after they had acted in that sense, endeavouring to persuade them that the matter was no longer urgent. He continued, after the abdication of the Grand Duke, to reside at Karlsruhe.