EARLY LIFE AND PRE-WAR YEARS
Born in Baden-Baden on July 10, 1867, Maximilian Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm (of the House of Baden) was 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. Max received a humanistic education at a Gymnasium secondary school and studied law and cameralism at Leipzig University.
Upon the order of Queen Victoria, Prince Max was brought to Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine as a suitor for Victoria’s granddaughter, Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt. Also known as Alix, she was the daughter of Victoria’s late daughter, Princess Alice, and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. Alix quickly rejected Prince Max, as she was in love with Nicholas II, the future Tsar of Russia.
Max von Baden was homosexual… and he was even designated as such on a Berlin criminal police list as a young officer. However in 1900, he decided (for dynastic reasons) to marry Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland.
After finishing his studies, Prince Max trained as an officer of the Prussian Army. Following the death of his uncle Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden in 1907, Max became heir to the grand ducal throne of his cousin Friedrich II, whose marriage remained childless. He also became president of the Erste Badische Kammer (the upper house of the Baden parliament). In 1911, Max applied for a military discharge with the rank of Generalmajor (major general).
THE LIBERAL HUMANITARIAN
Upon the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Prince Max served as a general staff officer of XIV Corps as a representative of the Grand Duke. Shortly afterwards, however, he retired from his position (General der Kavallerie à la suite), as Max was dissatisfied with his role in the military and was suffering from ill health.
In October 1914, Prince Max became honorary president of the Baden section of the German Red Cross. It was the beginning of his work for prisoners of war inside and outside Germany. Max made use of his family connections to the Russian and Swedish courts as well as his connections to neutral Switzerland. In 1916, he became honorary president of the German-American support union for prisoners of war within the YMCA World Alliance.
Due to his liberal stance, Prince Max came into conflict with the policies of the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL – Supreme Army Command) under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. He openly spoke against the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917, which eventually provoked the declaration of war by the United States two months later.
Max’s activity in the interests of prisoners of war (along with his tolerant, easy-going character) gave him a reputation as an urbane personality who kept his distance from the extremes of nationalism and saber rattling… which was evident elsewhere at the time. Since Max was almost unknown to the public, it was mainly due to Kurt Hahn (who served in the military office of the Foreign Ministry) that Prince Max was later considered for the position of Chancellor. Hahn maintained close links with State Secretary Wilhelm Solf and several Reichstag deputies including Eduard David (SPD) and Conrad Haußmann (FVP). The former pushed for Max’s candidacy as Chancellor in July 1917 after the fall of Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg. However, the post was given to Dr. Georg Michaelis.
In early September 1918, the course of the war had turned against Imperial Germany due to the failure of the Friedensturm (Peace Offensive) two months earlier. Since that fateful summer, Prince Max had been writing to Crown Prince Rupprecht that the Kaiser must abdicate to save Germany. For this, he was sternly reproved by Rupprecht’s father, King Ludwig III of Bavaria… a man who was worrying about HIS own crown!
THE RISE TO CHANCELLOR
At a meeting in the Hotel Brittanique at Spa in Belgium on September 28, 1918, Erich Ludendorff fell apart in front of his staff. After a review of the military situation, the First Quartermaster General launched into a tirade against (1) his assistants for disloyalty, (2) the Kaiser for weakness, and (3) the Imperial German Navy for treacherously undercutting the U-boat campaign. He ended his agony foaming at the mouth and hitting the floor in a convulsive fit!
Later that evening, Ludendorff called on Hindenburg… still trembling and in shock. He said that Germany had no choice but to yield ALL conquered territory in the West and try to negotiate a peace. The old Feldmarschall offered no objections… and a meeting was set for the very next day in Spa.
On September 29th, Hindenburg and Ludendorff met with the Kaiser, Chancellor Georg von Hertling, and Foreign Secretary Paul von Hintze in Spa. The two men suddenly told an incredulous Kaiser Wilhelm II that they could not guarantee the integrity of the Western Front “for two hours”, and they must have an immediate armistice. The home front was dissolving, there were threats of mutiny, and revolution was in the offing…
Hintze was frightened, but he felt certain that the majority of German citizens remained loyal to the government… which was true at that time. After agreeing to the military estimates, the Kaiser suggested that something might be saved from the wreck if Prince Max von Baden was named as a potential successor to Chancellor Georg von Hertling. A liberal, bald, yet handsome amateur diplomat, Max had links and ties to the Social Democrats in the Reichstag. In addition to being a cousin to the Kaiser, he was more moderate than Hertling.
The next day (September 30th), the cabinet of Georg von Hertling resigned. After consulting with Vice-Chancellor Friedrich von Payer (FVP), Hertling himself suggested to Kaiser Wilhelm II that Prince Max be named Chancellor. However, it took the additional support of Haußmann, Oberst Hans von Haeften (the liaison between OHL and the Foreign Office), and even Erich Ludendorff to have the Kaiser appoint Prince Max of Baden as Chancellor of Imperial Germany and Minister President of Prussia.
At the same time, Hintze was instructed to make direct contact with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and suggest immediate negotiations for an armistice. But there was a caveat: the plea to Wilson would get nowhere unless there was proof of the Kaiser’s intent to make room for popular government. Such an action was not supported by either Ludendorff or Hindenburg…
When Hintze broached the proposition, the Kaiser hesitated at first. Finally, he signed a proclamation surrendering some of his powers. The primary reason was a fear of revolt by the German Army!
Prince Max von Baden was to head a new government based on the majority parties of the Reichstag (SPD, Centre Party and FVP). But when he arrived in Berlin on October 1st, Max was unaware that he would be asked to approach the Allies about an armistice. Horrified, Max fought against the plan and openly admitted that he was no politician. Also, he did not believe additional steps towards democratization were feasible as long as the war continued. Consequently, Max did not favor liberal reform of the constitution.
The next day, Ludendorff sent a warning message to the Reichstag that defeat was close at hand. Many of the politicians were shocked and remained unconvinced! On October 3rd, the Kaiser and Hindenburg arrived in Berlin… with the latter claiming that the German Army could protect the Reich until the following spring. The Feldmarschall also sent an urgent signal to Prince Max, insisting a demand for an immediate peace.
Two days after receiving his summons, Prince Max officially accepted the post. The next day (October 4th), the Allies “celebrated” Max’s appointment as Chancellor of Imperial Germany by continuing the fight all along the Western Front!
THE FOURTEEN POINTS
When 1918 dawned, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson made headlines with words of peace. Since the summer of 1917, he had been looking for a formula to end the war. Colonel Edward M. House was given the task of expanding Wilson’s controlling ideas into specific proposals.
Dr. Sidney Mezes (House’s brother-in-law) and a research task force (including a very young Walter Lippmann) were asked to take a global view of the war issues and come up with Utopian solutions. As 1917 drew to a close, House reported their work, and a speech was drafted for the launching of Wilson’s post-war dream.
Around the same time, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George spoke with the British Trade Unions Congress… totally unaware of Wilson’s plan for post-war Europe and the world. LG claimed that a settlement of new Europe must be based on reason and justice to ensure stability. Government with the consent of the people was THE basis of any territorial settlements in the war.
Upon hearing the British PM, Wilson proposed canceling his own speech. But advisors convinced the President that LG was merely “scratching the surface”. For humanity’s sake, Wilson’s vision must carry on…
Congress was given a half hour’s notice of President Wilson’s speech on January 8, 1918… and in it contained fourteen points:
1. open covenants openly arrived at
2. freedom of the seas
3. removal of economic barriers
4. reduction of armaments
5. adjustment of colonial claims in the interests of subject peoples
6. evacuation of Russian territory and free determination of Russian national policy
7. evacuation and restoration of Belgium
8. evacuation of French territory, with Alsace-Lorraine to be returned to France
9. readjustment of Italian frontiers on lines of nationality
10. people of Austria-Hungary to be accorded opportunity for autonomous development
11. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro to be evacuated… with Serbia gaining access to the sea
12. non-Turkish people’s in the Ottoman Empire to be assured autonomous development with the Dardanelles to be opened to ships of all nations
13. Polish independence and access to the sea
14. formation of a general association of nations with the mission of preserving world peace (i.e. a “league of nations”)
Men such as German Chancellor Georg von Hertling and Austrian Foreign Minister Count Ottokar Czernin favored Wilson’s proposals… except those denying the Teutonic spoils of victory. Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin of Russia also took a liking to the Fourteen Points.
But there were voices of dissent among the Western powers! French President Georges Clemenceau claimed that Wilson “acted to the very best of his abilities in circumstances the origins of which escaped him”. Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando said that Wilson “knew so little about the Austrian problem”. Even Erich Ludendorff commented (at that time) that the Fourteen Points were “figments of the imagination”. His opinion of Wilsonian principles would take a different turn in the months that followed.
PEACE FEELERS… AND PROVOKERS
Upon his appointment as Chancellor of Imperial Germany, Prince Max von Baden had serious reservations about the conditions under which the OHL was willing to conduct negotiations and tried to interpret Wilson’s Fourteen Points in a way most favorable to the German position. Nevertheless, he accepted the charge, appointing a government that for the first time included representatives of the largest party in the Reichstag (the Social Democratic Party or SPD) as state secretaries, namely Philipp Scheidemann and Gustav Bauer. Max also secured powers denied by the monarchy to the Reichstag (i.e. the appointment of a War Minister as well as making war and peace).
This was soon following up on an idea by both Erich Ludendorff and former Foreign Secretary Paul von Hintze. On September 29, 1918, the two men agreed that the request for an armistice must not come from the old regime, but from one based on the majority parties. The official reason for appointing a government based on a parliamentary majority was to make it more difficult for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to refuse a peace offer. The need to convince Wilson was also the driving factor behind the move towards “parliamentarization” that was to make the Chancellor and the government answerable to the Reichstag, unlike the previous wartime cabinets. But Ludendorff was interested in shifting the blame for the lost war to the politicians and to the Reichstag parties, which later led to the infamous stab-in-the-back myth (Dolchstoßlegende).
On October 5, 1918, Prince Max promptly cabled President Wilson and sought both an armistice and peace. An opponent of Ludendorff, the Chancellor secured a written admission from Feldmarschall Hindenburg that “there was no further chance of forcing a peace on the enemy”.
Upon hearing from Prince Max, Wilson sat on the message for several days… withholding it from the European allies AND his military advisors. He also kept secret the fact that Germany had collapsed from the top. But if word got out about the change in Germany’s political situation, the German Army would have crumbled. So the troops kept on paying the price on the battlefield (1) to ensure compliance of ALL the Fourteen Points and (2) to conclude and observe an armistice “on land, by sea, and in the air”.
Finally on October 8th… and still without confiding in America’s allies, Wilson cabled a reply to Prince Max requesting clarification. Was the German Chancellor speaking only “for the constituted authorities of the Empire”? Did Germany subscribe to ALL Fourteen Points?
Meanwhile, the European allies met in secret to plan how to circumvent the idealistic post-war policy sponsored by Wilson. Britain was offended by “freedom of the seas in peace and war”. The Royal Navy battled through by prescribing freedom of the seas in war. Otherwise, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) would have never reached France! LG, Clemenceau, and Orlando disagreed with Wilson’s belief that an ideal peace would turn Earth’s people to idealism.
The European allies were cautious; they distrusted and viewed Prince Max of Baden as a member of a ruling family of the German Empire. These doubts were intensified by the publication of a letter Max had written to Prince Alexander zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst in early 1918. In it, he criticized “parliamentarization” and opposed the Reichstag’s Friedensresolution (Peace Resolution) of July 1917, when a majority had demanded a negotiated peace rather than a victorious one.
On October 12th, Prince Max replied that speaking for the majority of Reichstag and the people, Germany had accepted the Fourteen Points. He also trusted Wilson was in a position to vouch that the other Allied powers had accepted them. Clearly, Wilson was not in such a position… as both LG and Clemenceau asked the President to clear his main proportions with them before he got any deeper.
However, events on land and sea conspired to chill the proceedings. Behind them was the First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff, who began to recover his nerve. In trying to scuttle the Fourteen Points while playing the victim, Ludendorff’s actions would lead to his demise!
The same day Wilson cabled Prince Max requesting clarification (October 8th), an American platoon in the Argonne Forest accepted the surrender of a large group of Germans… only to be mowed down by Maxims in the background! Corporal Alvin York (from a kneeling position) shot the German machine gunners with his rifle. Then, he stopped the greater part of a charging German platoon with the same weapon. York then rounded up the survivors with his .45 Colt and marched them back. His actions gained much attention and made him a hero.
Two days later, a U-boat sunk a passenger vessel off the coast of Ireland, killing three hundred people. That same day (October 10th), the main boat Leinster was twice torpedoed… with the second tin fish exploding into her when she was already sinking! Five hundred twenty souls perished, many of them women and children
A wave of cold rage resurged among the Allied peoples, and it soon reached President Woodrow Wilson. He messaged Prince Max on October 14th… and told him that the Allied military leaders would set armistice conditions for the Germans due to the “barbaric practices” in the Argonne and the Atlantic by the enemy.
In an October 17th cabinet meeting, Max opposed Ludendorff when it was discovered that the First Quartermaster General had changed his mind about the armistice and quickly advocated a continuation of hostilities. With regard to Wilson, Max tried reconciliation, albeit too late. In addition to the call for the evacuation of all occupied territories by German troops, the unrestricted U-boat campaign was abandoned for good on October 20th. Max also besought the President to oppose any Allied demand “that would be irreconcilable with the honor of the German people… and with paving the way to a peace of justice”. For this, Ludendorff damned Prince Max and the government for such an approach.
Still, the Allies were unaware of the negotiations between Wilson and Prince Max… except for leaks from the press and the U.S. Embassy in London. Even General Tasker H. Bliss on the Supreme War Council was kept in the dark. Bliss refused the council’s draft on military conditions for a proposed armistice, because he had not been consulted AND because the terms differed from Wilson’s views. The consensus by the European Allies was that the Fourteen Points could not be the basis for an armistice.
On October 23rd, President Wilson then sent a blunt note to Prince Max: if the U.S. must deal with the military and imperial masters of Germany, it must demand surrender, not peace negotiations. Upon reading the threat from Wilson, Prince Max went straight to the Kaiser and told him that either Ludendorff be dismissed… or the Kaiser must look for a new Chancellor. He also informed Wilhelm II that Hindenburg must remain to hold the army together.
Both Hindenburg and Ludendorff opposed any regime change. So the tandem called upon the German Army to ignore what Max was trying to do, which was clear insubordination. Ludendorff issued an army order that called Wilson’s third note “unacceptable” and informed his troops to continue the fight.
In addition, H-L had left HQ against the special instructions of the Chancellor. This led to the Kaiser demanding the two men report to Schloss Bellevue in Berlin on October 25th. When H-L arrived the next day, the Kaiser called in his commanders. He accepted Ludendorff’s resignation without thanks… and then rejected Hindenburg’s offer to quit. Fuming, Ludendorff would not accompany the Feldmarschall back to HQ; “I refused to ride with you, because you have treated me so shabbily”. He donned a false beard and dark glasses… and fled to Sweden via Denmark.
While trying to move towards an armistice, Chancellor Prince Max von Baden, advised closely by Hahn (who also wrote his speeches), Haußmann and Walter Simons, worked with the representatives of the majority parties in his cabinet:
– Scheidemann and Bauer for the SPD
– Matthias Erzberger, Karl Trimborn and Adolf Gröber for the Centre Party
– Payer and Haußmann for the FVP
Although some of the initiatives were a result of the notes sent by Wilson, they were also in line with the parties’ manifestos:
1. making the Chancellor, his government, and the Prussian Minister of War answerable to the parliament (Reichstag and Preußischer Landtag)
2. introducing a more democratic voting system in place of the Dreiklassenwahlrecht (three-class franchise) in Prussia
3. the replacement of the governor of Alsace-Lorraine with the mayor of Straßburg.
4. appointing a local deputy from the Centre Party as Secretary of State for Alsace-Lorraine… along with other adjustments in government personnel.
Pushed by the SPD, the government passed a widespread amnesty, under which political prisoners like Karl Liebknecht were released. Under Prince Max, the bureaucracy, military, and political leadership of the old German Empire began a cooperation with the leaders of the majority parties and the individual states. It would have a significant impact on events in the months to come…
In late October 1918, the Imperial constitution was heavily amended to transform the German Empire into an English-style constitutional monarchy. However, Wilson’s third note seemed to imply that negotiations for an armistice would be dependent on the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Prince Max and his cabinet now feared that a military collapse and a socialist revolution at home were becoming more likely with every passing day. In fact, the government’s efforts to secure an armistice were interrupted by mutinies at Kiel, which began on October 30th with events at Wilhelmshaven that led to the outbreak of the German Revolution.
On the first of November 1918, Max wrote to all the ruling princes of Germany, asking them whether or not they would approve of an abdication by the Kaiser. Five days later, the Chancellor sent Erzberger to conduct the negotiations with the Allies in the forests near Compiegne, France.
Now stricken with the deadly Spanish influenza, Prince Max urged the Kaiser to abdicate. He sent Prussian Minister of the Interior Dr. Drews to tell Wilhelm II that he must quit the throne. The Kaiser refused… and even contemplated turning his army against his own people.
Despite similar advice by Hindenburg and Wilhelm Groener (Ludendorff’s successor as chief of staff), Wilhelm II, who had fled from revolutionary Berlin to OHL headquarters at Spa, Belgium, was willing to consider abdication only as Kaiser, not King of Prussia.
As it stood, partial abdication was not possible under the imperial constitution. Article 11 defined the empire as a confederation of states under the permanent presidency of the King of Prussia, meaning that the Imperial German crown was tied to the Prussian crown.
REVOLUTION AND RESIGNATION
On November 7th, Prince Max met with SPD leader Friedrich Ebert… and discussed his plan to go to Spa and convince Wilhelm II to abdicate. He considered installing Prince Eitel Friedrich (Wilhelm’s second son) as regent, but the outbreak of the revolution in Berlin prevented Max from implementing the plan. Ebert decided that to keep control of the socialist uprising, the Kaiser must quickly abdicate… and a new government be installed. Again, Wilhelm II refused… and again, he threatened to use the army against the nation!
As the masses gathered in Berlin at midday on November 9, 1918, Prince Max went ahead and unilaterally announced the Kaiser’s abdication of both the Imperial German and Prussian crowns, even though it was not yet official. He also proclaimed the renunciation of Crown Prince Wilhelm.
Shortly thereafter, Ebert appeared in the Reichskanzlei and demanded that the government be handed over to him and the SPD, as that was the only way to keep law and order. In an unconstitutional move, Max resigned and appointed Ebert as his successor.
On the same day, Philipp Scheidemann spontaneously proclaimed Germany a republic in order to placate the masses and prevent a socialist revolution. When Max later visited Ebert to say goodbye, the latter wanted to keep up the old order, improve it through parliamentary rule, and head a legitimate (not revolutionary) government. Thus, Ebert asked Max to stay on as regent (Reichsverweser). However, the offer was refused. Turning his back on politics for good, Max left Berlin and headed back to his native Baden.
Although events had overshadowed his tenure at the Reichskanzlei along with the perception that he was a weak figure, Max is seen today as having played a vital role in enabling the transition from the old imperial regime to a democratic government based on the majority parties and the Reichstag. Emerging from the November Revolution, the Ebert government was made acceptable to some conservative forces in the bureaucracy and military (one of Ebert’s strongest aims). Thus, they were willing to ally with Ebert against the more radical agenda set by the far-left revolutionaries.
FINAL YEARS
Maximilian spent the rest of his life in retirement. He rejected a mandate to the 1919 Weimar National Assembly, which was offered to him by the German Democratic Party co-founder Max Weber. In 1920, Max, along with Kurt Hahn, established the Schule Schloss Salem boarding school, which was intended to help educate a new German intellectual elite. He also published a number of books, assisted by Hahn: Völkerbund und Rechtsfriede (1919), Die Moralische Offensive (1921) and Erinnerungen und Dokumente (1927).
In 1928, Maximilian became head of the House of Zähringen, assuming the dynasty’s historical title of Margrave of Baden. He succeeded the late Grand Duke Friedrich II, who had been deposed in November 1918 when the German monarchies were abolished.
Sadly, Max von Baden died at Salem on November 6, 1929. He was sixty-two years old.
Thank you for a fascinating account of the final days of the old Empire. Wilson’s views were unacceptable to Clemenceau and Lloyd George for a very important reason you don’t mention. Wilson believed that Germany must pay for war damages in Belgium and France but wanted to keep the bill within reason. Germany should re-join the community of nations as soon as possible, and a giant reparations debt would stand in the way. Clemenceau and Lloyd George, overwhelmed by the cost of the war, had promised their nations that Germany would pay and ease some of the burden imposed by the war. This was the beginning of the debt/reparations disputes of the 1920s.