EPISODE 130 Otto Ritter von Dandl
Otto Ritter von Dandl was born in Straubing (located in Lower Bavaria) on May 13, 1868, the son of Georg Ritter von Dandl and Karoline Weninger. Otto graduated from law school in 1890 and soon entered the Bavarian government service, becoming a judge at the court in Munich. He quickly rose through the ranks… and in 1900, Dandl obtained a position in the justice department.
In 1906, Dandl became an advisor of Prinzregent (Prince Regent) Luitpold. The latter ruled Bavaria in place of his nephew King Otto. But when Luitpold died in 1912, his son Ludwig took up the position as Prinzregent of Bavaria. Dandl became the chief of Ludwig’s cabinet.
The following year, Prinzregent Ludwig ascended to the throne of Bavaria and became King Ludwig III. The new monarch bestowed the title of Staatsrat on Otto von Dandl.
By 1917, Germany’s situation had gradually worsened due to the Great War. Dandl was made Minister of State of the Royal Household and of the Exterior and President of the Council of Ministers on November 11, 1917. The title was the equivalent to Bavarian Prime Minister.
On November 2, 1918, Dandl reached an agreement (with all major parties) to reform Bavaria and build a new coalition government. He would be named leader… with prominent members of the Zentrumspartei and the SPD in ministerial posts. But the armistice and eventual German surrender nine days later meant that the new government would never materialize. It would have included three future Bavarian prime ministers: Heinrich Held, Eugen von Knilling, and Johannes Hoffmann.
With the collapse of Imperial Germany, the Kingdom of Bavaria was abolished by Kurt Eisner on November 8, 1918. He succeeded Dandl as prime minister of a Soviet-style republic. As a result, Dandl was the last Minister-President of the Kingdom of Bavaria.
The day after the guns fell silent over Europe, Dandl went to Schloss Anif near Salzburg, Austria. He visited the exiled King Ludwig III and obtained what is known as the Anifer Erklärung (Anif Declaration). This pronouncement released all government officials, soldiers, and officers from their oaths to the monarch, but it made no declaration of resignation. The Eisner government published the edict when Dandl returned to Munich on November 13th, interpreting it (somewhat ambiguously) as the end to the Wittelsbach rule… which began under Otto I nine centuries earlier.
Dandl remained active in government, becoming the director of the taxation department in Würzburg in 1919. He held the same position in Munich from 1929 to 1933.
With Nazi Germany fighting and conquering most of Europe, Otto Ritter von Dandl died exactly one week after his 74th birthday on May 20, 1942. In Straubing, a street is named after him, the Otto-von-Dandl-Ring.
Ritter, as in the name Otto Ritter von Dandl, is not a name but a noble title, considered roughly equal to the title Knight or Baronet.