Prince Maximilian of Baden

Biography

Maximilian of Baden was born in Baden-Baden in 1867 into the ruling house of the Grand Duchy of Baden, the son of Prince Wilhelm of Baden and Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg. He studied law and cameral science at Leipzig University, trained as an officer in the Prussian Army, and in 1900 married Princess Marie Louise of Hanover. After the death of his uncle Frederick I in 1907 he became heir to the childless Grand Duke Frederick II, and he presided over the upper chamber of the Baden parliament. He left active service in 1911 with the rank of major general.

At the start of the First World War he briefly served as a staff officer with the XIV Corps, then withdrew because of poor health. From late 1914 he led the Baden branch of the German Red Cross and used his family ties to the Russian and Swedish courts to help prisoners of war. His relief work and moderate views made him acceptable to the parties of the Reichstag majority, and he openly opposed the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917.

On 3 October 1918 Wilhelm II appointed him Chancellor of the German Empire and Minister-President of Prussia. His cabinet was the first to include Social Democrats, and he sought an armistice on the basis of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points. In October he pressed for the dismissal of Erich Ludendorff, and the constitution was amended to make the chancellor answerable to the Reichstag. As revolution spread, on 9 November 1918 he announced the abdication of Wilhelm II on his own authority and handed the chancellorship to Friedrich Ebert.

He then withdrew to Baden and took no further part in politics. With Kurt Hahn he founded the boarding school Schule Schloss Salem in 1920 and published several books, including his memoirs. He became head of the House of Baden in 1928 and died at Salem in November 1929.