Max Montgelas

Former Infantry General a. D. Dr. h. c. Max Count von Montgelas (c. 1928)

Maximilian "Max " Maria Karl Desiderius de Garnerin de la Thuille Graf von Montgelas (b. 23 May 1860 in Saint Petersburg; d. 4 February 1938 in Munich) was a German diplomat, politician, historian, and officer of the Bavarian Army, finally a honorary General of the Infantry during in WWI.

Life

Lieutenant-General Count Montgelas as Commander of the 4th Royal Bavarian Infantry Division.

Count von Montgelas 1929 in Berlin with Marie Julia Mathilde Mumm von Schwarzenstein, née von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen, and Hedwig Gräfin Schaffgotsch

Max joined the Royal Bavarian Army in 1879, became personal adjutant to Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria in 1887, served in 1900 during the Boxer Expedition (Boxeraufstand) to Imperial China (as commander of the 2nd Batallion of the 4th East Asia Infantry Regiment) and was military attaché (Militärattaché) in Peking until 1903.

In 1908, he became commander of the 7th Royal Bavarian Infantry Brigade in Würzburg. From 1910 to 1912 he was posted to Berlin. In 1914, during the early phases of World War I, he commanded the 4th Bavarian Infantry Division (from 22 March 1912 until 5 November 1914) of the 6th Army but was given special leave on 8 April 1915 to devote himself to careful study of the matters relating to the outbreak of the war and responsibility for it. On 25 January 1917, he would receive the honorary rank Charakter als General der Infanterie.

In that capacity, he was official adviser to the Reichstag Committee of Enquiry set up to investigate the question of responsibility for the war, having been a member of the Commission sent to Versailles by the new German Government in 1919. He was one of the four signatories to the Memorandum, presented on 29th May that year in reply to the allegations made by the Commission appointed by the Allied and Associated Governments, and he was jointly responsible, with Hans Delbruck, for the Memorandum replying to the "Allied Note" of 16th June 1919.

Academic works

He and Professor Walther Schücking edited The Outbreak of the World War - German Documents collected by Karl Kautsky, commonly known as The Kautsky Documents. The English-language edition was published by the Oxford University Press in 1924. The following year Montgelas's own famous book The Case for the Central Powers: An Impeachment of the Versailles Verdict, was published in English by George, Allen & Unwin Ltd., in London.

Death

Count von Montgelas died 1938 and was buried in the Old Nordfriedhof cemetery in Munich, where there is an inscribed white marble gravestone.

Family

His father, Ludwig Max Joseph Evaristus, Count von Montgelas (1814–1892), had been the Bavarian Government’s Ambassador in St. Petersburg, where Max was born. Max was the first of five children. His siblings were

• Theodor Maria Maximilian Franz von (de) Paula Ferdinand,
• Maria Ernestine Anna Amelie Beate,
• Amalia Maria Anna Kunigunda Kasimira Franziska and
• Adolf Maria Maximilian

Marriage

Hauptmann Count von Montgelas married on 3 July 1897 his fiancée Pauline Mathilde Sophie Countess von Wimpffen (b. 28 February 1874 in Rom; d. 10 May 1961 in Rottach-Egern). She was active in the Roman Catholic women's movement, lady chairman of the Social Section of the "Bavarian State Association of the German Roman Catholic Women's League", lady chairman of the "National Commission in the Roman Catholic German Women's League" and a publicist. The marriage remained childless. Pauline traveled to Imperial China at the end of 1900 to be with her husband. His wife uses this time to travel to Mongolia, to the German leased area of ​​Kiautschou (Tsingtau), to Shanghai and up the Yangtze River to Hankou, as well as to China's southern provinces, where she visited Canton, Macau and Hong Kong. Contrary to the prevailing Zeitgeist, she had an understanding for the Chinese people and the behavior of the Imperial government. In 1905, she published in München her book Ostasiatische Skizzen. In her article Das Reich (in: "Die Christliche Frau 1933", pp. S. 278–284), she proclaimed her joy that Adolf Hitler would lead Germany to greatness once again.

Promotions

• 1879 Portepée-Fähnrich in the Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment (München)
• 13.11.1880 Sekonde-Lieutenant
• 1.10.1890 Premier-Lieutenant
• 22.2.1895 Hauptmann
• 10.7.1900 Major
• 18.12.1903 Oberstleutnant
• 7.5.1906 Oberst
• 18.11.1908 Generalmajor
• 25.5.1911 Generalleutnant
• 25.1.1917 Charakter als General der Infanterie

Awards, decorations and honours (excerpt)

Rangliste (rank list) 1914

• China-Denkmünze in Bronze
• Red Eagle Order, 4th Class with the Crown and Swords
• Württemberg Order of the Crown, Knight's Cross with Swords (WK4m.Schw.)
• Order of the Double Dragon, Third Class, Second Grade (ChDDIII2)
• Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th Class / Officer's Cross (JpHS4)
• Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown, Knight's Cross
• Sankt-Annen-Orden, III. Klasse (RA3)
• Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, Officer's Cross (IMuL3)
• Prinz-Regent-Luitpold Jubiläums-Medaille
• Südwest-Afrika Denkmünze in Steel
• Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav, Commander I. Class (NO2a) on 15 May 1909
• Red Eagle Order, 2nd Class with the Crown and Swords on the Ring (PrA2m.Kr.u.m.Schw.)
• Orden der Eisernen Krone (Österreich), Ritter II. Klasse (ÖEK2)
• Military Merit Order (Bavaria), 1st Class with Swords on 8/9 April 1915
• Military Order of Max Joseph, Knight's Cross on 8 February 1916
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Munich in 1928

Gallery (China)

• 

  Graf Montgelas (2nd from right) with officers and military attachés of other nations in Peking

• 

  Deutsche Gesandschaft

• 

  Graf Montgelas (second from left) with others in front of the German Embassy in Peking

• 

  Ostasiatische Skizzen

Writings

• Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch, Charlottenbrug 1919 (together with Karl Johann Kautsky and Prof. Dr. jur. Walther Max Adrian Schücking; published at the request of the German Foreign Office; 60 editions published between 1919 and 1928)
  • Documents allemsnds relatifs à l'origine de la guerre : collection complète des documents officiels rassemblés avec quelques compléments
    • 23 editions published in 1922 in French and other languages
  • Outbreak of the World War: German Documents collected by Karl Kautsky, edited by Max Montgelas and Professor Walther Schücking. Translated by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law, Oxford University Press, American branch, New York, 1924.
• Beiträge zur Völkerbundfrage, Verlag Der Neue Geist, Leipzig 1919
• Glossen zum Kautsky-Buch, Charlottenbrug 1920
• Französisch-Deutsche Diskussion über die Kriegsursachen und über den Wiederaufbau Europas, Verlag für Politik und Wirtschaft, Berlin 1922 (together with Ernest Renauld and Hermann Lutz)
• Leitfaden zur Kriegsschuldfrage, De Gruyter, Berlin 1923
  • The Case for the Central Powers – An Impeachment of the Versailles Verdict, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1925; Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1928 (altogether 47 known editions in four languages)
• Russland und der Weltkonflikt, Verlag für Kulturpolitik, Berlin 1927 (together with Friedrich Stieve)
• British Foreign Policy Under Sir Edward Grey, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1928
• Frankreichs Rüstung, Historisch-politischer Verlag R. Hofstetter, Leipzig 1932
  • France's Armor
• Militärische und politische Geschichte des Weltkrieges, 1933
  • Military and Political History of the World War

Further reading

• Heinrich Kanner: Der Schlüssel zur Kriegsshuldfrage ... Nebst polemischen Artikeln von General Graf Max Montgelas, 1926