Maximilian Maria Karl
Desiderius Graf von Montgelas
(23.05.1860 - 04.02.1938)
place of birth: St.
Petersburg, Russia
Königreich
Bayern: Div-Kdr,
General der Infanterie
Royal Bavarian general officer
Max Graf Montgelas was born in St. Petersburg, Russia as the son of
Bavarian diplomat Ludwig von Montgelas. His grandfather, also named
Maximilian, served as Bavaria's Foreign Affairs Minister (Bavarian Head
of Staff) from 1799 to 1817. Max von Montgelas entered military service
in 1879, and as a battalion commander in 1900 took part in the quelling
of the Boxer Rebellion in China. He subsequently
served as the German military attaché in Peking for the following three
years.
Upon returning to Nürnberg, von Montgelas
worked as Chief of Staff at General von/zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen's
III. Royal Bavarian Army Corps headquarters. He also was a Senior
Quarter-Master General (Oberquartiermeister) at Imperial Germany's
Great General Staff Headquarters in Berlin from 1910 through 1912,
before being selected to replace Ritter von Fasbender as Bavaria's 4th
Infantry Division commander. He nonetheless continued to remain a key
advisor to Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke. After the Great
War broke out, Montgelas was a very outspoken critic of
Germany's incursion on Belgian neutrality, and in 1915 succumbed to
pressure from his chain of command to retire from active military
service.
Instead of returning to Bavaria, Graf von
Montgelas immigrated to Switzerland for the remainder of the War and
became an ardent pacifist. After the Armistice, Montgelas became part
of the so-called Committee of Four, including Albrecht Mendelssohn
Batholdy, Hans Delbrück,
and Max Weber. The group formulated a response which brought into
question the victorious Allies' accusation of Germany being solely
responsible for initiating the War. The War Guilt thesis became a
central point of Montgelas' research as a military historian. Published
works included the Kausky Documents and The
Case for the Central Powers: An Impeachment of the Versailles Verdict.
General von Montgelas passed away in Munich in 1938.
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