He was born a Prince of Bavaria, as a member of the royal line of the House of Wittelsbach, whose head is his older brother Franz, Duke of Bavaria. However, he has been using the title "Herzog in Bayern" or Duke in Bavaria, since he was adopted as an adult by his grand-uncle, Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria, the last bearer of that title of a junior branch of the House of Wittelsbach, from whom he inherited considerable estates at Tegernsee Abbey (including a brewery), Banz Abbey and the spa of Kreuth.
Since the Wittelsbach dynasty was opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany, his parents had emigrated from Kreuth, Bavaria, to Budapest, Hungary, in 1939. The family was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, and 7-year old Max, along with his parents and siblings, were deported to the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen, Flossenbürg and Dachau. Badly hit by hunger and disease, the family barely survived.[1]
After the war, Max attended the humanistic high school of Ettal Abbey and, like his older brother, studied business administration at the universities of Munich and Zurich. He completed a banking apprenticeship in Switzerland before working in the administration of the House of Wittelsbach and of the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund (WAF). In addition to managing his agricultural and forestry operations, he then devoted himself primarily to the expansion of the Ducal Bavarian Brewery of Tegernsee, now managed by his youngest daughter Maria Anna. He was a member in the advisory board of a foundation running the Augustiner-Bräu brewery in Munich.
He has since taken over some honorary positions from his older brother and is now a member of the board of trustees of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a member of the Bavarian advisory board of the Malteser Hilfsdienst, a charitable organization of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta that runs hospitals. He also took over the chairmanship of the board of trustees of the European Foundation for the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer[2] in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, through which the House of Wittelsbach still maintains a connection to one of its former main territories, the Electoral Palatinate.
Family
Max married the Swedish Countess Elisabeth Douglas (born 31 December 1939 in Stockholm), daughter of Count Carl Ludvig Douglas (Swedish Ambassador to Brazil[3]) and Ottora Maria Haas-Heye (a daughter of Otto Ludwig Haas-Heye and Countess Victoria zu Eulenburg), and sister of Count Gustaf Douglas, in a civil ceremony in Kreuth on 10 January 1967 and in a religious ceremony in Munich on 24 January 1967. His wife is also a granddaughter of Lieutenant General Count Archibald Douglas and a great-granddaughter of Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg.
Duchess Helena Eugenie Maria Donatha Mechthild in Bavaria (born 6 May 1972 in Munich). She took over the spa in Kreuth.[6]
Duchess Elisabeth Marie Christine Franziska in Bavaria (born 4 October 1973 in Munich), married on 25 September 2004 in Munich, Daniel Terberger (born 11 June 1967 in Bielefeld), CEO of German textile company KATAG AG. They have two children.[7]
Duchess Maria Anna Henriette Gabrielle Julie in Bavaria (born 7 May 1975 in Munich), firstly married on 8 September 2007 in Munich, Klaus Runow (born 3 July 1964 in Duisburg), an investment banker.[8] Their divorce was announced in early 2015. Maria-Anna secondly married on 16 October 2015, Baron Andreas von Maltzahn. She has two sons from her first marriage.[9] She now runs the Tegernsee brewery.
Max and Elisabeth initially raised their daughters in Kreuth. In 1979 they moved to Schloss Wildenwart near Frasdorf, after Princess Helmtrud of Bavaria, a daughter of the late King Ludwig III, had died there in 1977. In this private palace the Royal couple had lived after the revolution and Queen Maria Theresa had died there in 1919.
15. Countess Francesa Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau
References
^Franz von Bayern (with Marita Krauss): Zuschauer in der ersten Reihe: Erinnerungen (Front row audience: memories), publisher C. H. Beck, 2023, pp. 5–28
