Max-Emanuel Ludwig Maria Herzog in Bayern (sometimes styled Prince Max of Bavaria,

Duke in Bavaria Duke in Bavaria () was a title used among others since 1506, when primogeniture was established, by all members of the House of Wittelsbach, with the exception of the Duke ''of'' Bavaria which began to be a unique position. So reads for instance ...

; born 21 January 1937) as the younger son of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, is the

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

to both the headship of the former Bavarian royal house and the

Jacobite succession The Jacobite succession is the line through which Jacobites believed that the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland should have descended, applying male preference primogeniture, since the deposition of James II and VII in 1688 and his deat ...

Life

He was born a Prince of Bavaria, as a member of the royal line of the

House of Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a former Bavarian dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including the Electorate of Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, the Electorate of Cologne, County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, ...

, whose head is his older brother

Franz, Duke of Bavaria Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern (born 14 July 1933), commonly known by the courtesy title Duke of Bavaria, is the head of the House of Wittelsbach, the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His great-grandfather Kin ...

. However, he has been using the title "Herzog in Bayern" or

, 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 Tegernsee Abbey ( German ''Kloster Tegernsee'' or ''Abtei Tegernsee'') is a former Benedictine monastery in the town and district of Tegernsee in Bavaria. Both the abbey and the town that grew up around it are named after the Tegernsee, the lake ...

(including a brewery),

Banz Abbey Banz Abbey (), now known as Banz Castle (), is a former Benedictine monastery, since 1978 a part of the town of Bad Staffelstein north of Bamberg, Bavaria, southern Germany. History The abbey was founded in about 1070 by Countess Alberada o ...

and the spa of Kreuth. Since the Wittelsbach dynasty was opposed to the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime in Germany, his parents had emigrated from Kreuth, Bavaria, to

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary, in 1939. The family was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

in 1944, and 7-year old Max, along with his parents and siblings, were deported to the

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s of Sachsenhausen, Flossenbürg and Dachau. Badly hit by hunger and disease, the family barely survived. 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 The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

and a member of the Bavarian advisory board of the ''Malteser Hilfsdienst'', a charitable organization of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

that runs hospitals. He also took over the chairmanship of the board of trustees of the ''European Foundation for the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer'' in the State of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

, through which the House of Wittelsbach still maintains a connection to one of its former main territories, the

Electoral Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy Roman Empero ...

Family

Max married the Swedish Countess Elisabeth Douglas (born 31 December 1939 in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

), daughter of Count Carl Ludvig Douglas (Swedish Ambassador to Brazil) 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 Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

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. They have five daughters: * Duchess ''Sophie'' Elizabeth Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria (born 28 October 1967 in

), married on 3 July 1993 in

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

, Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein (born 11 June 1968 in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

), son of Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, and Countess Marie Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau. They have four children. She took over her father's lands in Banz. *Duchess ''Marie-Caroline'' Hedwig Eleonore in Bavaria (born 23 June 1969 in

), married on 27 July 1991 in

Tegernsee Tegernsee () is a Town#Germany, town in the Miesbach (district), Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the banks of Tegernsee (lake), Lake Tegernsee, which is 747 m (2,451 ft) AMSL, above sea level. A spa town, it is su ...

, Duke Philipp of Württemberg (born 1 November 1964 in

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...

), son of Carl, Duke of Württemberg, and Princess Diane of Orléans. They have four children. *Duchess ''Helena Eugenie'' Maria Donatha Mechthild in Bavaria (born 6 May 1972 in Munich). She took over the spa in Kreuth. *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 Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of German textile company KATAG AG. They have two children. *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 Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

), an investment banker. 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. 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 In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

and Queen

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

had died there in 1919. File:WildbadKreuth1.JPG, The bath house ("Wildbad") Kreuth File:Schloss Wildenwart Frasdorf-3.jpg, Schloss Wildenwart File:Schloss Tegernsee.jpg,

Honours

SWE_King_Carl_XVI_Gustaf_Jubilee_Medal_III

Recipient of the 70th Birthday Badge Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf (30 April 2016)

Ancestry

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bayern, Max Emanuel in Princes of Bavaria Dukes in Bavaria House of Wittelsbach German people of Croatian descent German Roman Catholics 1937 births Living people Dachau concentration camp survivors Adult adoptees