Count Maximilian Maria Karl Desiderius de Garnerin de la Thuile von Montgelas (23 May 1860 in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

– 4 February 1938 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 ...

) was a

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

and

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

Biography

The grandson of

Maximilian von Montgelas Maximilian Karl Joseph Franz de Paula Hieronymus de Garnerin de la Thuile, Count von Montgelas (; 12 September 1759 – 14 June 1838) was a Bavarian statesman, a member of a noble family from the Duchy of Savoy. His father John Sigmund Gar ...

, he joined the army in 1879, served in the Boxer Expedition and was

military attaché A military attaché or defence attaché (DA),Defence Attachés
''Geneva C ...

Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...

from 1901 to 1902. In 1914, during the early phase of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he commanded the

4th Bavarian Infantry Division The 4th Royal Bavarian Division was a unit of the Royal Bavarian Army which served alongside the Prussian Army as part of the German Army (German Empire), Imperial German Army. The division was formed on November 27, 1815, as an Infantry Division ...

but retired the following year to devote himself to careful study of the matters relating to the outbreak of the war and responsibility for it. In that capacity, he was official adviser to the Reichstag Committee of Enquiry. During the German spring offensive of 1918 Montgelas contacted British intelligence regarding peace overtures. In October 1918 he also reported to a British agent that:

"The military situation is desperate, if not hopeless, but it is nothing compared to the interior condition due to the rapid spread of Bolshevism. Owing to this development, news of which has just reached me, nothing can save Germany but an immediate acceptance of an armistice and peace, no matter what the terms.

Montgelas was not thought by British intelligence to be working for the German government in making these statements, but thought credible as he was well-connected in Germany and the brother of a senior German diplomat. He was married to Countess Pauline von Wimpffen. He was a German

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

and the official spokesman for the German

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

at the Paris Peace Conference following World War I to investigate the question of responsibility for the war. He helped to draft the German answer to what they saw as charges of war guilt within the Versailles treaty, and was one of the four signatories to the Memorandum, presented in May 1919, in reply to the Western Allies. Later, in the absence of the other members of the German Commission, he was jointly responsible, with Delbrück, for a further Memorandum replying to the Allied Note of 16 June.Vesey, Constance, 1925, p.5-6. He subsequently wrote his controversial book ''The Case for the Central Powers: An Impeachment of the Versailles Verdict'', published in London by George, Allen & Unwin Ltd., in 1925. The previous year he and Professor

Walther Schücking Walther Adrian Schücking (6 January 1875, Münster, Westphalia – 25 August 1935, The Hague) was a German liberal politician, professor of public international law and the first German judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice in T ...

had edited ''The Outbreak of the World War - German Documents collected by Karl Kautsky'', commonly known as the ''Kautsky Documents'', which were published by the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

References

External links

* German politicians German military personnel of the Boxer Rebellion Bavarian generals Diplomats for Germany Counts in Germany Burials at the Alter Nordfriedhof (Munich) 1860 births 1939 deaths German Army generals of World War I Von Montgelas family Expatriates in the Russian Empire {{Germany-diplomat-stub

Biography

See also

References

External links