Georg von Hertling

Count Georg von Hertling —full name in German: Georg Friedrich Graf von Hertling— (Darmstadt, Hesse -Darmstadt; August 31, 1843-Ruhpolding, Bavaria; January 4, 1919) was a politician who served as minister president of Bavaria (from February 9, 1912 to October 3, 1917) and of Prussia (from November 1, 1917 to October 3, 1918) and as chancellor of the German Empire (also from November 1, 1917 to October 3, 1918). Quite old when he assumed this position, he was unable to seize power politician to the military high command, headed by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, despite having been a deputy to the Reichstag and leader of the Center Party.

Biography

He was a professor of Philosophy at the University of Munich. He was an associate member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences from 1896 and a full academician from 1899. He published books such as Materie und Form und die Definition der Seele bei Aristotle (1871) and Albertus Magnus (1880). From 1875 to 1890 and again from 1896 to 1912 he was a member of the German Reichstag and from 1909 to 1912 he led the Party faction Center in the Reichstag. In 1891 the Prince Regent of Bavaria appointed him a life member of the upper house of the Bavarian parliament (Landtag).

As a member of the largest party in the Landtag, in 1912 Hertling was appointed Bavarian Minister-President and Foreign Minister by Prince Luitpoldo of Bavaria. He was the first minister-president ever appointed who governed with an absolute majority in parliament. King Ludwig III of Bavaria later raised him to the rank of count. After the outbreak of the First World War, Hertling collaborated with the policies of Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, but refused to be his successor in 1917. However, after the fall of Georg Michaelis on October 31 of that same year, he agreed (on November 1) to be appointed as German chancellor and minister-president of Prussia. Hertling was the first politician to hold such a position; His predecessors had only been public or military servants.

Hertling was a staunch supporter of the right, who believed in the complete victory of Germany. Due to his age and his conservatism, he did not have the ability to overcome the influence exerted by the militarism of the High Command led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. Like Michaelis before him, he was increasingly seen as a puppet of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who constituted a virtual military dictatorship in the last year of the war. Hertling led in this last stage of the collapse of Germany's internal sphere. When it became clear that he was unable to handle the crisis, he was forced to resign, making way for Prince Maximilian of Baden.

Hertling founded the important German-Catholic fraternity of Askania-Burgundia and was a member of the K. St.V. Arminia in Bonn. His great-granddaughter is the actress Gila von Weitershausen.