Georg von Hertling


Georg Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Hertling was a German politician who served as the Minister-President of Bavaria from 1912 to 1917 and then as Minister-President of Prussia and Chancellor of the German Empire from 1917 to 1918. He was the first party politician to hold the office.

Biography

Hertling became professor of philosophy at the University of Munich and published books on Aristotle and on Albertus Magnus. From 1875 to 1890, and again from 1893 to 1912, he was a member of the Reichstag, and from 1909 to 1912 he led the Centre Party faction in the Reichstag. In 1891, the Regent of Bavaria made him a life member of the upper house of the Bavarian Landtag.
As leader of the largest party in the Bavarian Landtag, in 1912 Hertling was appointed Bavarian Minister-President and Minister for Foreign Affairs by Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria. He was the first minister-president ever appointed who governed on the basis of a majority in the Landtag. King Ludwig III later elevated him to the rank of Count. Following the outbreak of World War I, Hertling supported the policy of Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg but declined to become his successor in 1917. After the fall of Georg Michaelis in November of that year, however, he accepted appointment as German Chancellor and Minister-President of Prussia. He was the first politician to hold either post; all of his predecessors had been career civil servants or military men.
Hertling was a staunch conservative who believed in total victory for Germany. His age and his conservatism made him unequipped to overcome the influence of the military 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 presided over the last stage of the collapse of the German home front. When it became apparent that he was unable to manage the crisis, he was forced to resign in favour of Prince Maximilian of Baden.
He founded the important German Catholic fraternity Askania-Burgundia and was a member of K.St.V. Arminia at Bonn. His great-granddaughter is actress Gila von Weitershausen.