Gagern, Maximilian (Max) Freiherr von

Diplomat, politician

born: 26.03.1810 in Weilburg

died: 17.10.1889 in Vienna

The son of Weilburg minister Hans Christoph von Gagern and brother of Paulskirche president Heinrich von Gagern and bailiff Moritz von Gagern, he studied law and philosophy in Heidelberg, Utrecht and Göttingen and gained practical experience in government and military service through his father's connections in the Netherlands from 1829-33. After completing his doctorate, he took up a lectureship in history at the University of Bonn in 1837, until his conversion to the Catholic faith in 1840 forced him to give up teaching and seek employment with the Nassau state, which he represented as envoy to the Dutch and Belgian courts from 1844-47.

The great period of his political work began in Wiesbaden with the revolution of 1848. As advisor to Duke Adolph of Nassau, special envoy to the German courts to resolve the German question, member of the Committee of Seventeen, the Frankfurt Pre-Parliament and the National Assembly, Vice-President of the Constitutional Committee, Under-Secretary of State in the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Special Commissioner for Schleswig-Holstein and finally a member of the Gotha Assembly and the Erfurt Union Parliament, he played a leading role in shaping the ups and downs of the revolutionary movement. After he was forced to resign from the Nassau civil service in 1854, he went to Vienna after a short interim stay on the Hornau family estate, where he worked as a court and ministerial councillor and head of the trade policy department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1874.