Maximilian Pfeiffer

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Maximilian Pfeiffer

Maximilian Josef Pfeiffer (born December 21, 1875 in Rheinzabern ; † May 3, 1926 in Munich ) was a German politician of the Center Party .

Life and work

Maximilian Pfeiffer was born as the son of the Catholic district head teacher Franz Xaver Pfeiffer and Anna Maria Barbara Bosch and had thirteen siblings. Among his younger siblings were the archivist Albert Pfeiffer (1880–1948), the politician Anton Pfeiffer (1888–1957) and the diplomat Peter Pfeiffer (1895–1978).

Maximilian Pfeiffer graduated from high school in Speyer in 1894 . From 1894 to 1898 he studied classical philology, comparative linguistics and art history in Berlin , Heidelberg and Munich . As a student he became an active member of the Catholic student associations Askania Berlin , Palatia Heidelberg and Ottonia Munich in the KV . After receiving his doctorate in philosophy, he also passed the teaching examination in 1898. He then became a volunteer and later an assistant at the State Library in Munich . In 1903 he moved to the Royal Library in Bamberg as secretary . In 1909 he was appointed curator . From 1912 he was librarian at the court and state library in Munich. In 1922 he became envoy of the German Empire in Vienna .

Pfeiffer was an honorary member of the Société royale d'archéologie de Bruxelles . His library legacy is in the Palatinate State Library in Speyer.

Political party

Pfeiffer belonged to the German Center Party and was its general secretary from November 1918 to February 1920. At that time, his brother Anton was general secretary of the Bavarian People's Party , which had split off from the center. In 1914 Maximilian Pfeiffer, along with Matthias Erzberger , Liborius Gerstenberger and other center politicians, were opposed to a Reichstag candidacy for the center by the right-wing conservative Martin Spahn , who was later to convert to the DNVP .

MP

From 1907 to 1918 Pfeiffer was a member of the Reichstag for the constituency of Kronach - Lichtenfels . In 1907 his political career threatened to fail due to a scandal. Before the Bamberg District Court, Pfeiffer was charged with Section 175 because he had a relationship with the 19-year-old bank employee Anton Montag. The proceedings were ended via the settlement route. The further party career was secured by the settlement. In 1919/20 he was a member of the Weimar National Assembly . From 1920 to 1924 he was again a member of the Reichstag .

author

Pfeiffer was also active as an author. He wrote cultural, folkloric and historical essays, essays and poems. His best-known work is the historical novel "Kyrie Eleison" (1925), about life in the medieval city of Speyer and the persecution of Jews there in 1349. One of the positive main characters in it is Bishop Gerhard von Ehrenberg († 1363). As the subtitle “A novel by Jews and Christians from old Speyer” suggests, the work tries, contrary to the zeitgeist of the time, to awaken understanding for Judaism and paints a positive picture of it. It was even recommended by Jewish newspapers at the time and was reprinted again in 1984, with an afterword by Karl Heinz Debus , head of the Landesarchiv Speyer .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Heinz Debus (Ed.): The State Archives Speyer . Publications of the Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz, Volume 40, Koblenz 1987, ISBN 3-922018-54-8 . On Albert Pfeiffer and his brothers p. 31 f.
  2. ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller, Man for Man , page 553
  3. ^ Recommended review in the "Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung" from February 8, 1926
predecessor Office successor
Frederic von Rosenberg German ambassador to Austria
1922–1926 		Hugo Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld on Köfering and Schönberg
personal data
SURNAME Pfeiffer, Maximilian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfeiffer, Maximilian Josef (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Rheinzabern
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1926
Place of death Munich