Max Waechter

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Max Waechter
Max Waechter.png
Born
Stettin, Germany
Died
1924
NationalityGerman; naturalised as a British citizen in 1865
Occupationbusinessman, art collector and philanthropist
Known forhis advocacy of a federal Europe

Sir Max Leonard Waechter (3 October 1837 – 3 October 1924[1]) was a businessman, art collector, philanthropist and advocate of a federal Europe.[2]

Waechter was born in Stettin, then in Germany and now Szczecin in Poland.[3] His father was Julius Leonard Waechter, a Lutheran pastor.[4] He went to England in 1859 and was naturalised as a British citizen in 1865.[4]

Waechter became a partner in Bessler, Waechter, and Co., a merchant firm.[3] He advocated improved relations between Britain and Germany and in 1913 founded the European Federation League.[5]

Glover's Island from Richmond Hill

Waechter lived in Terrace House on Richmond Hill.[4] He held the post of High Sheriff of Surrey in 1902[1] and was knighted in the 1902 Birthday Honours.

Waechter married twice. His first wife, whom he married at St John the Divine, Richmond in 1873,[4] was Harriett Shallcross, whose father, the Liberal MP Thomas Cave, owned Queensberry House.[4] His second wife was Armatrude Hobart.[4] His only son, Harry Waechter, also a businessman and philanthropist, was created a baronet in 1911.[6]

Death and legacy[]

Waechter contributed, anonymously, to a fund established to erect a memorial in Richmond to Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck; a memorial fountain was erected outside the Richmond Gate to Richmond Park.[7] Waechter owned Glover's Island which he donated to the Borough of Richmond in 1900. He helped preserve the view from Richmond across the river by preventing destructive development.

Waechter died in 1924 and is buried in Richmond Cemetery.[8]

Publications[]

  • Waechter, Max: European Federation: A Lecture Delivered at the London Institution on the 25th February 1909, Jordan & Sons, Limited, 1909, 15pp.
  • Waechter, Max: The United States of Europe: How to Make War Impossible, Twentieth Century Press, 1922, 11pp.
  • Waechter, Max: How to Abolish War: The United States of Europe, 1924, 12pp.
  • Waechter, Max: The Principal Lesson of the Balkan Wars OCLC 82740175

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Death of Sir Max Waechter". Western Daily Press. 4 October 1924. Retrieved 31 January 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. ^ "For United Europe, not to oppose us" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 September 1908. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Death of Sir Max Waechter". Surrey Mirror. 10 October 1924. Retrieved 1 February 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Berryman, Ron (May 2012). "Sir Max Waechter's European Unity League". Richmond History: The Journal of Richmond Local History Society. 33: 26–36.
  5. ^ Firchow, Peter Edgerly (1986). The Death of the German Cousin: Variations on a Literary Stereotype, 1890–1920. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press. p. 210. ISBN 0-8387-5095-8.
  6. ^ Obituary, The Times, 22 May 1929, p. 10, column D
  7. ^ Berryman, Ron (May 2014). "HRH Princess Mary Adelaide Duchess of Teck: The Story of Her Memorial". Richmond History: The Journal of Richmond Local History Society. 35: 31–37.
  8. ^ Meller, Hugh; Parsons, Brian (2011). London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer (fifth ed.). Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. pp. 290–294. ISBN 978-0-7524-6183-0.

Further reading[]

  • Entry in Who Was Who
  • Obituary in The Times, 4 October 1924, p. 11
  • Berryman, Ron (May 2012). "Sir Max Waechter's European Unity League". Richmond History: The Journal of Richmond Local History Society. 33: 26–36.
  • Le Dréau, Christophe. "Un européisme britannique conquérant: les tentatives d’implantation de la New Commonwealth Society et de Federal Union sur le continent (1938–1940)", Cahiers de l'Irice, n°1, 2008.
  • Tiedau, Ulrich. "Max Waechter, Anglo-German rapprochement, and the European Unity League, 1906–1924" in D'Auria Matthew; Vermeiren, Jan (eds.) Visions and Ideas of Europe during the First World War, Routledge, 2019. ISBN 9781315165899
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