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Max SeydelGerman jurist, poet, translator
Date of Birth: 07.09.1846
Country:  Germany |
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Biography of Max von Seidel
Max von Seidel, a German jurist, poet, and translator, was born in the city of Germersheim in 1846. He was the son of Wilhelm von Seidel, the commander of Germersheim fortress. In 1855, his family moved to Munich, where he completed his secondary education in 1864. He continued his studies at the University of Munich and the University of Würzburg, obtaining a degree in Roman law in 1869.
Legal Career
After passing the civil service examination in 1872, von Seidel worked in the ministries of culture and internal affairs of the Kingdom of Bavaria until 1881. Starting from 1873, he also taught military and international law at the Bavarian Military Academy. In 1879, he joined the administration of the Bavarian Statistical Office. In 1881, von Seidel was appointed as a professor of law at the University of Munich, without having to go through the habilitation process. He continued to teach there until 1899. From 1881, he served as co-editor with Georg Hirth for the journal Annalen des Deutschen Reichs, and from 1895, he became the editor of Blätter für administrative Praxis. He also acted as a consultant in the dispute over the succession to the Lippe throne.
Works and Influence
As early as 1872, von Seidel proposed the legal doctrine of the emerging German Empire as a constitutional union of sovereign principalities, without the right to secede. Although this idea, presented in his work "Commentary on the Constitutional Charter of the German Empire," was not realized in Bismarck's empire, it closely aligns with the principles of modern European Union law. In 1873, in his work "Foundations of General Theory of the State," von Seidel elaborated on the concept of a "natural" state, where the source of law is the monarch, but unlike Hobbes' absolutist doctrine, he affirmed the right of society to revolt against tyrannical rule. Von Seidel's legal thinking was at odds with the contemporary German Empire, but it was later embraced in democratic Germany, notably by legal scholar Hans Nawiasky, and found its reflection in the Bavarian Constitution of 1946 and the principles of the Bavarian Senate until its dissolution in 1999. His influence is also notable in Carl Schmitt's "Political Theology."
One of von Seidel's most renowned scholarly works is the monumental "Constitutional Law of Bavaria," which was published in seven volumes between 1884 and 1894. This work comprehensively covers not only the constitutional law of the Kingdom of Bavaria but also administrative, financial, public church, education, and military laws. All branches of law are presented in a historical context, creating a broad panorama of legal development in Bavaria until the end of the 19th century.
Besides his legal writings, von Seidel also published poetry and translations under the pseudonym "Max Schlierbach." His collections of poems, "Gedichte" (Berlin, 1872) and "Neue Gedichte" (Berlin, 1880), as well as his translation of Lucretius (Munich, 1881), showcase his talent in the field of literature.
