Max Waechter

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

The great-grandson of a Lutheran pastor, Waechter was born in Stettin, then in Germany, and now Szczecin in Poland.[3] He went to England in 1859 and was naturalised in 1865. He 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.[4]

Glover's Island from Richmond Hill

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

Waechter was buried in Richmond Cemetery.[5]

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

See also

References
  1. "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). New York Times. 20 September 1908. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  3. "Death of Sir Max Waechter". Surrey Mirror. 10 October 1924. Retrieved 1 February 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  • Christophe LE DRÉAU, "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.
  • Berryman, Ron (May 2012). "Sir Max Waechter's European Unity League". Richmond History: The Journal of Richmond Local History Society. 33: 26–36.
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