Burgomaster of Brussels at the outbreak of the World War, born at Brussels on the 31st of December 1869, and educated at the university of his native city. He entered the legal profession, also doing journalistic work, and at the age of twenty-five was appointed provincial counsel for Brabant, becoming communal counsel in 1903. After serving as magistrate, he was elected burgomaster of Brussels December 6, 1909, and distinguished himself by his administrative qualities. In August 1914 M. Max showed the greatest coolness and did his best to calm the populace. On August 20th he met the German army as it approached Brussels, and protested against the conditions imposed by the conquerors on the city. He succeeded in inducing the Germans to abandon that clause of the terms by which the burgomaster, the communal counsel and one hundred citizens were required to surrender themselves as hostages. He refused to sign a convention requiring that he should perform his duties only under the authority of the military governor of Brussels, and reserved to himself the rights of a free agent. The same day he charged his fellow-citizens to keep the national flag flying on their houses. Some of his public announcements became famous, notably that of August 30th, in which he gave a formal denial to a false statement of the German governor of Liége, and that of September 16th, in which he attempted to calm those of the inhabitants who had been ordered to remove the national flag from their houses. The latter ended with the words “Attendons patiemment l’heure de la réparation.” The same evening he was arrested, and though soon released, was again arrested on September 26th owing to a difference with the German authorities as to the amount of the war levy to be paid by the city of Brussels. He was sent to Namur, thence to Cologne and various other towns, being finally sent to Berlin (Oct. 1916), where he was closely confined. On October 30, 1918, he was interned at Goslar, whence he escaped on November 13th. He was received at Brussels with extraordinary enthusiasm; he was appointed a minister of state, named in a national order of the day, and was elected a member of the Académie Royale de Belgique and vice-president of the Conseil Supérieur du Congo. In 1919 he was elected to the Chamber of Representatives.
