Nobility
For recipients of the order who were not already members of the nobility, receipt of the order conferred a patent of nobility. This patent was not inheritable, similar to a knighthood in the United Kingdom. When a recipient was ennobled, his surname name was changed by the addition of the title "Ritter von" ("Knight of"). Thus for example the later Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb was born Wilhelm Leeb.
Such a patent of nobility only applied to Bavarian subjects; non-Bavarians could receive the Military Order of Max Joseph but not use a title because of this. Thus for example General Erich Ludendorff remained plain Ludendorff, although he was decorated with the Grand Cross of the order in 1916.
Note that not all Bavarian "Ritter von" were knights of the Military Order of Max Joseph. The Merit Order of the Bavarian Crown, a high civil honor (but also frequently awarded to military personnel) also conferred a patent of nobility. For example the 1920s-era Minister President of Bavaria Gustav Ritter von Kahr was a recipient of the Merit Order of the Bavarian Crown rather than the Military Order of Max Joseph. Furthermore, "Ritter von" was also a hereditary title in some noble families and had no connection to these orders.
Read more about this topic: Military Order Of Max Joseph
Famous quotes containing the word nobility:
“Something has ceased to come along with me.
Something like a person: something very like one.
And there was no nobility in it
Or anything like that.”
—Jon Silkin (b. 1930)
“I have come to the conclusion that the closer people are to what may be called the front lines of government ... the easier it is to see the immediate underbrush, the individual tree trunks of the moment, and to forget the nobility the usefulness and the wide extent of the forest itself.... They forget that politics after all is only an instrument through which to achieve Government.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The nobility of a human being is strictly independent of that of his convictions.”
—Jean Rostand (1894–1977)