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:
“And nobility will not be able to help you with your love; Love does not know how to cede to ancestral images.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)
“The army is the true nobility of our country.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte III (1808–1873)
“If there be no nobility of descent in a nation, all the more indispensable is it that there should be nobility of ascent—a character in them that bear rule, so fine and high and pure, that as men come within the circle of its influence, they involuntarily pay homage to that which is the one pre-eminent distinction, the Royalty of Virtue.”
—Henry Codman Potter (1835–1908)