Max von Bahrfeldt

Max Ferdinand Bahrfeldt, ennobled as von Bahrfeldt in 1913 (February 6, 1856, Willmine, District of Templin, Uckermark-April 11, 1936, Halle an der Saale) was a royal Prussian General of the infantry, a local historian, and a numismatist of world renown. In the anglophone and francophone world, however, he was also notorious as the alleged perpetrator of atrocities in Charleroi, Belgium, during the German invasion of 1914.

Life
Bahrfeldt was born into a family from Prenzlau in the Uckermark. As a lieutenant-general, Bahrfeldt was ennobled as a member of the Prussian hereditary nobility on June 16, 1913 (as part of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II). In 1911, Bahrfeldt was granted an honorary doctorate by the philosophical faculty of the University of Giessen and from 1921 onwards was honorary professor for numismatics at the University of Halle-Wittenberg.

In the First World War, Bahrfeldt was the commander of the 37th Division, and captured Charleroi on August 22, 1914. Accused by the Allies of atrocities at Charleroi, in 1925 he was condemned to death in absentia by a Belgian court.

Bahrfeldt had been interested in numismatics from his youth. He specialized in the coinage of the Roman Republic and the coins of Lower Saxony. Bahrfeldt commenced his numismatic researches in 1873 when he was lieutenant in the 74th Infantry Regiment. He published his first numismatic essay in 1874 in Stade. One year later he became co-editor of the ''Numismatisch-Sphragistischer Anzeiger. Zeitung für Münz-, Siegel-, und Wappenkunde'' (published in Hannover). From 1876 until 1882 he served as adjutant of the regiment stationed in Stade. During this period he served as secretary for the local historical society and curated its coin collection. He also carried out excavations at the Perleberg site of the beaker people.

On October 14, 1878, Bahrfeldt married in Gotha Elisabeth (Ella) Mary Charlotte Samwer (October 8, 1859, Gotha - October 19, 1954, Frankfurt/Main), the daughter of the jurist, professor of constitutional law and author Karl Friedrich Samwer (1819–1882), who was also a numismatist. In 1883 Bahrfeldt published in Vienna from Samwer's papers the History of the Older Roman Coinage from about 200 B.C. He followed this up with further publications about the coinage issued in the region between the Elbe and the Weser. In 1879 Bahrfeldt published, based on the previous work of Wilhelm Heinrich Jobelmann and Wilhelm Wittpenning, a revised History of the City of Stade.

Bahrfeldt joined the Deutsche Vaterlandspartei upon its formation in 1917. In the Weimar Republic, he was a member of the conservative Deutschnationale Volkspartei and the Stahlhelm. After the dissolution of the Stahlhelm during the Third Reich, Bahrfeldt transferred to the reserve of the SA.

Bahrfeldt is acknowledged as one of the greatest, possibly the greatest, student of coinage of the Roman Republic.

Literature

 * Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Adeligen Häuser, Part B 1941, page 18, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1941.
 * Jürgen Bohmbach: Stader Stadtlexikon. Stade 1994
 * Jürgen Bohmbach: Stader Stadtlexikon. Stade 1994