In 1903, he bought and renamed the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, which he coedited with Max Weber and Werner Sombart.

Over the course of the next decade, his marriage fell apart due to a series of affairs that his wife was having, including with Otto Gross and Max and Alfred Weber.

After the First World War began in 1914, he supported the German occupation of Belgium by serving as a banker in the occupied country.

Jaffé participated in mass rallies with Kurt Eisner, who appointed him the minister of finance for the People's State of Bavaria.

Eisner's support for the idea of German war guilt resulted in him losing an election and being assassinated in 1919.

After the rise and fall of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in April, he made an attempt to preserve his reputation by writing a philosophical text.

Max Weber, her doctoral advisor, told her that Jaffé had an opportunity to become habilitated and might leave for Australia.

[5] He intended to publish the essay in the Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik, but was talked out of it by Weber, who noticed that it was derivative of one of his own writings.

Retitled the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, it was edited by Jaffé, alongside Weber and Werner Sombart.

However, Else was experiencing postpartum depression in 1904, resulting in her being institutionalised for multiple weeks in Baden-Baden, before spending over a month with her parents.

The Jaffés' marriage stabilised in 1909 with the end of the affair with Völcker and their final child, Hans, was born on 25 February.

Later scholars have suggested that a sexual encounter occurred when Weber and the Jaffés went to Venice without Marianne, but that was later disproven.

[9] They moved to Munich, where Edgar had accepted a professorship at a local business school, and lived in separate homes.

Alfred and Edgar would alternate their visits based on Else's schedule, which would occasionally result in accidental overlaps.

[11] He was convinced that Germany would win the war and that the conflict represented an ideological battle between Prussian authority and democracy.

[12] After the failure of the German spring offensive in 1918, he radicalised and joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany.

He joined Kurt Eisner at mass rallies in Munich and participated in the overthrow of the Bavarian monarchy, replacing it with the People's State of Bavaria.

After the Independent Socialists lost the election on 12 January 1919 and Eisner's assassination on 21 February, Jaffé continued to serve in a caretaker role.

He continued to be politically active until the Bavarian Soviet Republic was declared in 13 April, which was then crushed by right-wing forces within a month.

[15] After losing power, he briefly tried to restore his reputation by writing a philosophical treatise, but he experienced a psychological collapse in the middle of June 1919.