However, he has been using the title "Herzog in Bayern" or Duke in Bavaria, since he was adopted as an adult by his grand-uncle, Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria, the last bearer of that title of a junior branch of the House of Wittelsbach, from whom he inherited considerable estates at Tegernsee Abbey (including a brewery), Banz Abbey and the spa of Kreuth.
The family was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, and 7-year old Max, along with his parents and siblings, were deported to the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen, Flossenbürg and Dachau.
[1] After the war, Max attended the humanistic high school of Ettal Abbey and, like his older brother, studied business administration at the universities of Munich and Zurich.
He also took over the chairmanship of the board of trustees of the European Foundation for the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer[2] in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, through which the House of Wittelsbach still maintains a connection to one of its former main territories, the Electoral Palatinate.
In 1979 they moved to Schloss Wildenwart near Frasdorf, after Princess Helmtrud of Bavaria, a daughter of the late King Ludwig III, had died there in 1977.