HERTLING, GEORG, COUNT VON , German statesman, was born in Darmstadt on Aug. 31, 1843. He was appointed professor of philosophy at Bonn (188o), and at Munich (1882). From 1875 to 1890 and again from 1896 to 1912 he was a member of the Reichstag, from 1909 being for a short time the leader of the Centre (Catholic) party. In 1912 he was appointed president of the Bavarian ministry and minister for foreign affairs, and in 1914 was elevated to the rank of count by King Ludwig III. On Nov. 1, 1917 he accepted the chancellor ship of the Reich, which he had refused in July of that year; and for 12 months he strove against the encroachments of the military authorities upon the political affairs of the Empire. The failure of the German offensives in 1918 finally destroyed his hopes of being able to negotiate with the Allies on anything like equal terms and feeling at last unequal to the struggle against the introduction of real parliamentary Government, he resigned on Sept. 3o, 1918, and returned to his home at Ruhpolding in Upper Bavaria, where he died on Jan. 4, 1919.
In philosophy, Hertling was a Neo-Thomist. Starting from a teleological conception of the world, he elaborated a political and social philosophy, and declared the conscious furthering of the divine world plan to be a duty for man. With Baeumker, he col laborated in the production of the invaluable series, Beitrage zur Gesch. der Phil. des Mittelalters, himself contributing the volume, Albertus Magnus, Beitrage zu seiner W iirdigung (1914) . Hert ling's other works include : fiber d. Grenzen d. mechan. Naturer klarung (1875) ; Naturrecht u. Sozialpolitik (1893) ; Kleine Schri f ten zur Zeitgesch. u. Politik (1897) ; Recht, Staat u. Gesell schaft (1906) and Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben, 2 vols. (1919). See also K. Hertling ; Ein Jahr in der Reichskanzlei (1919) .