Dr. Maximilian Karl Franz Michael Hubert Anton Ignatius Joseph Maria (Max) Herzog von Hohenberg

Maximilian is the eldest son of the heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sophie Chotek, Duchess of Hohenberg. After the assassination attempt on his parents in 1914, he and his siblings were placed in the care of his maternal aunt, Henriette Countess Chotek. After graduating from the Schottengymnasium in Vienna, he studied law and obtained his doctorate in Graz in 1926. In the same year, he married Elisabeth Bona Countess von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee. He then worked as a lawyer and managed his parents' estates.

In the 1930s, the staunch opponent of National Socialism, together with his brother Ernst Prince of Hohenberg, spoke out in favor of Austria's independence and opposed the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He maintained close contact with Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen. He is honorary chairman of the legitimist umbrella organization Eiserner Ring.

On 12 March 1938, Max Duke of Hohenberg witnesses the downfall of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. On March 14, 1938, he and his brother were arrested by the Gestapo and deported as individuals to the Dachau concentration camp on March 31, 1938, even before the so-called 'Prominent Transport'. Like his brother, he was mainly forced to clean latrines, which was particularly humiliating work, but which they both endured with dignity. After his release on September 24, 1938, he was assigned to Artstetten Castle as a forced residence. His brother was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, from which he was released in 1943.

After liberation, the inhabitants elected him mayor of Artstetten with the approval of the Soviet occupying power. He held the position twice for five years. For many years, he also acted as Otto von Habsburg's representative in the property negotiations between the House of Habsburg and the Austrian federal government. In 1958, Max Duke of Hohenberg declared these talks to have failed as no compromise line was emerging. Otto von Habsburg then instructed him to negotiate the return of the Habsburgs with the government. When the Austrian Constitutional Court rules this out, he resigns from office.