Max Ilgner

Born in Biebesheim am Rhein, Ilgner came from an established military family, with his father and grandfather both officers, and followed in their footsteps by entering cadet school. He briefly served as a junior officer on the Western Front at the very end of the First World War. He then joined the Freikorps for a spell before being discharged from the new Reichswehr after its numbers were substantially reduced by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

The demobbed Ilgner took a doctorate in political science at the Goethe University Frankfurt, having also studied metallurgy and chemistry at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin). He briefly worked in Stockholm following completion of his studies and whilst there he met Werna Gudrun Hällström. The two were later married and had three children.