(1826 - 1849)
Max Dortu was born in Potsdam as the son of a royal councillor and studied law in Heidelberg and Berlin after he had passed his school leaving examination. After the outbreak of the 1848 revolution, Dortu was engaged in a political association in Potsdam. On May 12, 1848 he demonstrated against the return of the Prince of Prussia (later Emperor William I), who was responsible for the use of troops in the Berlin uprising of March, and calling him the "Grapeshot Prince". Dortu was sentenced to fifteen months confinement in a fortress for insulting the heir to the throne.
As a member of the Second Congress of Democrats in Berlin and in meetings in Potsdam he acted as a resolute advocate of the revolution and advocated its continuation. On his initiative the Potsdam People’s Assembly decided on November 12, 1848 to destroy the railroad line to Berlin in order to prevent the Potsdam Guards troops being transported to Berlin.
Because of the threat of arrest, he fled to Paris in January 1849. In May of the same year he joined the Baden Revolutionary Army and participated in the battles against Prussian troops as commander of a battalion of the Freiburg Volkswehr (people’s army). He was captured, condemned, and executed by a firing-squad on July 31, 1849.
