Max Stähelin-Maeglin was a Swiss business lawyer and survivor of the sinking of the Titanic.
Early life[]
Max Stähelin-Maeglin (also Staehelin) was born on February 18, 1880 in Basel. His father was the mediation theologian Rudolf Stähelin-Stockmeyer, his grandfather was Antistes Immanuel Stockmeyer from Basel.
On March 22, 1906, he married Anna Martha Maeglin (1885–1955). They had two children together, Martha Marguerite (born December 31, 1906; later married Burckhardt) and Max (1909). In 1907 Stähelin-Maeglin became director of the Schweizerische Treuhandgesellschaft, a subsidiary of the Swiss Bank Corporation (today UBS).
Titanic[]
In 1912 Stähelin-Maeglin had to go to New York City on a business trip because a Swiss embroidery company, Arnold B. Heine & Co, was in financial difficulties and was looking for subsidies. To verify this, Stähelin-Maeglin traveled to the United States aboard the Titanic. He got aboard in Southampton and took cabin B-50. His agent Kaiser & Cie had arranged for the ticket. He was 32 years old during the voyage.
Portret of Dr. Stäehlin in later life
Stähelin soon became friends with passengers Maximilian Josef Frölicher-Stehli and Alfons Simonius, who also came from Switzerland. The three of them were sitting in the Smoking Room playing cards on the evening of April 14, 1912 until about 11:30 P.M, when they retired to their cabin. Getting ready for bed, the collision with the iceberg occurred. He went out of the cabin and adressed a steward to ask what had happened but he didn't get any reaction.
Both Max and Simonius-Blumer went up to the Boat Deck and escaped the sinking in lifeboat 3 which was lowered around 1:43 A.M. Before that, Frölicher-Stehli was able to secure a place in lifeboat 5. In lifeboat 3, Max spent a lot of the time rowing, in order to keep himself warm. They were all picked up by the Carpathia.
Max Stäehlin in 1956.
After arriving in New York, het met up with Dr. Hans Winterfeldt. Together with Alfons Simonius, they got a room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The next day, Max visited the Heine Co. and returned to Europe on May 7, 1912 aboard the Victoria Luise.
Later life[]
In 1928 Stähelin-Maeglin became President of the Swiss Bank Corporation, succeeding Léopold Dubois. He held office until 1944, when he was appointed President of the Ciba Group (now Novartis). Stähelin-Maeglin worked in this capacity until 1956 before he retired.
He survived his wife Martha, she died in October 1955;
On August 3, 1968 he passed away in Basel. On August the 7th, he was buried.