Max Wallraf served as Germany's State Secretary at the Interior Ministry during the latter part of World War One. He studied at the Universities of Bonn, Heidelberg, and Leipzig. He worked his was up through the political ranks and served as Cologne's mayor from October 1907 through August 1917.

Wallraf replaced Karl Helfferich as Germany's Minister of the Interior, an office he kept from 23 October 1917 until 7 October 1918. Following the War, Wallraf was one of the founding members of the DNVP, the German National People's Party. He represented the party in Congress from 1924 to 1930, becoming DNVP President in 1925. He was married to Anni Pauli and was the uncle of Emma Weyer, Bundeskanzler Konrad Adenauer's wife. He died on 6 September 1941 in Oberstdorf and was later interred at the Melaten Friedhof in Köln.