in 1903 Max arrived in NZ. He was accompanying a recuperating patient after specializing in orthopaedics & having worked in Dresden, Vienna & Berlin.

He is regarded as the first orthopaedic surgeon of New Zealand  & when he left for Australia in 1908 seeking new challenges, there was no dedicated orthopaedic surgeon in NZ for approximately a decade – so once again this work was completed solely by general surgeons.

Although he was married to an Australian, as a German citizen he was interned during WWI  - but subsequently practiced in Sydney for decades before his death in 1948.