After studying at the Vienna University of Technology, Max Baczewski was a partner with Georg Popper in the patent office H. Palm (Michalecki & Co.) at Karlsplatz 1 in Vienna's 1st district. Although he was without religion, he came under the Nuremberg Laws and in July 1938 was forced to declare his assets to the Vermögensverkehrsstelle (Property Transaction Office). As he had to abandon his office as a patent lawyer, he offered the Technisches Museum Wien a number of textbooks from his library. Shortly before his death in November 1938, the museum accepted over a dozen books as a gift. Baczewski died on 19 November 1938 in Vienna. His wife Natalie Baczewski was last registered in a "Sammelwohnung" (collective apartment) at Weintraubengasse 3/30 in the 2nd district. She was deported thereafter to Maly Trostinec near Minsk and murdered there on 18 September 1942.

In 2006, the Art Restitution Advisory Board recommended the restitution of thirteen books and three volumes of magazines belonging to Max Baczewski. Some of the heirs are still to be found, however.