Wounds affect 2-4% of European health care costs and expenditures increase rapidly with complications caused by wound infections. Therefore, proper wound management is required for successful healing of wounded skin. The aim was to synthesize and investigate a modification of alginate for enhanced adhesiveness and antibacterial activity for wound management. Alginate was modified with 1-(2-aminoethyl) maleimide through amide linkage and spectroscopically characterized. Maleimide modified alginate was investigated regarding incorporated maleimide content, in vitro toxicity in terms of erythrocyte viability, as well as adhesiveness to skin and mucosa, influence on skin hydration and moreover antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli. Results of investigation revealed maleimide content of 37.65%. Erythrocyte viability of more than 80% indicated non-toxicity of the modified polymer. Bioadhesion testing exhibited over 8.4 times greater maximum detachment force and 30.2 times elevated total work of adhesion in comparison to the unmodified polymer. An over 12-fold improvement of attachment time was determined in mucoadhesion assay. Skin hydration testing revealed normalized trans epidermal water loss values of up to 1.10 g/m2h. Antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli was introduced to the polymer by the modification, as agar disc diffusion assay revealed inhibition zone diameter of 18.5 mm. By these findings, maleimide modified alginate is a promising candidate for development of innovative bioactive polymers in wound management, with advantageous properties such as biocompatibility, advanced adhesiveness and antibacterial activity.