Alfred Meyer | |
|---|---|
 Meyer in 1941 | |
| DeputyReichsministerfor the Occupied Eastern Territories | |
| In office 17 July 1941 – 11 April 1945 | |
| Leader | Alfred Rosenberg |
| Oberpräsident of theProvince of Westphalia | |
| In office 4 November 1938 – 11 April 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Ferdinand von Lüninck |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Minister of State of theFree State of Lippe | |
| In office 1 February 1936 – 11 April 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Hans-Joachim Riecke |
| Succeeded by | Heinrich Drake |
| Reichsstatthalter of theFree State of Lippe | |
| In office 16 May 1933 – 11 April 1945 | |
| Reichsstatthalter of theFree State of Schaumburg-Lippe | |
| In office 16 May 1933 – 11 April 1945 | |
| Gauleiter of theGau of North Westphalia | |
| In office 31 January 1931 – 11 April 1945 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gustav Alfred Julius Meyer (1891-10-05)5 October 1891 Göttingen,Province of Hanover,Kingdom of Prussia,German Empire |
| Died | 11 April 1945(1945-04-11) (aged 53) Hessisch Oldendorf,Province of Westphalia, Free State of Prussia,Nazi Germany |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
| Education | Jurisprudence and political science, Ph.D. |
| Alma mater | Lausanne University University of Bonn University of Würzburg |
| Profession | Legal consultant |
| Known for | Wannsee Conference participant |
| Civilian awards | Golden Party Badge |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  German Empire |
| Branch/service | Imperial German Army |
| Years of service | 1912–1920 |
| Rank | Hauptmann |
| Unit | 68th (6th Rhenish) Infantry Regiment 363rd Infantry Regiment |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
| Military awards | Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords Wound Badge |
Gustav Alfred Julius Meyer (5 October 1891 – 11 April 1945) was aNazi Party official and politician. He joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and was theGauleiter ofNorth Westphalia from 1931 to 1945, theOberpräsident of theProvince of Westphalia from 1938 to 1945 and theReichsstatthalter ofLippe andSchaumburg-Lippe from 1933 to 1945. In 1941 he became the Permanent Deputy to theReichsminister of theReich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. He represented the ministry withGeorg Leibbrandt in the January 1942Wannsee Conference, at which the genocidalFinal Solution to the Jewish Question was planned. Near theend of World War II in Europe, Meyer committed suicide in April 1945.
Meyer was born inGöttingen, the son of a Prussian civil servant who was stationed there for his official duties. The middle-class family was originally fromEssen. He was educated at theGymnasium inSoest, graduating in 1911.[1]
A conservative and a monarchist, Meyer aspired to become a Prussian military officer. However, upon graduation, he entered theUniversity of Lausanne to study law. After one term in Lausanne, he unexpectedly received an appointment as aFahnenjunker (cadet officer) with the 68th (6th Rhenish) Infantry Regiment inKoblenz in 1912. He passed his officer exam and was commissioned as aLeutnant on 16 June 1913.[2] DuringWorld War I he fought with Infantry Regiment 363 on theWestern Front, earning theIron Cross first and second class and theWound Badge.[1] Promoted toOberleutnant in June 1916, he was wounded and captured by the French in April 1917.[1] This experience, according to Meyer, was especially traumatic and left him with a hatred against France.[1] Released from captivity in March 1920, the downsizedReichswehr had no use for him and he left the army in October with the rank ofHauptmann.[1]
After the war, Meyer studied jurisprudence and political science at the Universities ofBonn andWürzburg.[1] He graduated with aPhD in 1922 and joined the legal department of aGelsenkirchen mining firm.[1] In 1924, he joined the localMasonic lodge.[1] Meyer was also the chairman of the localKyffhäuserbund unit.[1] He married Dorothee Capell in 1925 and had five daughters with her.[1]
TheNazi Party was still extremely weak in Westphalia during the late 1920s, and had only about three hundred members in the city of Gelsenkirchen during this period.[1] On 1 April 1928, Meyer joined the Party (membership number 28,738). As an early Party member, he would later be awarded theGolden Party Badge. Later that year, he rose to the position ofOrtsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader) and, on 1 October 1929, he was promoted toBezirksleiter (District Leader) of the Emscher-Lippe district within Westphalia. In November 1929, he was also elected as the only Nazi party representative to the Gelsenkirchen city council where he remained until January 1931.[3]
In September 1930, Meyer was elected to theReichstag from electoral constituency 17, North Westphalia, and on 31 January 1931, he was appointed the Nazi PartyGauleiter of the newly-formedGau Westphalia-North. He also became the editor of the local Party newspaper, theWestfälische Landeszeitung Rot-Erde. On 24 April 1932, he was elected to the PrussianLandtag. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Meyer was appointed to the Westphalia Provincial Landtag on 12 March, becoming its president in April. On 10 April, he was made the province'splenipotentiary to theReichsrat, serving until its abolition on 14 February 1934.Adolf Hitler appointed him as the federalReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of the German States ofLippe andSchaumburg-Lippe on 16 May 1933. He was returned to theReichstag at the election of 12 November 1933, retaining his seat until the fall of the Nazi regime. On 1 August 1934, he was named toHans Frank'sAcademy for German Law. Additionally, he also became theStaatsminister (Minister of State) in charge of the state government of Lippe, succeedingHans-Joachim Riecke, effective 1 February 1936. He also was named a Minister of State in the Schaumburg-Lippe government ofLandespräsident (State President)Karl Dreier [de]. Finally, on 4 November 1938 he was madeOberpräsident of the PrussianProvince of Westphalia, thus uniting under his control the highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdictions. In the Naziparamilitary organization, theSturmabteilung, he was promoted to SA-Gruppenführer on 20 April 1936 and to SA-Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1938.[4]
On 6 September 1939, Meyer was madeChef der Zivilverwaltung (Chief of Civil Administration) in the West. On 29 May 1940 he was appointed ActingReich Defense Commissioner forMilitary District VI during the absence inNorway ofJosef Terboven. On 17 July 1941 he was namedStändiger Stellvertreter (permanent deputy) toReichsministerAlfred Rosenberg in the newly-establishedReich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMO).[5] Meyer was responsible for the departments of politics, administration and economics. In his role in the East, he used workers that were mainly Jewish for slave labor assigned to a variety of works.
On 20 January 1942, Meyer was Rosenberg's representative at theWannsee Conference, which was called to discuss the implementation of theFinal Solution. The official minutes of the conference indicate that Myer andJosef Bühler, the representative of theGeneral Government, both expressed the opinion that preparatory measures for the Final Solution should be carried out immediately in their respective jurisdictions. Nine days after the conference, Myer convened a meeting at the RMO office for representatives of several other ministries and thearmed forces high command (OKW). The RMO representatives advocated broadening the definition of who was a Jew. They supported the position of SS-ObergruppenführerReinhard Heydrich, who had chaired the Wannsee meeting, thatMischlinge of the first degree should be included. Myer wrote a letter on 16 July 1942 proposing that a request be addressed to Hitler urging that a decision be made on theMischlinge question.[6]
On 16 November 1942, Myer was made Reich Defense Commissioner for hisGau. During the war, he was awarded theWar Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords. On 25 September 1944, he became the commander of NaziVolksturm militia forces in hisGau. He made plans to construct a "Westphalia Wall" to serve as a defensive position but the Allied assault proved unstoppable, and Münster fell to the combined British and American forces on 3 April 1945. In mid-May 1945, a body, decomposed beyond recognition but later determined to be Meyer, was found inHessisch Oldendorf by the RiverWeser. Next to the body was a pistol and a suicide note, in which the unrepentant Nazi wrote: "The last part of myGau was lost today. We defendedRinteln and the Weser bravely. In the last free part of myGau I take leave of theFührer, to whom my most heartfelt wishes belong, [and] of Germany."[7]
Myer was portrayed byHarald Dietl [de] in the 1984 German filmDie Wannseekonferenz, byBrian Pettifer in the 2001BBC/HBO filmConspiracy and byPeter Jordan in the 2022 German filmDie Wannseekonferenz.
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