Alfred Meyer

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Alfred Meyer
Meyer in 1941
Deputy Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
In office 17 July 1941 – 11 April 1945
Leader	Alfred Rosenberg
Oberpräsident of the Province of Westphalia
In office 4 November 1938 – 11 April 1945
Preceded by	Ferdinand von Lüninck
Succeeded by	Rudolf Amelunxen
Minister of State of the Free State of Lippe
In office 1 February 1936 – 11 April 1945
Preceded by	Hans-Joachim Riecke
Succeeded by	Heinrich Drake
Reichsstatthalter of the Free State of Lippe
In office 16 May 1933 – 11 April 1945
Reichsstatthalter of the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe
In office 16 May 1933 – 11 April 1945
Gauleiter of the Gau 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
Died	11 April 1945(1945-04-11) (aged 53) Hessisch Oldendorf
Cause of death	Suicide
Political party	Nazi Party
Education	Jurisprudence and political science
Alma mater	University of Bonn University of Würzburg
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Branch/service	Imperial German Army
Years of service	1912–1920
Rank	Hauptmann
Unit	363rd Infantry regiment
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Iron Cross

Gustav Alfred Julius Meyer^[1] (5 October 1891 in Göttingen – 11 April 1945 in Hessisch Oldendorf) was a Nazi official. He joined the Nazi party in 1928 and was the Gauleiter of North Westphalia from 1931 to 1945, the Oberpräsident of the Province of Westphalia from 1938 to 1945 and the Reichsstatthalter of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe from 1933 to 1945.

By the time of his death at the end of World War II in Europe, he was a State Secretary and Deputy Reichsminister in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichministerium für die Besetzten Ostgebiete or Ostministerium). He represented the ministry with Georg Leibbrandt in the Wannsee Conference.

Meyer committed suicide in April 1945.

Early life[]

Meyer was born in Göttingen, the son of a Prussian civil servant who was stationed in Göttingen due to his official duties.^[1] The middle-class family was originally from Essen.^[1] He was educated at the Gymnasium in Soest, graduating in 1911.^[1]

In 1912 he became a Fahnenjunker (cadet officer) with Infanterieregiment 68 (Koblenz), passing his officer exam in 1913 and being promoted to lieutenant.^[1] During World War I he fought with Infanterieregiment 363 on the Western Front, earning the Iron Cross First and Second Class and the Wound Badge.^[1] In 1917 he was injured and captured by the French.^[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 downsized Reichswehr had no use for him and he left the army with the rank of Hauptmann (Captain).^[1]

After the war, Meyer studied jurisprudence and political science at the Universities of Bonn and then Würzburg.^[1] He graduated with a Ph.D. in 1922 and joined the legal department of a Gelsenkirchen mining firm.^[1] In 1924, he joined the local Masonic lodge.^[1] Meyer was also the chairman of the local Kyffhäuserbund unit.^[1] He married Dorothee Capell in 1925 and had five daughters with her.^[1]

Third Reich[]

In April 1928, Meyer joined the Nazi Party.^[1] The party was still extremely weak in Westphalia during the late 1920s, and had only circa three hundred members in the city of Gelsenkirchen during this period.^[1] In less than a year Meyer rose to the position of Ortsgruppenleiter ("local group leader") and in November 1929 he was promoted to Bezirksleiter ("district leader") of the Emscher-Lippe district within Westphalia.^[1] In November 1929, he was also elected as the only Nazi party representative to the Gelsenkirchen city council.^[1]

In September 1930 he became a member of the Reichstag and on 31 January 1931 NSDAP Gauleiter in north Westphalia. On 14 September 1932, he was elected to the Prussian Landtag. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Meyer was appointed federal Reichsstatthalter (Governor) of the German States of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe on 16 May 1933. He also was made Staatsminister (Minister of State) in the state governments of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe effective 1 February 1936. Finally, on 4 November 1938 he was made Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Westphalia, thus uniting under his control the highest party and governmental offices in all his jurisdictions. He was promoted to SA-Gruppenführer on 20 April 1936 and to SA-Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1938.^[2]

On 6 September 1939, Meyer was made Chef der Zivilverwaltung (Chief of Civil Administration) in the West. On 29 May 1940 he was appointed Acting Reich Defense Commissioner for Military District VI during the absence in Norway of Josef Terboven. On 17 July 1941 he became State Secretary and Deputy to Alfred Rosenberg in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. 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. Meyer attended the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 as a representative for Rosenberg. On 16 November that year, he was also made Reichsverteidigungskommissar (Reich Defense Commissioner) for his Gau Westphalia-North.

Death[]

Meyer was found dead on 11 April 1945, by the River Weser. The cause of death was suicide, most likely prompted by Germany's impending defeat in the war.

Fictional portrayals[]

In the 2001 HBO film Conspiracy, Meyer was played by Brian Pettifer.

References[]