Karl Otto Meyer

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Karl Otto Meyer (born March 16, 1928 in Sünderup , Flensburg-Land district ; † February 7, 2016 in Schafflund , Schleswig-Flensburg district ) was a German - Danish teacher , journalist and politician ( SSW ) in Schleswig-Holstein .

Life and work

Karl Otto Meyer was born in Sünderup in 1928. His father came from Heidelberg and in 1911 found a job as a printer for the Danish daily Flensborg Avis . Meyer's mother was born in 1904 in Oeversee (Danish: Oversø ) south of Flensburg and later became involved in the Schleswig Association, among others . Meyer attended the local Danish school in Tarup from Easter 1934 and Duborg-Skolen in Flensburg from 1938 . In his spare time Meyer was involved with the Danish boy scouts . In August 1944 he moved to the grammar school in Sønderborg (Sønderborg Statsskole), but had to break off the training there in October of the same year because he had to appear in Flensburg for drafting. A short time later he was called up for labor service in the Wehrmacht in the General Government of Poland. After completing his labor service in Poland, Meyer returned to Flensburg in January 1945, where he was drafted to the Western Front . Meyer deserted, however, by going across the border to Denmark on January 16 and joining the resistance against the German occupation on the island of Fyn under the three different aliases Knud Magnussen , Magnus Knudsen and Knud Hansen .

Between 1945 and 1949 Meyer completed teacher training at Skårup Statsseminarium near Svendborg , which he completed in 1949. During his seminar time, Meyer was still a member of the Hjemmeværnet . After his return to southern Schleswig, he initially worked as a teacher at the Husum danske Skole in Husum . A year later he became headmaster of the Danish school in Schafflund (until 1963). When Meyer spoke out publicly against German rearmament , he was banned from practicing his profession in 1952 , against which he successfully sued the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court . From 1963 to 1983 Meyer was editor-in-chief of the Danish newspapers Flensborg Avis and Südschleswigsche Heimatzeitung . He was also a member of the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament from 1971 to 1996 . He then worked as a freelance journalist .

Meyer was married and the father of five children; his son Flemming Meyer became SSW party chairman.

Political party

Since his youth Meyer was a member of the party of the Danish minority SSW , of which he was chairman from 1960 to 1975.

MP

From 1959 to 1974 and 1979 to 2003 Meyer was a councilor in Schafflund. From 1959 to 1971 he was also a member of the district council of the then Flensburg-Land district.

From October 26, 1971, when he replaced the late Frisian Berthold Bahnsen , Meyer was the only SSW member of the state parliament in Schleswig-Holstein until 1996 . From 1988 to 1996 he was chairman of the accompanying constitutional commission. He was elected to the federal assemblies in 1989 and 1994 by the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag .

Meyer pushed through a significant increase in state subsidies for the schools of the Danish minority.

Border question

Karl Otto Meyer caused irritation in 2013 in an interview that the SSW politician gave to the magazine of the Danish Border Association , "Grænsen". In it he expressed his hope that by means of a still-to-be-created, Danish-minded majority in the German part of Schleswig, the border could one day be shifted again through a democratic referendum to the Eider . The Eider was the southern border of the Danish Duchy of Schleswig as early as 1864 . In addition, the Danish National Liberals appeared in the 19th century with a sworn Danish program directed against the then entire state (≈integration of Schleswig into the Danish core state, with the separation of Holstein).

"" Hvad betyder grænsen? "
“Stort set betyder grænsen ikke noget for mig. Jeg can leve med the green, sådan som vi har den. Men shall be there ærlig and honest indrømme, at all have, ve en skønne dag for ændret denne green. ”
"Hvordan?"
“Ved at vi får flertallet. Each sensor detects the most medication, at each 12 business days, and 19 old business days. Så på et eller is tidpunkt vinder vi jo nok flertallet. ”
“Hvad shall the så ske?”
“Så ændrer vi søreme grænsen.”
“Hvordan shall be the other?”
“Jeg går ud fra, vi flytter den ned til Ejderen. Somebody says that he is in the drøm, the ligger reaches out to fjern stranger. ”“

“What does the limit mean to you?”
“In practical terms, the limit means nothing to me. I can live with the limit as it is. But I have to be honest and admit that I hope to change them one fine day. ”
“ How? ”
“ By becoming the majority. I usually illustrate this with the fact that I have 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. So at one point or another we will have the majority. ”
“ What should happen then? ”
“ Then we'll change the damn border. ”
“ In what way should it be changed? ”
“ I assume that we will slide up to the Eider. But as I said, this is a dream that lies far in the distant future. "

The reactions on the German side were characterized by horror that a longtime companion of the German-Danish rapprochement process in old age presented the Danish-speaking public with ideas that came from the time of the border war. Flemming Meyer, Karl Otto Meyer's son and member of the SSW in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament, then stated that his father's statements were meant to be humorous and misinterpreted.

literature

  • Mogens Rostgaard Nissen: Karl Otto Meyer - a young activist in Denmark 1945-1949 . In: Grenzfriedenshefte, Vol. 65, 2018, Issue 1, pp. 83–96 ( online ).
  • Mogens Rostgaard Nissen: Karl Otto Meyer. Politician, polemicist, publicist , Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag 2018 ISBN 978-87-408-3193-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mourning for Karl-Otto Meyer . ( Memento from February 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Norddeutscher Rundfunk , February 8, 2016, accessed on February 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ The bickering is in German: The strange role of the Danes in the Schleswig-Holstein election . Der Spiegel 19/1979, May 7, 1979, pp. 28–31, accessed on February 9, 2016.
  3. ↑ Karl Otto Meyer: Frihed, lighed og grænseland, bind 1 . Hernovs Forlag, Charlottenlund 2001, ISBN 87-590-2454-2 , p. 13 ff .
  4. ↑ Karl Otto Meyer: Vinder vi flertallet, SA flytter vi gränsen . ( Memento from April 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Grænseforeningen , August 28, 2013, accessed on February 9, 2016.
  5. ↑ Karl Otto Meyer dreams of the border on the Eider . Schleswig-Holstein newspaper publisher , October 24, 2013.
  6. ↑ Lübecker Nachrichten Online, October 22, 2013: Karl Otto Meyer shakes the border ( memento of December 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) readable online, viewed December 8, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Karl Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES KO Meyer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish-German politician (SSW), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Sünderup , Flensburg district
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 2016
Place of death Schafflund , Schleswig-Flensburg district