Christian Meurer (legal scholar)

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Christian Meurer (* 20th January 1856 in Camberg , † 6. March 1935 in Würzburg ) was a German state and canon lawyer .

Scientific work

Christian Meurer studied philosophy in Bonn and Freiburg from 1876 to 1880 . During his studies he became a member of the Catholic student union KDStV Hercynia Freiburg im Breisgau in CV in 1876 . After completing his state examination in philology and his doctorate in 1880, he began studying law , and in 1882 he also received his doctorate in this discipline and passed his legal traineeship. He then worked as a private tutor at the court of Prince Hatzfeldt-Trachenberg in Silesia until 1885 . In 1885 Meurer completed his habilitation in Breslau , where he taught canon law, legal philosophy, legal encyclopedia and international law as a private lecturer. In 1888 he moved to Würzburg , initially as an associate professor and from 1891 as a full professor of Catholic canon law and international law , where he taught until his retirement in 1926. In 1902 and 1925 Meurer was rector of the Julius Maximilians University .

Political activity

From 1907 to 1918 Christian Meurer represented the Würzburg University in the Lower Franconian state parliament, from 1909 he was a member of the disciplinary chamber in Bamberg. From 1922 to 1925 he was an expert on international law in a subcommittee of the Reichstag investigative committee for the review of war crimes in the First World War . In this function, he prepared four reports. In 1923 Meurer became a judge at the State Court of Justice for the German Empire . In October 1925 he was a delegate of the Foreign Office at the International Red Cross Conference in Geneva.

effect

Even before the First World War, Meurer influenced the Bavarian church legislation with his work on canon law. From 1900 he stepped forward as an international lawyer, with particular attention to the international law of war and the then new Hague Land Warfare Regulations . His two-volume work on the Hague Peace Conference, published in 1905 and 1907, was the first major legal review of this event. Unlike most German international law experts of his time, Meurer welcomed the results of the conference in principle. However, he sharply criticized the Peace Treaty of Versailles . Accordingly, in his report for the parliamentary committee , he decidedly denied a German war guilt . In his work The Belgian People's War, published by the Reichstag's Committee of Inquiry in 1927, he denied the crimes of the German army in Belgium and assumed that the Belgian civilian population was engaged in massive fighting against the German occupiers.

Christian Meurer made his hometown Bad Camberg an honorary citizen .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ an expert opinion based on Alfred Meyer's dissertation , “The Belgian People's War”. Meyer was still State Secretary in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
personal data
SURNAME Meurer, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German constitutional and canon lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Camberg
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1935
Place of death Wurzburg