Franz Meyers

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Franz Meyers
Franz Meyers (right) with Hans Ehard in the Federal Council, Bonn 1961

Franz Josef Heinrich Georg Meyers (born July 31, 1908 in Mönchengladbach ; † January 27, 2002 ibid) was a German politician ( CDU ) and from 1958 to 1966 the fourth Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Life and work

After graduating from high school, Meyers, who was a Roman Catholic , studied law in Freiburg and Cologne . As a student in Freiburg and Cologne, he joined student associations in the KV , in Freiburg the K.St.V. Flamberg and in Cologne the K.St.V. Nibelung . He remained an active member of the KV until his death. In the early days of the Federal Republic of Flamberg, Meyers and Hanns Seidel , who had meanwhile moved to Bonn, also included two incumbent Prime Ministers as well as Max Adenauer, the son of the Federal Chancellor. Konrad Adenauer himself was active in the parent association of the Flamberg Brisgovia in Freiburg. Meyer's rise and work, including the networking via the Flamberg, were the cause of a cover story in the news magazine 'Der Spiegel' himself politically exposed. "

1933 Meyers became a doctor of law doctorate and settled after passing the exam assessor in 1935 as a lawyer in Mönchengladbach down. He was the partner of the later Lord Mayor of Mönchengladbach, Peter Nonnenmühlen . From 1942 to 1945 he took part in World War II as a soldier , most recently with the rank of captain.

In 1978 Franz Meyers received honorary citizenship of his hometown Mönchengladbach. The Franz-Meyers-Gymnasium in Mönchengladbach-Giesenkirchen is named after him. The background to the designation at the end of the 1970s was that Meyers, as acting Lord Mayor of Mönchengladbach in 1975, had a decisive influence on the decision for the location of the new high school in Giesenkirchen.

Political party

Meyers joined the CDU in 1948. From 1956 to 1960 he was a member of the executive board of the federal CDU. He organized their federal election campaign in 1957 as campaign manager.

In February 1979 he was associated with an attempt to set up a conservative rallying movement called Liberal-Conservative Action , but distanced himself from efforts to found a new party.

MP

From 1950 to 1970 Meyers belonged to the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia . There he represented the constituency of Mönchengladbach-Süd. In the federal election in 1957, Meyers was able to win the constituency of Aachen-Stadt . He resigned from the Bundestag on September 4, 1958.

Public offices

Franz Meyers, left, visiting the Friedrich der Große colliery

In 1952 he became mayor of Mönchengladbach for a few months after his predecessor Peter Nonnenmühlen passed away. From 1952 to 1956 he was Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia in Karl Arnold's cabinet . In this capacity he subordinated the police, which had previously been based in the municipalities, to the state.

After the CDU won the state elections in 1958 , he succeeded Fritz Steinhoff as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. Meyers became prime minister because Karl Arnold died a week before the election. For the first 15 months of his term in office, he was also Minister for Federal Affairs . He successfully opposed plans by Konrad Adenauer to end the broadcasting sovereignty of the states. However, he was unable to assert himself with the plans for his own NRW television. During his tenure, the Ruhr University Bochum was founded. In 1960/61 he was also President of the Federal Council .

The state elections of 1966 resulted in a tight election result and ultimately led to the fact that the CDU could no longer appoint the Prime Minister of the largest state of North Rhine-Westphalia, but rather had to take a seat "on the tough opposition benches", and that until June 2005. Franz Meyers was initially re-elected Prime Minister, but only in the second ballot, and formed his third cabinet at the end of July , in which he also briefly held the office of Minister of Justice . The new CDU / FDP government did not stay in office for long, however, as both parties established contacts with the SPD in November 1966 with the ulterior motive of changing the coalition. Finally, on December 8, 1966, Meyers was replaced by Heinz Kühn ( SPD ) with the help of a constructive vote of no confidence .

In 1975 he took the office of Lord Mayor of Mönchengladbach again for a short time, this time as the representative of the state government for the tasks of the council. He briefly held the same position in 1969 in Bonn.

Impulses for the self-image and self-portrayal of North Rhine-Westphalia

In his role as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Franz Meyers paved the way for a new phase in the state's history policy . Because, according to his understanding, “a state without its population is actually not a state” , he tried to strengthen North Rhine-Westphalia's national awareness.

In a state ceremony on July 11, 1960 in the Rheinhalle in Düsseldorf , the ten-year existence of the state constitution was commemorated in a new festive setting. Meyers emphasized that with the constitution “a historical claim of the people of this country had been realized” , the “foundation of a new state tradition” had been laid. It was also Franz Meyers who attached great importance to the fact that the Villa Horion , a historical location of the provincial representation in the Prussian Rhine Province , was renovated from 1959 and expanded to become the official residence of the Prime Minister. In doing so, he laid the foundation for the later government district of the state capital .

Also in 1959, Meyers presented in a highly acclaimed lecture to the Administration and Business Academy in Duisburg that federalism in Germany and the constitutional tasks of the municipalities and states, in particular the cultural sovereignty of the states , represented important political achievements of the German state order in their defense North Rhine-Westphalia is ready and determined. As Minister of the Interior, Franz Meyers had already directed the first steps of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia towards its own cultural and symbolic policy. In 1953, for example, he brought the law through the state parliament to determine the state's colors, the state flag and the state's coat of arms . He also donated the Great Art Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1953 . His endeavors to portray the new state of North Rhine-Westphalia in terms of cultural policy culminated in the foundation of the North Rhine-Westphalia Art Collection .

When asked whether North Rhine-Westphalia could be called Prussia's secret successor in the federal government , he replied in 1965: “In a certain sense, yes. But there are not only externally comparisons, because North Rhine-Westphalia is by far the largest and most taxable country, just like Prussia was in the old Reich . The style of our administration has also learned and adopted a lot from Prussia. We work hard, thriftily and soberly. We do not like Renaissance pomp. We develop the lowest administrative expenditure per head of the population, thus also the lowest administrative costs of all federal states. Incidentally, we want to give the federal government what the federal government has, but we also expect our statehood to be respected. "

Awards

See also

Cabinets Arnold II and Arnold III , Cabinets Meyers I , Meyers II , Meyers III

Publications

  • Reich presidential election and exceptional measures (doctoral thesis iur. 1934)
  • The democratic state in KV-Handbuch 1957
  • Education for the elite in free democracy as a social and political task , Girardet, 1961.
  • Notes , Verlag Staat und Gesellschaft, 1961.
  • Journalistic Freedom - Political Responsibility , Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh 1963.
  • Clear division of tasks between the federal and state governments , Düsseldorf 1964.
  • Youth memories of a Mönchen-Gladbacher (1980)
  • Signed Dr. Meyers. Sum of a life , ISBN 3-7700-0612-7 , Düsseldorf 1982.
  • Franz Gielen in Biographical Lexicon of KV Volume 1 (1991) p. 40 f

literature

  • Stefan Marx (illustrator) , Franz Meyers 1908-2002. A political biography (Düsseldorfer Schriften zur Neueren Landesgeschichte and the history of North Rhine-Westphalia, Volume 65), Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2003, ISBN 3-89861-199-X
  • Wolfgang Löhr in Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 7th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 9). Akadpress, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-939413-12-7 , pp. 103-107.

Web links

Commons : Franz Meyers  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Franz Meyers. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  2. ^ On Flamberg as Meyer's home also in Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter, Volume 69 University of Bonn. Institute for Historical Regional Studies of the Rhineland Bouvier Verlag, 2005
  3. ↑ a b Der Spiegel 31/1958, pp. 17–27: Der fixe Franz
  4. ↑ FOURTH PARTY: Wrong foot . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1979 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Christoph Cornelißen : The historical-political promotion of spatial awareness in North Rhine-Westphalia since 1946 . In: Karl Ditt, Klaus Tenfelde (ed.): The Ruhr area in Rhineland and Westphalia. Coexistence and Competition of Space Consciousness in the 19th and 20th Centuries . In: Research on regional history, Volume 57, ISBN 978-3-506-75748-7 , pp. 387 ff.
  6. ^ Franz Meyers: Federation and states in the constitutional reality of the Federal Republic . Lecture of November 3, 1959 at the Administration and Business Academy in Duisburg (PDF document; 818 kB) , accessed on January 14, 2012
  7. ↑ Karl Ditt : The development of spatial awareness in Rhineland and Westphalia, in the Ruhr area and in North Rhine-Westphalia during the 19th and 20th centuries: characteristics and competitions . In: Karl Ditt, Klaus Tenfelde (ed.): The Ruhr area in Rhineland and Westphalia. Coexistence and competition of spatial awareness in the 19th and 20th centuries : In: Research on Regional History, Volume 57, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-75748-7 , p. 461
  8. ↑ Ruth Seering: Profile of a Capital. Dusseldorf. Verlag A. Wefers'sche Druckerei, Krefeld, 1965, p. 14
  9. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Meyers, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyers, Franz Josef Heinrich Georg (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag, Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Mönchengladbach
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 2002
Place of death Mönchengladbach