Konrad Meyer

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Konrad Meyer-Hetling in Allied internment

Konrad Meyer , also Konrad Meyer-Hetling , (born May 15, 1901 in Salzderhelden near Einbeck ; † April 25, 1973 there ) was a German agricultural scientist . As a professor at the University of Berlin, during the National Socialist period from 1933 to 1945, he determined the content of university studies in agricultural science and the organization of agricultural research in Germany. During the Second World War , the NSDAP member, as SS-Oberführer, was primarily responsible for the General Plan East , which meant in particular the removal (expulsion, murder) of the native rural residents in Eastern Europe. In 1948 he was indicted by an American military court in the Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS , found guilty of membership in a criminal organization , but subsequently released. From 1956 to 1968 he taught as a full professor for regional planning and spatial planning at the University of Hanover .

Studies and teaching time

Konrad Meyer comes from an old peasant family. From 1911 to 1920 he attended the secondary school in Einbeck, from 1921 he studied agriculture at the University of Göttingen and received his doctorate there in 1926 under Otto Tornau with a thesis on the genetics of wheat . During his studies he became a member of the Gottingo-Normannia gymnastics club in Göttingen in 1921 . After completing his doctorate , he went to the Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding at the University of Wroclaw as a research assistant . In 1927 he returned to Göttingen and took on a scheduled assistant position at the Institute for Crop Production. In 1930 he received the venia legendi for the subject of "agricultural crop production" with a habilitation thesis on the problem of the drought resistance of oats .

From 1930 to 1933 Meyer worked as a private lecturer at the Göttingen Institute for Plant Production. He held lectures on "Commercial Plants", "Basics of Plant Breeding" and supervised the "Plant Cultivation Exercises" carried out at the institute. During this time he also dealt with fundamental problems of land management . He called for “nature and environmentally conscious management”, which could be achieved through increased cultivation of forage plants and crop rotations adapted to the location. Since February 1, 1932, he was a member of the NSDAP (membership number 908.471) and appeared as a party speaker and leader of the lectureship at the University of Göttingen. In 1933 he was a Nazi city councilor. He joined the SS on June 20, 1933, his membership number was 74,695. Until 1935 he worked as a trainer for the 51st SS Standard.

Activities between 1933 and 1945

Konrad Meyer as a lecturer at the exhibition "Planning and Construction in the East" (far right on the picture), 1941

In the spring of 1934 he followed a call to the chair for arable and crop production at the University of Jena . In the autumn of the same year he took over a full professorship for "Agriculture and Agriculture Policy" at the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Berlin - without any appointment procedure - and became director of the institute of the same name founded for him in the villa of Friedrich Aereboe (Im Dol 27 / 29), which was renamed the "Institute for Agriculture and Agricultural Policy " in 1941 . This function position was illegally created by the forced retirement of the head of the Institute for Apiculture (IfB) Ludwig Armbruster . Armbruster had been dismissed from the Berlin University with effect from August 1, 1934, as an opponent of the regime and a friend of the Jews.

Meyer had already worked at the Prussian Ministry of Culture in Berlin since the end of 1933 , where he had taken over the management of the new department “General Biology, Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Science”. One of the tasks of this department was to reform teaching and research in these areas. Meyer initially devoted himself to reforming agricultural studies. In several publications he has presented the basic concept of his reform proposals: to take social, legal and peasant history as well as agricultural policy into greater account in the curricula and to significantly reduce the number of lectures in favor of exercises and seminars. In 1935 his proposals were approved by the ministry. In 1936 he became vice-president of the German Research Foundation and in this function decisively determined the agricultural science courses and the organization of agricultural research in Germany.

The study of agriculture , published by him in 1935, is the most important documentation about the content and organizational structure of agricultural studies in Germany between 1935 and 1945. On Meyer's initiative, the “Research Service” was founded in 1935, an academy-like association of all agricultural research organizations in Germany. Meyer became chairman of this institution, where the numerous individual disciplines were grouped together in seven Reich working groups. Meyer founded the journal “Der Forschungsdienst” as the central scientific organ. In 1936 Meyer was awarded the Hermann von Nathusius Medal for his achievements in animal breeding. From 1936 to 1945 he published 18 volumes and numerous special issues. The special issues 8 (1938) and 16 (1942) published under the title “Research for People and Food Freedom” give a comprehensive overview of agricultural research in Germany between 1935 and 1942. Meyer succeeded in getting almost a third of the research funds of the Reich research Council in the area of land science and general biology to concentrate.

After 1935, Meyer's research interest increasingly focused on structural problems in rural areas and spatial research . In 1935 Meyer founded the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung (RAG) and thus institutionalized this research area in Germany. In the course of 1936 Meyer influenced the development of the university working groups for spatial research , which were assigned to the RAG. Until immediately before the start of the war, Meyer led the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft, which was not subject to the research service. From 1936 to 1940 he published the monthly “Raumforschung und Raumordnung”, from 1938 to 1945 also the magazine “Neues Bauerntum”. In 1939 the Prussian Academy of Sciences appointed him a full member. After Albrecht Daniel Thaer, he was the second agricultural scientist to belong to this academy.

Viewing of the exhibition “Planning and Construction in the East” in Berlin 1941 by Rudolf Heß and Heinrich Himmler ; behind Himmler: Philipp Bouhler , hidden behind Hess: Kurt Daluege ; 1st from right: Konrad Meyer

With the beginning of the Second World War, spatial planning and settlement issues were even more in the foreground of his activities. In 1939 Meyer was appointed as SS-Oberführer to head the planning office at the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Ethnicity (RKF). In the spring of 1940, the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), with the assistance of Konrad Meyer, worked out a first version of the General Plan East , in which National Socialist ways of thinking were “made more precise in a concrete scenario ”. In the RKF's planning department, Meyer was primarily responsible for the drafting of the General Plan East memorandum. Meyer's employees here included the geographer Walter Christaller and the landscape planner Heinrich Wiepking-Jürgensmann . The General Plan East contained the conception for the legal, economic and spatial reorganization of the areas in Eastern Europe occupied by Germany or still to be conquered .

From 1942 Meyer was planning officer for the settlement and rural reorganization at the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture , Reichsbauernführer and Reichsleiter for Agricultural Policy, Walther Darré and Herbert Backe .

In the late summer of 1944, Meyer became a soldier in the Waffen SS . He initially received officer training at the Kienschlag SS Junker School near Prague. In April 1945 he was transferred to the front line of the SS Division Frundsberg as Oberjunker , where he served as a liaison officer and was promoted to Untersturmführer of the Waffen SS. After Hitler's death, Meyer set off on foot to Bavaria in the American zone . In May 1945 he was taken prisoner near Weissenstein .

Stations in life after 1945

After being a prisoner of war and three years of internment , Meyer was indicted in the SS Race and Settlement Main Office trial in 1948 . His defense attorney was the Berlin lawyer Kurt Behling . Meyer testified in the process only about an early variant of the General Plan East and deceived the judges about the nature and extent of the later variants. Several witnesses also testified in his favor. One of his former employees, the agricultural scientist Herbert Morgen , declared on oath that "many of Prof. Meyer's research results have lasting value". Meyer was acquitted on two of three counts ( crimes against humanity and war crimes ). He was found guilty on the third charge (membership in a criminal organization). The sentence was 2 years and 10 months imprisonment, which was compensated by the internment period, so that he was subsequently released.

From 1949 Meyer ran the Rimpau seed breeding company in Voldagsen near Einbeck . In the following years he published several articles on variety experiments. In his 1953 publication Food Space and Overpopulation , he dealt with global issues of nutrition. In 1956 Meyer was appointed full professor to the chair for regional planning and spatial research at the faculty for horticulture and regional culture at the Technical University of Hanover . Here he worked, temporarily as a colleague of his former colleague Heinrich Wiebking-Jürgensmann, until his retirement in 1968. His main scientific work from this time is the book Order in rural areas (1964), a comprehensive description of the problem of rural areas and conditions to adapt to modern industrial society. Among other things, he was a member of the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning and continued to receive funding from the German Research Foundation in the 1950s.

Fonts (selection)

  • Contributions to the genetics of wheat . Diss. Math.-nat. Faculty Göttingen v. January 15, 1926. Zugl. in: Journal for Agriculture. Vol. 73, 1925, pp. 241-304.
  • Studies on the water balance of oats. A contribution to the xerophyte problem in our agricultural crops . Habil.-Schr. Math.-nat. Faculty Göttingen v. February 28, 1930. Zugl. in: Journal for Agriculture. Vol. 78, 1930, pp. 31-202.
  • Thoughts on agricultural college and education . In: German agricultural policy. Monthly magazine for German peasantry (= Odal). Vol. 2, 1933/1934, pp. 263-272.
  • German socialism, race and peasantry . In: Odal. Monthly for Blood and Soil , Vol. 2, Issue 11, May 1934, pp. 770–785.
  • The down-to-earth principle in the new agricultural constitution . In: Odal. Monthly for Blood and Soil , Vol. 3, 1934, Issue 6, pp. 382-390.
  • The study of agriculture . Reichsnährstand Verlags-Ges. Berlin 1935; 2nd edition, ibid. 1938.
  • Rational Liberal or National Socialist Agricultural Science? , Zeitgeschichte Verlag Berlin and Blut und Boden Verlag, Goslar 1935.
  • On the problem and the scientific foundation of agricultural science . In: The Research Service. Special issue 2, 1936, pp. 7-17.
  • Development and tasks of German arable farming . In: The Research Service. Special issue 3, 1936, pp. 7-18.
  • As publisher: People and living space: Research in the service of spatial planning and regional planning . Contributions to spatial research and spatial planning, 1. Vowinckel-Verlag , Heidelberg-Berlin-Magdeburg 1938.
  • Development and location of the residue zones of the old Reich area. Interim report of the working group "Elimination of the emergency areas" in the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung. Head: Konrad Meyer. Main subject processing: Udo Froese. Printed by: Haag-Drugulin, Leipzig 1939. With printer's note: "Only for official use".
  • Land order as a national political task and objective of the National Socialist will to order. Ceremonial address given at the Leibnitz Days of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1940. de Gruyter, Berlin 1940.
  • Agricultural policy, a basic folk science . 2nd supplementary edition Neumann Verlag, Neudamm 1943.
  • Food space and overpopulation. A world problem of the present . Göttingen Publishing Institute for Science and Politics Göttingen 1953.
  • Order in rural areas. Basics and problems of spatial planning and land development . Publisher Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1964.
  • People in the area of ​​tension in spatial planning . Wilhelmshaven lectures. Publication series of the Northwest German University Society H. 36, 1967.
  • About ups and downs. A life story . Typescript, o. O. uo J., around 1970.
  • numerous contributions by Konrad Meyer in: Concise dictionary of spatial research and spatial planning . Edited by the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning. Hanover: Jänecke 1966 (1970, 2nd edition)
Rows

literature

  • Götz Aly & Susanne Heim : thought leaders of annihilation. Auschwitz and the German plans for a new European order. Fischer TB, Frankfurt 5th edition 2004 ISBN 3596112680 Meyer passim.
    • In English: Architects of Annihilation. Auschwitz and the Logic of Destruction. Phoenix / Orion, 2nd edition 2003 (English version readable and searchable in online bookshops)
  • Werner Baden: Professor emeritus Dr. Konrad Meyer on his 70th birthday . In: Journal for cultural technology and land consolidation. Vol. 12, 1971 , pp. 239-242.
  • Konrad Buchwald : Konrad Meyer on his 70th birthday . In: Landscape and City. Vol. 3, 1971, p. 49 f.
  • Catalogus Professorum 1831–1981. Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the University of Hanover, Vol. 2, Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 1981, p. 198.
  • Theodor Dams : "Seizure of Power"? Continuities and breaks in institutions of agricultural, settlement and spatial planning policy, in From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Contributions to a conference on the history of spatial research and spatial planning. Working material, 346th ed. Heinrich Mäding , Wendelin Strubelt. Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning ARL, Dortmund 2009 ISBN 3888383463 , pp. 161–187.
  • Ute Deichmann : Biologists under Hitler. Portrait of a science in the Nazi state . Revised & exp. Edition, Fischer TB, Frankfurt 1995.
  • Susanne Heim Ed .: Autarky and Eastern Expansion. Plant breeding and agricultural research during National Socialism . Series: History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism, 2nd Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2002.
  • Isabel Heinemann: Science and homogenization planning for Eastern Europe: Konrad Meyer, the "General Plan East" and the German Research Foundation . In: Science, planning, displacement: Reorganization concepts and resettlement policy in the 20th century Series: Contributions to the history of the German Research Foundation, 1. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2006 ISBN 3-515-08733-8 , pp. 45–72.
  • Karl R. Kegler: German spatial planning. The model of the central locations between the Nazi state and the Federal Republic. Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-77849-9 .
  • Karl R. Kegler, Alexa Stiller: Konrad Meyer . In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch Hgg .: Handbuch der Völkischen Wissenschaften . Saur, Munich 2008, pp. 415-422.
  • Volker Klemm: Agricultural Sciences in the “Third Reich”. Rise or fall? 1933-1945 . Ed. Fördergesellschaft Albrecht Daniel Thaer in collaboration with the Department of Social History of Agricultural Development at the Agricultural and Horticultural Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin, 1994.
  • Bettina Meyer: SS no. 74695. A biographical approach to my grandfather Prof. Konrad Meyer, who was indicted in 1947 in the 8th Nuremberg follow-up trial as the main person responsible for the so-called “General Plan East”. Starnberg 2014.
  • Dieter Münk: The organization of space under National Socialism. Bonn 1993.
  • Karl Heinrich Olsen: Konrad Meyer 70 years . In: spatial research and spatial planning. Vol. 29, 1971, p. 126.
  • Mechtild Rössler: Konrad Meyer and the “General Plan East” in the assessment of the Nuremberg trials . In: "Der Generalplan Ost": Main lines of the National Socialist planning and extermination policy , writings of the Hamburg Foundation for Social History of the 20th Century , Academy, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-002445-3 , pp. 356–368.
  • Otto Tornau : In memoriam Konrad Meyer . In: Gottingo-Normannen-Zeitung, Göttingen 1973, No. 2, pp. 3–6.

Awards

In 1936 Konrad Meyer was awarded the Hermann von Nathusius Medal.

Web links

Commons : Konrad Meyer (agricultural scientist)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Boldt: History of the gymnastics club Gottingo-Normannia zu Göttingen 1875-1975. Göttingen 1975, p. 263.
  2. ↑ The scientific multifunctional. Numerous other results when entering the name or "Generalplan Ost" in the search function.
  3. ↑ a b Konrad Meyer, resettlement planner of the SS ( Memento from August 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Steffen Rückl: Persecuted university teachers of the FWU 1933 to 1945. Berlin 2007, pp. 15-16.
  5. ↑ The official successor institute, also headed by Meyer, is the "Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning" Hanover, see the section "After 1945" below
  6. ↑ Czeslaw Madajczyk (Ed.): From the General Plan East to the General Settlement Plan . Saur, Munich 1994, pp. V f., ISBN 3-598-23224-1 .
  7. ↑ Czeslaw Madajczyk (Ed.): From the General Plan East to the General Settlement Plan . Munich 1994, p. 566.
  8. ^ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 4, United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950, p. 607 . (Volume 4 of the " Green Series ")
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Michalka (Ed. On behalf of MGFA ): The Second World War. Analysis-basics-research balance . Weyarn 1997, p. 844, ISBN 3-932131-38-X .
  10. ^ After 1945: acquittal for the Nazi planners ( memento of June 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol 5, US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia in 1950. P.156 - 157 . (Volume 5 of the " Green Series ")
  12. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 408.
  13. ↑ discussed content at Dams.
  14. ↑ The years 1956–1990 are documented.
  15. ↑ 40 mentions in connection with the General Plan East.
  16. ↑ Baden was a soil scientist with a focus on moors. First book publication: Appropriate management of the raised bog. Verlag Reichsnährstand , Berlin 1939; last currently known Publication: Management and performance of grassland on German raised bog culture Vlg. State bog test station, Bremen 1966.
  17. ↑ One chapter: Konrad Meyer's behavior after 1945 shows essential continuities in his thinking after 1945, pp. 180f. Meyer only exchanged a few words: “People” became “Society”, “Reorganization through expulsion and resettlement ” became “Planned resettlement and population measures as a realization of the new European order ”.
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Konrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer-Hetling, Konrad (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agricultural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzderhelden , Einbeck
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1973
Place of death Salzderhelden , Einbeck