Lambert Meyer

Lambert Meyer

Franz Lambert Meyer (born January 29, 1855 in Essen in Oldenburg ; † February 2, 1933 in Vechta ) was a German Catholic priest and episcopal official of the Oldenburg part of the diocese of Münster with his seat in Vechta.

Life path

Meyer was born as the son of Christian Meyer and his wife Josephine geb. Fresenburg was born in the Oldenburg community of Essen. He attended the secondary school in Quakenbrück and then from 1871 the teachers' seminar in Vechta . From there he moved to grammar school in 1872 and completed his schooling in autumn 1876 with the Abitur. From 1876 to 1880 he studied philosophy and theology for six semesters at the academy in Münster and then continued his studies for another year at the Collegium Willibaldinum in Eichstätt . There he was ordained a priest on July 18, 1880 . In 1880 he returned to the Oldenburger Land and from 1880 was initially school vicar in Quakenbrück and from 1884 chaplain and religion teacher at the grammar school in Oldenburg. There he also worked as a pastor in prison and in the insane asylum in Wehnen , as Rendant of the Pius Hospital and as President of the Journeyman's Association.

From 1901 Meyer was pastor in Friesoythe . During his tenure, Meyer was able to develop his community decisively, so the parish church was built in neo-Gothic style, the hospital was expanded and a higher school for girls was founded. For his services Meyer was later awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Friesoythe. From 1910 Meyer was also a prosynodal examinator for the Oldenburg part of the Münster diocese.

On June 20, 1922 Meyer was appointed Episcopal Official of the Diocese of Münster and was introduced to his office on July 19, 1922. His office was in Vechta. At the same time, he was awarded a canon of honor at the cathedral in Münster and he was appointed papal house prelate . He also became chairman of the Catholic High School College. With the entry into force of the constitutions of the Weimar Republic and the Free State of Oldenburg , in which the separation of church and state was established, the relationship between church and state had to be reorganized. Meyer was able to conclude these negotiations, which had already been started by his predecessor, and obtain the extensive exemption of the Catholic Church from state supervision. This had actually already taken place in 1921 by ordinance, but was postponed on the basis of law by the Oldenburg government because it wanted to wait and see how larger countries, especially Prussia, regulated the new situation. The conformity of the legal status of the church with the new constitutional law was finally achieved through the law of April 14, 1924 with the misleading title concerning the authorization of the Catholic Church to raise taxes . With this, the church, as a corporation under public law, achieved full independence and self-administration of its affairs. As an official, Meyer issued following the new legislation on June 8, 1924, the corresponding "parish order for the Oldenburg part of the diocese of Münster" and an election order of July 15, 1924 for the election of church committees. As a result, Meyer was able to prevent the Holy See from allocating the Oldenburg portion of the Diocese of Münster in the negotiations on the Prussian Concordat 1927/28 to the Diocese of Osnabrück by pointing out the particularly favorable constitutional and ecclesiastical position of the official district. Towards the end of his term of office, however, he was unable to prevent the dissolution of the Catholic High School College, which was carried out in the Free State of Oldenburg in September 1932 after the National Socialists took over government when the NSDAP won the election on May 29, 1932, in order to eliminate the influence of the churches on the schools. Instead, for the time being, a Catholic and a Protestant department were set up in the Ministry of Churches and Schools. After his death in 1933, Meyer did not live to see the later conflicts with the National Socialist regime. Franz Vorwerk followed him in office as Episcopal Official.

literature

• Bernhard Hachmöller: Meyer, Franz Lambert. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 458-460 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Lambert Meyer in the catalog of the German National Library

predecessor	Office	successor
Gerhard Tepe	Episcopal Münsterscher official in the official district of Oldenburg 1922 - 1933	Franz Vorwerk