Otto Meyer (politician, 1921)

Candidate poster of the CDU for the state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1963

Otto Meyer (born March 24, 1921 in Herold ; † September 25, 2013 in Klingelbach ) was a German farmer and politician ( CDU ). From 1968 to 1971 and from 1979 to 1985 he was Minister for Agriculture, Viticulture and Forests and from 1971 to 1979 Minister for Agriculture, Viticulture and Environmental Protection of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate . From 1971 to 1985 he also held the office of Deputy Prime Minister under Prime Ministers Helmut Kohl and Bernhard Vogel .

Life

Otto Meyer was born the son of a farmer. After graduating from elementary school in Herold, he attended the agricultural college in Katzenelnbogen from 1936 to 1938 and then went to the farming college in Michelstadt for one semester . He received his practical training as a farmer from 1935 to 1938 on his father's farm. From 1941 to 1945 he took part in the Second World War and was deployed as a soldier in the Russian campaign, most recently as a lieutenant and company commander. He became a prisoner of war.

After the end of the war, Meyer worked as a self-employed farmer on his father's farm , which he took over in 1955 after passing his agricultural master's exam. He was a member of numerous agricultural and medium-sized interest groups, including 1950 to 1968 district chairman of the Unterlahn farmers' association and a member of the Rhineland-Nassau Chamber of Agriculture.

Meyer joined the CDU and was elected chairman of the CDU district association Unterlahn in 1966. From 1969 to 1971 he was chairman of the CDU district association Koblenz-Montabaur. From 1968 to 1982 he was deputy state chairman of the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate .

Meyer was elected honorary mayor of the Herold community in 1948 and held this office until 1968. From 1952 to 1968 he was a member of the district council and the district committee and from 1956 to 1968 district deputy of the Unterlahn district .

In the state elections in 1959 , Meyer was elected for the first time as a member of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament. He was able to successfully defend his state parliament mandate in the following elections in 1963 , 1967 , 1971 , 1975 , 1979 and 1983 . In 1971 he was elected through state constituency 2 , in 1975, 1979 and 1983 he was elected through state constituency 1 . In parliament he was deputy chairman of the CDU parliamentary group from 1963 to 1968 and chairman of the committee for agriculture and viticulture from 1967 to 1968. In 1969 the state parliament sent him to the 5th, 1984 to the 8th Federal Assembly to elect the Federal President.

Meyer was appointed on May 1, 1968 to succeed Oskar Stübinger as Minister for Agriculture, Viticulture and Forests in the government of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate led by Prime Minister Peter Altmeier . With the inauguration of Prime Minister Helmut Kohl , whose governments ( Cabinet Kohl I , II , III ) he was also a member, his department was renamed the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Environmental Protection on May 18, 1971. He also remained in office under Prime Minister Bernhard Vogel ( Cabinet Vogel I , II , III ). From May 18, 1971 to May 23, 1985 Meyer also took over the office of Deputy Prime Minister.

In the course of a restructuring of the ministries on May 18, 1979, the environmental department was spun off from the Ministry of Agriculture and assigned to the Ministry of Social Affairs under the direction of Georg Gölter . The ministry headed by Meyer was then renamed Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Forests. In state politics, he represented the interests of farmers and winemakers as a member of seven cabinets . On May 23, 1985, he resigned from the state government as a minister and was replaced by Dieter Ziegler . He resigned his state parliament mandate, which Theo Zwanziger took over in the replacement procedure, on May 31, 1985.

Two months after his retirement from politics, the " glycol wine scandal " became public. In previous years, especially in Rhineland-Palatinate, certain wines imported from Austria were sweetened with the antifreeze-like diethylene glycol to sweeten them to a harmful degree . Meyer had failed during his tenure to inform the responsible State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family, Women and Health Werner Chory and the other federal states about it. It was not until July 9, 1985 that the Federal Ministry of Health warned the population against drinking Austrian premium wines. As early as 1982 Meyer had to comment on the poor quality of wine in front of a parliamentary committee of inquiry in the state parliament. He later admitted that the flow of information on the matter appeared to have been insufficient as warnings and notices had been in place for some time.

Otto Meyer had been with Hedwig, geb. Gießelmann, married and had two children.

honors and awards

1971: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
1975: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
1978: Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany
1981: Great Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany
1986: Honorary Consul of the Republic of Rwanda
1989: Order of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate
Holder of the honorary title of economics council

literature

The President of the Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate (Ed.): The representatives of the free people. The members of the Consultative State Assembly and the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1946 to 2015. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-04750-4 , pp. 461–463.
Herrmann AL Degener , Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who? The German who's who. Volume 38, Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1999, p. 960.
Otto Meyer , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 14/1986 of March 24, 1986, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Otto Meyer - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

↑ Obituary notice. (PDF; 41.7 KB) September 2013, accessed on October 13, 2015 .
↑ ^a ^b Agriculture Minister has died. Mourning for Otto Meyer. In: Rhein-Zeitung. September 25, 2013, accessed October 13, 2015 .
^ The President of the Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): The representatives of the free people. The members of the Consultative State Assembly and the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1946 to 2015. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-04750-4 , p. 461.
^ The President of the Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): The representatives of the free people. The members of the Advisory State Assembly and the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1946 to 2015. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-04750-4 , p. 462.
^ Reinhard Schreiner: Names and dates from six decades of party work. The chairmen and managing directors of the CDU state, district and district associations since 1945 (new states from 1990). Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Scientific Services, Archive for Christian Democratic Politics, Sankt Augustin 2012, p. 313 ( PDF; 1.5 MB )
^ Wine scandal. Under the covers . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1985, pp. 72-73 ( online - 22 July 1985 ).
↑ Weinpanscher. Completely undisturbed . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1982, pp. 68-70 ( online - 28 June 1982 ).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The President of the Rhineland-Palatinate Parliament (ed.): The representatives of the free people. The members of the Consultative State Assembly and the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1946 to 2015. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-04750-4 , p. 463.

personal data
SURNAME	Meyer, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German farmer and politician (CDU), Member of the State Parliament, Minister
DATE OF BIRTH	March 24, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH	Herald
DATE OF DEATH	September 25, 2013
Place of death	Klingelbach

[1] Obituary notice. (PDF; 41.7 KB) September 2013, accessed on October 13, 2015 .

[RZ_2013-2] Agriculture Minister has died. Mourning for Otto Meyer. In: Rhein-Zeitung. September 25, 2013, accessed October 13, 2015 .

[3] The President of the Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): The representatives of the free people. The members of the Consultative State Assembly and the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1946 to 2015. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-04750-4 , p. 461.

[4] The President of the Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): The representatives of the free people. The members of the Advisory State Assembly and the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1946 to 2015. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-04750-4 , p. 462.

[5] Reinhard Schreiner: Names and dates from six decades of party work. The chairmen and managing directors of the CDU state, district and district associations since 1945 (new states from 1990). Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Scientific Services, Archive for Christian Democratic Politics, Sankt Augustin 2012, p. 313 ( PDF; 1.5 MB )

[6] Wine scandal. Under the covers . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1985, pp. 72-73 ( online - 22 July 1985 ).

[7] Weinpanscher. Completely undisturbed . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1982, pp. 68-70 ( online - 28 June 1982 ).

[DSdfV_463-8] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The President of the Rhineland-Palatinate Parliament (ed.): The representatives of the free people. The members of the Consultative State Assembly and the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1946 to 2015. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-04750-4 , p. 463.