Stefan Meier (politician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stefan Meier (born November 6, 1889 in Neustadt in the Black Forest ; † September 19, 1944 in Mauthausen concentration camp ) was a German politician ( SPD ).

Live and act

German Empire (1889 to 1919)

After attending primary school in St. Georgen near Freiburg from 1897 to 1904, Meier worked for a year as a farm worker. From July 1905 to December 1908 he completed a commercial apprenticeship. In 1906 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Meier was in the military from October 1909 to September 1910. After that he worked in various companies as a clerk and travel agent until the outbreak of the First World War . Meier took part in the war from August 1914 to November 1918. In July 1915, during the war, Meier became engaged to Emma Hofheinz. The marriage resulted in the daughter Margarete, later Huber, and the son Richard.

Weimar Republic (1919 to 1933)

Meier took on his first political tasks in local politics: from May 1919 to October 1927 he was a city councilor in Freiburg. He also held the office of party secretary of the SPD for the Freiburg district . In 1922 Meier started his own business as a businessman.

In the December 1924 election , Meier entered the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic for the first time . During the next four legislative periods (December 1924 to November 1932) he represented constituency 32 (Baden) there. After his temporary resignation from the Reichstag in the November 1932 election , Meier was able to return to parliament for the March 1933 election, to which he belonged until his mandate was illegally suspended in June of the same year.

Period of National Socialism (1933 to 1944)

In March 1933 Meier was one of 94 MPs who voted against the adoption of the Enabling Act , which formed the legal basis for the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and which was finally adopted with a majority of 444 to 94 votes.

From March 1933 to March 1934 Meier was held as a " protective prisoner " in the Ankenbuck concentration camp . Then Meier ran a tobacco shop in Freiburg. In 1939 he was drafted as a driver for the Motorized Police Police in Constance in Staufen, where he was released after just a few days. In October 1941, after being denounced by a neighbor, Meier was arrested again and sentenced to three years in prison by a special court at the regional court in Freiburg for undermining military strength or for “preparing for high treason ” . Immediately after serving his sentence, Meier was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp , where he died in September 1944. His wife was informed of the death and the cremation of Meier's body on September 23, 1944 by SS-Obersturmführer Schulz. "Acute heart failure" was named as the cause of death. Meier had not suffered from a heart condition until his imprisonment.

Honors and honors

Memorial plaques on the Reichstag
The stumbling block for Stefan Meier in front of his former home in Freiburg

In 1946/1947 the city of Freiburg renamed Bismarckstrasse to Stefan-Meier-Strasse in Meier's honor.

In 1989, on the occasion of Meier's 100th birthday, the city of Freiburg organized a commemorative event in the historic council chamber of the Freiburg city hall , at which Meier was honored by Mayor Rolf Böhme . Since 1992 in Berlin, near the Reichstag , one of the 96 memorial plaques for members of the Reichstag murdered by the National Socialists has been commemorating Meier.

Since 2008 a stumbling stone in front of Meier's former home at Merianstrasse 11 in Freiburg has been a reminder of his political activities and his violent death, and since 2013 also a stumbling stone in front of the Basler Hof , Freiburg's former Gestapo headquarters. The special exhibition “National Socialism in Freiburg” set up in the Augustinermuseum Freiburg in 2016 was mentioned by Stefan Meier among the exemplary biographies.

estate

Meier's estate is now stored under the identification K1 / 85 in the Freiburg City Archives . It contains correspondence and personal notes, newspaper clippings about Meier, documents on the trial against Meier as well as documents on the appreciation of Meier after 1945. In addition, there are interview protocols and notes from relatives, friends and acquaintances of Meier from the period after 1945.

literature

  • Stefan Meier . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Deceased personalities . Volume 1. JHW Dietz Nachf., Hanover 1960, p. 220.
  • Margarete Huber: “When they got the father”. In: Badische Zeitung , November 6, 1989.
  • Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .
  • By someone who was not intimidated. Memory of Stefan Meier 1889−1944. Documentation on the occasion of the 100th birthday on November 6, 1989 . Freiburg 1990. (Brochure)

Newspaper articles :

  • Stefan Meier, 1889-1944 . In: Freiburg Forum , September 1988.
  • Stefan Meier. A great social democrat from the Black Forest . In: Hoch-Schwarzwald-Kurier , March 30, 1989.
  • Commemoration of the 100th birthday of the former member of the Reichstag, Stefan Meier (1889–1944) . In: St. Georgien Bote Heft 11 , 1989.
  • Reminder for the present. Memorial event for the SPD politician Stefan Meier . In: Badische Zeitung , November 10, 1989.
  • These exhibits tell the story of Freiburg under National Socialism. Stefan Meier's briefcase . In: Badische Zeitung , November 23, 2016.

Web links

Commons : Stefan Meier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life data according to Wilhelm Heinz Schröder : BIORAB-Online.
  2. ^ Fritz Bauer : Justice and Nazi crimes . 1968, p. 682.
  3. ↑ Max von der Grün: Howl Like the Wolves. Growing Up in Nazi Germany , 1980, p. 61.
  4. ^ Journal of the Breisgau-Geschichteverein Schauinsland , 2004, p. 128.
  5. ↑ Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933–1945. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-5162-9 , p. 393.
personal data
SURNAME Meier, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdR, Nazi victim
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustadt in the Black Forest
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1944
Place of death Mauthausen concentration camp