Wilhelm von Meinel

Wilhelm Karl Meinel , Knight of Meinel since 1909 , (born November 24, 1865 in Ansbach , † March 23, 1927 in Munich ) was a German lawyer and politician. From November 15, 1922 to February 8, 1927 he was Bavarian State Minister for Trade, Industry and Commerce.

Life

Meinel was born into an old civil servant family. His father, Karl Ritter von Meinel, was a government director and vice president in Ansbach . His grandfather, Karl Gottlieb Meinel, was in the service of Eugen , Duke of Leuchtenberg, Prince of Eichstätt, and was most recently district administrator in Erlangen . His great-grandfather, Georg Friedrich Schmidt, was Prince-Wallerstein judge in Harburg for over 35 years and one of the three councilors who led the government for the underage prince . Meinel's only sister Julie was the wife of Colonel Eduard Zorn (1852-1903), the commander of the Bavarian Cadet Corps .

After graduating from high school in Ansbach, Meinel did his military service in the 3rd Company of the 5th Infantry Regiment "Grand Duke of Hesse" of the Bavarian Army . As a law student , he became active in the Corps Onoldia in the winter semester of 1883/84 . In November 1884 reciprocated and a little later elected senior , he gained the highest reputation. When Onoldia was the presiding suburban corps, Meinel led the Kösener Congress in 1885 . As inactive , he went to Berlin and Munich for two semesters . Back in Erlangen for the 7th semester, in 1887 he passed the final law examination with distinction. As a reserve officer of the Amberg Infantry Regiment, he indulged his riding passion with the Uhlans . In 1890 he passed the state examination with very good .

Administration and politics in Bavaria

On December 1, 1891, he became an assessor at the Ansbach district office, and in October 1895 at the district government in Ansbach. On December 1, 1895, he went to the Bavarian State Ministry of the Royal House and the Foreign Office under the Counts of Crailsheim , Podewils and Hertling . Here he rose to the position of Ministerial Director over the next 15 years and headed the department for trade, industry and commerce. For his work, King Ludwig II awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown in 1909 . Associated with this was the elevation to the personal nobility and he was allowed to call himself "Knight of Meinel" after being entered in the nobility register .

In 1916, during the First World War , Meinel was appointed Bavaria's deputy in the Federal Council. The TH Munich awarded him on 29 November 1918, the dignity of Dr. Ing. E. h. One year after the end of the war, on September 1, 1919, he was appointed Real Councilor of State.

Weimar Republic

During the revolution, many Bavarian officials wanted to refuse to cooperate with the workers 'and soldiers' councils . With Count Crailsheim's backing, Meinel decidedly refused so as not to widen the chaos and let it end in a catastrophe. In a letter, however, he asked Kurt Eisner to be released if his responsibilities were curtailed or eliminated. Eisner promised everything, but in December 1918 appointed Lujo Brentano as People's Commissar for trade, commerce and industry; he should prepare the socialization of the factories. At the same time, Eisner spoke of the “uselessness of civil servants” at the first meeting of the workers' council in the Deutsches Theater. Meinel contradicted this in a letter from the sick camp:

“... The statesman should be the artist, the civil servant the craftsman, who puts his thoughts into practice. The former should have the good and ingenious thoughts, the latter the exact knowledge of the actual circumstances, of the material that is being worked on. If the work then fails, the statesman must either dismiss the craftsmen and look for more useful ones, or he must admit that his thoughts cannot be carried out or that they cannot be carried out with the available material. However, it does not seem worthy to me to request the further cooperation of the craftsmen, but to hold them responsible in public from the outset for the failure of the previous and thus also the planned future works. "

- Meinel to Elsner, December 9, 1918

This letter met with an enormous response in Munich, Bavaria and Berlin. In a petition to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, Bavaria's industry, trade and commerce presented themselves to Meinel. Eisner gave in.

Despite Eisner's veto, Meinel took part as the first representative of the Reich Ministry of Economics in the preparations for the negotiations in Versailles and (1920/21) in the conferences in Spa , Brussels, London and Genoa. Appointments to high offices in the Reich and to the Weimar National Assembly (1919) were rejected by "Bavaria's loyal Eckart".

Non-party, but close to the Bavarian Middle Party , Meinel temporarily headed the affairs of the State Ministry after Eduard Hamm's resignation from July 24, 1922. After Eugen Ritter von Knilling was elected as Bavarian Prime Minister on November 8, 1922, he appointed him to head the orphaned ministry on November 15, 1922.

Serious illness forced him to resign on February 9, 1927. He died less than six weeks later. At his funeral in the new cemetery in the north of Munich it became clear that Meinel had no enemies. He left his wife Emmy née Sellner, whom he married in 1911.

Publications

Versailles. South German monthly books , Munich 1923.

literature

Max Först: Dr.-Ing. eh Wilhelm von Meinel Onoldiae. A corps student life picture. Wende und Schau (Verlag der Deutschen Corpszeitung, Frankfurt am Main), 1930, reprint 2007, pp. 115–139.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm von Meinel - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Wilhelm von Meinel in the catalog of the German National Library
State Council in Bavaria

References and comments

^ KGM was one of the founders of the Corps Palatia Munich.
↑ Othmar Hackl : The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck´sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-10490-8 , p. 610.
^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 42 , 635.
^ Bavarian State Statistical Office (ed.): Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Bavaria for 1914. Munich 1914, p. 26.
↑ A Munich newspaper wrote: “If Meinel had not achieved anything outstanding in his entire life, for the sake of this letter alone, each of us should take our hat off to him. Imagine: In the chaos of the first weeks of the revolution, constantly surrounded by mounted bayonets, in the middle of the council house and guarded and watched at every turn, the State Councilor of the Crown of Bavaria, von Meinel, found the courage to give "his" minister a letter of indictment to write, which must have worked like a bomb in Eisner's arrogant world of thought. "

personal data
SURNAME	Meinel, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Meinel, Wilhelm Karl von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	November 24, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ansbach
DATE OF DEATH	March 23, 1927
Place of death	Munich

[1] KGM was one of the founders of the Corps Palatia Munich.

[2] Othmar Hackl : The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck´sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-10490-8 , p. 610.

[3] Kösener corps lists 1910, 42 , 635.

[4] Bavarian State Statistical Office (ed.): Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Bavaria for 1914. Munich 1914, p. 26.

[5] A Munich newspaper wrote: “If Meinel had not achieved anything outstanding in his entire life, for the sake of this letter alone, each of us should take our hat off to him. Imagine: In the chaos of the first weeks of the revolution, constantly surrounded by mounted bayonets, in the middle of the council house and guarded and watched at every turn, the State Councilor of the Crown of Bavaria, von Meinel, found the courage to give "his" minister a letter of indictment to write, which must have worked like a bomb in Eisner's arrogant world of thought. "