Willy Meerwald (civil servant)

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Willy Meerwald, portrait on the occasion of his appointment to the senior government council (1934)

Willy Paul Franz Ernst Meerwald (born September 4, 1888 in Berlin ; † March 1, 1960 in Bayerisch Gmain ) was a German lawyer and civil servant.

Live and act

Empire and Weimar Republic

Meerwald came from a humble background. He was the son of the businessman Ernst Meerwald and his wife Helene, née Kaehler. After visiting the school for the school to Steglitz (1895-1898) and the secondary school in Steglitz (1898-1907) studied sea forest 1907-1913 Law at the University of Berlin , where he 1914 Dr. jur. PhD . After a failed attempt, he renounced the state examination, especially since he did not have the financial means for the legal preparatory service. Instead, he entered the civil service: from April 1914, he performed his preparatory service as an unskilled worker in the Reich Statistical Office , where he received the rank of government secretary with effect from October 1, 1918.

From 1915 to 1918 Meerwald took part in the First World War as a reinforcement soldier , in which he received the Iron Cross 2nd class. From April 1920 Meerwald worked in the Reich Ministry of the Interior , where he passed the administrative examination around 1920. From 1920 to 1924 he did office work there before he worked in the ministry's academic library from 1924 to 1933, which he headed from 1928. Politically, he leaned towards the German National People's Party (DNVP) during the Weimar Republic, which he said he always voted for before 1933.

time of the nationalsocialism

Willy Meerwald as a witness at the Nuremberg trials

Meerwald was acquainted with Hans Heinrich Lammers on the basis of a bibliography on constitutional law published by him . When Lammers was appointed State Secretary in the Reich Chancellery - and thus head of this authority - immediately after the National Socialists came to power in spring 1933 , he therefore appointed Meerwald to the Reich Chancellery on February 23, 1933

In the Reich Chancellery, Meerwald headed the common antechamber of the Reich Chancellor and State Secretary under the name of a "personal assistant" to the new Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler and the State Secretary. He himself later stated that the title of personal advisor - which he retained until 1938 - was "completely meaningless", since Hitler had appointed his private secretary and adjutant and the NSDAP liaison staff for his personal affairs. His, Meerwald's, task was primarily to process the receptions at the Reich Chancellor and State Secretary as well as the processing of submissions from private individuals and associations or the like to the Reich Chancellor or letters addressed personally to the State Secretary. This information is confirmed by Rebentisch, who comes to the conclusion in his study on administration in the Führer state that Meerwald “apparently” was not “in close contact with Hitler” despite his position: the title of “personal adviser to the Reich Chancellor” said afterwards Rebentisch's view only that Meerwald processed those tasks that affected Hitler's person, such as the regulation of receptions from people outside the NSDAP, the obtaining of signatures under his photos for deserving nationals and foreigners and the handling of household and office business without major ones political importance. At that time, Meerwald's department officially had the designation of department A ("Personal Affairs of the Führer and Reich Chancellor, Representation, Receptions, Press") in the business allocation plan, which was also responsible for the unrecorded matters of sport and the Olympic Games.

During the Nazi era, Meerwald was promoted to senior government councilor (1934), ministerial councilor (1935), ministerial director (1936) and finally to ministerial director (1937). Since March 1933 he was also a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 1.552.922) and since autumn 1933 of the SS (SS number 113.656). In the SS he achieved the honorary rank of SS brigade leader in 1942. However, Rebentisch was able to locate a letter from a colleague from Meerwald, written in an unsuspicious context, in which it says that the transport was carried out “against his [Meerwald] wishes and will and without his intervention”.

When Hitler became head of state after the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, the so-called Presidential Chancellery of the Fuehrer was created, which together with the Chancellery of the Fuehrer and Hitler's Adjutantur took over almost all the tasks previously carried out by Meerwald, so that his area of ​​work until the beginning of 1936 was completely eroded. After a reorganization of the tasks in the Reich Chancellery, Meerwald was therefore appointed head of a department of the Reich Chancellery in April 1936 with the work areas "Affairs of the Reichstag", "Propaganda Ministry", "Ministry of Education", "Gun Law", "Health Care", "German Red Cross" , "Sport", "Support and Libraries", "Foreign Office", "Tourism" and "Foreign Press". The last three areas mentioned were later taken over by another department. In her place, in addition to the remaining areas of work, Meerwald was given the property management of the Reich Chancellery and the processing of personal matters for civil servants, employees and workers of the Reich Chancellery. Meerwald spent the last days of the war in the Reich Chancellery Berchtesgaden and was given leave of absence by Lammers in writing on April 28, 1945 “until further notice”.

post war period

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Meerwald was arrested by the Allies and questioned as a witness during the Nuremberg Trials - particularly with regard to the activities of the Reich Chancellery and the person of Lammer. He was released again around 1948.

Jacobsen summed up the career of Meerwald and that of his colleague Hermann von Stutterheim with the characterization that they were "civil servants with Prussian characteristics. Regardless of the form of government and the internal political upheaval, they simply fulfilled their duty ”.

Promotions

In civil service :

  • Government Secretary: October 1, 1918
  • Upper Government Secretary: 1922
  • Government inspector: 1924
  • Chief Government Inspector: 1929
  • Councilor: February 1933
  • Upper Government Council: 1934
  • Ministerial Council: 1935
  • Ministerial Director: April 1936
  • Ministerial Director: December 16, 1937

In the SS :

  • September 29, 1933: SS-Untersturmführer
  • March 1934: SS-Obersturmführer
  • April 20, 1941: SS-Oberführer
  • November 9, 1942: SS Brigade Leader

Fonts

  • The simulation of family law contracts under German civil law . 1914 (Diss. Jur.)
  • Literature of the current constitutional law of the Reich and the states including the Free City of Danzig . 1929
  • This is where the Führer of the Reich works, in Völkischer Beobachter , No. 233, August 21, 1934

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Willy Meerwald on www.dws-xip.pl
  2. ^ Hajo Bernett: Sports policy in the Third Reich: From d. Files d. Reich Chancellery. Volume 39 of articles on teaching and research in physical education, Volume 39, Verlag Hofmann 1971, p. 17.
  3. ↑ Gertraud Grünzinger: Documents on church policy of the Third Reich: the time of World War II (September 1939 to May 1945). 1939-1945. Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2008, ISBN 3-579-08042-3 .
  4. ^ Hans Adolf Jacobsen: National Socialist Foreign Policy, 1933–1938 , 1968, p. 326.
personal data
SURNAME Meerwald, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meerwald, Willy Paul Franz Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and civil servant
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1960
Place of death Bayerisch Gmain