Otto Meißner (born March 13, 1880 in Bischweile (today: Bischwiller) in Alsace - died May 27, 1953 in Munich) was head of the Office of the Reich President during the entire period of the Weimar Republic under Friedrich Ebert and Paul von Hindenburg and, finally, at the beginning of the Nazi era under Adolf Hitler. Capital Strasbourg Area 8,280 km² Regional President Adrien Zeller Population  - 2004 estimate  - 1999 census  - Density 1,793,000 1,734,145 209/km² Arrondissements 13 Cantons 75 Communes 903 Départements Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Alsace (French: Alsace; Alsatian/German: Elsass) is a région and also a province... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German state of Bavaria. ... The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (Pronounced Vy-mahr, and in German it is known as the Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German monarchy... Friedrich Ebert (February 4, 1871–February 28, 1925) was a German politician (SPD), who served as the 9th Chancellor of Germany and its first president during the Weimar period. ... Paul von Hindenburg President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg (full name Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg) (October 2, 1847 – August 2, 1934) was a German Field Marshal and statesman. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and chancellor) of Germany from 1933 to his death. ...

Life

The son of a postal official, Meißner studied law in Strasbourg from 1898 to 1903, where he also became a member of the Straßburg Student Youth Fraternity (Burschenschaft) Germania. Later he also studied in Berlin and earned his Doctor of Laws in 1908, at the age of 28, in Erlangen, Bavaria. Afterwards, be became a bureacrat for the national railroad, the Reichsbahn, in Strasbourg. Between 1915 and 1917 he participated in the First World War in an infantry regiment. Up to 1919 he was more active behind the front, first in Bucharest, Rumania, then in Kiev, and finally as a German business agent for the Ukrainian government. City motto: – City proper (commune) Région Alsace Département Bas-Rhin (67) Mayor Fabienne Keller (UMP) (since 2001) Area 78. ... A Studentenverbindung (the umbrella term that includes the Burschenschafts) is a German student corporation. ... Erlangen is a German city in Middle Franconia. ... With an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... WWI redirects here. ... Bucharest Romanian: BucureÅŸti) is the capital city and industrial and commercial centre of Romania, located in the southeast of the country, on the DâmboviÅ£a river. ... Motto: Oblast Municipality Municipal government City council (Київська Міська рада) Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko Area 800 km² Population  - city  - urban  - density 2,642,486 100% 3,299/km² Founded City rights around 5th century 1487 Latitude Longitude 50°27′ N 30°30′ E Area code +380 44 Car plates  ? Twin towns Athenes, Brussels, Budapest...

Thanks to his good contacts, in 1919 Meißner became "Acting Advisor in the Bureau of the Reich President" (who at that time was the socialist Friedrich Ebert), and by 1920 rose to the position of "Ministerial Director and Head of the Bureau of the Reich President." Ebert named Meißner to the post of State Secretary in 1923. Friedrich Ebert (February 4, 1871–February 28, 1925) was a German politician (SPD), who served as the 9th Chancellor of Germany and its first president during the Weimar period. ...

When Hitler fused the functions of Head of State (here, the Reich President) and the Head of Government (the Chancellery) in 1934, Meißner's office was renamed the "Presidential Chancellery" and restricted in its responsibilities to representative and formal matters. In 1937, Meißner was appointed to the newly-created position of "State Minister of the Rank of a Reich Minister and Chief of the Presidential Chancellery of the Führer and Reich Chancellor." Though a term originally coined for Republican presidents, a head of state or chief of state is now universally known as the chief public representative of a nation-state, federation or commonwealth, whose role generally includes personifying the continuity and legitimacy of the state and exercising the political powers, functions... The head of government is the leader of the government or cabinet. ...

After the Second World War, Meißner was arrested by the Allies and interrogated as a witness in the Nuremberg Trials. In July 1947, he appeared as a character witness for the accused former State Secretary Dr. Schlegelberger. In 1949, he was finally prosecuted himself in the "Wilhelmstrasse trial," but the court acquitted him on April 14. Two years later, in May of 1949, he was accused again, in Munich, and adjudged a fellow traveler. His appeal was turned down, but the proceedings called to a halt in January, 1952. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air, August 9, 1945 after the Allied atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ... The Nuremberg Trials is the general name for two sets of trials of Nazis involved in World War II and the Holocaust. ...

In 1950, Meißner published a memoir covering his unusual bureaucrat's career in a book entitled State Secretary under Ebert, Hindenburg and Hitler.

Meißner's Role in History

Meißner, who lived with his family in the Palace of the Reich President between 1929 and 1939, undoubtedly enjoyed major influence upon the Reich presidents, especially Hindenburg. Together with Kurt von Schleicher and a few others, Meißner, in the years 1929 and 1939, furthered the dissolution of the parliamentary system by means of a civil presidential cabinet. Kurt von Schleicher (4 April 1882–30 June 1934) was a German general and the last Chancellor of Germany during the era of the Weimar Republic. ...

His role in the appointment of Hitler to Reich Chanceller in December 1932-January 1933 remains a controversy among historians. As member of the "Camarilla," Meißner was certainly no small influence as State Secretary, due to his close relations with Reich President von Hindenburg. Together with Oskar von Hindenburg and Franz von Papen, Meißner organized the negotiations with Hitler to depose von Schleicher and appoint Hitler to the post of Reich Chancellor. For the Nazis' part, the talks were facilitated through Wilhelm Keppler, Joachim von Ribbentrop and the banker Kurt Freiherr von Schröder, a former officer and head of the old-guard conservative "Herrenklub" (Gentlemen's club) in Berlin, in which von Papen was also active. Neither Hitler nor Hindenburg, as of the end of 1932, would have initiated contact to one another, so great was their mutual distaste for each other. Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen (October 29, 1879–May 2, 1969) was a German politician and diplomat associated with the Catholic Centre Party. ... Joachim von Ribbentrop Joachim von Ribbentrop (born Joachim Ribbentrop) (April 30, 1893–October 16, 1946) was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. ...

Meißner submitted his resignation in 1933, but was turned down, whereupon he assumed responsibilty primarily for delegational duties. In 1937, the Nazi regime raised him to the rank of Reich Minister, with the title, "Chief of the Presidential Chancellery of the Führer and the Reich Chancellor. But politically, his influence in the Hitler regime was distinctly minor.

Sources

• Karl-Dietrich Bracher, Die Auflösung der Weimarer Republik. Eine Studie zum Problem des Machtverfalls in der Demokratie, ISBN 3-7610-7216-3
• Heinrich-August Winkler, Weimar. 1918-1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie, ISBN 3-4064-4037-1