Emil Heinrich Meyer (6 May 1886 in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

– 9 May 1945 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) was a German business executive. Meyer was a board member at the

ITT Corporation ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

's Germany-based subsidiaries Standard Elektrik Lorenz and

Mix & Genest Mix & Genest was founded on 1 October 1879 by the businessman Wilhelm Mix and the engineer Werner Genest in Berlin-Schöneberg. The company was initially an 1879 branch of the ITT Corporation. It was very successful and became one of the pioneers ...

as well as

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

.CHAPTER NINE – Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle
/ref> Meyer was a cousin of the industrialist

Wilhelm Keppler Wilhelm Karl Keppler (14 December 1882 – 13 June 1960) was a German businessman and one of Adolf Hitler's early financial backers. Introduced to Hitler by Heinrich Himmler, Keppler helped to finance the Nazi Party and later served as one of Hi ...

and became a member of the ''

Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft The Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft, or ''Circle of Friends of the Economy'' (which became known as "Freundeskreis Reichsführer SS", "Freundeskreis Himmler" or " Keppler Circle") was a group of German industrialists whose aim was to strengthen the t ...

'', a group of industrialists committed to

racialism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies can be more ...

and close to

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

politics, led by Keppler. The group supported the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

, which Meyer joined in 1933.Ernst Klee, ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945'', Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 407. He was one of three directors of the

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG was a German bank and was based in Frankfurt. It was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in May 2009. History 19th century The Dresdner Bank was established on 12 Novemb ...

, the others being Karl Rasche and Fritz Kranefuss, to belong to the exclusive ''Freunde des

Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest rank of the SS. The longest-servi ...

'' circle, a development of Keppler's group.G.S. Graber, ''History of the SS'', Diamond Books, 1994, p. 123 As such he had the courtesy rank of

Standartenführer __NOTOC__ ''Standartenführer'' (short: ''Staf'', , ) was a Nazi Party (NSDAP) paramilitary rank that was used in several NSDAP organizations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. First founded as a title in 1925, in 1928 it became one of ...

in the SS. In 1935 he was made an honorary professor for Genossenschaftswesen at the prestigious Handelshochschule Berlin as well as a member of the Nazi Academy for German Law. During the latter stages of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Meyer was involved in Ostindustrie GmbH, a forced labour enterprise attached to the

SS Main Economic and Administrative Office The SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (german: SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt; SS-WVHA) was a Nazi organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects of the (a main branch of the ; SS). It ...

set up by

Oswald Pohl Oswald Ludwig Pohl (; 30 June 1892 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. As the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office and the head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps, he was a key figure in ...

in the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

area of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in 1943. Meyer committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

in 1945.

Sources

*Johannes Bähr: ''Die Dresdner Bank im Dritten Reich'', Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006 (co-authors: Ralf Ahrens, Michael C. Schneider, Harald Wixforth, Dieter Ziegler; see especially first volume, p. 92/93)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Emil 1886 births 1945 deaths Businesspeople from Hesse SS-Standartenführer Nazis who committed suicide in Germany Dresdner Bank 1945 suicides