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Laurenz Meyer (born 15 February 1948) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union or CDU. From 2000 to 2004, he was General Secretary of the CDU.


Early life and education

Meyer was born in
Salzkotten Salzkotten is a town in the district of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name Salzkotten (in English, "Salt cottages") is based in the former salt production, which gave Salzkotten its raison d'être. Salt was found in the salty ...
,
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...
. After his '' Abitur'' (school-leaving) examinations in 1968, he completed a course of study in economics at the
University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...
, leaving in 1975 as a qualified economist. He was then employed at Vereinigte Elektrizitätswerke Westfalen, or VEW AG (which was later taken over by the RWE group) in Dortmund.


Career


Party

Meyer has been a member of the CDU since 1968. From 1997 to 2001, he was State Treasurer of the CDU in
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...
. He has belonged to the Federal Executive of the CDU since April 2000 and was General Secretary of the CDU from 20 November 2000 to 22 December 2004.


Elected representative

Meyer was on the Hamm city council from 1975 to 1995 and was CDU leader on the council from 1989 to 1995. In 1994, he campaigned for the office of Lord Mayor, but lost to Jürgen Wieland, the candidate of the
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...
(Social Democratic Party). From 1990 until 2003, Meyer was a member of the state parliament (
Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non ...
) of North Rhine-Westphalia. Here he was party spokesperson for economic issues from 1990 to 1999, deputy leader from 1997 to 1999, and leader of the CDU in the state parliament from 23 February 1999 to 2 June 2000. After losing the 2000 election, Meyer had to give up his office as party leader to Jürgen Rüttgers. From 6 June to 6 December 2000, Meyer was then deputy speaker of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 2002 Laurenz Meyer has been a member of the German Federal Parliament (
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
). He entered parliament by being on the CDU's party list for North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany's
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
electoral system.


RWE affair and resignation

On 10 December 2004, it was reported that Meyer (nicknamed Laurenz Nimmersatt, "Gluttonous Laurenz") was receiving power from RWE (which had taken over his former employer VEW in 2000) at a discounted employee rate, although he had parted company with the group in 1999. One week later, new allegations surfaced, according to which he was receiving payments from RWE even while he was General Secretary of the CDU. Meyer described these as "special dividends". In addition, Meyer was still receiving earnings as deputy speaker in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament and was thus receiving three salaries. The ''
Bild am Sonntag ''Bild am Sonntag'' (''BamS'') is the largest-selling German national Sunday newspaper published in Berlin, Germany. History and profile ''Bild am Sonntag'' was first published on 29 April 1956.Helmut Böger, ''Bild'', 8 May 2011Die Story von Ba ...
'' newspaper reported on 19 December that CDU boss
Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
had stripped her General Secretary of his powers. Close party colleagues demanded his resignation. On 20 December, Meyer announced that he would donate the amount in question (€81,800) to the charity
SOS Children's Villages SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit international development organization headquartered in Innsbruck, Austria. The organization provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children in need and protect ...
. After pressure from the party's rank and file, Meyer resigned as General Secretary on 22 December 2004. The reason for his resignation was that contrary to his description, the special payment was not a severance pay since Meyer returned to the company only after the CDU defeat at the North Rhine-Westphalian election in May 2000. This fact and the false information he provided to Angela Merkel made him untenable for the party. The received payments admitted by him and the announcement of a donation to SOS-Kinderdörfer were especially unable to pacify the party's branches in North Rhine-Westphalia and
Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
, which were involved with their area's election campaigns. As a Member of Parliament, Meyer continued to receive the usual salary of €7,009 a month (€7,960 as of 2012, €8,252 as of 2013), plus the tax-free monthly expense allowance of €3,551 (€4,123 in 2013). Furthermore, he may reactivate his employment contract with the RWE energy company, from which he last drew an annual income of €112,381. On 23 December 2004, RWE announced the result of an internal investigation into the payments made to Meyer. It found that 160,000 of 250,000
Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...
were unjustified and had been made by VEW as a result of a "communication error". In a statement on 17 December, Meyer had described this payment as "legally correct", but also admitted "...I have nevertheless become aware of the fact that many people have a problem understanding that at that time I accepted this money, since I went back into the company...". Most recently, Meyer was employed as
RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...
's commercial director in the
Arnsberg Arnsberg (; wep, Arensperg) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Hoch ...
regional office.


Personal life

Meyer is married and has four daughters. He is separated from his wife and lives with his partner in Hamm.


External links


"German Opposition Deputy Resigns"

Laurenz Meyer's website
(in German)

(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Laurenz 1948 births Living people People from Salzkotten Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany