Otto Karl Alexander Mejer (27 May 1818,

Zellerfeld Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The City is the location of the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort ...

– 24 December 1893,

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

) was a German

canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

specialist and

church historian Church Historian and Recorder (usually shortened to Church Historian) is a priesthood calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The role of the Church Historian and Recorder is to keep an accurate and comprehensive record of th ...

. He studied law at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

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 ...

and

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, receiving his doctorate at Göttingen in 1841. While a student in Berlin, he was deeply influenced by the teachings of

Friedrich Carl von Savigny Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and historian. Early life and education Savigny was born at Frankfurt am Main, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, deriving its name from the cast ...

. Not long after graduation, he became a lecturer at Göttingen, and in 1845/46 took an extended study trip to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

.Mejer, Otto
Deutsche Biographie In 1847 he became a full professor of law at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...

, which was followed by professorships at

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostoc ...

(1850) and

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

(1851). In 1874 he returned as a professor to Göttingen, where he taught classes until his retirement in 1883. From 1885 to 1893 he was president of the State Consistory at the

Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover (german: Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers) is a Lutheran church body ''(Landeskirche)'' in the northern German state of Lower Saxony and the city of Bremerhaven covering the territory of th ...

, then the highest-ranking office of the church.

Principal works

* ''Institutionen des gemeinen deutschen Kirchenrechtes'', 1845 – Institutions of common German canon law. * ''Die Propaganda, ihre Provinzen und ihr Recht. Mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Deutschland'' (2 volumes), 1853 – Propaganda, provinces and their rights, with a special reference to Germany. * ''Eine Erinnerung an Barthold Georg Niebuhr'', 1867 – In memorance of

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Barthold Georg Niebuhr (27 August 1776 – 2 January 1831) was a Danish–German statesman, banker, and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. By 1810 Niebuhr wa ...

. * ''Lehrbuch des deutschen Kirchenrechts'' (3rd edition, 1869) – Textbook of German canon law. * ''Zur Geschichte der römisch-deutschen Frage'' (3 volumes), 1871-75 – History of the Roman-German question. A description involving the development of legal relations between the state and the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

within the German states. * ''Febronius, Weihbischof Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim und sein Widerruf'', 1880 –

Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim (January 27, 1701 – September 2, 1790) was a German historian and theologian. He is remembered as Febronius, the pseudonym under which he wrote his 1763 treatise ''On the State of the Church and the Legitimate Powe ...

and his revocation. He was also the author of 14 articles in the ''

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...

''.Otto Mejer
at de.Wikisource

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mejer, Otto 1818 births 1893 deaths Academic staff of the University of Rostock Academic staff of the University of Greifswald Academic staff of the University of Königsberg Academic staff of the University of Göttingen People from Goslar (district) Historians of Christianity Canon law jurists German historians of religion 19th-century jurists