Civilian employee

Arthur Meier

Steward of the captain

15.6.1900 in Hanover – † 27.5.1941

Germany (1900)

Sources:

Bundesarchiv Abteilung PA

Birth and death records via Ancastry.de

"Battleship Bismarck" – Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg

On June 15, 1900, the midwife Karoline Stahlbusch was called to the northern part of Hanover. There, in an apartment at Marschnerstrasse 44 near the freight yard and the barracks, a woman named Anna Meier, née Gunkel, was in labor. The prospective father's name was Karl Ernst August Meier. He was a local worker. At 12:30 p.m. a boy was born, whom his parents baptized a month later in the Luther Church with the name Arthur August. He grew up in the northern part of the city of Hanover, which, with the construction of the freight station and its expansion into the product station, led to the settlement of several industrial companies. The Prussian military from the garrison city of Hanover was also strongly represented in the district with several barracks. On the other side of the tracks, young Arthur Meier found the wide meadows of the Hainhölzer Feldmark, which were gradually overbuilt during his childhood. The other end of his street was marked by the Christ Church on a star-shaped square, which was adjoined to the south by the large Klages market with its numerous market stalls. Further west was the Welfen Castle, which housed the Royal Technical University and the extensive grounds of the Herrenhausen Gardens, with the Herrenhausen Castle in the northwest. Structurally, the district was very mixed. There were tenements next to old small town farm workers' houses.

Arthur Meier attended public school from the age of six to 14. He had a short walk to school of just 10 minutes. Immediately after graduating from school, in April 1914 he began an apprenticeship with Justice Dr. Steinfeld. There he trained as an office assistant and attended business school alongside his work. He completed his apprenticeship at the end of March 1917 and was able to continue working for over a year before he was drafted into military service on June 21, 1918. He joined the No. 25 Foot Artillery Regiment, which was set up at the beginning of 1917. He saw the end of the war a few months later with the 1st Guards Foot Artillery Regiment on the Western Front. He was then released from service in December 1918.

¹ The ships had been stuck in neutral Brazil since the beginning of the war because it was not possible to return home due to the naval blockade. When Brazil entered the war in 1917, they were confiscated.

After the war, Arthur Meier initially went abroad. He probably hoped for better opportunities for work and a good life there than was possible in crisis-ridden post-war Germany. From 1924 he sailed as a steward and later as a chief steward on Lloyd Brasileiro ships. The Brazilian shipping company — the largest in South America — relied, among other ships, on 45 confiscated former german merchant ships confiscated during the war.¹ In 1928 Arthur Meier returned to Germany. He used his experience as a steward to enter the catering industry. In the summer of 1928 he worked as managing director of the renowned Süllberg restaurant in Hamburg-Blankenese. The crenellated building with a viewing and decorative tower stood on the mountain of the same name, high above the river Elbe. It offered its guests space on a large terrace with a view over the roofs of Blankenese and over to the hustle and bustle on the wide Elbe river, where sailing boats cruised and merchant ships sailed in and out of Hamburg.

² The original name Moulin Rouge was Germanized into Rote Mühle after the start of the war.

³ The German Labor Front was a unified association of employees and employers founded under the National Socialists in May 1933 after the unions were destroyed.

In 1929 Arthur Meier worked in the casino in Bad Harzburg. He then returned to his hometown of Hanover and became managing director of the Rote Mühle at the beginning of November 1929. The Rote Mühle² described itself as the "most distinguished dance palace of reputation", and at the same time it was a cabaret in which international artists also performed. The red-clad hall offered the artists and musicians a slightly raised stage. There were tables around the parquet in front, each with three to four chairs and a view of the stage and dance floor. The more affluent guests could also rent a balcony. Arthur Meier was to work here as managing director for ten years. During this time, the Weimar Republic collapsed in the political unrest fueled by the global economic crisis and the National Socialists came to power. Arthur Meier positioned himself early on on the side of the emerging National Socialists. He joined the NSDAP on April 1, 1932 and also became a member of the German Labor Front³. In May 1935, at the age of 34, he married the ironer Helena Notzem. She came from the Godorf district of Cologne and, at 24, was almost eleven years younger than him. She brought a seven-year-old son into the marriage, whom she gave birth to in 1928, shortly before her 17th birthday.

In the 1939 season, Arthur Meier took on a new position as manager of the spa operations in Swinemünde. But then the war came and ended Artur Meier's civilian career. On November 5, 1939, he was hired as a steward in the Navy. As such, he was not a combatant but a civilian employee of the Wehrmacht. He said later that he could have imagined better things than war and military service. But you have to serve somewhere.

Artillery training boat
Drache

The SMS Drache (dragon) began service for the Imperial German Navy in 1908 as an artillery tender. As such, she carried targets and secured the shooting area. During the war she belonged to the Jade-Weser harbor flotilla. The Reichsmarine took over the ship and initially used it to guide the minesweepers in the Baltic Sea. In 1922 the Naval Artillery School took over the tender. In 1936 the Drache was completely overhauled. In March 1945 she provided artillery support to the retreating german army in East Prussia and evacuated refugees until she fell victim to a Soviet air raid on Pillau on April 18, 1945.

⁴ Ernst Lindemann see volume 1.1 from page 70

⁵ The regulations state: "The white jacket is to be worn in a single-breasted civilian style and with smooth white metal buttons."

⁶ Rudolf Hartkopf see Volume 2 from page 54

⁷ Burkard Frh. von Müllenheim-Rechberg see Volume 1.1 from page 198

At first he served the ship's artillery school's commander, Captain Ernst Lindemann⁴, as well as the other officers in the officers' mess. They were aboard the artillery training boat Drache, which belonged to the ship's artillery school. On April 2, 1940, he successfully passed an exam to become a steward, which, given his experience, was certainly more of a formality. When Ernst Lindemann was supposed to take over as commander of the new Bismarck in Hamburg, he made sure that his steward came with him and was employed on board as his personal steward. Arthur Meier was happy to come to the battleship. "Such a strong ship and such a strong armour, nothing can happen to me so easily." he had said again and again. Together with his wife, he looked for an apartment in Hamburg and found one at Bornstrasse 28 in the Grindel district.

With the command, some administrative tasks also had to be completed. First, he signed an employment contract, committing himself to work for an indefinite period of time. He was paid according to the wage scales of the main port of berth, less taxes and insurance. On board he was fed by the ship's galley and given a room on the ship that he had to share with other civilian employees. Free medical treatment was also provided on board and the contract warned him to "keep cleanliness and order." He was subject to the first officer's disciplinary authority and the military code, which meant, among other things, that he had to adhere to the time restrictions for shore leave. He was forbidden from political activity on board. He was granted 14 days of vacation for the year 1940/41. The contract (an individually adapted standard form) was supplemented by regulations that applied during the war. Accordingly, he was trained as an auxiliary orderly and was obliged to serve as such. The right to dismiss was revoked during the war and was only possible for special reasons by the ship's command itself, or if he was called up for active military service. The clothing that he had to wear on board was now also precisely regulated. This consisted of a white jacket⁵, of which he had to get six, and dark blue trousers. In warm areas he would have been allowed to wear white trousers. During muster, he had to wear a double-breasted dark blue suit from the German Labor Front with black anchor buttons, as well as a white or blue peaked cap. With his contract with the navy, Arthur Meier had to sign various confidentiality agreements. The ship's administration officer also made sure that he was not called up for military service. In addition, the circumstances of the now twelve-year-old stepson had to be clarified. At the end of 1940, Arthur Meier took over paternity and gave the child his last name. The son's biological father was the waiter Rudolf Popp. He was born in Budapest, but now lived in Vienna, where he was married and worked at the post office as the father of two children. He had to pay child support to the mother. Arthur Meier was able to arrange the name change and the maintenance payment by the biological father during his time on the Bismarck with the help of the ship's administration officer, Korvettenkapitän Hartkopf ⁶.

On board the Bismarck, Arthur Meier looked after his commander, serving him meals or getting him cigarettes from his favorite brand, Three Castles. He was always in the mood for a little chat. In May 1941 he sailed into the Atlantic with the Bismarck for a combat mission. He was last seen by Lieutenant von Müllenheim-Rechberg⁷, who later survived, when he served the Captain breakfast on the bridge on the morning of May 27, 1941. In the battle that began shortly afterwards, he was probably deployed as an auxiliary orderly. Arthur Meier did not survive the Bismarck's sinking. He died on May 27, 1941 at the age of 40. His death was recorded on June 23, 1942 in Hamburg under number 290/42.