Alf Meyerhöffer

Alf Roar Dag Meyerhöffer (16 December 1891 – 29 April 1962) was a Swedish Army officer and politician, who represented Högerpartiet in Swedish parliament Riksdag from 1932 to 1936.

Meyerhöffer is mostly known for the Meyerhöffer affair which began in 1947, where the question was whether a skilled, well-qualified, Nazi-influenced officer could be promoted. In this case, there was great disagreement within both the officer corps and the government. This case also received a lot of attention in the press. In parallel with his political activities, he made a career as an officer. He was generally perceived as a rare skilled troop commander who was more interested in the pedagogical part of the profession than in the purely strategic issues. He never served as an officer in the General Staff but only as an aspirant. Meyerhöffer's political appearance constituted a burden for him in his professional career. It is likely that Meyerhöffer was deeply influenced by the sentiments prevailing in the officer corps in the decade before the World War I; moods characterized by distrust of Soviet Union - the Red Scare - and a nationalism that was often combined with the worship of Charles XII and the dream of a new era of Swedish heyday.

Career

Military career Meyerhöffer became an underlöjtnant in Norrbotten Regiment on 31 December 1913 and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 January 1917. Meyerhöffer served as a regimental adjutant there from 1919 to 1922 and from 1922 to 1924 he was a student at the Royal Swedish Army Staff College. He then served as an aspirant in the General Staff from 15 October 1925 to 1927 and he became captain in Norrbotten Regiment on 15 November 1928. As an avid proponent of a strong Swedish defence, Meyerhöffer viewed the Defence Act of 1925 with disbelief. Unlike the circle of mainly young officers, who gathered around Helge Jung and Ny Militär Tidskrift to work within the framework of their own organization for a different and more modern defence, he chose to work politically.

Dates of rank 1913 – Underlöjtnant 1917 – Lieutenant 1928 – Captain 1936 – Major 1939 – Lieutenant colonel 1942 – Colonel

Honours Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences (1947)