Hans Joachim Meyer

Hans Joachim Meyer (13 October 1936 – 29 March 2024) was a German linguist and CDU politician. When East Germany's authorities interrupted his law studies in Potsdam after six terms, he turned to English and American studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin where he then lectured and researched from 1964, with a habilitation in 1981, and as professor of applied linguistics from 1985 to 1990.

He served in the cabinet of Lothar de Maiziére as the last East German Minister for Education and the Arts. After German reunification he became in the state government of Saxony. In addition, he served as President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) from 1997 to 2009.

Life and career Hans Joachim Meyer was born on 13 October 1936 in Rostock. His father ran a pharmacy, and his mother was a teacher. His decision while still at school to join the CDU back in 1952, at a time when the ruling party was engaged in a robust campaign to take control of rival political parties, would already have drawn him to the attention of the authorities as a potential dissident in the making. For the next year he worked as an "assistant" at the VEB Lokomotivbau Potsdam-Babelsberg, a nearby rail-locomotive plant. After that, resigning from the CDU in 1961, Ten years later his habilitation, received in 1981, Between 1976 and 1982 he worked with the Pastoral Council for the Bishopric of East Berlin.

Wende After the Peaceful Revolution, the 1990 East German general election was the country's first free and fair election. Shortly after, Meyer received and accepted an invitation to join the new government headed up by Lothar de Maizière, despite not being a member of any political party, and despite not having stood for election to the Volkskammer national parliament. His responsibilities included participation as leader of the East German delegation at the between May and September 1990. The commission was mandated to adapt an education system that would be implemented across a unified Germany. The commission's output was summarized in the Reunification Treaty (Articles 37 & 38) which came into force in October 1990 and was then implemented both at government level and on the ground. In August 1990, the East German CDU formally merged back into the CDU from which it had been forcibly separated, and Meyer took the opportunity to rejoin the party from which, out of "disappointment over the party's limited political options", he had resigned in 1961.

Awards and honours

2002: Honorary doctorate from the TU Dresden 2003: Honorary membership of the Saxony Academy of Arts and Sciences 2013: 2015: Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony 2017: Order of St. Gregory the Great