Emil Meier (31.8.1909 Munich – 5.8.1990 Munich)

Having grown up in poverty, Emil Meier began an apprenticeship as a furniture polisher. In keeping with his parents’ social democratic tradition, he joined the Socialist Workers’ Youth but switched to the Communist Youth Association at 17, distributing leaflets and taking part in protests against social hardship. In 1928 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), becoming organizational leader of the Obergiesing district group. Since he been arrested several times during the Weimar Republic for political reasons, he was detained by police as early as March 10, 1933 after the Nazis came to power, and on March 22, 1933 he was taken to the newly established Dachau Concentration Camp . He was not released until more than two years later, on April 26, 1935. Meier was arrested and briefly imprisoned four more times from 1937 to 1939; at Dachau Concentration Camp he met the political prisoner Robert Eisinger, another “re-offender”.

After the defeat of Stalingrad, the two men decided to produce leaflets drawing attention to the futility of continuing the war. Eisinger wrote and duplicated the first six leaflets on his own and sent some out by post; Meier posted most of them in letterboxes at night or put them out in public places. Disappointed by the poor response, Eisinger ceased his activities in the fall of 1943, but Emil Meier continued on his own, supported by a disappointed member of the Nazi Party. Meier wrote and distributed more than 22 leaflets in total.

He was arrested on January 7, 1945 while distributing leaflets near Traunstein, after which he was detained, interrogated and tortured. Proceedings against Emil Meier, Robert Eisinger and their helper Anton Heiß were to take place before the People’s Court at the end of April, but the court was unable to convene. On April 29, when American troops were approaching Munich, the Chief Reich Prosecutor in Stadelheim ordered a firing squad to be assembled from among the guards so as to have the three resistance activists shot, but the guards refused to obey the order.

Emil Meier’s health was severely affected by the abuse he suffered in prison and he went through a prolonged battle to obtain appropriate compensation.