Hugo Meurer

Hugo Meurer (28 May 1869 – 4 January 1960) was a vice-admiral of the Kaiserliche Marine (German Imperial Navy). Meurer was the German naval officer who handled the negotiations of the internment of the German fleet in November 1918 at the end of the First World War.

Hugo Meurer
Hugo Meurer in April 19, 1918 on board SMS Prinzregent Luitpold in Helsinki
Born(1869-05-28)28 May 1869
Sallach, Carinthia, Austria-Hungary
Died4 January 1960(1960-01-04) (aged 90)
Kiel, Germany
Allegiance German Empire
Service/branch Imperial German Navy
Years of service1886–1920
RankVice Admiral
Commands held4th Battle Squadron
Baltic Sea Division
Battles/warsFirst World War
Finnish Civil War
AwardsIron Cross 1914
(2ed and 1st class)[1]
Bavarian Military Merit Order III Class With Crown and Swords
Saxon Albrecht Order II Class Commanders Cross
Prussian Lifesaving Medal
Crowned Order of the Red Eagle
(3ed class)[2]
Prussian Long Service Cross
(25 Years)[3][4]
Oldenburg Friedrich August Cross[5]
Mecklenburg-Schwerin Military Merit Cross
(1914, 2ed class)[6]
German China Campaign Medal[7]
Wilhelm I Centenary Medal[8]
Order of the Cross of Liberty
(Finland)[9]
Qing Dynasty Order of the Double Dragon III Class, I Grade[10]
Commander of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus[11]

Life

Meurer was born in Sallach in Carinthia. On 16 April 1886 he joined the Kaiserliche Marine.

During the First World War he served as commander of SMS Deutschland at the Battle of Jutland, and from 1916 to 1917 as captain of the battleship SMS König. In 1917 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral (Konteradmiral), as the second Admiral of the 4th Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet, which he remained until the end of the war.[12]

From 21 February to 2 May 1918, as commander of the special unit (Sonderverband) of the Baltic Sea, he led the naval expedition for the German intervention in the ongoing civil war in Finland.[13] In November 1918 Meurer negotiated as representative of Admiral Franz von Hipper with Admiral David Beatty the details of the surrender of the German fleet.[14]

Meurer was also the naval station commander of the Baltic, based in Kiel. He retired in 1920 with the rank of vice-admiral of the Reichsmarine.

He died in 1960 in Kiel, where he was buried at the Nordfriedhof in Kiel.

Admiral Meurer reports to Admiral Beatty on HMS Queen Elizabeth about the transfer negotiations for the High Seas Fleet.

Notes
  1. Image of Meurer's Ribbon bar c. 1918: Weitze
  2. Imperial Naval Office (ed.): Marine Ordnungsblatt. No. 14 of June 15, 1918, p. 175.
  3. Imperial Naval Office (ed.): Marine Ordnungsblatt. No. 27 of 15 December 1917, p. 357.]
  4. Marine Cabinet (ed.): Ranking of the Imperial German Navy for the year 1918. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1918, p. 7.
  5. Image of Meurer's Ribbon bar c. 1918: Weitze
  6. Image of Meurer's Ribbon bar c. 1918: Weitze
  7. Image of Meurer's Ribbon bar c. 1918: Weitze
  8. Image of Meurer's Ribbon bar c. 1918: Weitze
  9. https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN749919604&PHYSID=PHYS_0019
  10. Marine Cabinet (ed.): Ranking of the Imperial German Navy for the year 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1914, p. 176.
  11. Marine Cabinet (ed.): Ranking of the Imperial German Navy for the year 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1914, p. 176.
  12. World War I Document Archive
  13. see de:Finnland-Intervention
  14. www.underwater-archaeology.org.uk: Scapa Flow Archived 2010-07-11 at the Wayback Machine; "Semaphore"


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