Christian Meier (born 16 February 1929 in Stolp in Pommern) is a German historian and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of ancient history at the University of Munich. In 2002, Meier was awarded the

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art () is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Orders, decorations, and medals of Austria, Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian Decoration for Science a ...

. He is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Biography

Meier attended high schools in

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. In 1948, Meier passed his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in Hamburg and then studied in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

, classical philology and

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

. In 1956 he received his doctorate under the supervision of Hans Schaefer. He completed in 1963 his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. There he was a student of Matthias Gelzer. From 1964 he was a '' Privatdozent'' in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, followed by professorships for ancient history in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

(1966),

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

(1968), and Bochum (1976). In 1981 he was appointed professor of "Ancient History with special reference to social and economic history" in Munich, a position he held until his retirement in 1997. In the academic year 1984/1985 Meier was a Fellow at the '' Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin''. Meier was from 1980 to 1988 chairman of the ''Verbandes der Historiker Deutschlands'' (Association of Historians in Germany), and from 1981 to 1995

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the ''Historisches Kolleg'' (Historical College) in Munich. Meier is also co-founder of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and was from 1996 to 2002 President of the '' Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung'' (German Academy for Language and Poetry) in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

. He is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences. Since 1989 he has been a full member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

Research

As a historian he has claimed to write narrative history. Meier always looks beyond the boundaries of his subject. For example, he dealt with modern democracy and the politics of the Federal Republic of Germany, especially in the course of reunification. In 1998 he was awarded the ''Cicero-Rednerpreis'' (Cicero Speaker Prize) for his own eloquence. On the subject of spelling reform, Meier, in his role as President of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, expressed himself in a committed and critical manner. in 2003, he was awarded the ''Jacob-Grimm-Preis'' for his commitment to the

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

. In 2009 and 2015, the Universities of

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

and

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

awarded Meier an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

. In 2006, Meier was awarded with the

by the Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer. In 2009 he was awarded the Lichtenberg Medal, in 2014 the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art . In 2015, Meier donated his private archive (manuscripts and correspondence) to the ''Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach'', including correspondence with

Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, author, and political theorist. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist, he was noted as a critic of ...

and Richard von Weizsäcker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meier, Christian 1929 births Living people People from Słupsk People from the Province of Pomerania Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters German male non-fiction writers