Mejer, Otto Georg Alexander

MEJER, OTTO GEORG ALEXANDER. - Protestant scholar of ecclesiastical law, b. 27 May 1818 at Zellerfeld (Harz), d. 24 Dec. 1893 at Hannover. In 1847 he began his university career at the University of Göttingen, to which he was to return as full professor after having taught at Königsberg, Greifswald and Rostock. In 1885 he became president of the Lutheran regional consistory of Hannover.

In 1845 he published a volume of institutes of German ecclesiastical law (Institutionen des gemeinen deutschen Kirchenrechts, 5th ed., under the title Lehrbuch des deutschen Kirchenrechts, 1866). He also published two volumes on Propaganda Fide (Die Propaganda, Ihre Provinzen, ihr Recht mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Deutschland dargestellt, 1852-53), and juridical works on the Lutheran Church (Die Grundlagen d. luther. Kirchenregiments, 1864; Das Rechtsleben der deutschen evangelischen Landeskirchen, 1889; Zum Kirchenrecht des Reformationsjahrhunderts, 1891). He carried on journalistic activity during the Kulturkampf. He is also owed a work on Febronius (Febronius, Weihbischof Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim und sein Widerruf, 1880). But his major work is: Zur Geschichte der römischen-deutschen Frage (3 vols., 1871-74, 1885), in which the history of the concordatory negotiations from 1815 onward is set out.

Silvio Furlani