Hugo Meurer

File:Queen Elizabeth Beatty Meurer.jpg

Hugo Meurer (saluting, right) and Beatty aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth, November 1918.

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 surrender of the German fleet in November 1918 at the end of World War I.

Life

Meurer was born in Sallach in Styria. In 1886 he joined the Kaiserliche Marine.

During World War I 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.

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. 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. Rather than show any sign of magnanimity to Meurer and his staff, Beatty chose to overawe and humiliate them instead. Beatty described Meurer as a 'wretch' and gloated about how intimidated Meurer was throughout the negotiations.

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.

External links

• World War I Document Archive: Commanders of the High Seas Fleet Battle Squadrons 1914-1918
• Australian Navy: Semaphore, issue 14, Nov 2008 - "1918, Victory at sea"
• Short biography, with photo of Meurer's gravestone (German)