Dr. med.
Walter Meyer
1898 - Oktober 1980

Walter B. Meyer was born   February 21, 1898 in Wiesbaden to Dr. Gustav Meyer (1868-1949), a physician, and his wife Alice, née Gutmann (1877-1931). The Meyer family was a member of the Jewish community.

Dr. Gustav Meyer enjoyed the reputation as an excellent spa doctor in Wiesbaden and achieved a high social status by treating many prominent foreign individuals and members of the local upper class. He hosted an annual Internal Medicine Congress at his home in Wiesbaden, inviting numerous doctors from the entire Reich.

Education and place to work

Walter Meyer attended a humanistic grammar school in Wiesbaden and began studying medicine in Munich in 1916. In the summer of 1916, shortly after beginning his studies, he was drafted into military service as a medical soldier and later served as a medical sergeant at the front in a field hospital. Walter Meyer was discharged from the army in November 1918.

He then resumed his medical studies (in Würzburg, Cologne, and Frankfurt am Main) and graduated in 1921 from the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin after passing his board examination. Meyer received his medical license in September 1922 and received his doctorate with his thesis “Ueber Beziehungen zwischen Coryza syphilitica neonatorum und Nasendiphtherie” (On the Relationship between Coryza syphilitica neonatorum and Nasal Diphtheria) in November 1922 in Berlin.

After working as a volunteer assistant in various Berlin hospitals, he was employed as a permanent assistant from 1923 onwards at the Städtisches Krankenhaus Berlin Westend (Berlin Westend Municipal Hospital). Dr. Meyer attained the position of a senior physician and completed his training as a specialist in internal medicine. In 1928, he returned to Wiesbaden and accepted a leading position at the Sanatorium Doktor Schütz. Although Dr. Meyer set up a part-time medical practice at Wilhelmstraße 38, his position at the sanatorium limited his role at the practice to only performing consultation duties.

After the Sanatorium Doktor Schütz was forced to close in 1930, Dr. Meyer decided to establish a full-time medical practice as a doctor of internal medicine and moved his home and practice to Taunusstraße 6. He applied for registration with all health insurance companies and was granted approval after a few months.

A particular event during this time took place, which Walter Meyer did not consider to be particularly important at the time, but according to contemporary witnesses may significantly contributed to his later difficulties with the NSDAP after the Nazi rise to power. In November 1929, Walter Meyer attended a reading in Wiesbaden by Kurt Tucholsky, who was already being harassed by right-wing extremists and was currently on a book tour in Germany. During the reading, according to the Walter Meyer`s chauffeur Willi Bröder, an SA troop marched towards the venue at the end of the reading with the intention of beating up Tucholsky. As Dr. Meyer was leaving the event, he was apparently mistaken for Kurt Tucholsky. A member of the SA troop shouted “That’s him!” (referring to Dr. Meyer) and a brawl ensued, during which Walter Meyer was injured. He managed to escape to the waiting car with his chauffeur.

Kurt Tucholsky learned of this incident later and wrote a letter to Walter Meyer on November 27, 1929.

“I have been told that on the evening of my lecture in Wiesbaden, you were mistaken for me, attacked by National Socialist thugs, and injured. I do not know whether this story is true—I hope it is not. However, if it is true, please allow me, as the person actually responsible, to ask your forgiveness and shake your hand. This incident is so unpleasant for me because I like to take responsibility for my own actions – I still had work to do in the artists’ room, and when I came out, the whole street was in an uproar. They didn’t catch me…” (Complete Works of Kurt Tucholsky, Letters 1913 to 1935, Verlag Volk und Welt, 2nd edition 1985).

Walter Meyer replied in a letter to Tucholsky two days; according to Willi Bröder, the Nazi authorities were aware of this letter, this however remains very unclear.

In the letter, he writes (see image of the letter): “I thank you most sincerely for your kind letter. The events of Saturday evening were less ”painful” than depressing for me. The fact that in Germany in general, and in the spa town of Wiesbaden in particular, a person is exposed to such insults because of his convictions has shaken me deeply. At the same time, I felt a certain satisfaction that, as a local, I took the beating for you, the guest. Fortunately, I was not seriously injured. I would be grateful if you would forget the whole incident and not spread it around to the detriment of our city, as it is attributable to the hooliganism of a few rascals.” (German Literature Archive Marbach, HS008172600).

In part due his father`s reputation as a popular spa doctor to members of the upper class and spa visitors, Walter Meyer`s medical practice evolved into a successful practice from 1930 onwards.

In January 1932, Walter Meyer married Vera Tendlau, a medical intern from Wiesbaden who belonged to a long-established Jewish family. Her fatherwas Dr. Berthild Tendlau, a doctor based in Wiesbaden.

 1933

Walter Meyer noticed a decline in consultations after January 30, 1933 after the Nazi rise to Power, which accelerated significantly after the so-called boycott day on April 1, 1933. This boycott day primarily affected the influx of lucrative private patients. On October 1, 1933, Walter B. Meyer’s license to practice medicine was revoked with the official reason of political unreliability (potentially because of the above-mentioned correspondence with Kurt Tucholsky in 1929). In a letter written during the post-war compensation proceedings, Walter Meyer expressed his incomprehension at this early discriminatory measure, arguing that he had been a solider in the First World War. Jews who had actively participated in World War I were initially granted the so-called Frontkämpferprivileg (front-line fighter privilege), which was introduced following Hindenburg’s intervention. This regulation allowed the Jewish individuals to retain their cash register licenses until 1934/35, at a time where the madness and cruelty of the Holocaust were still to come. Meyer`s incomprenhension can also be understood because he identified himself   as a German. Although Dr. Meyer protested against the revokal of his medical license, his appeal was nonetheless rejected. Consequently, Dr. Meyer suffered an income loss from his health insurance practice, in addition to the fact that the number of patients in his private practice declined.

Due to the significant reduction in income, Walter Meyer gave up his practice in Taunusstraße and moved his practice back to his father’s premises at Wilhelmstraße 38. Following the move of his practice, Dr. Meyer and his wife lived rent-free his parents-in-law, Dr. Berthold Tendlau and his wife, at Bismarckplatz 6.

Escape to Great Britain 1935 / 37

With a limited future in Germany, Walter Meyer decided to emigrate to Great Britain, initially leaving in 1935 officially to pursue further medical training. He began studying at the London Hospital. After passing his final British exam in Edinburgh in 1937, he was qualified to practice medicine in Great Britain. He and his wife Vera Meyer, née Tendlau, who later worked as a pediatrician in the National Health Service (NHS), left their lives in Germany behind and officially moved to Great Britain in March 1937. Dr. Meyer attempted to facilitate this transition by also moving his X-ray equipment from Wiesbaden. Unfortunately, due to the lack of recognition of his specialist training in Germany, Walter Meyer was forced to accept assignment to a specialist field and place of work in Great Britain. Because of his work as a spa doctor in Wiesbaden, he was assigned to Harrogate, North Yorkshire, an English seaside resort about 25 km north of Leeds and west of York. Nonetheless, Dr. Meyer was no longer allowed to work as a doctor of internal medicine. After the outbreak of World War II, Walter Meyer was exempted from internment being considered an enemy alien in October 1939.

In the following years, Dr. Meyer faced professional difficulties: he was unable to get a membership within the National Health Service (NHS) because of his age. Furthermore  Harrogate became increasingly unattractive as a seaside resort, resulting in a general decline in patient numbers.   Walter Meyer had the additional responsibility to support the following family members: his father Gustav Meyer with his second wife Edith, his parents-in-law, Berthold Tendlau and his wife Charlotte Gertrud, née Rothenstein, whom he divorced in 1938, and other relatives who followed in the footsteps of Dr. Meyer by leaving their assets in Germany during their exodus.

Walter B. Meyer died in October 1980 at the age of 82 in the district of Claro, North Yorkshire, which belonged to Harrogate. Vera Meyer, his wife, died in 1996 at the age of 89. The location of their graves remains unknown.