Everybody just loves to quote Hermann Göring’s famous (last) words about the Allied air force. He would call himself Meier (or Meyer, or Maier, or Mayer!), if ever an Allied plane… and so on. For some reason, it is often assumed he chose that name because it was a common Jewish surname.
Well, no.
In fact, complete bogus.
Meier/Meyer/Mayer/Maier is a common name, that much is true. It is one of the four most common German surnames: „Müller, Meier, Schulze, Schmidt…“, as the saying goes. But it has absolutely nothing to do with any Jewish origins. All four surnames are so-called occupational names, key occupations of any community in medieval times. A Meier was simply a farmer. (Towards more modern times, this specialised a bit – a Meierei denotes a dairy.)* And since our ancestors were for the most part rural folks, this was often added to: „so-and-so-Meier“, to distinguish the different Meiers from one another. For example, I have a colleague by the name of Friedrichsmeier – in its origins either a farmer by the first name of Friedrich, or of the family of some Friedrich, or (which goes with the other two options) living on the „Friedrichshof“, the farm of Friedrich. Another colleague is named Nordmeyer – the farmer to the north. There was another colleague by the name of Meierhoff (=Meier-Hof), „farm“ or „farmstead“.
So there’s a certain irony in the assumption that Meier was a typical Jewish name. Why? Because Jews, in medieval times all across Europe, were barred from most occupations. That is, after all, why many of them took up money-lending. They were, for example, not allowed to be farmers or/and (that’s an entire topic in itself) to own farm land. For that very reason, you didn’t find a significant number of Jews in the countryside; they tended to be city-dwellers. Obviously, that changed over the centuries, but as far as the origins of surnames go, those two worlds were very much apart.
Now, especially in the USA, many Jews have adopted some form of the Meier name, and that is why it is commonly associated with them there. But the background is very different. Historically speaking, Jews have often held two names – a Jewish name and a „Gentile“ one. Henry Abramson, for example, makes mention of this in his lecture on Gracia Nasi, and he explains that „Henry“ is only his Gentile first name. While in Germany, „classic“ Jewish surnames** were still very different from German surnames – Spielberg, Morgenthau, Rubinstein, and the likes – , in other countries (sometimes centuries earlier!), Jews adopted Gentile names in order to conceal their Jewishness. And this is, if I had to guess, where the Meier name comes in. It is such a quintessential, common German name that of course it would be very attractive to Jews for that very purpose.
* Well, in fact it is more complex than that. But I don’t want to go into the entire history of the name.
** I won’t go into the history of „typical“ German-Jewish surnames here (which came much later than the „normal“ development of family names), though it definitely is fascinating!
Clarissa Schnabel 