As described in /usr/share/doc/openoffice.org/README.Debian.gz and also defect bug 266829 (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=266829) the startup crashes are caused by the new native CUPs printer code. Easily fixed by adding export SAL_DISABLE_CUPS=1 to /etc/openoffice/openoffice.conf