The Free State of Prussia (german: Freistaat Preußen, ) was one of the constituent states of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...
after the defeat of the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, it continued to be the dominant state in Germany during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...
, as it had been during the empire, even though most of
Germany's post-war territorial losses in Europe had come from its lands. It was home to the federal capital
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
and had 62% of Germany's territory and 61% of its population. Prussia changed from the authoritarian state it had been in the past and became a parliamentary democracy under its
1920 constitution. During the Weimar period it was governed almost entirely by pro-democratic parties and proved more politically stable than the Republic itself. With only brief interruptions, the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(SPD) provided the
Minister President
A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...
. Its Ministers of the Interior, also from the SPD, pushed republican reform of the administration and police, with the result that Prussia was considered a bulwark of democracy within the Weimar Republic.
As a result of the
Prussian coup d'état instigated by
Reich Chancellor
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the G ...
Franz von Papen
Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German conservative politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and General Staff officer. He served as the chancellor of Germany ...
in 1932, the Free State was subordinated to the Reich government and deprived of its independence. Prussia had thus de facto ceased to exist before the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
seized power in 1933, even though a Prussian government under
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
continued to function formally until 1945. After the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, by decree of the
Allied Control Council
The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority (german: Alliierter Kontrollrat) and also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and Allied-occupied Austria after the end of ...
, the ''
de jure
In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legall ...
''
abolition of Prussia
The formal abolition of Prussia (german: Abschaffung von Preußen) occurred on 25 February 1947, by decree of the Allied Control Council.
History
Prussia was for many centuries a major power in north-central Europe, based around the cities o ...
occurred on 25 February 1947.
Establishment (1918–1920)
Revolution of 1918–1919
On 9 November 1918, in the early days of the
Revolution of 1918–1919 that brought down the
German monarchy
The Monarchy of Germany (the German Monarchy) was the system of government in which a hereditary monarch was the sovereign of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.
History
The Monarch of Germany was created with the proclamation of the Presiden ...
, Prince
Maximilian von Baden, the last
Chancellor of the German Empire
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the G ...
– who like most of his predecessors was also Minister President of Prussia – announced the abdication of
Wilhelm II
, house = Hohenzollern
, father = Frederick III, German Emperor
, mother = Victoria, Princess Royal
, religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United)
, signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
as
German Emperor
The German Emperor (german: Deutscher Kaiser, ) was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the offi ...
and
King of Prussia
The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...
before he had in fact done so.
On the same day, Baden transferred the office of Reich Chancellor to
Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925.
Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on t ...
, the chairman of the
Majority SPD (MSPD), the party that had won the largest number of seats in the
Reichstag following the empire's last parliamentary
election in 1912. Ebert then charged
Paul Hirsch, the MSPD's party leader in the
Prussian House of Representatives, with maintaining peace and order in Prussia. The last Minister of the Interior of the Kingdom of Prussia,
Bill Drews, legitimized the transfer of de facto governmental power to Hirsch. On 10 November Ebert found himself forced to form a joint government, the
Council of the People's Deputies
The Council of the People's Deputies (, sometimes translated as Council of People's Representatives or Council of People's Commissars) was the name given to the government of the November Revolution in Germany from November 1918 until February 1 ...
, with representatives of the
Independent SPD
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establi ...
(USPD), a more leftist and anti-war faction that had broken away from the original united SPD in 1917, and to enter into an alliance with the council movement, a form of
council communism
Council communism is a current of communist thought that emerged in the 1920s. Inspired by the November Revolution, council communism was opposed to state socialism and advocated workers' councils and council democracy. Strong in Germany ...
.
On 12 November 1918 commissioners from the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils of Greater Berlin, including Paul Hirsch,
Otto Braun
Otto Braun (28 January 1872 – 15 December 1955) was a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. From 1920 to 1932, with only two brief interruptions, Braun was Minister President of the Free State ...
(MSPD) and
Adolph Hoffmann
Johann Franz Adolph Hoffmann (23 March 1858 – 1 December 1930) was a German socialist politician and Prussian Minister for Science, Culture and Education.
Born in Berlin, Hoffmann worked as an engraver, and then as a gilder. He joined th ...
(USPD), appeared before the last Deputy Minister President of Prussia, Robert Friedberg. They declared the previous government deposed and claimed the management of state affairs for themselves. On the same day the commissioners issued instructions that all departments of the state should continue their work as usual. A manifesto, "To the Prussian People!", stated that the goal was to transform "the old, fundamentally reactionary Prussia
..into a fully democratic component of the unified People's Republic."
Revolutionary cabinet
![Paul Hirsch um 1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Paul_Hirsch_um_1920.jpg)
On 13 November the new government confiscated the royal property and placed it under the Ministry of Finance. The following day, the Majority and Independent Social Democrats formed the Prussian revolutionary cabinet along the lines of the coalition at the Reich level. It included Paul Hirsch,
Eugen Ernst
Eugen Oswald Gustav Ernst (20 September 1864 – 31 May 1954) was a German Social Democrat and Socialist politician. His appointment as President of the Police of Berlin in January 1919 prompted the Spartacist uprising in Berlin.
Biography
E ...
and Otto Braun of the MSPD and
Heinrich Ströbel
Heinrich Ströbel (7 June 1869 – 1 September 1944) was a socialist German journalist, poet, publicist, SPD and later USPD politician who was the editor in chief of the newspaper ''Vorwärts'' from 1905 to 1907.
Biography
Ströbel came from a ...
, Adolph Hoffmann and
Kurt Rosenfeld
Kurt Rosenfeld (1 February 1877 – 25 September 1943) was a German lawyer and politician (SPD). He was a member of the national parliament () between 1920 and 1932.
Early life
Kurt Samuel Rosenfeld was born at Marienwerder, a mid-sized town near ...
of the USPD. Almost all departments were under ministers from both parties. Hirsch and Ströbel became joint chairmen of the cabinet. Other non-partisan ministers or ministers belonging to different political camps were also included, such as the Minister of War, initially
Heinrich Schëuch, then from January 1919
Walther Reinhardt. The narrower, decisive political cabinet, however, included only politicians from the two workers' parties. Since the leadership qualities of the two chairmen were comparatively weak, it was mainly Otto Braun and Adolph Hoffmann who set the tone in the provisional government.
Political change and its limits
On 14 November the
Prussian House of Lords
The Prussian House of Lords (german: Preußisches Herrenhaus) in Berlin was the upper house of the Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag), the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the lower house, the House of Re ...
(''Herrenhaus'') was abolished and the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
dissolved. The replacement of political elites, however, remained limited during the early years. In many cases the former royal district administrators (''Landräte'') continued to hold office as if there had been no revolution. Complaints against them by the workers' councils were either dismissed or ignored by Interior Minister
Wolfgang Heine
Wolfgang Heine (3 May 1861 – 9 May 1944) was a German jurist and social democrat politician. Heine was a member of the Imperial parliament and the Weimar National Assembly, he served as Minister President of the Free State of Anhalt and Prus ...
(MSPD). When conservative district administrators themselves requested to be dismissed, they were asked to stay on in order to maintain peace and order.
On 23 December the government issued an administrative order for the election of a constitutional assembly. Universal, free and secret suffrage for both women and men replaced the old
Prussian three-class franchise
The Prussian three-class franchise (German: ''Preußisches Dreiklassenwahlrecht'') was an indirect electoral system used from 1848 until 1918 in the Kingdom of Prussia and for shorter periods in other German states. Voters were grouped by distric ...
. At the municipal level, however, it took eight months before the existing governmental bodies were replaced by democratically legitimized ones. Deliberations concerning a fundamental reform of property relations in the countryside, in particular the breaking up of large landholdings, did not bear fruit. The manor districts that were the political power base of the large landowners remained in place.
In educational policy, Minister of Culture Adolph Hoffmann abolished religious instruction as a first step in a push towards the separation of church and state. This move triggered considerable unrest in Catholic areas of Prussia and revived memories of
Bismarck's 1870s ''
Kulturkampf'' ('cultural conflict') against the Catholic Church. At the end of December 1919, MSPD Minister Konrad Haenisch rescinded Hoffmann's decree. In a letter to the Cardinal of
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
Felix von Hartmann
Felix von Hartmann (15 December 1851 – 11 November 1919) was a German prelate, who was Archbishop of Cologne from 1912 to 1919.
Life
Felix von Hartmann was born in Münster, the child of the second marriage of government official Albert von ...
, Minister President Hirsch assured him that Hoffmann's provisions for ending clerical supervision of schools had been illegal because they had not been voted on in the cabinet. More strongly than any other government measures, Hoffmann's socialist cultural policies turned large segments of the population against the revolution.
The
Christmas riots in Berlin between the
People's Navy Division and units of the German army led to the withdrawal of the USPD from the government in both Prussia and at the Reich level. The dismissal of
Emil Eichhorn
Robert Emil Eichhorn (9 October 1863 – 26 July 1925) was a German politician, journalist and Chief of the Berlin Police during the German Revolution of 1918–19, 1918–1919 German Revolution.
Eichhorn was born in Röhrsdorf near Chemnitz in O ...
(USPD) as Berlin's police chief triggered the failed
Spartacist Uprising
The Spartacist uprising (German: ), also known as the January uprising (), was a general strike and the accompanying armed struggles that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the November Revolutio ...
of 5
–12 January 1919 that attempted to turn the direction of the revolution towards the founding a communist state.
Separatist tendencies and the threat of dissolution
Prussia's continued existence was by no means assured in the aftermath of the revolution. In the
Rhine Province, the advisory council of the Catholic
Centre Party, fearing a dictatorship of the proletariat, called on 4 December 1918 for the formation of a Rhineland-
Westphalian republic independent of Prussia. In the
Province of Hanover
The Province of Hanover (german: Provinz Hannover) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.
During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position ...
, 100,000 people signed an appeal for territorial autonomy. In
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
too there were efforts to form an independent state. In the eastern provinces, a revolt broke out at Christmas 1918 with the aim of restoring a
Polish state
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. The movement soon encompassed the entire
Province of Posen and eventually took on the character of a guerrilla war.
Even for many supporters of the Republic, Prussian dominance seemed a dangerous burden for the Reich.
Hugo Preuß
Hugo Preuß (Preuss) (28 October 1860 – 9 October 1925) was a German lawyer and liberal politician. He was the author of the draft version of the constitution that was passed by the Weimar National Assembly and came into force in August 191 ...
, author of the draft version of the
Weimar Constitution, originally envisaged breaking Prussia into various smaller states. Given Prussian dominance in the former empire, there was sympathy for the idea.
Otto Landsberg
Otto Landsberg (4 December 1869 – 9 December 1957) was a German jurist, politician and diplomat. He was a member of the revolutionary Council of the People's Deputies that took power during the German Revolution of 1918–19 and then served as ...
(MSPD) of the
Council of the People's Deputies
The Council of the People's Deputies (, sometimes translated as Council of People's Representatives or Council of People's Commissars) was the name given to the government of the November Revolution in Germany from November 1918 until February 1 ...
commented, "Prussia occupied its position with the sword and that sword is broken. If Germany is to live, Prussia in its present form must die."
The new socialist government of Prussia was opposed to such a move. On 23 January 1919 participants in an emergency meeting of the central council and the provisional government spoke out against Prussia's dissolution. With the Centre Party abstaining, the State Assembly during its first sessions adopted a resolution against a possible breakup of Prussia. Aside from a few exceptions, which included Friedrich Ebert, there was little support for it even among the Council of the People's Deputies at the Reich level because it was seen as the first step toward the secession of the Rhineland from the Reich.
The mood in Prussia was more uncertain. In December 1919 the State Assembly passed a resolution by 210 votes to 32 that stated: "As the largest of the German states, Prussia views its first duty to be an attempt to see whether the creation of a unified German state cannot be achieved."
State Assembly and coalition government
![SPD-Plakat 1919](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/SPD-Plakat_1919.jpg)
On 26 January 1919, one week after the
1919 German federal election
Federal elections were held in Germany on 19 January 1919,Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 although members of the standing army in the east did not vote until 2 February. The elections were t ...
, elections were held for the
constitutional Prussian State Assembly. During the campaign, reaching out to female voters, who were going to the polls for the first time, played an important role. In Catholic regions of the state, Hoffmann's anti-clerical school program helped the Centre Party to mobilize its voter base. The MSPD emerged as the strongest party, followed by the Centre and the
German Democratic Party
The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...
(DDP). The Assembly met for the first time on 13 March 1919, during the final days of the violent
Berlin March battles and the
Ruhr uprising.
On 20 March the Assembly passed a law for the provisional ordering of the state's powers. It transferred all previous rights of the Prussian king, including his role as the highest authority of the Protestant church, to the Ministry of State, with the exception of his right to adjourn or close the State Assembly. The Ministry of State was appointed by the President of the State Assembly, had a collegial structure, and depended on the confidence of a majority in Parliament. In order to provide legal certainty, all previous laws that did not contradict the provisions of the provisional order remained in force.
The most important task of the Assembly was to draft a constitution. The constitutional committee included eleven members from the MSPD, six from the Centre, four each from the DDP and the right-wing nationalist
German National People's Party
The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...
(DNVP), and one each from the USPD and the liberal
German People's Party
The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...
(DVP). ''(See the Constitution section below for additional details.)''
On 25 March 1919 the provisional revolutionary Hirsch government resigned. It was replaced, as in the Reich, by a coalition of MSPD, Centre and DDP, the so-called
Weimar Coalition
The Weimar Coalition () is the name given to the centre-leftist coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the social liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and the Christian democratic Centre Party, who together had a large major ...
, which together held 298 of 401 seats. Paul Hirsch became Minister President. His cabinet included four members from the MSPD, two from the Centre, and two from the DDP. Most of the ministries had existed under the monarchy, although the Ministry of Public Welfare was new. Along with the Ministry of the Interior, it developed into one of the largest ministries because of the range of its tasks.
Unrest and the Kapp Putsch
Widespread strikes, especially in the mining industry of the Ruhr, began in January 1919. They led to shortages in energy supplies across Germany, and particularly in Prussia caused transportation problems as well. In early April
Reichswehr
''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshape ...
troops marched into the Ruhr and bloodily put down the uprising. In August 1919 armed uprisings took place in
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...
among segments of the Polish population (
first Silesian uprising
The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...
). The violence there was suppressed by military means as well. In
Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
clashes broke out between agricultural workers and large landowners, who received support from regional army and
Freikorps
(, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, rega ...
units. Agriculture Minister Otto Braun pushed through an emergency decree in September to enforce collectively agreed on regulations regarding farm workers' wages.
![Otto Braun - circa 1930](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Otto_Braun_-_circa_1930.jpg)
In March 1920 the republican order in the Reich and in Prussia was challenged by the
Kapp Putsch
The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo th ...
, a right-wing attempt to overthrow the Reich government. It was part of specifically Prussian history in that the only relatively united social group behind the putsch was the state's large landowners. They were joined by some military officers and members of the educated civil service. Overall, the putsch was a rebellion of conservative
East Elbia
East Elbia (german: Ostelbien) was an informal denotation for those parts of the German Reich until World War II that lay east of the river Elbe.
The region comprised the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, the eastern parts of Saxony ( Jerichower ...
, the largely rural area east of the
Elbe River
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of ...
, that feared loss of its traditional power. While the Reich government fled to
Stuttgart, the Prussian government remained in Berlin. A general strike against the putsch, initiated in particular by unions and civil servants, largely paralyzed public life in Prussia. Most of the governors of the Prussian provinces stood behind the legal state government. Only those of the provinces of
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
, Hanover and
East Prussia supported the putsch. It is noteworthy that August Winnig, the governor of East Prussia, was a Social Democrat. The situation was different with many district administrators. There was a clear east–west divide among them. In the western provinces almost all of the district administrators stood by the constitutional government, even if in some cases only under pressure from the workers. In East Prussia all of them sided with the anti-republicans. The putsch attempt collapsed after six days.
The Kapp Putsch and ensuing general strike led to a profound break that all but turned Prussia into a model republican state. Otto Braun replaced Hirsch as Minister President.
Carl Severing
Carl Wilhelm Severing (1 June 1875, Herford, Westphalia – 23 July 1952, Bielefeld) was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.
He was seen as a representative of the right wing of the party. Over the years, he took a leadi ...
became the new Minister of the Interior. Both were much more assertive than their predecessors in office. Hirsch and Finance Minister Südekum were also politically discredited because they had negotiated with the putschists. The "Braun-Severing system" became synonymous with democratic Prussia.
Structure
Territory
Most of the German territorial cessions stipulated in the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
affected Prussia.
Eupen-Malmedy
Eupen-Malmedy is a small, predominantly German-speaking region in eastern Belgium. It consists of three administrative cantons around the towns of Eupen, Malmedy, and Sankt Vith which encompass some . Elsewhere in Belgium, the region is common ...
went to
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
Danzig became a free city under the administration of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
, and the
Memel Territory
Memel, a name derived from the Couronian-Latvian ''memelis, mimelis, mēms'' for "mute, silent", may refer to:
*Memel, East Prussia, Germany, now Klaipėda, Lithuania
**Memelburg, ( Klaipėda Castle), the ''Ordensburg'' in Memel, a castle built in ...
came under Allied administration before ultimately going to
Lithuania. The
Hultschiner Ländchen went to
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, large areas of the provinces of
Posen and
West Prussia
The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...
became part of the new state of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, and
East Prussia was separated from the rest of Reich territory by the
Polish Corridor
The Polish Corridor (german: Polnischer Korridor; pl, Pomorze, Polski Korytarz), also known as the Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia (Pomeranian Voivodeship, easter ...
. Additional changes were decided by plebiscites. In Northern
Schleswig
The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...
74% of
the vote on 10 February 1920 was in favor of annexation to
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
, to which it was subsequently ceded. In the southern part, 81% of voters chose on 14 March to remain in Germany. The new German-Danish border was established on 26 May. Eastern
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...
went to Poland, although the majority of voters in the
plebiscite
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...
there had voted to remain in the German Reich. Over 90% of those who voted in the
plebiscite in southern East Prussia and parts of West Prussia were in favor of remaining part of Germany. The
Saar
Saar or SAAR has several meanings:
People Given name
*Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player
* Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist
*Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor
Surname
* Ain Saar (born 1968), Est ...
region was placed under the control of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
for fifteen years before a
referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
was to be held there. The former Imperial Territory of
Alsace-Lorraine, which had been effectively under Prussian administration, was ceded to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
without a vote.
The annexation of the
Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont
The Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont (german: Freistaat Waldeck-Pyrmont), later the Free State of Waldeck (), was a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. It was created following the German Revolution which forced Prince Friedrich of Waldeck and ...
was the one Prussian territorial addition during the Weimar Republic. The Pyrmont district made the first step after a referendum in 1921. The rest of the state followed in 1929.
The loss of territory had considerable negative economic and financial consequences for the Prussian state, including the costs of repatriation and provision for state employees. Under the Ministry of Justice alone, 3,500 civil servants and employees were affected.
Population
After 1918 the population did not increase as rapidly as it had before the war. In addition to the continuation of the demographic transition of modern industrial societies to lower birth rates, the losses of the First World War were also a factor. The large population movements within Prussia slowed. In contrast to the period before 1914, more people were moving into Prussia from foreign countries than were emigrating. In-migration from ceded territories along with increasing immigration, especially from eastern Europe, both played a role.
There were also major differences in population density across Prussia. In 1925 East Prussia had an average of 60.9 inhabitants per square kilometer, while the
Rhine Province had 295.6. Because of the extent of its low population rural regions, Prussia had a density of 130.7 per square kilometer, which was below average among the German states. The
Free State of Saxony, by way of contrast, had 333 inhabitants per km
2.
Settlement patterns and urban growth
Urbanization and urban growth lost momentum compared to the pre-1914 period. Population increases in larger cities were caused not so much by in-migration as by incorporation. This was the case with the formation of Greater Berlin in 1920, when 7 cities, 56 rural communities and 29 estate districts were incorporated. Even more extensive and consequential for the formation of large cities were the municipal reforms in the Ruhr region at the end of the 1920s.
There were still considerable geographical differences in the extent of urbanization. While in East Prussia more than 60% of the inhabitants lived in village communities in 1925, in the
Province of Westphalia the figure was just 16.5%. In East Prussia 12.4% of the population lived in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants; in the Rhine Province it was over 41%.
Economy
Industry and the skilled trades dominated Prussia's economy in 1925, accounting for 41.3% of all workers. Agriculture played only a secondary role at 22%, with trade and transport trailing only slightly at 17.5%. The other economic sectors lagged well behind. There were strong geographic differences in Prussia's economic structure as well. In East Prussia agriculture employed 45.4% of the workforce, while industry and skilled crafts accounted for only 19.6%. The
Hohenzollern Lands, where 53.7% of the population lived from the land, was the most heavily agricultural region. By contrast, agriculture was of very little importance in the Rhineland and Westphalia, each with about 13%. The commercial sector was correspondingly strong, at over 56% in Westphalia. Berlin's commercial sector at 46% was high, but the city's metropolitan character was reflected above all in the share of the trade and transport sector, which was over 28%. Overall there were still considerable economic differences after 1918 between the eastern part of the Free State which tended to be agrarian and the industrial west.
Social structure
In 1925 almost half of the population was employed. Of these, 46.8% were blue collar workers, 17.1% were salaried employees and civil servants, 16.2% were self-employed, 15.4% were contributing family members (those who work in a business managed by a self-employed member of their family such as an independent farmer or shop owner and who receive at most pocket money instead of a salary), and 4.5% were domestic workers. The unemployment rate in 1925 was 6%. The proportions varied depending on the predominant economic sector of the individual provinces. In more rural East Prussia, the number of contributing family members was significantly higher at 22.3% than in industrial Westphalia, where it was 12.8%. Conversely, the proportion of blue-collar workers in East Prussia was 42.6%, while in Westphalia it was 54.1%. In metropolitan Berlin, the proportion of blue-collar workers at 45.9% was lower than in Westphalia despite Berlin's important industrial sector. The reason was the strength of the city's tertiary sector. Salaried employees and civil servants accounted for 30.5% in Berlin, whereas in Westphalia it was 15.6%.
Berlin's special urban situation was also reflected in its average income. At 1,566
Reichsmark
The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...
s in 1928, the average income in Berlin-Brandenburg was more than 30% higher than the Reich average. In agrarian East Prussia, average earnings were only 814 Reichsmarks, more than 30% below the Reich average. Industrial areas such as Westphalia and the Rhineland were roughly in line with the German average.
Despite the efforts of the Prussian government in areas such as education, upward mobility remained limited. In 1927/28, only one percent of junior lawyers came from working-class families. Advancement opportunities were significantly better from primary schools. The proportion of students from working-class families at educational academies rose from 7 percent in 1928/29 to 10 percent in 1932/33.
State and administration
Administrative divisions
The Free State consisted of twelve provinces plus Berlin, whose status corresponded to that of a province. The Hohenzollern Lands in southern Germany were a unique type of administrative district (''Regierungsbezirk'') that was not a true province but that had almost all the rights of one. The provinces were headed by governors (''Oberpräsidenten'') appointed by the Ministry of State. There was in addition a provincial council consisting of the governor, a member appointed by the Minister of the Interior and five members elected by the provincial committee. The provinces each had a parliament. In
Hesse-Nassau
The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944.
Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the ...
, municipal parliaments existed for the district associations alongside the provincial parliament. The provincial parliaments elected a ''Landeshauptmann'' who headed the governmental administration; the corresponding office in Berlin was the mayor. In addition, the provincial parliament elected a provincial committee from its own ranks to manage day-to-day business. The provincial parliaments sent representatives to the national-level
Reichsrat and the corresponding Prussian Council of State (''Staatsrat'').
Below the provincial level there were (as of 1933) 34 administrative districts; some provinces, including Posen-West Prussia, Upper Silesia, Schleswig-Holstein and also Berlin, had just a single administrative district. A total of 361 districts (called ''Kreise'' or ''Landkreise'') formed the basis of state administration in rural areas and small towns. Larger cities generally formed urban districts (''Stadtkreise''), of which there were a total of 116. While there were only five urban districts in agrarian East Prussia, there were 21 in industrial Westphalia.
Constitution
See also: (Full text in English)
Carl Severing
Carl Wilhelm Severing (1 June 1875, Herford, Westphalia – 23 July 1952, Bielefeld) was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.
He was seen as a representative of the right wing of the party. Over the years, he took a leadi ...
did not submit a draft constitution until 26 April 1920 because of delays caused by the Kapp Putsch and the wait for the
Reich constitution, which was ratified on 11 August 1919. On 30 November 1920 the State Assembly adopted the
constitution of the Free State of Prussia The Constitution of Prussia (german: Verfassung von Preußen), was the constitution of the Free State of Prussia. It came into effect on 30 November 1920. It was formally dissolved along with Prussia itself in 1947 though in practice it had been in ...
. 280 deputies voted in favor, 60 against and 7 abstained. The
DNVP
The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...
and independent deputies in particular voted against it.
In contrast to the Reich and other states in the Weimar Republic, there was no state president. The lack of an institution above the governing ministers and the parliamentary majority clearly distinguished Prussia from the Reich. Overall, the position of Parliament under the constitution was strong. A distinctive feature was the Minister President's position, which was elevated by his authority to make policy. Minister President
Otto Braun
Otto Braun (28 January 1872 – 15 December 1955) was a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. From 1920 to 1932, with only two brief interruptions, Braun was Minister President of the Free State ...
in particular clearly recognized this and made purposeful use it.
The constitution also provided for elements of plebiscitary democracy in the form of referendums and petitions.
Parliament (''Landtag'')
The legislative period of the Parliament was four years. It could be dissolved by majority vote or referendum. Parliament acted as the legislature, elected the Minister President, had the right to establish committees of inquiry, and could amend the constitution by a majority of two-thirds of the deputies. It also had the right to censure individual ministers or the Ministry of State as a whole. With a two-thirds majority, it could impeach ministers before the state court.
Ministry of State
The Ministry of State was the highest and leading authority in the state; it consisted of the Minister President and the ministers of state (Article 7). Although it was organized collegially, the Minister President had policy-making authority (Article 46). He was elected by Parliament. After an amendment to the rules of procedure, an absolute majority was required from 1932 onward. The Minister President appointed the other ministers (Article 45).
The constitution did not specify the ministries; they came about from practical requirements. Following the transfer of military responsibilities to the Reich, there was no Prussian Minister of War after 1919. The Minister of Public Works also lost his most important area of responsibility with the establishment of the
German National Railway, and the ministry was dissolved in 1921. The office of Minister of Welfare, which had existed in the provisional government, was formally created. There were also ministries of the interior, finance, justice, agriculture and trade. The Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs was renamed the Ministry of Science, Art and National Education in 1918. The economic interests of the state were largely concentrated in the Ministry of Trade and Commerce. It was the second most powerful state ministry after the Ministry of the Interior and was able to have a considerable impact on domestic and foreign trade beyond Prussia's borders.
After the
1932 Prussian coup d'état, which replaced Prussia's legal government by
Franz von Papen
Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German conservative politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and General Staff officer. He served as the chancellor of Germany ...
as Reich Commissioner, the Ministry of Welfare in its old form was dissolved. At the same time, the Minister of Trade also became the Minister of Economics and Labor. The Ministry of Justice was dissolved in 1935 under the law transferring the administration of justice to the Reich.
Council of State
The constitution stipulated the formation of a Council of State to represent the provinces of Prussia. Its members were elected by the provincial parliaments; they could not be parliamentary members at the same time. The government was to inform the body about affairs of state. The Council of State could express its views, had the right to initiate legislation and could lodge an objection to laws passed by parliament. With a two-thirds majority, parliament could, with a few exceptions, reject the objection or call for a referendum. Until 1933 the mayor of Cologne and future Chancellor of the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
,
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...
, was chairman of the Council of State.
Relationship to the Reich
The Weimar Constitution and the new Prussian Constitution permanently changed the relationship between the Reich and Prussia. Unlike during the empire, the executive branch at the Reich level was completely independent of Prussia's. The same person was no longer both Reich Chancellor and Prussian Minister President. The great importance of state taxes declined in favor of a central tax administration. The Reich had fiscal sovereignty and distributed revenues to the states. Along with the military and railroads, waterways and a large part of social administration became the responsibility of the Reich.
Despite of the fact that 61% of the Reich's population lived in Prussia in 1925, it had only two-fifths of the votes in the
Reichsrat, the Reich-level equivalent of the Council of State. In a departure from the empire's
Federal Council, and in contrast to the other states, only half of the members of the Reichsrat to which Prussia was entitled were appointed by the Prussian government. The remaining members were elected by the provincial parliaments.
State-owned enterprises
Between 1921 and 1925 the administration of state-owned enterprises was moved away from the direct responsibility of the Ministry of Trade and Industry on the initiative of the department's minister, Wilhelm Siering (SPD). Joint stock companies were formed to manage the state-owned mines, salt works, smelters, water works, and electrical generation plants. Ideas about the economic common good, such as those advocated by State Secretary
Hans Staudinger (SPD), also played a role in the expedited development of state-owned companies.
Political system
Party system
The Prussian party system made up of conservatism (
German National People's Party
The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...
, DNVP), political Catholicism (
Centre Party), liberalism (
German People's Party
The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...
, DVP, and
German Democratic Party
The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...
, DDP), social democracy (
Majority Social Democratic Party, MSPD) and socialism/communism (Independent
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
, USPD, and
Communist Party of Germany, KPD) corresponded to that at the Reich level. The DNVP had a special affinity to the former Prussian monarchy. Among the regional parties, the
German-Hanoverian Party
The German-Hanoverian Party (german: Deutsch-Hannoversche Partei, DHP), also known as the Guelph Party (german: Welfenpartei), was a conservative, federalist political party in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic.
History
The party was fou ...
(DHP) had some influence. The MSPD and USPD, which had split in 1917, merged in 1922 and resumed the original SPD name. (A small and politically insignificant part of the USPD continued to exist until 1931 when it merged with the
Socialist Worker's Party of Germany.)
The DNVP and DVP had strongholds in a few cities and in areas that were more rural and Protestant, especially
east of the Elbe River. In East Prussia the DNVP received over 30% of the vote in the
1928 federal election for the Reichstag. The Centre was strong in Catholic areas such as Silesia, the Rhineland and Westphalia. The left-wing parties were important in large cities and heavily commercial non-Catholic areas. In Berlin, for example, the SPD's vote came to 34% in 1928 and the KPD's to almost 30%. The rise of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
(NSDAP) changed the pattern, but it remained dominant in basic terms until 1932.
Within Prussia there were considerable differences in support for the Republic. The majority in Berlin, the Rhineland and Westphalia were in favor of a democracy, while reservations remained in the eastern and agrarian provinces. In the
March 1933 Reichstag elections, the NSDAP had above-average strength in constituencies such as East Prussia (56.5%),
Frankfurt an der Oder
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
(55.2%),
Liegnitz
Legnica (Polish: ; german: Liegnitz, szl, Lignica, cz, Lehnice, la, Lignitium) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River (left tributary of the Oder) and the Czarna Woda. Between 1 June 1975 ...
(54%) and Schleswig-Holstein (53.2%), but was significantly weaker in Berlin (31.3%), Westphalia (34.3%) and the Rhineland (34.1%) than the Reich average (43.9%).
A factor in Prussia's political stability was that the SPD, which was the strongest party during most of the Weimar Republic, was prepared until 1932 to assume government responsibility and not withdraw into an opposition role as it had at the Reich level in 1920, 1923 and 1930. Leaders in the Prussian SPD quickly identified with their new task. The philosopher
Eduard Spranger
Eduard Spranger (27 June 1882 – 17 September 1963) was a German philosopher and psychologist. A student of Wilhelm Dilthey, Spranger was born in Berlin and died in Tübingen. He was considered a humanist who developed a philosophical pe ...
spoke of an "affinity of Social Democracy for the Prussian", and Otto Braun claimed that "Prussia has never been governed in a more Prussian manner than during my term of office." In addition to the party's leading individuals, structural reasons also played a role in the SPD's strength. The political break from the
three-class franchise to a democratic constitution was more pronounced in Prussia than in other states of the Reich that had had similar voting systems. Unlike in the Reichstag, which had many long-standing SPD parliamentarians who were accustomed to the role of opposition, there were hardly any such in the Prussian Parliament. The parliamentary party members were therefore not as influenced by entrenched roles and were better able to adapt to being a party that formed part of the government. In addition, the left wing of the party, which was critical of cooperation with the bourgeois parties, was weak. Compromise solutions were therefore easier to implement in Prussia than in the Reich.
Despite their strength, especially in the large cities, only a few mayors in the major cities were Social Democrats. The party had respect for the expertise of bourgeois municipal politicians and often left this position to representatives of the DDP. Only
Ernst Reuter in
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...
and
Max Brauer
Max Julius Friedrich Brauer (3 September 1887 – 2 February 1973) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the first elected First Mayor of Hamburg after World War II.
Life
In 1923, Brauer was mayor of the independe ...
in
Altona were among the Social Democratic mayors in early 1933.
Democratization of the state administration
During the revolution, Prussian civil servants declared that their loyalty was not to the monarchy but to the Prussian state. Initially, the government, and in particular the Minister of the Interior
Wolfgang Heine
Wolfgang Heine (3 May 1861 – 9 May 1944) was a German jurist and social democrat politician. Heine was a member of the Imperial parliament and the Weimar National Assembly, he served as Minister President of the Free State of Anhalt and Prus ...
(SPD), largely refrained from reorganizing the state administration in the spirit of the Republic. Heine made a crucial mistake when he appointed
Magnus Freiherr von Braun (DNVP) – father of rocket scientist
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
and later one of the supporters of the
Kapp Putsch
The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo th ...
– as a personnel officer. By the end of 1919, only 46 Social Democrats had been appointed to higher administrative posts. Of some 480 district administrators (''Landräte)'', only 24 belonged to the SPD. The Kapp Putsch showed the weakly developed loyalty of some of the senior civil servants, many of whom were close to the DNVP, which was hostile to the Republic.
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R11405, Carl Severing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R11405%2C_Carl_Severing.jpg)
The new Minister of the Interior,
Carl Severing
Carl Wilhelm Severing (1 June 1875, Herford, Westphalia – 23 July 1952, Bielefeld) was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.
He was seen as a representative of the right wing of the party. Over the years, he took a leadi ...
, carried out a fundamental reform after the March 1920 Kapp Putsch. Senior civil servants hostile to the Republic were dismissed, and the political reliability of new hires was checked. A total of about one hundred senior civil servants were placed on retirement. Among these were three governors (''Oberpräsidenten''), three district presidents (''Regierungspräsidenten'') and 88 district administrators. Almost all of these were from the eastern provinces. In addition to supporters of the conservative parties, they included the Social Democratic governors
August Winnig (East Prussia) and Felix Philipp (Lower Silesia).
Severing and his successors purposefully appointed supporters of the coalition parties as political officials. The policy led to a considerable change in the heads of departments. In 1929, 291 of 540 political officials were members of Weimar Coalition parties, including nine of 11 governors and 21 of 32 district presidents. The shift also changed the social composition among top officials. While in 1918 eleven governors were aristocrats, only two were in the period between 1920 and 1932. There were nevertheless still lagging regions. While in the western provinces 78% of newly appointed district administrators were supporters of the governing parties, the situation in the eastern provinces was noticeably different as late as 1926. There supporters of the coalition made up only one-third of district administrators; the rest were mostly conservative nonpartisans.
Another limitation was that a breakup of the monopoly of lawyers in the higher civil service posts did not succeed. Only in exceptional cases, such as that of Wilhelm Richter, Berlin's police chief, were outsiders appointed.
Republicanization of the police
The Prussian police force was not only the strongest in the Reich but also the most important instrument of the Prussian government's executive branch for maintaining constitutional order. Massive restructuring also began in the police force after the Kapp Putsch in order to ensure its loyalty to the Republic. Under the leadership of the Minister of the Interior, the republican-minded police chief Wilhelm Abegg became the decisive figure in carrying out the reform. By the end of the 1920s, all leading police officers were republicans. Of thirty police chiefs in 1928, fifteen were members of the SPD, five belonged to the Centre, four to the DDP, three to the DVP, and the rest were nonpartisan.
Below the command level, however, the situation was somewhat different. A large proportion of the police were former professional soldiers; the majority were conservative and anti-communist, and some maintained relations with right-wing organizations. For them the enemy was on the left.
An important change in the organization was the creation of the Protection Police (''
Schutzpolizei
The ''Schutzpolizei'' (), or ''Schupo'' () for short, is a uniform-wearing branch of the ''Landespolizei'', the state (''Land'') level police of the states of Germany. ''Schutzpolizei'' literally means security or protection police, but it is b ...
)'' as an instrument to protect the constitution and the Republic.
Justice
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R07833, Hugo am Zehnhoff](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R07833%2C_Hugo_am_Zehnhoff.jpg)
In the judiciary, reforms remained limited even longer than they did in the police force. Many judges continued to support the monarchy. In political trials, left-wing defendants were regularly judged more harshly than those on the right. One reason in particular for the hesitant intervention of democrats and centrists was respect for the independence of the judiciary. The autonomy of judges had been explicitly enshrined in the constitution. It made a fundamental republicanization of the judiciary impossible. Moreover, the Minister of Justice Hugo am Zehnhoff, who held the office from 1919 to 1927, had no real interest in judicial reform. The authorities did, however, pay attention to the attitude towards democracy among new appointees. But the Free State did not survive long enough for it to have a noticeable effect. One estimate in 1932 suggested that only about 5% of judges were republican-minded.
Weimar Republic (1921–1933)
Grand coalition (1921–1925)
Formation
After the adoption of the constitution,
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...
for the first regular state Parliament were set for 20 February 1921. The MSPD emerged as the strongest political force with 114 seats, followed by the Centre with 81. Even though the
German Democratic Party
The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...
(DDP) lost seats to the
German People's Party
The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...
(DVP), the
Weimar coalition
The Weimar Coalition () is the name given to the centre-leftist coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the social liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and the Christian democratic Centre Party, who together had a large major ...
(SPD, DDP, and Centre) with a combined 224 of 428 seats still had a majority, albeit a small one, unlike in the
1920 Reichstag election, following which a minority government of the Centre, DDP and DVP was built.
Forming a new government in Prussia did not prove to be easy. While the DDP and the Centre wanted to bring the DVP into the coalition, the MSPD rejected the proposal because of the DVP's closeness to heavy industry and its unclear attitude towards the Republic. As a result,
Otto Braun
Otto Braun (28 January 1872 – 15 December 1955) was a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. From 1920 to 1932, with only two brief interruptions, Braun was Minister President of the Free State ...
did not run as a candidate for Minister President. Instead,
Adam Stegerwald
Adam Stegerwald (14 December 1874, in Greußenheim, Lower Franconia – 3 December 1945) was a German Catholic politician and a leader of the left wing of the Centre Party.
Under the Empire
Stegerwald was born the son of a farmer. He attended ...
of the Centre Party was elected with the votes of the previous coalition and the DVP, but his attempt to form a solid
grand coalition failed. The MSPD then terminated its support, and Stegerwald resigned.
In a second election on 21 April, Stegerwald was re-elected with the votes of the bourgeois parties including the DNVP. He formed a minority government consisting of the Centre and the DDP as well as some independents. They had to seek support from the MSPD and DNVP on a case-by-case basis.
Pressure on Prussian policy came primarily from external factors. After the London ultimatum of 5 May 1921 regarding German payment of war reparations, Allied troops occupied
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
and
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
in the Ruhr. The assassination of former Reich Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister
Matthias Erzberger
Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875 – 26 August 1921) was a German writer and politician (Centre Party), the minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920.
Prominent in the Catholic Centre Party, he spoke out against World War I from 1917 and as a ...
on 26 August by members of the far right
Organisation Consul
Organisation Consul (O.C.) was an ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic terrorist organization that operated in the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1922. It was formed by members of the disbanded Freikorps group Marine Brigade Ehrhardt and was respons ...
shocked supporters of the Republic. In September 1921 the MSPD cleared the way for a coalition with the DVP at its party congress in
Görlitz. Otto Braun stated:
"What we are dealing with here is the conversion of our party from an acting to a governing party. This is very difficult for many because it takes us from a comfortable position to one that is sometimes very uncomfortable and full of responsibility. ..The comrades who speak against the resolution do not have sufficient confidence in the power of our party's appeal. We must have the will to power."
After the MSPD withdrew support from the government in October 1921, accusing the Ministry of State of leaning towards the DNVP, negotiations began to form a grand coalition. On 5 November 1921, the MSPD and DVP joined the cabinet, and Stegerwald resigned.
The opposition within the MSPD parliamentary group was considerable. Forty-six deputies voted for and 41 against the formation of a grand coalition. There were also significant reservations within the DVP. In the end, 197 of 339 deputies present voted for Braun as Minister President. Ministers were chosen from the MSPD, Centre, DDP and DVP.
Carl Severing
Carl Wilhelm Severing (1 June 1875, Herford, Westphalia – 23 July 1952, Bielefeld) was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.
He was seen as a representative of the right wing of the party. Over the years, he took a leadi ...
again became Minister of the Interior.
Prussia's grand coalition proved to be a stabilizing factor in the Weimar Republic and contributed to its ability to survive the crisis year of 1923. The DVP remained loyal to the coalition even though it was courted by the DNVP to form a "citizens' bloc". An effectively functioning coalition committee successfully ensured that the different political interests were balanced, but despite the collegial cooperation, Braun and Severing dominated the government.
The coalition lay claim to nothing less than a "Prussian democratic mission" for all of Germany. This was especially true after the murder of Reich Foreign Minister
Walther Rathenau
Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician.
During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...
(DDP) on 24 June 1922, once again by members of the Organisation Consul. On the basis of the Reich "Law for the Protection of the Republic" (''Gesetz zum Schutze der Republik''), which was strongly supported by the Prussian government, Interior Minister Severing banned the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
in Prussia on 15 November 1922.
Crisis year 1923
Prussian territory was directly affected when troops from France and Belgium
occupied the Ruhr on 11 January 1923 after Germany defaulted on its war
reparations payments, although the main decisions on how to react were made at the Reich level. Immediately before the occupation, the Prussian Parliament – with the exception of the Communist Party – protested against the actions of the French and Belgians. At the same time, the population of the
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
and
Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
was called on to exercise prudence. The Prussian government ultimately supported the passive resistance called for by the Reich. Prussian officials were instructed not to obey the orders of the occupiers. It quickly became apparent, however, that the economic burden caused by the situation was becoming enormous. The trend toward inflation that had existed since World War I exploded into the
hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic.
Domestically, the crisis strengthened radical forces. After a number of violent acts by right-wing militants, Interior Minister Severing banned the
German Völkisch Freedom Party (''Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei'', DVFP), despite the reservations of the Reich government. Nationalists sharply attacked Severing in public and in the state Parliament, but overall Parliament backed him by a large majority.
Ending the struggle against the occupation of the Ruhr (which occurred on 26 September 1923) was necessary before currency reform could be carried out in the Reich. The still occupied Rhineland, however, was excluded from the introduction of the new
Rentenmark
The Rentenmark (; RM) was a currency issued on 15 October 1923 to stop the hyperinflation of 1922 and 1923 in Weimar Germany, after the previously used "paper" Mark had become almost worthless. It was subdivided into 100 ''Rentenpfennig'' and ...
on 16 November 1923. This spurred the regional separatists to action. A Rhenish Republic was proclaimed in various cities, but it met with little response from the population. By the end of the year, secession of the Rhineland and Westphalia had failed. The major political crises of 1923, such as
Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
and the attempt at a communist revolution, the so-called "
German October" in central Germany, took place outside Prussia. Reich Chancellor
Gustav Stresemann
Gustav Ernst Stresemann (; 10 May 1878 – 3 October 1929) was a German statesman who served as chancellor in 1923 (for 102 days) and as foreign minister from 1923 to 1929, during the Weimar Republic.
His most notable achievement was the reconci ...
(DVP) described the Prussia of the 1923 crisis period as the "bulwark of German republicans".
Transitional cabinet of Wilhelm Marx
At the beginning of 1924 there were increasing signs that the grand coalition's common ground had been lost. On 5 January the DVP demanded that the DNVP be brought into the government and that Braun resign. When he refused, the DVP withdrew its ministers from the government and brought an end to the coalition. Forming a new government proved as difficult as it had been in 1920. On 10 February the former Reich Chancellor
Wilhelm Marx
Wilhelm Marx (15 January 1863 – 5 August 1946) was a German lawyer, Catholic politician and a member of the Centre Party. He was the chancellor of Germany twice, from 1923 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1928, and he also served briefly as the ...
(Centre), supported by the Centre, DDP and SPD, was elected Minister President. He formed a cabinet consisting of the Centre and DDP, keeping Severing as Minister of the Interior. After losing a vote of confidence, Marx resigned but remained in office until April in an acting capacity.
New
state parliamentary elections were held on 7 December 1924.
High point of political stability
Otto Braun was elected Minister President on 3 April 1925, with 216 of 430 votes. Like Marx, his base was SPD, Centre and DDP. Braun took over the majority of Marx's cabinet and looked to continuity in policy. He blamed the months-long government crisis on what he called the "German national communist bloc", by which he meant all the opposition parties from the DVP and DNVP to the various small parties, which included the NSDAP and the Communists. Braun said that "they are as incapable of building as they are unanimous in destroying." The new cabinet was a minority government, but it proved remarkably stable.
Settlement with the Hohenzollerns
The question of financial settlements with Germany's former ruling dynasties was in principle a matter for the states. In Prussia negotiations with the
Hohenzollerns
The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...
failed in 1920 because the SPD rejected the proposal in the state Parliament, and the former royal house objected to it in 1924. In 1925 the Ministry of Finance under
Hermann Höpker-Aschoff (DDP) submitted another draft proposal. It was extraordinarily favorable to the Hohenzollerns and led to fierce criticism from the SPD and DDP. The DDP then introduced a bill in the Reichstag that would authorize the states to find a solution without recourse to the courts. It was the starting point for a political process that led to the failed
referendum on princely expropriation at the Reich level in 1926.
The Braun government subsequently intensified negotiations with the Hohenzollerns over the former royal house's assets. In the end a compromise was reached that the SPD viewed very critically. The main Hohenzollern line received 250,000 acres of land and 15 million Reichsmarks. The Prussian state also received 250,000 acres, plus the royal palaces along with the
Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to:
Placenames
Australia
* Bellevue, Western Australia
* Bellevue Hill, New South Wales
* Bellevue, Queensland
* Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales
Canada ...
and
Babelsberg
Babelsberg () is the largest quarter ('' Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Pala ...
palaces, works of art, the coronation regalia, the library of the former royal house, the archives and the theater. In Parliament, KPD deputies reacted with anger and even violence. The vote went in favor of the agreement. It is noteworthy that not only the Communists rejected the bill, but also that the representatives of the governing SPD party either voted against it or did not participate in the vote. Braun was only able to ensure that more SPD deputies did not vote against the bill by threatening to resign.
Tensions with the Reich government
![Flag of Germany (1867–1918)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Flag_of_Germany_%281867%E2%80%931918%29.svg)
On 6 October 1926, as had been agreed with Braun some time earlier, Carl Severing resigned as Minister of the Interior, leaving the Minister President the only political heavyweight in the cabinet. Severing was succeeded by
Albert Grzesinski
Albert Carl Grzesinski (28 July 1879 – 12 January 1948) was a German SPD politician and Minister of the Interior of Prussia from 1926 to 1930.
Biography
Grzesinski was born Albert Lehmann in Treptow an der Tollense, Germany, the illegitimate ...
(SPD).
There were frequent tensions between the Christian-bourgeois Reich governments and the center-left government in Prussia. One practical issue was revenue sharing between the Reich and the states. Compensation for the financial harm caused by territorial losses under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles remained a central point of conflict between the Reich and Prussia. The disputes over the use of flags on Constitution Day in 1927 fell into the realm of symbolic politics, which was important for the citizens' idea of the state. Braun announced a boycott of those hotels in Berlin that flew the old imperial black-white-red colors instead of the Republic's black-red-gold. When he asked the Reich government to join in the boycott call, Reich Minister of the Interior
Walter von Keudell
Walter von Keudell (17 July 1884 – 7 May 1973) was a German forest expert and politician. He served as interior minister of Germany between 1927 and 1928 during the period of the Weimar Republic.
Early life
Von Keudell was born in Castella ...
(DNVP) protested against Prussia's "insolence". The conflict was exacerbated when Prussian Minister of Culture Becker restricted the rights of student self-government at Prussian universities because of the increasing influence of the
''völkisch'' movement there. When nationally minded student bodies protested against the move, Keudell openly backed them. Not least because of these and other conflicts with the Reich Minister of the Interior, Braun became an important integration figure among Social Democrats.
Agricultural policy
A relic of the feudal past in Prussia was the manorial district. Those living on them had no communal right of residence and were subject to the police power invested in the landlords. Using groundwork laid by Interior Minister Grzesinski, the Braun government abolished the districts in 1927. The change affected 12,000 manorial districts with a combined population of 1.5 million. Some remnants of the old conditions did however continue to exist east of the Elbe River (
East Elbia
East Elbia (german: Ostelbien) was an informal denotation for those parts of the German Reich until World War II that lay east of the river Elbe.
The region comprised the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, the eastern parts of Saxony ( Jerichower ...
). There were many agricultural workers who received part of their wages in kind, such as free housing, food or land use. As late as 1928, 83% of the income of an average farm worker in East Prussia consisted of such wages, although the figure was somewhat lower in Silesia and Pomerania. Employers preferred this form of pay because it tied workers more closely to them and made it difficult to verify the accuracy of their wages.
The situation was different in areas with a population made up predominantly of independent farmers. Even so, reservations about politics in rural regions remained strong, as is shown by the emergence of rural protest parties such as the
Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party
The Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party (german: Christlich-Nationale Bauern- und Landvolkpartei, or CNBL) was an agrarian political party of Weimar Germany. It developed from the German National People's Party (DNVP) in 1928.
The ...
. In Schleswig-Holstein, which was characterized not by large landholdings but by farmers, an agrarian protest movement developed toward the end of the 1920s with the
Rural People's Movement
The Rural People's Movement (german: Landvolkbewegung) was a farmers' protest movement in northern Germany from 1928 to 1933. Due to an agricultural crisis, demonstrations took place in numerous towns and cities in early 1928, and deputations were ...
.
Educational policy
The period of the grand coalition saw the beginning of a reform of the educational system that was initially pushed forward by the independent Minister of Education
Carl Heinrich Becker. One of its goals was to reduce the educational disparity between urban and rural areas.
According to the Reich constitution, the training of elementary school teachers was to be aligned with that of the higher schools. How that was to be done was left a matter for the states. Some, such as
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and lar ...
and
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, introduced teacher training at universities or technical universities. Others, including
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
and
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...
, retained the old seminar method. In 1924 Prussia introduced a middle course using denominational pedagogic academies with a shorter training period than in a regular university course.
Prussia increased its funding for additional educational opportunities aimed in particular at gifted blue- and white-collar workers. In 1928 there were 102 ''Aufbauschulen'' – schools with the goal of bringing gifted elementary school students up to high school readiness level – with 13,000 students. In 1928 a broad majority decided to introduce educational grants of 20,000 Reichsmarks to support the less well-off. Just one year later, the sum had reached 100,000 Reichsmarks, although additional increases were slowed by fiscal considerations, including on the part of the SPD.
In other areas, problems of long standing were addressed, such as reducing the pupil-teacher ratio from 55 in 1911 to 38 in 1928. Overall, however, personnel costs in education, which placed a heavy burden on the state budget, led to the SPD at times limiting educational expenditures in opposition to its stated goals.
State Parliament election 1928
In May 1928 elections were held at both the
Reich
''Reich'' (; ) is a German noun whose meaning is analogous to the meaning of the English word "realm"; this is not to be confused with the German adjective "reich" which means "rich". The terms ' (literally the "realm of an emperor") and ' (lit ...
and
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
levels. In the Prussian state elections, the SPD made gains while the Centre and DDP both lost seats. In spite of that, the coalition had a parliamentary majority, with a combined 228 of 450 seats. The government remained the same, and Braun promised continued work. One of the government's projects was to be a municipal reorganization of the Ruhr region.
Religious politics
As the election campaign of 1918/19 had shown, the memory of royal Prussia's ''
Kulturkampf'' ('cultural conflict') against the Catholic Church was still alive, but in large part due to the strong position of the Centre Party in Parliament and the government, the Catholic population had come to identify relatively strongly with the new Free State of Prussia. Its high point and symbol was the
Prussian Concordat
The Prussian Concordat was a concordat signed between the Free State of Prussia and the Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the P ...
with the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
, signed on 14 June 1929 by Eugenio Pacelli (later
Pope Pius XII). The treaty superseded an 1821 agreement between the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...
and the Vatican and eliminated the last remnants of church legislation from the ''Kulturkampf'' period. It regulated state contributions to the church and the arrangement of bishoprics, including reestablishing the bishoprics of
Aachen and Berlin. School issues were excluded, but it regulated the academic training of clergy. The forms of episcopal elections and similar issues were also clarified.
There was opposition to the concordat from various sides. The
Lutheran Church, supported by the DNVP and DVP, saw it as strengthening Catholicism.
Freethinkers
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...
in the SPD also rejected the agreement.
While the Catholic population was successfully won over to the new Prussia, the issue was more difficult when it came to Protestants. With the revolution, the Protestants of the
Prussian Union of Churches lost the king as their top leader. He had officially been the head bishop (''
summus episcopus'') of the Union with far-reaching rights, even to the shaping of the liturgy.
Emperor William II had taken the task very seriously, and after the revolution many Protestants lacked an important figure by which to orient themselves. A considerable percentage of church-going Protestants voted for the anti-democratic and nationalistic DNVP. It was no coincidence that the motto of the Protestant church congress of 1927 was "''Volk und Vaterland''".
Antisemitic influences, especially among theological faculties, also grew in strength.
An ecclesiastical treaty with the Protestant regional churches in Prussia did not come about until 1931. On the state's side, it was promoted by Adolf Grimme (SPD), who had become Minister of Culture. A "political clause" that regulated the state's objections to the filling of high church positions, similar to the concordat with the Catholic Church, met with resistance from the church.
Prussia and the crisis of the Republic
Blood May 1929
Using sometimes drastic measures, the Prussian government tried to oppose the increasing radicalization from both the left and the right. In December 1928, following political clashes between Communists, National Socialists and Social Democrats in Berlin, the city's police chief Karl Zörgiebel issued a ban on all open-air demonstrations and gatherings. The ban applied to 1 May 1929,
International Workers' Day. The KPD ignored the ban and called for a mass demonstration. Fighting resembling a civil war broke out between police and Communist supporters. Zörgiebel had ordered a crackdown and, with the SPD's approval, was determined to set an example. The fighting – which came to be known as "
Blood May" – cost 33 lives, and nearly 200 people were injured. More than 1,200 arrests were made. The assumption that the KPD had planned a violent overthrow of the government could not be proven. Only later did telegrams intercepted from
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
seem to suggest this. The Prussian government pressed for a ban of the KPD and all its subsidiary organizations. Carl Severing, who at the time was Reich Minister of the Interior, rejected the idea as unwise and impracticable. Prussia then banned the
Alliance of Red Front Fighters (''Roter Frontkämpferbund''). With the exception of
Brunswick, the other German states did the same.
The events led to increased hostility in the KPD towards the Social Democrats.
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933.
A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...
, leader of the KPD, called the "social fascism" of the SPD a particularly dangerous form of fascism. He urged the KPD to direct its policies against the SPD as the "main enemy".
Bulwark of democracy
Even after the formation of
Heinrich Brüning's (Centre Party) Reich government on 31 March 1930 and the
Reichstag election of 14 September 1930, which marked the NSDAP's parliamentary breakthrough, Prussia's government continued to work for democracy and the Republic. The ban on uniforms for the NSDAP was not lifted, nor was the provision that civil servants could not belong to the anti-constitutional KPD or NSDAP. In a sign of the crisis, Severing returned as Minister of the Interior in October 1930. He named his predecessor Albert Grzesinski as Berlin's chief of police. Braun, Severing and chairman of the SPD parliamentary group
Ernst Heilmann supported the SPD's course of tolerating Brüning due to lack of political alternatives.
![Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10544, Berlin, Demonstration der SPD im Lustgarten](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-10544%2C_Berlin%2C_Demonstration_der_SPD_im_Lustgarten.jpg)
The National Socialists saw Prussia as an important strategic target in taking over power in Germany.
Joseph Goebbels wrote in 1930, "The key to power in Germany lies in Prussia. Whoever has Prussia also has the Reich." Others on the right saw the situation similarly. Unlike during the Reich government of
Hermann Müller (28 June 1928 – 27 March 1930), Brüning temporarily blocked cooperation with Prussia against the NSDAP. In December 1931 the Reich government prevented the execution of an arrest warrant against Adolf Hitler issued by Berlin police chief Grzesinski. The Prussian government then presented the Reich government with an extensive dossier proving the anti-constitutional activities of the NSDAP and announced a ban on the
Sturmabteilung (SA) in Prussia. Only after such pressure did Brüning also support the ban of all paramilitary units of the NSDAP at the Reich level.
Referendum on the dissolution of the state Parliament
In 1929 the Braun government banned the paramilitary
Stahlhelm in the Rhineland and Westphalia for violating the demilitarization provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1930, when the
Young Plan
The Young Plan was a program for settling Germany's World War I reparations. It was written in August 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed (1929–30) by American industrialist Owen D. Young, founder and for ...
on German reparations came into force and foreign troops were to evacuate the Rhineland,
Reich President
''Reich'' (; ) is a German noun whose meaning is analogous to the meaning of the English word " realm"; this is not to be confused with the German adjective "reich" which means "rich". The terms ' (literally the "realm of an emperor") and ' (li ...
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fr ...
, who was an honorary member of the Stahlhelm, forced the ban to be lifted by threatening not to take part in the celebrations in
Koblenz to mark the evacuation.
At the end of May 1931, Stahlhelm leader
Franz Seldte sharply attacked the "
Marxist" Prussian government at the Reich Front-Line Soldiers' Day in
Breslau. He announced a plan to call a
referendum for the premature dissolution of the Prussian Parliament. The Stahlhelm's move was supported by the DVP, DNVP and NSDAP, and 5.96 million Prussians signed the initiative to put the referendum on the ballot. This was slightly more than the necessary 20% of eligible voters, and the referendum was held on 8 August 1931. Under pressure from
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
and the
Comintern, which at the time considered the fight against the "social-fascist" SPD more important than resistance to the extreme right, the KPD also supported the referendum. Especially because many Communist voters did not follow the party's lead, the referendum failed with only 37.1% of the votes in favor of an early dissolution.
State Parliament election 1932
Elections in Prussia and several other states were scheduled to be held after the
Reich presidential election of 1932 in which Hindenburg, supported by the German State Party (formerly the DDP), the Centre and the SPD, prevailed over Hitler and Thälmann (KPD). Since Prussia's coalition parties had to assume that the democratic camp would fare badly in view of the political radicalization, the rules of procedure were changed at the instigation of Ernst Heilmann, chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. A preliminary form of a
constructive vote of no confidence
The constructive vote of no confidence (german: konstruktives Misstrauensvotum, es, moción de censura constructiva) is a variation on the motion of no confidence that allows a parliament to withdraw confidence from a head of government only if t ...
was introduced to prevent the Minister President from being voted out of office by a purely negative majority – one formed by two parties unwilling to work with one another. From then on, an absolute majority was required for the election of the Minister President.
The coalition parties' fears about the
1932 Prussian election were justified. The SPD dropped to 21.2%. The German State Party shrank almost to insignificance with 1.5%. In contrast, the NSDAP grew from 1.8% to 36.7% and became the strongest parliamentary group with 162 seats. The coalition had lost its majority. Together the parties had only 163 seats. With 219 seats, the KPD and NSDAP had a negative majority. The National Socialist
Hanns Kerrl
Hanns Kerrl (11 December 1887 – 14 December 1941) was a German Nazi politician. His most prominent position, from July 1935, was that of Reichsminister of Church Affairs. He was also President of the Prussian Landtag (1932–1933) and head of ...
became president of the Prussian Parliament.
The government then resigned but remained in office on a caretaker basis until a new Minister President could be elected. Similar situations existed in other states of the Reich.
The attempt to form a new majority government proved unsuccessful. There were negotiations between the Centre and the NSDAP, but the configuration, which Severing and Braun considered to be a possibility, failed. Nor could a majority be found to again revise the amended rules of procedure. It thus seemed possible that the caretaker government could continue on indefinitely. Ernst Heilmann in particular tried to convince the KPD to tolerate it. Since the KPD had weakened its stance against social fascism in favor of a united front, the attempt had at least some chance at success, but in the end it too failed.
Braun had had a physical collapse on the night of 22
–23 April in the wake of the exertions of the election campaign. When it became clear that his caretaker government would remain in office, he handed over the day-to-day affairs to his deputy Heinrich Hirtsiefer of the Centre Party.
1932 Prussian coup d'état (''Preußenschlag)''
Behind the scenes, the cabinet of Reich Chancellor
Franz von Papen
Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German conservative politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and General Staff officer. He served as the chancellor of Germany ...
exerted pressure for the quick election of a new Minister President based on cooperation between the NSDAP and the Centre. Coalition negotiations did take place, but the Centre was unwilling to elect a National Socialist Minister President. On 11 June the Reich government threatened for the first time to appoint a
Reich commissioner
(, rendered as "Commissioner of the Empire", "Reich Commissioner" or "Imperial Commissioner"), in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and Nazi Germany.
Germ ...
for Prussia. The occasion was the
Altona Bloody Sunday
Altona Bloody Sunday (german: Altonaer Blutsonntag) is the name given to the events of 17 July 1932 when a recruitment march by the Nazi SA led to violent clashes between the police, the SA and supporters of the Communist Party of Germany ...
of 17 July 1932. In
Altona, a town in Prussia adjacent to
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, there were violent clashes between supporters of the KPD, the NSDAP and members of the police that left 18 dead. It prompted the use on 20 July 1932 of an emergency decree, already prepared but not yet dated, entitled "Restoration of Public Safety and Order in the State of Prussia" (''Wiederherstellung der öffentlichen Sicherheit und Ordnung im Gebiet des Landes Preußen''). The members of the executive Prussian State Ministry were relieved of their posts, von Papen was appointed Reich Commissioner for Prussia, and
Franz Bracht
Clemens Emil Franz Bracht (23 November 1877 – 26 November 1933) was a German jurist and politician.
Born in Berlin, he studied law at the University of Würzburg and the University of Berlin. He joined the Centre Party (Germany), Centre Party a ...
of the Centre Party became his deputy. When von Papen asked Severing whether he was prepared to voluntarily vacate his post, he replied, "According to my understanding of the actions of the Reich government, I cannot think of voluntarily leaving my office. I will therefore yield only to force."
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1988-0113-500, Franz v](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1988-0113-500%2C_Franz_v._Papen.jpg)
A state of emergency was declared in Berlin and the
province of Brandenburg
The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...
. The police were placed under the command of General
Gerd von Rundstedt
Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt (12 December 1875 – 24 February 1953) was a German field marshal in the '' Heer'' (Army) of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Born into a Prussian family with a long military tradition, Rundstedt entered th ...
, and high-ranking leaders of the police were arrested. There was no active resistance, such as a general strike by the SPD and trade unions. The
Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold – a paramilitary force connected primarily to the SPD – was also not mobilized.
Von Papen and Bracht then began removing leading civil servants and other executives who were close to the parties of the Braun government and replacing them for the most part with conservative officials.
On the day of the
Prussian coup d'état, the caretaker government filed suit with the Reich Constitutional Court in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
.
Hermann Heller represented the SPD parliamentary group and
Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt (; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. A conservative theorist, he is noted as ...
the Reich government. On 25 October 1932 the court determined that the removal of the Prussian government had been illegal. The caretaker government was given the right to represent Prussia before the state's Parliament, the Council of State (''Staatsrat''), the
Reichsrat and the other states. The judges also ruled that a "temporary" appointment of Reich commissioners was constitutional. As a result, Prussia effectively had two governments: the Braun government, which had no access to the administrative apparatus, and the Reich commissioner's office that controlled the government resources that wielded power.
After the de facto dismissal of the Braun government, Joseph Goebbels summed up the situation in his diary: "The Reds have been eliminated. Their organizations offer no resistance.
..The Reds have had their great hour. They will never come again."
National Socialist era (1933–1945)
![Bundesarchiv Bild 102-01110, Berlin, Wahlpropaganda zur Landtagswahl](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-01110%2C_Berlin%2C_Wahlpropaganda_zur_Landtagswahl.jpg)
After the installation of Hitler's government on 30 January 1933, Hermann Göring became Reich Commissioner of the Interior for Prussia. In a departure from the previous arrangement, the office of Reich Commissioner itself was assumed not by the Reich Chancellor (Hitler) but by the Vice Chancellor, Franz von Papen. The replacement of politically undesirable officials was pushed forward more aggressively. The Prussian police force, subordinate to Göring, was an important element in enforcing National Socialist rule. The
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
grew out of the Prussian political police.
To clear the way for the dissolution of the Prussian Parliament, Minister President Braun was removed from office by emergency decree on 6 February. In accordance with the constitution, a three-member body consisting of von Papen, parliamentary president Hanns Kerrl and the chairman of the Council of State
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...
were to decide whether to dissolve Parliament. Adenauer opposed the move and left the negotiations. The two remaining members then decided on its dissolution.
The
Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933 led not only to the suspension of numerous fundamental rights and an intensification of the persecution of political opponents but also to a wide-ranging abolition of the powers of state governments.
The new Reich government pushed to end Braun's caretaker government. In the elections for the Prussian Parliament on 5 March, the NSDAP won the most votes at 43.2%. Although it did not achieve a majority, it made significant gains even in Catholic regions. Since the National Socialists, despite gains, did not have a majority in many cities even after the municipal elections of 12 March 1933, the takeover of power was achieved through political manipulation. The Prussian Municipal Constitution Act of 15 December 1933 replaced elected municipal parliaments with appointed municipal councils.
On 22 March 1933, the new Prussian Parliament was constituted. As in the Reich, the mandates of the Communist deputies were revoked and many of them arrested. As a result, the NSDAP had an absolute majority. The Parliament confirmed the dismissal of the Braun government, which officially resigned. The Parliament refrained from electing a new Minister President. The
''Gleichschaltung'' laws of 31 March and 7 April 1933 subordinated Prussia to the Reich. On 11 April Hitler appointed Göring Prussian Minister President, and the state Parliament met for the last time on 18 May 1933. It approved an
enabling act
An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it (for authorization or legitimacy) the power to take certain actions. For example, enabling acts often establish government agencies to carr ...
that transferred legislative power to the Reich Ministry of State. The SPD alone refused to go along. The act meant the final end of a democratic system in Prussia.
Under the Nazi regime, the structures of the states were increasingly eroded. The "First Ordinance for the Unification and Simplification of Administration" of 19 July 1934 (''Erste Verordnung zur Vereinheitlichung und Verbilligung der Verwaltung'') effectively merged state ministries with Reich ministries. In the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" (''Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reiches'') of 30 January 1934 and the "
Reich Governors Law" (''Reichsstatthaltergesetz'') of 30 January 1935, the states and the provinces of Prussia were dissolved in fact if not in law. The state governments were controlled by governors for the Reich who were appointed by the Chancellor. Hitler appointed himself Governor of Prussia, although the functions were exercised by Göring.
The new rulers were quite successful in appealing to Prussian traditions of discipline and devotion to the state. They were able to connect with trends of the 1920s from the right wing of the political spectrum in which the Prussia of
Frederick the Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...
and
Otto von Bismarck and their "Prussian socialism" were compared favorably to liberalism and social democracy. Prussian administrative efficiency was misused for coercive and terrorist rule. In the Prussian-influenced officer corps, few invoked Prussia to refuse serving Hitler.
A few changes were made to Prussian provinces under the Nazi regime. The Greater Hamburg Act of 1937 transferred some territory from the provinces of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein to Hamburg while at the same time annexing
Geesthacht
Geesthacht () is the largest city in the District of the Duchy of Lauenburg (Herzogtum Lauenburg) in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany, south-east of Hamburg on the right bank of the River Elbe.
History
A church was built in what is today ...
(part of Hamburg) and
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
to Schleswig-Holstein, as well as
Cuxhaven
Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...
(Hamburg) to the Province of Hanover. Other changes took place in 1939 involving cessions of suburban municipalities of Hanover to
Bremen and in return the annexation of
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
to the Province of Hanover.
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsh ...
(Hanover) was ceded to
Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to:
Places
*Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica
*Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany
**Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony
*Olde ...
.
The Prussian lands transferred to Poland after the Treaty of Versailles were reannexed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Most of the territory was not reintegrated into Prussia but assigned to separate territories of Nazi Germany.
Formal dissolution (1945–1947)
At the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in 1945, Germany was divided into
Zones of Occupation, and all of Germany east of the
Oder–Neisse line
The Oder–Neisse line (german: Oder-Neiße-Grenze, pl, granica na Odrze i Nysie Łużyckiej) is the basis of most of the international border between Germany and Poland from 1990. It runs mainly along the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers a ...
was ceded to other countries. As had been the case after World War I, almost all of the territory had been Prussian, although a small portion east of the new border had belonged to Saxony. Most of the land went to Poland, ostensibly as compensation for the
seizure of Poland's eastern territories by the Soviet Union. The northern third of East Prussia including
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...
(renamed
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
in 1946) was annexed by the Soviets. The losses represented nearly two-fifths of Prussian territory and nearly a quarter of the territory within Germany's pre-1938 borders. An estimated ten million Germans
fled or were forcibly expelled from the territories.
What remained of Prussia comprised both a little over half of the remaining German territory and a little over half of Prussia's pre-1914 territory.
Control Council Law No. 46 of 25 February 1947 explicitly decreed that Prussia should be dissolved.
The Allies cited Prussia's history of militarism as a reason for dissolving it. Its reconstitution was also opposed (if not for the same reasons) by powerful German postwar politicians, especially the first West German Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...
.
Post-war dismemberment
![Oder-neisse-line border](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Oder-neisse-line_border.gif)
After the Allied occupation of Germany in 1945, the provinces of Prussia were split up into the following territories/German states:
; Ceded to the Soviet Union: The northern third of
East Prussia. Today the
Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and admin ...
is a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland.
; Ceded to Poland: Everything east of the Oder
–Neisse line plus
Stettin. This included most of
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
, Eastern
Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
, the
Neumark
The Neumark (), also known as the New March ( pl, Nowa Marchia) or as East Brandenburg (), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945.
Call ...
region of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...
, all of
Posen-West Prussia
The Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia (german: Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen, pl, Marchia Graniczna Poznańsko-Zachodniopruska) was a province of Prussia from 1922 to 1938. Posen-West Prussia was established in 1922 as a province of the Free ...
, and the portion of
East Prussia not ceded to Russia.
; Placed under Soviet administration: The following states, after merging with other German states, were formed after the war, then abolished in 1952 and finally recreated following the
reunification of Germany in 1990:
*
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...
, from the remainder of the
Province of Brandenburg
The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...
.
*
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it th ...
, from the bulk of the
Province of Saxony. The remainder of the province became part of
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and lar ...
.
*
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...
: the remainder of the
Province of Pomerania (most of
Western Pomerania
Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania, Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania (german: Vorpommern), is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania forming the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, Weste ...
) merged into
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg (; nds, label= Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schweri ...
.
*
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
: the remainder of the
Province of Silesia
The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...
merged into
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
.
; Placed under Allied administration: The remainder of Prussia was merged with other German states to become the following states of
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
:
*
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
, from the province of
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
(under British administration).
*
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, from the province of
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
(under British administration).
*
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...
, from the province of
Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
and the northern half of the
Rhine Province (under British administration).
*
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
, from the southern part of the Rhine Province (under French administration).
*
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
, from the province of
Hesse-Nassau
The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944.
Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the ...
(under American administration).
*
Württemberg-Hohenzollern
Württemberg-Hohenzollern (french: Wurtemberg-Hohenzollern ) was a West German state created in 1945 as part of the French post-World War II occupation zone. Its capital was Tübingen. In 1952, it was merged into the newly founded state of Bad ...
, from the southern half of the former state of
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...
and the province of
Hohenzollern (under French administration). The state was ultimately merged with
Baden
Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine.
History
The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
and
Württemberg-Baden
Württemberg-Baden was a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was created in 1945 by the United States occupation forces, after the previous states of Baden and Württemberg had been split up between the US and French occupation zones. ...
to form
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
.
; Berlin: Divided into
East Berlin under Soviet administration and
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
under Allied sectors of administration (British, French and American). West Berlin was surrounded by East Germany and ultimately was enclosed by the
Berlin Wall. The two-halves were reunited after German reunification to form the modern German state of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
. A proposal to merge Berlin with the reformed state of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...
was rejected by popular vote in 1996.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Free State of Prussia (1918-1933)
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
1910s in Prussia
1920s in Prussia
1930s in Prussia
West Prussia
1918 establishments in Germany
1947 disestablishments in Germany
1918 establishments in Prussia
1947 disestablishments in Prussia
States and territories established in 1918
States and territories disestablished in 1947