People's State Of Hesse
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The People's State of Hesse () was one of the constituent states of
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
from 1918 to 1945, as the successor to the
Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...
() after the defeat of the
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, on the territory of the current German states of
Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
and the
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...
. The State was established after Grand Duke Ernest Louis was deposed on 9 November 1918. The term "People's State" referred to the fact that the new state was a
Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
(rather than implying that it was a
socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. This article is about states that refer to themselves as socialist states, and not specifically ...
) and was used in the same manner as the term Free State, which was employed by most of the other German States in this period. Like the Grand Duchy, the capital was
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...
and the state consisted of provinces Upper Hesse (, capital
Gießen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the German state () of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 university students. Th ...
), Starkenburg (capital
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...
) and
Rhenish Hesse Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (, ) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is ...
(, capital
Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
). The area of the state was 7,692 km²; it had 1,347,279 inhabitants in 1925. Around two-thirds professed
Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
, the other third were
Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
. Under the
Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich () of 30 January 1934, was a sweeping constitutional change to the structure of the German state by the government of Nazi Germany. It was one of the key pieces of legislation that served as the basis f ...
of 30 January 1934, the Nazi government abolished the People's State's Landtag and transferred sovereignty from the People's State to the Reich, converting Hesse into an administrative unit of the central government, though formally it retained some local government. After the German surrender in May 1945, at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Upper Hesse and Starkenburg formed part of the American occupation zone, while Rhenish Hesse, on the left bank of the
Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
, fell within the
French occupation zone The French occupation zone in Germany (, ) was one of the Allied-occupied areas in Germany after World War II. Background In the aftermath of the Second World War, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met at the Yalta C ...
. On September 19, 1945, American administrators merged the section of the People's State of Hesse with the
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n
provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...
of
Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
and Nassau and
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
to form Greater Hesse (). Greater Hesse was renamed
Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
on December 1, 1946, and later became one of the federal states of
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
. The parts of the state on the left bank of the Rhine became part of the new state of
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...
() on 30 August 1946.


History


Establishment

On 8 November 1918, some of the troops stationed in Darmstadt revolted. Grand Duke Ernest Louis reacted by appointing a State Council (), composed of the Grand Duke, his ministers, and two members drawn from each of the parties represented in the Grand Duchy's parliament. The left-leaning parties in this council called for the Grand Duke's abdication, but he refused, and was supported in this by the National Liberal representatives on the Council: and . The next day, the Darmstadt
Workers' and Soldiers' Council A workers' council, also called labour council, is a type of council in a workplace or a locality made up of workers or of temporary and instantly revocable delegates elected by the workers in a locality's workplaces. In such a system of poli ...
responded by declaring that the monarchy was abolished and entrusting Carl Ulrich, the leader of 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 Form ...
(SDP) in Hesse, with the task of forming a government. A transitional government composed of Carl Ulrich (SDP), (SPD), ( Progress Party) and (
Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
) was formed on 14 November. Although the republic had been unilaterally declared by the Workers' and Soldiers' Council, Carl Ulrich was a strong supporter of representative democracy. On 27 November, he instructed the state bureaucracy to accept instructions exclusively from the transitional government and not from the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils. At the same time, free elections were scheduled for 26 January 1919. On 10 December 1918, the ''Ordinance for the election of a constitutional convention for the Republic of Hesse'' was published in the Hessian government's
gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...
, along with some basic laws, drafted by Carl Ulrich.


Weimar Republic

In accordance with the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
, approximately 40% of the state's territory (in particular, Rhine Hesse and part of Starkenburg) was occupied by the
French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...
from January 1919 until June 30, 1930. In the first state elections on 26 January 1919, the SPD received 44.5% of the vote and Ulrich formed a second cabinet with the
German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party (, DDP) was a liberal political party in the Weimar Republic, considered centrist or centre-left. Along with the right-liberal German People's Party (, DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 19 ...
(DDP) and the Centre Party which took office in February. The state constitution came into force on 20 March 1920, and Ulrich continued in office as State-President (). The SDP was re-elected in 1921 (32.6%), 1924 (35.2%), and 1927 (32.6%) and maintained the same coalition. After celebrating his 75th birthday in office in 1928, Ulrich retired and was succeeded as State-President by fellow Social Democrat Bernhard Adelung. In the November 1931 elections, Adelung's coalition suffered a severe loss, winning only 37.1% of the vote (SDP: 21.4%, Centre: 14.3%; DDP: 1.4%). The
Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
won 37.1% of the vote and the Communist Party won 13.6%. As a result, it was not possible for any party to form a government and Adelung remained in place as head of a
caretaker government A caretaker government, also known as a caretaker regime, is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it co ...
. In a second election on 19 June 1932, the Nazi party increased their portion of the vote to 44%, but it remained impossible for any party to form a government. After the Nazi victory in the March 1933 federal election, they strongly demanded control of the State government. On 13 March, the Centre Party agreed to form a coalition with the Nazi party and became State President.


Nazification

The first step in the Nazification of the Free State was the appointment of Jakob Sprenger, the
Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...
of Gau Hesse-Nassau, as ('Reich lieutenant') of the State on 5 May 1933. Over the course of 1933, Sprenger reduced the government of the Free State through various ordinances and personnel decisions. Sprenger claimed the right to make such decisions even when his position as did not legitimately entitle him to do so. By the end of the year, he had reduced the number of ministers from five to one minister and a state secretary, and had reduced the number of ministerial (civil servants) from 40 to nine. All ministries were united into a single "Hessian State Ministry" () and Minister-President Werner lost the title of State President (). In the process, Spenger prevailed in a personal power battle with Minister-President Werner. Although Werner was a Nazi party member, he attempted to maintain a form of state administration which was more like the pre-Nazi form and he supported police commissioner Werner Best against the (SA). Above all, Werner fought against Sprenger's attempts to merge the Free State with the other territories of the Gau Hesse-Nassau (which were in the southern portion of the Prussian province of
Hesse-Nassau The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a Provinces of Prussia, 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 ...
). The conflict escalated when Sprenger sought to unite the four chambers of commerce within the Gau. Werner appealed directly to
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, but had no success. Finally, on 20 September 1933, Sprenger forced Werner to retire as Minister-President and appointed Philipp Wilhelm Jung in his place, who bore only the title of State Minister (). The
Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich () of 30 January 1934, was a sweeping constitutional change to the structure of the German state by the government of Nazi Germany. It was one of the key pieces of legislation that served as the basis f ...
of 30 January 1934 abolished the People's State's Landtag and transferred sovereignty from the People's State to the
Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...
. The state government was subordinated to the Reich government. The Reich government extended its constitutional authority over Hesse. Hesse ceased to possess independence and was henceforth a legal subject () of the central government, without the status of a state (), though formally it remained a self-governing unit. After Sprenger and Jung came into conflict with one another at the start of 1935, Hitler appointed Sprenger as the head of government in the People's State in the . The People's State was the second state of Germany, after the
Free State of Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
, in which the leadership of the local Nazi Gau had completely replaced the local state government. The deputy ''Gauleiter'' Heinrich Reiner became the State Secretary in Sprenger's State cabinet, which contained no other ministers. On 1 April 1937, Sprenger promulgated a law abolishing the provinces of Upper Hesse, Rhenish Hesse, and Starkenburg.


Post-War abolition

After the German surrender in May 1945, at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the
Rhine river The Rhine ( ) is one of the major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Swiss-Austrian border. From Lake Cons ...
formed the boundary between the French and American occupation zones, meaning that Rhenish Hesse was in the French zone, while the rest of the state lay in the American Zone. On 14 April 1945, Ludwig Bergsträsser was entrusted by the US military government with the task of building a regional administration, as Chairman of a "German Government" () based in Darmstadt (his title was changed to "President" on 8 May 1945). Around the beginning of August, Bergsträsser's authority was extended over the whole of the former provinces of Starkenburg and Upper Hesse and his administration was renamed as the "German Government of the State of Hesse" (). After the proclamation of Greater Hesse by the American military administration on 19 September 1945, the Darmstadt-based "German government" was renamed the "Government President of Hesse" () on 4 November 1945, and finally the "Government President of Darmstadt" () on 21 January 1946. Thus the People's State became the
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...
within the State of Hesse. Rhine-Hesse and the modern-day
Westerwaldkreis The Westerwaldkreis ("District of Westerwald") is a district (''Kreis'') in the north-east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighbouring districts are (from north clockwise) Altenkirchen (district), Altenkirchen, Lahn-Dill, Limburg-Weilburg, Rhein ...
and
Rhein-Lahn-Kreis Rhein-Lahn-Kreis is a district (''Kreis'') in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Westerwaldkreis, Limburg-Weilburg, Rheingau-Taunus, Mainz-Bingen, Rhein-Hunsrück, Mayen-Koblenz, and the ...
became part of the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...
in 1946, as the (merged with the Rhenish Palatinate to create the in 1968, which was disbanded in 2000) and Montabaur (merged into the Koblenz Regierungsbezirk in 1968, which was disbanded in 2000) ''Regierungsbezirken''.


Politics


Constitution

After the proclamation of the People's State on 9 November 1918, the first
Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...
was elected on 26 January 1919. This parliament enacted a preliminary constitution for the new state on 20 February and began a process of consultations in the Landtag, which served as a constitutional convention. The final constitution of the state was promulgated on 12 December 1919. It was subsequently altered three times: * Law of 4 November 1924 * Law of 27 September 1927 * Law of 28 March 1930


Landtag

Under Article 17 ff. of the constitution, the Landtag consisted of seventy members, who were elected by
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...
for a three year term. The minimum age for election was twenty-five. All male citizens over the age of twenty had the right to vote. The tasks of the Landtag were: legislating, passing a
budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...
, electing the Minister-president ("Staatspräsident"), and confirming the selection of ministers. Under the Law on the Renovation of the Reich of 30 January 1934, the Landtag was abolished. The seat of the Landtag was the Ständehaus on Luisenplatz in Darmstadt. The structure had been built between 1836 and 1839 and was destroyed during the Second World War. The site is now occupied by the main office of the .


Government

Under Article 37 of the Hessian constitution, the Minister-President had the title of State-President ("Staatspräsident") and the cabinet was known as the "Entire Ministry" ("Gesamtministerium"). Under the Provisional Law and Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich of 31 March and 7 April 1933 and the Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich of 30 January 1934, the sovereignty of the German states was ended. After that, the state government's functions were mostly taken over by the regional branch of the Nazi Party, Gau Hesse-Nassau, which also controlled the neighbouring Nassau province of Prussia, and the position of Minister-President was held by the
Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...
from 1935.


Administrative divisions

The People's State inherited the Grand Duchy of Hesse's division into three provinces: Starkenburg, Rhenish Hesse, and Upper Hesse, which were themselves divided into a total of eighteen '' Kreise'' ("districts"). The state's territory also included eight exclaves of
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...
and Prussia, and there were eleven Hessian enclaves within Baden. After the abolition of provincial and district councils in 1936, the provinces were eliminated in 1937. In 1938, there was a comprehensive reform at the district level. The districts of Bensheim, Schotten, and Oppenheim were abolished on 1 November 1938, reducing the total number of districts to fifteen. At the same time, the cities of Darmstadt, Giessen, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, and Worms were made independent ''Stadtkreise'' ("urban districts"). From 1 January 1939, all ''Kreise'' were renamed ''Landkreise'' ("rural districts").§ 4 der Dritten Verordnung über den Neuaufbau des Reichs vom 28. November 1938 (RGBl. I S. 1675)
/ref> This arrangement of the districts remained in place until the end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in 1945.


References


Bibliography

* *


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse, People's State of States of the Weimar Republic Former states and territories of Rhineland-Palatinate Former states and territories of Hesse