The States of the Weimar Republic were the first-level administrative divisions and constituent states of the German Reich during the Weimar Republic era. The states were established in 1918 following the German Revolution upon the conclusion of World War I, and based on the 22 constituent states of the German Empire that abolished their local monarchies. The new states continued as republics alongside the three pre-existing republican city-states within the new Weimar Republic, adopting the titles Freistaat ("Free State") or Volksstaat ("People's State").
Germany suffered significant territorial losses from the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, and some states had their borders altered by international border changes. In 1920, the state of Thuringia was formed from the former Ernestine duchies that continued briefly as republics before merging, except for Saxe-Coburg, which became part of Bavaria. Additionally, the Saar Basin and the city of Danzig were detached from Germany and placed under the administration of the League of Nations.
The states of the Weimar Republic were effectively abolished after the establishment of Nazi Germany in 1933 by a series of laws and decrees between 1933 and 1935, and autonomy was replaced by direct rule of the National Socialist German Workers' Party in the Gleichschaltung process. The states continued to formally exist as de jure bodies, but from 1934 were superseded by de facto Nazi Party administrative units called Gaue . Many of the states were formally dissolved at the end of World War II by the Allies, and ultimately re-organised into the modern states of Germany.
In July 1932, the government of Prussia, by far the largest of the German states, had already been taken over by the Reich in the Preußenschlag under then Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen. Following the Nazi seizure of power, they sought to gain direct control over all the remaining states after winning the general election of March 1933. The independent state governments and parliaments were successively abolished, and the Reich government took over direct control in a process called Gleichschaltung ("coordination").
Barely a week after the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933, which effectively made Adolf Hitler the dictator of Germany, the Nazi government issued the Provisional Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich (German : Vorläufiges Gesetz und Zweites Gesetz zur Gleichschaltung der Länder mit dem Reich) on 31 March 1933. This law dissolved the duly-elected sitting state parliaments of the German states except for the Prussian parliament which the Nazis already controlled. It then reconstituted them based on the electoral results of the 5 March 1933 election, except that the seats won by the Communist Party were expressly excluded. This law essentially nullified the results of the most recent state parliamentary elections and effectively installed a working majority for the Nazis in each state.
A week later, the Nazi government issued the Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich (German : Zweites Gesetz zur Gleichschaltung der Länder mit dem Reich) on 7 April 1933. This law created the office of Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) and deployed one in each state. The Reich Governors were given the task of overseeing the fulfillment of Hitler's political guidelines in the states. Indeed, the law required them to carry out "the general policy of the Chancellor." In practice, they acted as proconsuls with complete authority over the state governments. They were empowered to dissolve the state parliaments, preside over the state government and appoint and dismiss ministers, judges and other state officials. In Prussia, Hitler himself was designated by the law as Reichstatthalter. However, he delegated his authority to Hermann Göring, whom he installed as Prussian minister president on 11 April 1933 without an election. The Prussian provinces were similarly administered by an appointed Oberpräsident, usually the local Nazi Party Gauleiter .
The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich (German : Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs), passed on 30 January 1934, formally de-federalized the Reich for the first time in its history. However, Germany already had effectively become a highly centralized state with the passage of the Enabling Act and the posting of the Reich Governors. This law transferred the states' sovereignty to the Reich, and their parliaments were formally abolished. The Reich Governors were made responsible to the Reich Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick. The Law on the Abolition of the Reichsrat (German : Gesetz über die Aufhebung des Reichsrats), issued on 14 February 1934, formally abolished the upper chamber of the Reich parliament, which represented the states in the formation of national legislation. For all intents and purposes, the states were reduced to mere administrative units of the Reich government.
The Reich Governors Law (German : Reichsstatthaltergesetz) of 30 January 1935 formally designated the Reich Governors as the representatives of the Reich government, appointed to watch over the execution of the political guidelines issued by the Führer und Reichskanzler (Hitler). They received the authority to "inform" the provincial authorities about the guidelines and the measures to fulfill them. The Reichsstatthalter were now also empowered to take over all functions of state government. They also appointed the mayors of all towns and cities with populations fewer than 100,000. This had the effect of giving the Reich Interior Ministry near-complete control over local government. The Interior Minister appointed the mayors of all cities with populations greater than 100,000 (though Hitler reserved the right to appoint the mayors of Berlin and Hamburg himself if he deemed it necessary) and, as mentioned above, the Reich Governors were responsible to him.
After the Anschluss ("union") with Germany, Austria, renamed Ostmark, became the first of a new type of administrative subdivision called a Reichsgau (not to be confused with Nazi Party Gaue ). Austria's last pre-war chancellor Arthur Seyss-Inquart became its first Reichsstatthalter. However, with the promulgation of the Ostmarkgesetz on 1 May 1939, the former States of Austria were reorganized into seven new Reichsgaue, each under the rule of a government official holding the dual offices of Reichsstatthalter (governor) and Gauleiter (Nazi Party leader). Generally, these positions were occupied by the last state premier.
The names of these new Reichsgaue were sometimes different and there were some differences in borders. The former states of Burgenland and Vorarlberg were dissolved. The Reichsgaue were as follows:
Subsequently, additional Reichsgaue were added as Germany invaded more European territories before and during World War II. These included:
State | Full name | Capital | Established | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anhalt | Free State of Anhalt Freistaat Anhalt | Dessau | 1918 | Merged into Saxony-Anhalt in 1945 |
Baden | Republic of Baden Republik Baden | Karlsruhe | 1918 | Split into Württemberg-Baden and South Baden in 1945 |
Bavaria | Free State of Bavaria Freistaat Bayern | Munich | 1919 | |
Brunswick | Free State of Brunswick Freistaat Braunschweig | Braunschweig | 1918 | Split and merged into Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in 1946 |
Coburg | Free State of Coburg Freistaat Coburg | Coburg | 1918–20 | Merged into Bavaria in 1920 |
Gotha | Free State of Gotha Freistaat Gotha | Gotha | 1918–1920 | Merged into Thuringia in 1920 |
Hesse | People's State of Hesse Volksstaat Hessen | Darmstadt | 1918 | Split into Greater Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate in 1945 |
Lippe | Free State of Lippe Freistaat Lippe | Detmold | 1918 | Merged into North Rhine-Westphalia in 1947 |
Mecklenburg-Schwerin | Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Freistaat Mecklenburg-Schwerin | Schwerin | 1918 | Merged into Mecklenburg in 1933 |
Mecklenburg-Strelitz | Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Freistaat Mecklenburg-Strelitz | Neustrelitz | 1918 | Merged into Mecklenburg in 1933 |
Oldenburg | Free State of Oldenburg Freistaat Oldenburg | Oldenburg | 1918 | Split into Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Rhineland-Palatinate in 1946 |
Prussia | Free State of Prussia Freistaat Preußen | Berlin | 1918 | Abolished in 1947 |
Saxony | Free State of Saxony Freistaat Sachsen | Dresden | 1918 | |
Reuss | People's State of Reuss Volksstaat Reuß | Gera | 1918–20 | Merged into Thuringia in 1920 |
Schaumburg-Lippe | Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe Freistaat Schaumburg-Lippe | Bückeburg | 1918 | Merged into Lower Saxony in 1946 |
Thuringia | Free State of Thuringia Freistaat Thüringen | Erfurt | 1920 | Formed from the merger of the Free States of Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and the People's State of Reuss |
Saxe-Altenburg | Free State of Saxe-Altenburg Freistaat Sachsen-Altenburg | Altenburg | 1918–20 | Merged into Thuringia in 1920 |
Saxe-Meiningen | Free State of Saxe-Meiningen Freistaat Sachsen-Meiningen | Meiningen | 1918–20 | Merged into Thuringia in 1920 |
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach | Free State of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Freistaat Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach | Weimar | 1918–20 | Merged into Thuringia in 1920 |
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt | Free State of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Freistaat Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt | Rudolstadt | 1918–20 | Merged into Thuringia in 1920 |
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen | Free State of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Freistaat Schwarzburg-Sondershausen | Sondershausen | 1918–20 | Merged into Thuringia in 1920 |
Waldeck-Pyrmont | Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont Freistaat Waldeck-Pyrmont | Arolsen | 1918–29 | Pyrmont merged into Prussia in 1921; Waldeck merged into Prussia in 1929 |
Württemberg | Free People's State of Württemberg Freier Volksstaat Württemberg | Stuttgart | 1918 | Split into Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern in 1945 |
State | Full name | Capital | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Bremen | Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen Freie Hansestadt Bremen | Bremen | |
Hamburg | Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg | Hamburg | |
Lübeck | Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck Freie und Hansestadt Lübeck | Lübeck | Merged into Prussia in 1937 |
After World War I, the Saar Basin was occupied and governed jointly by the United Kingdom and France from 1920 to 1935 under a League of Nations mandate. [1] After a plebiscite was held in January 1935, the region was returned to Germany. [2]
In accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, the city of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) was detached from Germany on 15 November 1920 and turned into a semi-autonomous city-state under the protection of the League of Nations. [3] [4] The Treaty stated that it was to remain separate from both Germany and the newly independent Poland, but was not its own sovereign state. [5] After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the city's autonomous status was revoked and it was annexed by Germany.
The Nazi term Gleichschaltung or "coordination" was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied by Nazi Germany "from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture and education". Although the Weimar Constitution remained nominally in effect until Germany's surrender following World War II, near total Nazification had been secured by the 1935 resolutions approved during the Nuremberg Rally, when the symbols of the Nazi Party and the state were fused and German Jews were deprived of their citizenship.
Wilhelm Frick was a prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), who served as Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia was an administrative division of Nazi Germany created on 8 October 1939 from annexed territory of the Free City of Danzig, the Greater Pomeranian Voivodship, and the Regierungsbezirk West Prussia of Gau East Prussia.
The Provinces of Prussia were the main administrative divisions of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. Prussia's province system was introduced in the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms in 1815, and were mostly organized from duchies and historical regions. Provinces were divided into several Regierungsbezirke, sub-divided into Kreise (districts), and then into Gemeinden (townships) at the lowest level. Provinces constituted the highest level of administration in the Kingdom of Prussia and Free State of Prussia until 1933, when Nazi Germany established de facto direct rule over provincial politics, and were formally abolished in 1946 following World War II. The Prussian provinces became the basis for many federal states of Germany, and the states of Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein are direct successors of provinces.
The Reichsrat of the Weimar Republic was the de facto upper house of Germany's parliament; the lower house was the popularly elected Reichstag. The Reichsrat's members were appointed by the German state governments to represent their interests in the legislation and administration of the nation at the federal level. Its powers were relatively limited, making it considerably weaker than its predecessor, the Bundesrat of the German Empire (1871–1918). It could introduce legislation for the Reichstag to consider and veto laws that it passed, but the vetoes could be overridden. The Reichsrat also played a role in administering and implementing Reich laws.
Ostmark was a name that referred historically to the Margraviate of Austria, a medieval frontier march. It was also used in Nazi propaganda from 1938 to 1942 to refer to the formerly independent Federal State of Austria after the Anschluss with Nazi Germany. From the Anschluss until 1939, the official name used was Land Österreich.
A Reichsgau was an administrative subdivision created in a number of areas annexed by Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945.
Gau is a Germanic term for a region within a country, often a former or current province. It was used in the Middle Ages, when it can be seen as roughly corresponding to an English shire. The administrative use of the term was revived as a subdivision during the period of Nazi Germany in 1933–1945. It still appears today in regional names, such as the Rheingau or Allgäu.
The Reichsstatthalter was a title used in the German Empire and later in Nazi Germany.
The Gaue were the main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.
The Free State of Prussia was one of the constituent states of Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it continued to be the dominant state in Germany during the Weimar Republic, 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 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 (SPD) provided the Minister President. 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.
The Republic of Baden was a German state that existed during the time of the Weimar Republic, formed after the abolition of the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1918. It is now part of the modern German state of Baden-Württemberg.
The Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe was created following the abdication of Prince Adolf II of Schaumburg-Lippe on 15 November 1918, following the German Revolution. It was a state in Germany during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. The democratic government was suppressed during Nazi rule. At the end of the Second World War, the British military occupation government decreed on 1 November 1946 the union of Schaumburg-Lippe, Hannover, Braunschweig and Oldenburg to form the new state of Lower Saxony.
The territorial evolution of Germany in this article include all changes in the modern territory of Germany from its unification making it a country on 1 January 1871 to the present although the history of "Germany" as a territorial polity concept and the history of the ethnic Germans are much longer and much more complex. Modern Germany was formed when the Kingdom of Prussia unified most of the German states, with the exception of multi-ethnic Austria, into the German Empire. After the First World War, on 10 January 1920, Germany lost about 13% of its territory to its neighbours, and the Weimar Republic was formed two days before this war was over. This republic included territories to the east of today's German borders.
The Free State of Lippe was created following the abdication of Prince Leopold IV of the Principality of Lippe on 15 November 1918, following the German Revolution. It was a state in Germany during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. After the end of the Second World War, the Control Commission for Germany – British Element (CCG/BE) abolished the state of Lippe in January 1947 and incorporated it into the new German state of North Rhine-Westphalia that had been created three months earlier.
The Free State of Oldenburg was a federated state that existed during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. It was established in 1918 following the abdication of the Grand Duke Frederick Augustus II after the German Revolution and was abolished by the Allies following the Second World War.
Chief of Civil Administration was an office introduced in Nazi Germany, operational during World War II. Its task was to administer civil issues according to occupation law, with the primary purpose being the support of the military command in the operational areas of the German Army. CdZ would pass his authority to a corresponding civil government after the territory in question became in the rear of the operating armed forces.
The Provisional Law and Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich were two laws enacted by the German government of Adolf Hitler to expand its control over the seventeen German states (länder). The Provisional (First) Law dissolved all the sitting landtage, except for that of Prussia, and reconstituted them in accordance with the results of the recent parliamentary election of 5 March 1933, which had given the Nazi Party and its coalition partner, the German National People's Party (DNVP), a majority of the Reichstag seats. The Second Law established the new powerful position of Reichsstatthalter appointed by the central government to effectively take control of each state administration. The effect of these laws was to undermine the power and influence of all political parties other than the Nazis and the DNVP, and to move Germany significantly away from being a federal republic and put it on a path to becoming a unitary state.
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 for the policy of Gleichschaltung, or coordination, by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successfully established their totalitarian control over all aspects of the German government and society. The law abolished the independent parliaments (Landtage) of the then-extant 16 German states, transferred the states' sovereignty to the central government and essentially converted Germany from a federal republic to a unitary state.
The Law on the Abolition of the Reichsrat was a measure enacted by the government of Nazi Germany on 14 February 1934 that abolished the second chamber of the German parliament.