Throughout most of the Republic's fourteen-year life, the Social Democratic Party was the dominant political force in Anhalt, and it saw relatively little of the violence that flared up in other parts of Weimar-era Germany.

Its members were elected on the basis of census tax provisions which excluded poorer citizens or reduced the weight of their votes.

[2] During the reign of Duke Friedrich II (1904–1918), the House of Ascania kept a relatively low profile, did not maintain a lavish court and was not involved in day-to day-politics, all qualities which helped its standing among Anhalt's working class.

At the national level, the radical anti-war faction of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) split off to form the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) in April 1917 and went on to lead the massive strike of January 1918, but in Anhalt there was still only one very small local chapter of the USPD when the German revolution broke out in November 1918.

It sent representatives to the Landtag for the first time in 1902,[5] and in February 1918 it backed the liberal Fritz Hesse [de] in his successful campaign for mayor of Dessau against the conservative Ernst von Ebeling.

[6] Duke Friedrich avoided making chauvinistic statements or patriotic calls to persevere in the face of the adversity of the war years.

[7] On 6 November, when the German revolution of 1918–1919 had already swept over much of Germany, Anhalt's National Liberal and SPD leaders asked Prince Regent Aribert to replace the conservative state minister Ernst von Laue with Max Gutknecht [de] and to democratize local elections.

The abdication was a result of the situation in the rest of Germany, where ruling houses in other states were already falling, rather than of anything that had occurred in Anhalt.

[18] The SPD, in spite of having an absolute majority in the assembly, chose to form a coalition with the DDP in order to have a broader basis for writing the constitution for the Free State of Anhalt.

[20] Following are its key provisions: Wolfgang Heine replaced Heinrich Deist of the SPD as head of the Council of State when the constitution came into effect.

Following the Landtag election of May 1932 in which the Nazi Party won 15 of 36 seats, it formed a coalition with the DNVP, and Anhalt became the first German state with a Nazi-led government.

[22][27] In the opinion of Anhalt historian Ralf Regener:As paradoxical as it may initially seem, it can be said that the phase of continuity and stability in Anhalt during the Weimar Republic favored the premature and comprehensive seizure of power by the National Socialists, since ... the radicalization potential of regional society was simply not taken seriously enough [when viewed] from a position thought to be secure.

The strike ended on 8 March after the government in Berlin promised an expansion of co-determination and the formation of industrial works councils.

[29][30] During the 1920 Kapp Putsch, armed conflicts broke out in Dessau, where on 16 March five people who were taking part in a protest against a newspaper that had supported the putschists were killed.

[31][32] The final revolutionary action in Anhalt occurred on 21 August 1920 in Köthen when communists took over the city hall, police building, post office and train station.

On 1 April 1925 the famous Bauhaus art and architectural school moved to Dessau from Weimar, but it relocated to Berlin in 1932 after the Nazis took over the government in Anhalt.

A follow-up law on 7 April installed Wilhelm Loeper as Reichsstatthalter for Brunswick and Anhalt, with his office in Dessau.