Free State of Prussia

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.

Prussia had thus de facto ceased to exist before the Nazi Party seized power in 1933, even though a Prussian government under Hermann Göring continued to function formally until 1945.

[3] On the same day, Prince Maximilian transferred the office of Reich Chancellor to Friedrich Ebert, the chairman of the Majority SPD (MSPD), which was the largest party in the Reichstag.

On 12 November 1918 commissioners from the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils of Greater Berlin, including Paul Hirsch, Otto Braun (MSPD) and Adolph Hoffmann (USPD), appeared before the last Deputy Minister President of Prussia, Robert Friedberg.

In a letter to the Cardinal of Cologne Felix von Hartmann, 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.

[10] The Christmas Eve fighting 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 (USPD) as Berlin's police chief triggered the failed Spartacist Uprising of 5–12 January 1919 that attempted to turn the direction of the revolution towards the founding a communist state.

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.

After the 1932 Prussian coup d'état, which replaced Prussia's legal government by Franz von Papen as Reich Commissioner, the Ministry of Welfare in its old form was dissolved.

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.

In the March 1933 Reichstag elections, the NSDAP had above-average strength in constituencies such as East Prussia (56.5%), Frankfurt an der Oder (55.2%), Liegnitz (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.

In addition to supporters of the conservative parties, they included the Social Democratic governors August Winnig (East Prussia) and Felix Philipp (Lower Silesia).

[56]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.

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.

On the basis of the Reich Law for the Protection of the Republic (Gesetz zum Schutze der Republik),[60] which was strongly supported by the Prussian government, Interior Minister Severing banned the Nazi Party in Prussia on 15 November 1922.

[61] 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.

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.

The major political crises of 1923, such as Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria and the attempt at a communist revolution, the so-called "German October" in central Germany, took place outside Prussia.

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.

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.

Under pressure from Joseph Stalin 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.

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.

Behind the scenes, the cabinet of Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen exerted pressure for the quick election of a new Minister President based on cooperation between the NSDAP and the Centre.

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).

[84] The members of the executive Prussian State Ministry were relieved of their posts, von Papen was appointed Reich Commissioner for Prussia, and Franz Bracht of the Centre Party became his deputy.

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.

In accordance with the constitution, a three-member body consisting of von Papen, parliamentary president Hanns Kerrl and the chairman of the State Council Konrad Adenauer were to decide whether to dissolve Parliament.

It would consist, ex officio, of the Prussian cabinet ministers and state secretaries, as well as hand-picked Nazi Party officials and other industry and society leaders selected solely by Göring.

Moreover, growing tensions between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union eventually resulted in the Prussian territories west of the Oder-Neisse line being further divided by what became known as the inner German border.

Paul Hirsch , Prussian leader of the Majority SPD (MSPD)
SPD poster for the 1919 election to the constitutional Prussian State Assembly. It reads: "Women! Equal rights. Equal obligations. Vote Social Democratic!"
Otto Braun , who became the Free State of Prussia's longest serving Minister President.
Carl Severing
Justice Minister Hugo am Zehnhoff
Black-red-gold flag of the Weimar Republic
Black-white-red flag of Imperial Germany
Black-white-red flag of Imperial Germany
Anti-Nazi march of the SPD in Berlin, 1930. The sign reads: "Nazi victory will lead Germany to a civil war."
Franz von Papen
Nazi campaign posters in Berlin, 1932. They read: "Save my Prussia!" and "Break Red power through List 8".
Service flag of Prussia, 1933–1935
German territorial losses in the east following World War II. All areas on the map except for Saxony and Mecklenburg had been part of the Free State of Prussia.