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.

[2] Following their seizure of power at the national level, the Nazi government embarked on a policy of Gleichschaltung (coordination) by which they intended to eliminate any potential sources of opposition in the states.

On 8 March 1933, Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick appointed Kurt Matthaei as the Nazi Reichskommissar to take direct control of police functions in Schaumburg-Lippe.

By this means, the Nazi Party secured a working majority in the Schaumburg-Lippe Landtag and installed Hans-Joachim Riecke as the head of government on 1 April.

With that, Schaumburg-Lippe effectively lost its rights as a federal state, though it continued to exist as an administrative unit of the Reich until the fall of the Nazi regime.