Reichsstatthalter

The office of Statthalter des Reiches (otherwise known as Reichsstatthalter) was instituted in 1879 by the German Empire for the areas of Alsace (Elsaß) and Lorraine (Lothringen) that France had ceded to Germany following the Franco-Prussian War.

The governors' main authorities lay in: In Prussia, the largest of the German states, Hitler took direct control by appointing himself as Reichsstatthalter.

[citation needed] However, he delegated his authority to Hermann Göring, who had been installed as Minister President of Prussia without an election.

However, Germany had effectively become a highly centralized state with the passage of the Enabling Act and the posting of the Reich Governors.

After Austria's Anschluss ("union") with Germany, its last pre-Anschluss Chancellor, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, became its first Reichsstatthalter and Führer der Österreichischen Landesregierung (Leader of the Austrian State Government) from 15 March 1938 to 30 April 1939.

The states of Germany during the Weimar Republic. Waldeck-Pyrmont joined Prussia in 1929; the Saar territory was a League of Nations protectorate until 1935, Danzig was a city-state independent from Germany.
The (de facto abolished) states and annexed areas of Nazi Germany, 1944.