Free State of Prussia

The Free State of Prussia (German: [Freistaat Preußen] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) was an internal territory of the former German Empire, established in 1918 per conventions of territorial simplification after the defeat of the First World War.

Free State of Prussia Freistaat Preußencode: de is deprecated
State of Germany
← 1918–1947 →   →   →
Flag (1918–1933)
The Free State of Prussia in 1925
Capital city		Berlin
Government		Republic
Reichsstatthaltercode: de is deprecated
-	1933–1935	Adolf Hitlercode: de is deprecated
-	1935–1945	Hermann Göringcode: de is deprecated
Minister-President
-	1918 (first)	Friedrich Ebertcode: de is deprecated
-	1933–1945 (last)	Hermann Göringcode: de is deprecated
Legislature		State Diet
-	Upper Chamber	State Council
-	Lower Chamber	House of Representatives
Historical era		Interwar/World War II
-	German Revolution	9 November 1918
-	Constitution adopted	30 November 1920
-	Preußenschlagcode: de is deprecated	20 July 1932
-	Machtergreifungcode: de is deprecated	30 January 1933
-	Reichsstatthaltergesetzcode: de is deprecated	30 January 1935
-	Formally abolished	25 February 1947
Area
-	1925	292,695.36 km2 (113,010 sq mi)
Population
-	1925	38,175,986
	Density	/km2  ( /sq mi)
Today part of		Germany Poland Russia Lithuania

Regarded still as the dominant state of the newly-founded Weimar Republic, the Free State retained the capital of Berlin. Boasting a mostly pro-republican seating, it was regarded as the beacon of democracy in post-war Germany – even proving much more stable than the Weimar itself. For most of the republic's presidency, the Prussian ministries provided a candidate via the early forms of the modern-day Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands).

With a crisis unfolding in the 1932 elections that converted the Weimar into the German Reich, the Prussian coup d'etat instigated by Reichskanzler Franz von Papen at the request of the Reich's president Paul von Hindenburg sealed the fate of the Free State upon total failure, destroying an obstacle for the aspiring politician Adolf Hitler – whom had campaigns ongoing – to reach his role of leadership over the Reich. Papen's goal had been to establish a "new state" that would preserve the monarchy lost after the war, instead, he had weakened the Federalist constitution that kept the Weimar to some level of stability.

The Freistaat remained under the leadership of Hermann Goering from 1933 to 1945. Upon the defeat of Nazi Germany and surrender of commanding forces to both Soviet and Western Allies, the entity remained existent until its dissolution, recognized legally, took place on February 25th, 1947.

Free State Of Prussia Media

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  Paul Hirsch, Prussian leader of the Majority SPD (MSPD)

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  SPD poster for the 1919 election to the constitutional Prussian State Assembly. It reads: "Women! Equal rights. Equal obligations. Vote Social Democratic!"

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  Otto Braun, who became the Free State of Prussia's longest serving Minister President.

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  • For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme.
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  Justice Minister Hugo am Zehnhoff

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  Black-red-gold flag of the Weimar Republic

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  Black-white-red flag of Imperial Germany

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  Anti-Nazi march of the SPD in Berlin, 1930. The sign reads: "Nazi victory will lead Germany to a civil war."

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  • For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme.
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  Nazi campaign posters in Berlin, 1932. They read: "Save my Prussia!" and "Break Red power through List 8".