Provinces of Prussia
The Provinces of Prussia (
History
Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the various German states gained nominal sovereignty. However, the reunification process that culminated in the creation of the German Empire in 1871, produced a country that was constituted of several principalities and dominated by one of them, the Kingdom of Prussia after it had ultimately defeated its Austrian rival. Its territory covered some 60 percent of the territory that was to become the German Reich.
German Confederation
The German Confederation was established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the Kingdom of Prussia was a member until the dissolution in 1866 following the Austro-Prussian War.
The Prussian state was initially subdivided into ten provinces. The Prussian government appointed the heads of each province known as Oberpräsident (i.e. High Commissioner). The Oberpräsident represented the Prussian government in the province, and was busy with implementing and supervising central prerogatives of the Prussian government. The provinces of Prussia were further subdivided into government districts (
Western Provinces:
- Jülich-Cleves-Berg (Cologne), until 1822; regions: Cleves [till 1821], Cologne and Düsseldorf
- Lower Rhine (Koblenz), Grand Duchy, until 1822; regions: Aachen , Coblentz and Trier
- Saxony (Magdeburg); regions: Erfurt , Magdeburg and Merseburg
- Minden and Münster
In 1822 the Rhine Province was created from the merger of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg provinces.
Eastern Provinces (East Elbia):
- Frankfurt and Potsdam]
- Pomerania (Stettin); regions: Köslin, Stettin and Stralsund
- Posen (Posen), Grand Duchy of Posen until 1848; regions: Bromberg and Posen
- Silesia (Breslau); regions: Breslau, Liegnitz, Oppeln and Reichenbach [till 1820]
- West Prussia (Danzig); regions: Danzig and Marienwerder
In 1829 the
- Province of Prussia (Königsberg in Prussia); regions: Danzig, Gumbinnen, Königsberg and Marienwerder
In 1850 the Province of Hohenzollern in Southern Germany, was created from the annexed principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
- Hohenzollern (Sigmaringen); region: Sigmaringen
In 1866, following the Austro-Prussian War, Prussia annexed several German States that had been allied with Austria and, together with previously occupied Danish territory, organized them into three new provinces:
- Hanover (Hanover; constituted from the Kingdom of Hanover); regions: Aurich , Hanover, Hildesheim , Lüneburg, Osnabrück and Stade
- Hesse-Nassau (Kassel; constituted from the Free City of Frankfurt upon Main, Electorate of Hesse, Hesse-Homburg and the Duchy of Nassau); regions: Kassel and Wiesbaden
- Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel; constituted from the Duchy of Holstein and the Duchy of Schleswig); regions: Holstein (till 1868) and Schleswig; in 1876 Saxe-Lauenburg, a separate German state, was merged in.
German Empire
The outcome of the Austro-Prussian War put an end to the aspirations of a
From 1875 the provinces were bodies combining regional home rule through representatives delegated from each rural and urban
In 1881 the final province of the Kingdom of Prussia was established when Berlin was separated from Brandenburg.
- Berlin (On 1 April 1881 the city was separated from Brandenburg to become a city-province. Its lord mayor (German: Oberbürgermeister) carried out the duties of a Landesdirektor in the other provinces, while the city council doubled as the provincial committee. The Prussian government-appointed chief of police (German: Polizeipräsident in Berlin) served as the High Commissioner of Berlin.[1])
In 1918 following World War I the German Empire was dissolved and replaced by the Weimar Republic. The following were the existing Prussian provinces:
- Berlin
- Frankfurt and Potsdam]
- East Prussia (Königsberg in Prussia); regions: Allenstein (as of 1905), Gumbinnen and Königsberg
- Hanover (Hanover;); regions: Aurich , Hanover, Hildesheim , Lüneburg, Osnabrück and Stade
- Hohenzollern (Sigmaringen); region: Sigmaringen
- Pomerania (Stettin); regions: Köslin, Stettin and Stralsund
- Posen (Posen); regions: Bromberg and Posen
- Rhineland (Düsseldorf as to provincial self-rule, Koblenz as to High Commissioner offices); regions: Aachen , Cologne, Düsseldorf, Koblenz and Trier
- Saxony (Magdeburg); regions: Erfurt , Magdeburg and Merseburg
- Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel;); regions: Holstein (till 1868) and Schleswig
- Silesia (Breslau); regions: Breslau, Liegnitz and Oppeln
- Minden and Münster
- West Prussia (Danzig;); regions: Danzig and Marienwerder
Weimar Republic
After the fall of the German Empire the Kingdom of Prussia was reconstituted with a republican government as the Free State of Prussia. The Free State promoted the democratisation of the provinces, the provincial parliaments (Provinziallandtage) were elected in direct elections by the voters, unlike before when elected county councillors chose from their midst members for the provincial parliaments.
Prussia had to cede virtually all territory belonging to the provinces of
Following the
The following is a summary of the changes in the Prussian provinces between 1919 and 1945:
- Berlin (in 1920 the city was considerably extended (Prussian Greater Berlin Act) at the expense of Brandenburg)
- Frankfurt and Potsdam]
- (1922-1939)
- Hanover (Hanover; in 1921 Pyrmont, previously a district of the Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont, was merged in); regions: Aurich , Hanover, Hildesheim , Lüneburg, Osnabrück and Stade
- Free State of Waldeck, previously a German state of its own, was merged in); regions: Kassel and Wiesbaden. In July 1944, the province was partitioned into two new provinces along the lines of its regions: the Province of Kurhessen (Kassel); region: Kassel; and the Province of Nassau (Wiesbaden); region: Wiesbaden.
- Hohenzollern (Sigmaringen); region: Sigmaringen
- Lower Silesia (Breslau; merged with the Province of Upper Silesia to form the unified Province of Silesia between 1938 and 1941); regions: Breslau and Liegnitz
- Posen-West Prussia (as of 1938) and Stralsund(till 1932)
- West Prussia that had not been ceded to Poland, the province was dissolved in 1938 with its territory being mainly incorporated into Pomerania, and two exclaves into Brandenburg and Silesia.); region: Schneidemühl]
- Rhineland (Düsseldorf as to provincial self-rule, Koblenz as to High Commissioner offices); regions: Aachen , Cologne, Düsseldorf, Koblenz and Trier
- Province of Halle-Merseburg (Merseburg)
- Northern Schleswig was ceded to Denmark); region: Schleswig
- Upper Silesia (Oppeln [1919-1938], Kattowitz [1941-1945]; merged with the Province of Lower Silesia to form the unified Province of Silesia between 1938 and 1941); region: Oppeln
- Minden and Münster
Prussia did not survive the defeat and the division of Germany following the end of World War II in 1945 and was formally abolished in February 1947 by Control Council Law No. 46. Several of its provinces attained statehood or became a part of other post-war states in East Germany and West Germany.
References
- ^ Cf. Meyers großes Konversations-Lexikon: 20 vols. – completely new ed. and ext. ed., Leipzig and Vienna: Bibliographisches Institut, 1903-08, here vol. 2, article 'Berlin', p 700. No ISBN
- ^ Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich Retrieved 11 March 2022.
- ^ "Law on the Abolition of the Reichsrat" (in German). Retrieved 21 March 2023.