Free State of Prussia

The Free State of Prussia (German: Freistaat Preußen, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ^ⓘ) was one of the constituent states of Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it continued to be the dominant state in Germany during the Weimar Republic, as it had been during the empire, even though most of Germany's post-war territorial losses in Europe had come from its lands. It was home to the federal capital Berlin and had 62% of Germany's territory and 61% of its population. Prussia changed from the authoritarian state it had been in the past and became a parliamentary democracy under its 1920 constitution. During the Weimar period it was governed almost entirely by pro-democratic parties and proved more politically stable than the Republic itself. With only brief interruptions, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) provided the Minister President. 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.

As a result of the Prussian coup d'état instigated by Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932, the Free State was subordinated to the Reich government and deprived of its independence. 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. After the end of the Second World War, by decree of the Allied Control Council, the de jure abolition of Prussia occurred on 25 February 1947.

At the end of October 1918, after it had become clear that Germany faced defeat in World War I, sailors of the High Seas Fleet mutinied at Kiel and sparked the German revolution. They set up a revolutionary workers' and soldiers' council and in early November began spreading the revolt across Germany. Councils similar to the one in Kiel took power from the existing military, royal and civil authorities with little resistance or bloodshed.

The revolution reached Berlin on Saturday, 9 November. The Revolutionary Stewards and Spartacus League – groups that favoured a soviet-style council republic – called a general strike with the backing of the moderate Majority Social Democratic Party (MSPD). Workers and soldiers established councils and occupied important buildings such as the police headquarters. At midday, Max von Baden, the last chancellor of the German Empire and last minister president of the Kingdom of Prussia, prematurely announced the abdication of Wilhelm II as Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia. He then handed the chancellorship to Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the MSPD. In the afternoon, Philipp Scheidemann, also of the MSPD, proclaimed a republic from the Reichstag building. On the following day, Ebert formed a provisional government called the Council of the People's Deputies. It was made up of three representatives each from the MSPD and the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), a more leftist and anti-war group that had broken away from the originally united SPD in 1917.

Ebert charged Paul Hirsch, the MSPD's party leader in the Prussian House of Representatives, with maintaining peace and order in Prussia. The last minister of the interior of the Kingdom of Prussia, Bill Drews, legitimized the transfer of de facto governmental power to Hirsch.

On 12 November 1918, representatives from the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils of Greater Berlin, including Paul Hirsch, Otto Braun (MSPD) and Adolph Hoffmann (USPD) declared the previous government of Prussia deposed and claimed the management of state affairs for themselves. On the same day, they issued instructions that all departments of the state continue their work as usual. A manifesto, "To the Prussian People", stated that their goal was to transform "the old, fundamentally reactionary Prussia ... into a fully democratic component of the unified People's Republic."

The majority of the Prussian State Ministry wanted to resign on 8 November, but after Emperor Wilhelm's abdication was declared the next day, he could no longer accept their resignations. The Prussian cabinet therefore remained in office, as did the state secretaries in the national government.

On 13 November the new government confiscated the royal property and placed it under the Ministry of Finance. The following day, the MSPD and USPD formed the Prussian revolutionary cabinet along the lines of the MSPD-USPD coalition at the national level. It included Paul Hirsch, Eugen Ernst and Otto Braun of the MSPD and Heinrich Ströbel, Adolph Hoffmann and Kurt Rosenfeld of the USPD. Almost all government departments were under ministers from both parties. Hirsch and Ströbel became joint chairmen of the cabinet. Unaffiliated ministers or ministers belonging to different political camps were also included, such as the minister of War, initially Heinrich Schëuch, then from January 1919 Walther Reinhardt. The narrower, decisive political cabinet, however, included only politicians from the two workers' parties. Since the leadership qualities of the two chairmen were comparatively weak, it was mainly Otto Braun and Adolph Hoffmann who set the tone in the provisional government.