Free State of Lippe

This article deals with the Free State of Lippe; on Lippe as a country with historically different forms of rule, see the overview article Lippe (country) .

Freistaat Lippe
also: Land Lippe

coat of arms	flag
Situation in the German Reich
Arose from	Principality of Lippe
Incorporated into	Country lip
Data from 1933
State capital	Detmold
Form of government	parliamentary democracy
Head of state	State Presidium
Constitution	December 21, 1920
Consist	1918-1947
surface	1215 km²
Residents	175,538
Population density	144 inhabitants per km²
Religions	94.2% Protestant 4.8% Catholic
Reichsrat	1 vote
License Plate	until 1945 : L until 1947 : LIP
administration	2 circles
map

The Free State of Lippe , also known as Land Lippe , replaced the Principality of Lippe as a parliamentary democracy in 1918 . It was in the time of the Weimar Republic, a country of the German Empire , was founded in 1933 by the Nazi regime into line and went in 1947 in the country North Rhine-Westphalia on.

geography

The territory of the Free State of Lippe, often referred to as "Lipperland", is part of the historic Westphalia landscape . In the last few years of its existence, it was located between the Prussian provinces of Westphalia (incorporated in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946 ) in the west and Hanover (in 1946 Land of Hanover ) in the east. Until 1921 it bordered in the east on an exclave of the state of Waldeck-Pyrmont around Pyrmont (cf. Kreis Pyrmont and Grafschaft Pyrmont ) and until recently on the small Westphalian (most recently already North Rhine-Westphalian) exclave of Lügde . Today, the former area of ​​the Free State essentially corresponds to the Lippe district in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Geographically, the Free State was largely northeast of the Teutoburg Forest (also called Lippischer Wald in the eastern part) and east of the Egge Mountains . In the north he touched the Weser . The predominantly hilly, partly also strongly cut terrain between the Weser and Eggegebirge is known as the Lipper Bergland . The highest mountain was the Köterberg . The Lipperland was essentially part of the Weser Uplands . Only a smaller part of the area west of the Egge Mountains and southwest of the Osnings around Augustdorf was in the Westphalian Bay , which is characterized by the sandy heathland, the Senne . The largest rivers were the Weser, Werre , Bega and Emmer . The eponymous river Lippe originated near the Lippe state territory in the Senne, but did not touch the heartland in the last territorial state. However, the house Lippe came from the area of Lippstadt an der Lippe, where it was able to gain its first territories. The city of Lippstadt was ruled as a condominium from 1666 to 1850 by the county or the principality of Lippe and the electorate of Brandenburg and the Kingdom of Prussia . In the vicinity of Lippstadt there were still two small exclaves of the state of Lippe until 1947: Cappel and Lipperode (today districts of Lippstadt). Another exclave was Grevenhagen, a few kilometers south of the heartland . All exclaves were surrounded by Westphalia.

With a national territory of around 1200 km² and only around 150,000 inhabitants (1947), Lippe was one of the smaller member states of the German Empire . In terms of area, it was the sixth smallest state and the third smallest area state in the empire. The largest city in Lippe was the state capital and former residence city of Detmold with around 25,000 inhabitants.

history

Democratic country

Lippe constitution, 1920

After the November Revolution of 1918, during which Prince Leopold IV abdicated on November 12th, a democratic Free State was created with general, equal and secret suffrage and an interlinked separation of powers . According to Article 2 of the Constitution of December 21, 1920, state authority came from the people. The legislative power lay with the Lippe state parliament . From 1919 to 1933 the SPD was the strongest party in the state parliament. The state government, the three-member state presidium, was initially under the leadership of Social Democrat Clemens Becker and from 1920 to 1933 under that of his party colleague Heinrich Drake . The last freely elected state parliament - although accompanied by a massive election campaign by the NSDAP - was determined by the state election in Lippe on January 15, 1933 .

National Socialist takeover of power

The National Socialists used places in Lippe early on, especially some cultural sites such as the Externsteine and the Hermannsdenkmal , as a supposed “Germanic heartland” for their political purposes. During monstrous marches with high- ranking NSDAP functionaries from all over the Reich, for example at the Externsteine, the unprecedented all-German importance of Lippe was hyped up by the Nazis. This staged symbolic increase in attention and reporting did not fail to have an effect in parts of the population in Lippe, which was also affected by the global economic crisis and high unemployment. Latent anti-Semitism in the rural population and increasing agitation against political opponents also brought the NSDAP successes in local elections in the early 1930s. In the Lippe state elections on January 15, 1933, the Social Democrats lost their status as the strongest parliamentary group in the state parliament. Despite the popularity of the social democratic state president Heinrich Drake, the NSDAP won almost 40% of the votes, more than in the Reichstag election in November 1932 , but clearly missed the absolute majority. That was a signal for the further rise of the NSDAP in the Weimar Republic.

The NSDAP then increased the political pressure on Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher , who finally resigned with his government on January 28, 1933. On January 30, 1933, the Hitler cabinet was formed. In Lippe, the NSDAP succeeded on February 7th in appointing two members of the state presidium and pushing Drake out of the government. With the appointment of Reich Governor Alfred Meyer in Detmold for Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe from May 1933, the synchronization was completed.

As a result of the alignment of the states (see provisional law for the alignment of the states with the Reich , law on the reconstruction of the Reich and second law for the alignment of the states with the Reich of April 7, 1933 ), Lippe was de facto one of the from mid-1933 Reich government dictatorially controlled administrative area without its own sovereignty, without state parliament, without free government and without free constitutional jurisdiction.

The Lippe region after the Second World War

Although the Lippe constitution continued to apply formally both under the National Socialists and after the war, it was not fully applied again after the end of the war. The Landtag, which met again for the first time in 1946, was appointed by the British military government . The former Free States of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe were ruled under the joint Prime Minister Heinrich Drake . At the end of 1946, Schaumburg-Lippe was incorporated into the new state of Lower Saxony . In 1947 the state of Lippe had to give up its independence at the instigation of the British and was given the choice of joining Lower Saxony or North Rhine-Westphalia. The Lippe government under the country President Henry Drake decided after negotiations for connection to North Rhine-Westphalia, as the country lip from Düsseldorf's government by Lippe Punktationen received comprehensive political commitments. Among other things, most of his state assets were not transferred to the state property of North Rhine-Westphalia, but to the specially founded state association Lippe . In addition, the seat of the new administrative district of Minden-Lippe (later the administrative district of Detmold) was relocated from Minden to the previous capital of Lippe, Detmold. The Lippers were also allowed to keep their community schools, while in Westphalia and the Rhineland the denominational school ("confessional school") was the regular school until the 1960s. By the British Military Ordinance No. 77 Lippe was incorporated into the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on January 21, 1947 and thus ceased to exist as a state. An initially planned referendum was never carried out. On November 5, 1948, the incorporation of Lippe was finally legally regulated by the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia with the passing of the “Law on the Unification of the State of Lippe with North Rhine-Westphalia”.

Representation in the Reichsrat

Lippe had one vote in the Reichsrat convened in 1919 , the direct successor to the Bundesrat . The local representative of the Free State of Lippe was appointed by the State Presidium (Article 29 of the Constitution of 1920).

State structure and administrative structure

Building of the former Lippe state parliament , today the seat of the Detmold regional court

According to the constitution of December 21, 1920, Lippe was a democratic free state with general, equal and secret suffrage and an interlinked separation of powers . State authority came from the people (Article 2 of the Constitution). The legislative power lay with the Lippe state parliament . In addition, the people could intervene directly or indirectly in various ways in legislation through referendums (cf. Articles 3, 4, 11, 20 (5) etc. of the Constitution). The last freely elected state parliament - although accompanied by a massive election campaign by the NSDAP - was determined by the state election in Lippe on January 15, 1933 . As a result of the alignment of the states (see provisional law for the alignment of the states with the Reich , law on the reconstruction of the Reich and second law for the alignment of the states with the Reich of April 7, 1933 ), Lippe was de facto one of the from mid-1933 Reich government dictatorially controlled administrative area without its own sovereignty, without state parliament, without free government and without free constitutional jurisdiction. The Lippe constitution continued to apply formally; but it was not fully applied again even after the end of the war. The Landtag, which met again for the first time in 1946, was appointed by the British military government . Soon after, he decided to dissolve himself in the course of joining North Rhine-Westphalia .

The state parliament elected a three-member state presidium, which according to Article 25ff. the constitution was both head of state and government ( executive ) of the country. Below the state presidium there was still a government appointed by the state presidium, but Article 39 of the constitution marginalizes its members as “unskilled workers” for the legislative initiatives of the state presidium. The state presidium was formed according to the principle of collegiality ; its members were equal, and the triumvirate always decided jointly and externally unanimously (internally the constitution stipulated a simple majority). The chairman of the state presidium was a primus inter pares , whose unofficial function was roughly equivalent to that of a prime minister - but this designation never existed.

The state presidium required the confidence of parliament. The state parliament also had various options for sanctioning the state presidium. Among other things, Article 37 of the Constitution of 1920 gave him the opportunity to indict members of the State Presidium before the State Court of Justice for the German Reich . According to Article 22, this was also responsible for resolving constitutional disputes. Lippe did not have its own constitutional court.

The highest judicial administrative authority was the state presidium (Article 43 of the constitution). The administration of justice was carried out by the courts established under the Reich and Land laws (Article 44). The Prussian Higher Regional Court of Celle , to which Lippe was to belong until 1944 , had acted as the higher regional court . The district courts of Alverdissen, Blomberg , Detmold , Hohenhausen, Horn, Lage, Lemgo , Oerlinghausen and Salzuflen were under the district court of Detmold . The exclaves Lipperode and Cappel belonged to the Prussian district court of Lippstadt .

In 1918, the Free State of Lippe was divided into eight cities with no offices and five administrative offices with thirteen offices:

• Official cities of Barntrup , Blomberg , Detmold , Horn , Lage , Lemgo , Salzuflen and Schwalenberg
• Administrative office Blomberg (offices Blomberg, Schieder and Schwalenberg) with 45 communities and an area of ​​199.36 km²
• Administrative office Brake (offices Brake, Hohenhausen, Sternberg-Barntrup and Varenholz) with 64 municipalities and an area of ​​364.60 km²
• Administrative office Detmold (offices Detmold, Horn and Lage) with 64 municipalities and an area of ​​375.05 km²
• Administrative office Lipperode-Cappel (Amt Lipperode-Cappel) with 3 municipalities and an area of ​​7.66 km²
• Administrative office Schötmar (offices Oerlinghausen and Schötmar) with 34 communities and an area of ​​158.06 km²

In 1922 the city of Schötmar became vacant, as did the city of Oerlinghausen in 1926.

By the Lippe Municipal Constitutional Law of 1927, the administrative offices were raised to district offices on April 1, 1928 . The administrative offices of Blomberg, Brake and Schötmar became district offices with unchanged delimitation, while the administrative offices of Detmold and Lipperode-Cappel were combined to form the district office of Detmold .

Since the four district offices were no longer able to finance the costs of unemployment and crisis relief during the global economic crisis , an ordinance was passed on October 14, 1931 to divide the Free State of Lippe into two districts . On April 1, 1932, the new district of Detmold was formed from the unofficial towns of Horn, Lage and Schwalenberg and the district offices of Detmold and Blomberg . The new Lemgo district was formed from the independent towns of Barntrup, Oerlinghausen and Schötmar and the district offices of Brake and Schötmar . On April 1, 1934, the city of Detmold was incorporated into the Detmold district and the cities of Lemgo and Bad Salzuflen were incorporated into the Lemgo district.

In 1939 the Detmold district had an area of ​​634 km² with 95,687 inhabitants and the Lemgo district an area of ​​581 km² with 91,533 inhabitants.

→ Main article : Offices in Lippe

State governments

Chair of the State Presidium

The state presidium was formed according to the principle of collegiality . In the real sense, therefore, the triumvirate as a whole was the head of state. All the laws were therefore signed by all three members of the State Presidium. Nevertheless, the chairman of the state presidium was a primus inter pares , whose unofficial function was roughly equivalent to that of a prime minister. However, this name did not exist in Lippe at the time. In addition to the function as head of state, the state presidium formed the state government. The chairmen of the state presidium were:

• 1918–1920: Clemens Becker , SPD
• 1920–1933: Heinrich Drake , SPD
• 1933: Ernst Krappe , NSDAP

Source: The Free State of Lippe. The provincial councils 1918–1933

See also: List of the members of the state presidencies (Free State of Lippe)

National Socialist exercise of power

The tips of the country from 1933 were:

• 1933–1936: Hans-Joachim Riecke , NSDAP (appointed), as Minister of State
• 1936–1945: Alfred Meyer , as Minister of State (appointed) in personal union before and still Reich Governor since May 1933, NSDAP
• 1933–1945: Adolf Wedderwille , NSDAP, as deputy head of government in a decisive position because of Meyer's absence

The land of Lippe after the end of the Second World War

• May 1945 - January 21, 1947: Heinrich Drake as Prime Minister ( Cabinet Drake VIII )

Note: The former Free States of Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe were ruled in 1945/46 under the joint Prime Minister Heinrich Drake.

population

The Free State (1925: 1,215.16 km²) counted

• 1933: 175,538 inhabitants
• 1939: 187,220 inhabitants

For comparison: the current 1,246.29 km² area of ​​North Rhine-Westphalia counts

• 2008: 355,178 inhabitants

badges and flags

Landmark with Lippe Rose . The reverse shows the Prussian eagle

The coat of arms of the Free State of Lippe last showed the Lippe rose in a silver shield. The national flag was yellow and red. Both state symbols were adopted by the Lippe family . The earliest coats of arms of the House of Lippe already showed the Lippe rose - but without sepals. Lippe carried this coat of arms in variations until 1947.

A simplified coat of arms was used for the "authorities" (stamp, seal, etc.). Mostly one limited oneself to the family coat of arms with the rose in the shield under a princely hat. Sometimes only the rose was shown without a shield. The trend towards simplification and the sole representation of the Lippe rose was also observed, for example, in coinage and on the coat of arms carved on the boundary stones. After the prince's abdication, the Lippe regional council decided in 1921 in a certain continuity in favor of the "Lippe rose inseminated with gold and tipped without any other ingredients", ie. H. even without a shield. From a formal point of view, it was without a shield but not a coat of arms. In 1929 the “State Handbook for the Land of Lippe” describes this fact: “The state coat of arms contains a red rose with golden seeds and golden sepals in a silver shield”. In 1933 this coat of arms was formally confirmed with the "Law on the colors and coat of arms of the state of Lippe". However, the authorities continued to stamp the rose without a coat of arms. After the state of Lippe was extinguished, the coat of arms lived and lives on in many of the region's coats of arms. The Lippe regional association is responsible for the rose without a shield . The rose in the silver shield leads today's Lippe district . The Lippe rose as a coat of arms image led u. a. the district of Detmold , the district of Lemgo as well as the cities of Detmold and other Lippe cities in many variations. The Lippe Rose was also included in the coat of arms of North Rhine-Westphalia - but it was rotated 180 degrees by mistake , as a comparison of the coats of arms shows.

• 

  Lippe rose on a silver plate in the official version from 1933

• 

  The official version of the state symbol of Lippe from 1921

Web links

Commons : Freistaat Lippe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Lippe  - sources and full texts

• Digital collection of the Lippe State Library Detmold, subject area "Lippe"
• Lippe State Museum
• Guidelines for the admission of the state of Lippe to the territory of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (agreed between Prime Minister Amelunxen and State President Drake, "Lippische Punktation" on January 17, 1947)
• Constitution of the State of Lippe (digitized version)

literature

• Erich Kittel: History of the state of Lippe. Home chronicle of the districts Detmold and Lippe . Archive for German home care, Cologne 1957 (home chronicles of the cities and districts of the federal territory 18, ZDB -ID 749758-1 ).
• Wolfgang J. Neumann: The Lippe state. Where he came from - where he went . Neumann, Lemgo 2008, ISBN 978-3-9811814-7-0 .
• Margarete Hamer-Princess of Lippe-Weißenfeld: 275 years of Lippe-Weißenfeld. Hike from the Lippe region to Lausitz, vol. 1 . Sollermann, Leer / Ostfriesland 2009, ISBN 3-938897-30-9 .
• Margarete Hamer-Princess of Lippe-Weißenfeld: 275 years of Lippe-Weißenfeld - hike from Lipper Land via Lower Lusatia to Upper Lusatia. Volume 2, Oberlausitzer Verlag Nürnberger, Spitzkunnersdorf 2017, ISBN 978-3-936867-68-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Constitution of the Land of Lippe of December 21, 1920
2. ^ ^{A b c} Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. land_lippe.html. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006). 
3. ↑ Minutes of the Lippe People's and Soldiers' Council of November 12, 1918.
4. ↑ Parliamentary advisory and expert service of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia : Investigations into the guidelines for the admission of the State of Lippe to the territory of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (PDF; 145 kB), Information 13/0719 of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, 13th electoral period, 27 March 2003, edited by Karsten Bron, Andrea Glende, accessed from the landtag.nrw.de portal on August 29, 2012.
5. ^ Gerhard Brunn, Jürgen Reulecke: Small history of North Rhine-Westphalia 1946-1996 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Cologne 1996, p. 32/33.
6. ↑ Announcement of the Military Ordinance No. 77 of January 21, 1947 (PDF; 476 kB), reproduced on the lwl.org portal of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association, accessed on January 20, 2012
7. ↑ The Free State of Lippe at a glance
8. ↑ Meyers Konversationslexikon. Publishing house of the Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna, 4th edition, 1885–1892.
9. ↑ Archives of the Detmold district administration. In: Archives in NRW. Retrieved August 16, 2009 . 
10. ↑ Archives of the Lemgo district administration. In: Archives in NRW. Retrieved August 16, 2009 . 
11. ^ Statistical yearbook for the German Reich 1941. In: DigiZeitschriften. Retrieved August 16, 2009 . 
12. ↑ The Free State of Lippe. The provincial councils 1918–1933
13. ↑ Claus Gröger: Rose - coat of arms - home mark . In: Landesverband Lippe (Hrsg.): Heimatland Lippe . tape 102 , no. 1 , 2009, p. 16-18 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 56 ′ 10.3 "  N , 8 ° 52 ′ 40.7"  E