Greater Hessen
Greater Hesse was the official name for one of three states (in addition to Greater Hesse, Württemberg-Baden and Bavaria ), which were declared by the Commander-in-Chief of the American Armed Forces in Europe (then General Dwight D. Eisenhower ) on 19. September 1945, after municipalities, counties and administrative districts had already been accepted by the occupation authorities as administrative authorities. A year later, the new state thus created was renamed the State of Hesse with the approval of the US military government . In the country in the US-American zone of occupation , Colonel James R. Newman became head of the military government (Office of Military Government Greater Hesse, OMGGH for short). On October 14, 1945, the military government installed Karl Geiler as Prime Minister. He held office until December 20, 1946. His successor was Christian Stock after the first state election on December 1, 1946 as the first elected Prime Minister . The state constitution of the state of Greater Hesse , the first constitution of the state, was enacted on November 22, 1945. It was repealed by the (new) constitution of the State of Hesse that was adopted by the people ( referendum ) on December 1, 1946 . Since then, the state has only been called Hesse , and the military government has been renamed the Office of Military Government for Hesse (OMGH).
Surname
The new country was the American from the occupied territory parts People's State of Hesse and until 1 July 1944 division of Hesse-Nassau newly created Prussian provinces Kurhessen and Nassau formed. The name Greater Hesse referred to the fact that the new state area united the territories of (almost) all of the former Hessian states in one state.
In 1868 the former province of Hessen-Nassau was made up of the territories of five previously independent states: the Electorate of Hesse (Kassel), the Duchy of Nassau (Wiesbaden), the former Landgraviate of Hessen-Homburg , the Principality of Waldeck and the Free City of Frankfurt .
The states that had Hesse in their name were successor states to the Landgraviate of Hesse , which was divided up in 1567 and which had its origins in the north of today's state. Although the term Hesse historically referred to the northern ( Niederhessen ) and central parts of the country ( Upper Hesse ) and the inhabitants of South Hesse were considered to be Rhine Franconia in terms of the national team , it was now chosen for the whole of the new state due to the territorial history.
Segregated areas
Two significant parts of the predecessor territories did not belong to the American, but to the French zone of occupation and were separated from the newly founded country:
- the western part of Nassau (the later administrative district of Montabaur ), which included parts of the Hintertaunus, the Westerwald and the lower reaches of the Lahn , but no larger cities, as well
- the previously popular Hessian province of Rheinhessen , with the exception of the six districts of the provincial capital Mainz on the right bank of the Rhine and the Rhine island of Kühkopf , which remained with Hesse.
The two territories mentioned were instead part of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate , which was founded on the territory of the French zone ; In 1950, Mainz became its regional capital (neither Rhenish nor Palatinate).
The Hessian exclave Bad Wimpfen , which belongs to the Bergstrasse district , was not mentioned in the proclamation of September 19, 1945. On November 26, 1945, the military authorities issued an order that the community would in future belong to the district of Sinsheim . The local authorities interpreted this decree in such a way that the municipality is part of Württemberg-Baden under constitutional law . Due to opposition from the population, a referendum took place on April 29, 1951, due to which the municipality belonged to the Heilbronn district from May 1, 1952 . It has remained so to this day. Although Bad Wimpfen became a de facto part of Baden-Württemberg and there are no efforts to change this, the state affiliation has not finally been established.
The Schmalkalden district, which was separated from Hessen-Nassau in 1944, was in the Soviet occupation zone and became part of the state of Thuringia founded by the occupying power there .
As early as 1932, the Hesse-Nassau district of Schaumburg was transferred to the Province of Hanover. It therefore became part of the state of Lower Saxony in 1946 .
The Hessian capital issue
In Proclamation No. 2, no capital was initially specified for the newly founded state of Greater Hesse. Four cities came into question as the state capital: the three former royal cities of Darmstadt , Wiesbaden and Kassel as well as the largest city by far, Frankfurt am Main .
Due to its role in German politics in the 19th century (seat of the German Confederation and the National Assembly ), Frankfurt was considered a promising candidate for the seat of a West German partial government (see the question of the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany ). The city, which until 1866 had been a free city and since then a Prussian provincial city without the authorities belonging to an administrative seat with its civil servants, initially showed little identification with the new federal state and consequently refrained from applying for the seat of the state government. In addition, as a result of the air raids on Frankfurt am Main, nearly 70% of the city was destroyed; around half of the approximately 500,000 inhabitants were homeless and had to leave the city temporarily, and almost 10% of the remaining living space had been confiscated by the American military.
The severe war damage also spoke against Kassel and Darmstadt, and also against Kassel the peripheral location in the far north of the country and the American zone of occupation. Wiesbaden, which was relatively little destroyed, was also conveniently located in the center of gravity of the state, the Rhine-Main area , and was already the seat of the military government for the Wiesbaden administrative region. With the establishment of Greater Hesse, the competence of the military government under James R. Newman was extended to the entire state. A preliminary decision for the future seat of government had already been made. On October 12, 1945, Newman's organizational decree No. 1 was announced, in which it says under point 1: "With effect from October 12, 1945, 12 noon, the establishment of the civil state government for Greater Hesse with its seat in Wiesbaden will be announced."
Wiesbaden and the two other former residence cities were confirmed as the seat of the three regional councils.
Administrative districts
The administrative districts of Kassel and Wiesbaden, which already existed in the province of Hessen-Nassau and were slightly changed in terms of their territories, were now joined by the administrative district of Darmstadt, which was formed from the previous people's state. The layout of the three administrative districts largely corresponded to that of the three largest former sub-states:
- The administrative district of Wiesbaden included as before, the territories of the former country Nassau (but without the mentioned fallen to the French zone areas), which until 1944 belonging to Kassel "Hessian" Circles Hanau , Gelnhausen and Schlüchtern and the city of Hanau , the city of Frankfurt Main, the Hessian hinterland that belonged to Hessen-Darmstadt before 1866 and the former Landgraviate of Hessen-Homburg .
- The Darmstadt administrative region comprised the former people's state, but excluding Rheinhessen, i.e. the two other former Hessian provinces of Upper Hesse and Starkenburg .
- The administrative district of Kassel comprised the former states of Kurhessen and Waldeck and, with the exception of the three districts given to Wiesbaden, corresponded to the district from Prussian times.
See also
literature
- Klaus Peter Möller (Ed.): The constitution of the state "Greater Hesse" 50 years ago (= Hessian writings on federalism and state parliamentarism . Volume 6). Wiesbaden 1996, ISBN 3-923150-12-1 .
Web links
- Proclamation of the military government of September 19, 1945
- Basic Law of the State of Greater Hesse of November 22, 1945
Individual evidence
- ^ Official Journal of the Military Government of Germany, American Zone, Issue A (June 1, 1946), p. 2
- ↑ Decree of the Führer on the formation of the provinces Kurhessen and Nassau of April 1, 1944 ( RGBl. I p. 109 )
