Nassau Province

Prussian Province of
Nassau
Flag of Hessen-Nassau	Coat of arms Hessen-Nassau

Flag of Nassau	Nassau coat of arms

Situation in Prussia

Consist	1944/45
Provincial capital	Wiesbaden
surface	7,366.34 km² (1944)
Residents	approx. 1,670,000 (1930s, based on the territorial status of 1944/45)
Arose from	Hesse-Nassau Province
successor	Hesse (Wiesbaden region) and Rhineland-Palatinate (Montabaur region)
Today part of	Hesse (Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Hanau) and Rhineland-Palatinate (Montabaur)
map

The Prussian province of Nassau , which emerged from the former Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau, existed as a province of the Free State of Prussia (in the Union of the German Empire ) only from July 1944 to July 1945 .

history

The Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau was dissolved with effect from July 1, 1944 by the “Leader's Decree on the Formation of the Provinces of Kurhessen and Nassau” of April 1, 1944; their administrative districts Wiesbaden and Kassel now formed the Prussian provinces Nassau and Kurhessen (see also Kurhessen Province ). However, the city of Hanau and the districts of Hanau, Gelnhausen and Schlüchtern were assigned to the previous administrative district of Wiesbaden, which had previously belonged to the administrative district of Kassel (now the province of Kurhessen). At the same time, the district of Schmalkalden , which until then represented an exclave of Hessen-Nassau in Thuringia, was connected to the administrative district of Erfurt in the Prussian province of Saxony .

The Nazi politician Jakob Sprenger ( NSDAP ), who was also Prime Minister of Hesse-Darmstadt, Reich Governor for Hesse-Darmstadt and NSDAP Gau leader in the Gau Hessen-Nassau, was appointed Upper President of the new Prussian Province of Nassau . With the appointment as head president of the province of Nassau, Jakob Sprenger also combined all top state positions within the area of the Gau Hessen-Nassau in his person. In order to save costs, no new high presidium authority was set up for the new province of Nassau. The Upper President of the Province of Nassau used the existing authority of the previous administrative district of Wiesbaden ( regional council) , which was located in the state house in Wiesbaden . Deputy Provincial President was the President of the Government .

The division of the previous Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau into the new provinces of Nassau and Kurhessen in 1944 primarily served the purpose of fully adapting the structure of the Prussian administrative units in Hesse to the structure of the imperial defense districts. The new province of Nassau and the state of Hessen-Darmstadt corresponded to the Reich Defense District Rhein-Main, which in turn was identical to the NSDAP party district Hessen-Nassau.

In addition to Adolf Hitler , Martin Bormann , Hans Heinrich Lammers and Jakob Sprenger, the Wiesbaden lawyer and Nazi politician Wilhelm Stuckart , at that time State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of the Interior and Minister of the Interior under the last Reich President Karl Dönitz , was responsible for the formation of the province Nassau interested and played a leading role.

Administrative division

The seat of the Upper President of the Nassau Province was the regional council in Wiesbaden, whose regional president was deputy to the regional president of the Nassau province in 1944/45.

The state house in Wiesbaden, built in 1907, was the seat of the President of the Nassau Province.

In March and April 1945, the entire area of Nassau Province was occupied by US forces . The province of Nassau was converted back into the administrative district of Wiesbaden by the military government of the United States , which was justified with the loss of government power of the Reich (and thus also of Prussia). The new Wiesbaden administrative district was initially identical in terms of its territorial scope to the Prussian province of Nassau, which existed from July 1944 to May 1945. On May 4, 1945, the American military government appointed the creator of German radio, Hans Bredow, as president of the US military .

In July 1945, the Wiesbaden administrative district was divided by the now permanently established zone boundary between the American and French occupation zones. As a result, the western districts of Oberwesterwald, St. Goarshausen, Unterlahn and Unterwesterwald were separated from the Wiesbaden administrative district.

The remaining main part of the administrative district belonging to the American Zone was combined with the Prussian Kurhessen and the Hessian provinces of Upper Hesse and Starkenburg to form the new state of Greater Hesse (today's state of Hesse ) by decree of the American military government on September 19, 1945 . The four districts of Oberwesterwald, St. Goarshausen, Unterlahn and Unterwesterwald, belonging to the French occupation zone, were united in 1946 by the French military government with the southern Rhine province, the Rhine Palatinate and the previously Hessian province of Rheinhessen to form the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate .

Direct administrative successors to the Prussian province of Nassau, which existed in 1944/45, were therefore the administrative districts of Wiesbaden and Montabaur in the post-war period , which in a fictitious territorial addition (minus the Wiesbaden AKK districts, see also districts of Mainz on the right bank of the Rhine and AKK conflict ) the territory of the Prussian province of Nassau existing from 1944/45; in addition, from 1945 to 1953 the Wiesbaden district association founded in 1886 . It was transferred to the State Welfare Association of Hesse by the middle level law of the State of Hesse of May 7, 1953 . The administrative districts of Wiesbaden and Montabaur were dissolved in 1968 and 1969, respectively, in the course of regional reforms in the states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, and new larger administrative units were added (the former administrative districts of Darmstadt and Koblenz ).

Others

The province of Nassau, its forerunners and successors (Wiesbaden administrative district, Wiesbaden district municipal association) were responsible for the Nassauische Sparkasse (Naspa) and the social housing company Nassauische Heimstätte, founded in 1922, until 1953 . The fire brigades in the Nassau area joined forces on July 27, 1872 in Wiesbaden to form the fire brigade association for the Wiesbaden administrative region, which continues to operate as the Hessian district fire brigade association under the name " Nassau Fire Brigade Association ".

Counties in the province of Nassau 1944/45

City districts

Counties

literature

Karl Müller: Prussian Eagle and Hessian Lion - One Hundred Years of Wiesbaden Government 1866–1966 . Wiesbaden 1966.
O. Witte: 80 years of the municipal association of the Wiesbaden administrative district . Ed .: O. Witte [governor]. Wiesbaden 1948.
Franz-Josef Sehr : The foundation of the Nassau Fire Brigade Association . In: Yearbook for the Limburg-Weilburg district 2012 . The district committee of the district of Limburg-Weilburg, Limburg-Weilburg 2011, ISBN 3-927006-48-3 , p. 65-67 .

Web links