Administrative division of Prussia

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The German state of Prussia had since the administrative reforms a very modern for that time of 1815/1818 state administration . Three regional administrative levels were created between the state government and the municipal level: the provinces , the administrative districts and the districts .

Levels

The three Prussian administrative levels became the model for the administrative structure in the rest of Germany. Counties and administrative districts are still part of the German administrative structure . The size of the provinces roughly corresponded to the present-day states and after the dissolution of Prussia became the basis for the reorganization of the German states by the occupation authorities in 1945/1946.

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The 12 provinces of Prussia and their administrative districts (1895)

Provinces

Since after the founding of the empire in 1871 over half of the empire's territory belonged to Prussia , the Prussian provinces played a similar role of identification in traditionally federally shaped Germany as otherwise only the countries outside Prussia, to which they (in contrast to the Prussian state as a whole) according to size, population and economic importance were comparable. It was helpful that the demarcation and naming of the provinces in most cases took account of historical and national contexts. The former Prussian provinces still play an important role in identifying the (possibly former) residents with their homeland, especially in the regions that no longer exist as a single administrative unit, such as Westphalia , Silesia , the Rhineland or East Prussia .

From 1875 onwards, the provinces were both self-governing bodies of the associated rural and urban districts and subordinate administrative units of the Prussian state government. This was reflected in corresponding dual institutions. Rural and urban districts sent delegates to the provincial parliaments, each with a six-year legislative period. The provincial parliament elected a provincial government, the provincial committee, and its head, the provincial director (for 6 to 12 years) from among its members. Provincial parliament, committee and regional director fulfilled cross-district tasks such as B. Cultivation of culture and health care (provincial mental health institutions). The Prussian interior minister appointed an upper president for the state government in each province, assisted by a provincial councilor. The chief president and council exercised supervisory functions for the state government in a provincial framework.

The present-day states of Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg go back directly to Prussian provinces, the states of Lower Saxony , Hesse and Saxony-Anhalt came into being through the amalgamation of Prussian provinces with their independent, non-Prussian neighboring states.

At the beginning of the 19th century and after 1919 (due to the loss of territory to Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania and Czechoslovakia, which exclusively affected Prussian provinces) there were several reclassifications, amalgamations and partitions of Prussian provinces. In the intervening period, the division remained stable, so that the twelve provinces of this time were able to establish themselves as "classic" in the German consciousness:

The six and seven eastern provinces
East Prussia
West Prussia
Brandenburg
Pomerania
Poses
Silesia
Saxony
The western provinces
Westphalia
Rhine Province
Schleswig-Holstein (from 1867)
Hanover (from 1867)
Hessen-Nassau (from 1867)

West and East Prussia formed a common province of Prussia from 1824 to 1877 .

The top official of a province had the title of Oberpräsident , the initially estates, later elected legislative provincial assembly .

Administrative districts

Below the provincial level, “royal governments” were set up, which were later referred to as administrative districts and which were also introduced by other countries as a central authority. There were between one (Schleswig-Holstein) and six (Hanover, Rhine Province) administrative districts per province; Silesia, Saxony, Pomerania and Westphalia three, the remaining provinces two. As today, a district president was at the head of a government district .

In contrast to the provinces, the administrative districts and counties did not have a traditional name, but that of their administrative seat. In some cases these were not in the largest place. For example, the eastern Ruhr area was ruled by Arnsberg , southern West Prussia by Marienwerder and the city of Frankfurt am Main from Wiesbaden . Both of these contributed to the fact that the population's identification with the regional level administrative district was, as it is today, low.

Exceptions existed where the administrative districts represented traditional sub-regions of their countries (provinces), even if this was not expressed in the name: For example, the administrative district of Stettin corresponded to the historical West Pomerania and the administrative district of Opole could be considered a sufficient geographical definition for Upper Silesia . In the Weimar Republic it even formed its own province under this name.

Circles

At the local level groups have been set up (but only at the end of the 19th century realized) a link between the state administration and planned by the local self-government to greater importance reached community level should form. The now independent municipalities, represented by a mostly honorary mayor , were supported by the district administration and their more professional structures in the exercise of their official duties.

The top civil servant of a district was called then as today district administrator , the seat of the district administration district office or district house .

The size of a circle should be such that within one day a carriage ride from each village to the seat of the district administration, the execution of the planned official business and the return journey should be possible or, conversely, the district administrator could visit a remote village without going there having to stay overnight.

Larger cities remained outside the jurisdiction of the districts, as they themselves had a professional administration and could do their official business alone. They formed a city district , later as independent city called. This phenomenon is also part of the German administrative structure to this day. Since the era of the administrative structure described here (1815-1945) also includes the period of industrialization , which was extremely important for Europe's cities and which was characterized, among other things, by rapid urban growth, the number of independent cities in Prussia continued to rise, because former Small towns or even villages reached five or six-digit population figures within a few decades and thus went beyond the scope of the district administrations intended for rural areas and were therefore allowed to leave their districts, often against the bitter resistance of the district administrators.

Districts whose administrative seat was in a city that did not belong to them were called rural districts , in contrast to the urban district of the same name . All other circles were officially called the circle .

history

1701-1807

The parts of Prussia at the end of the 17th century
Area increases in the 18th century

The Hohenzollern areas, from which a state called "Prussia" developed after the coronation of Frederick I in the 18th century, consisted at the beginning of the 18th century of the regions of Prussia (the kingdom), Brandenburg, Pomerania, the Duchy of Geldern , and the Duchy Kleve , County of Moers , County of Tecklenburg , County of Lingen , Principality of Minden , County of Mark , County of Ravensberg , Lippstadt , Duchy of Magdeburg , Principality of Halberstadt , Principality of Neuchâtel and County of Valangin .

In 1713 the parts of the country were divided into the following provinces :

  1. Mittelmark , Uckermark and Altmark
  2. Neumark-Pomerania-Kashubia
  3. Duchy of Prussia, the "Kingdom"
  4. Geldern-Kleve
  5. Minden-Mark-Ravensberg
  6. Magdeburg-Halberstadt
  7. Canton of Neuchâtel
  8. Valangine

In 1740 the provincial authorities were transferred to war and domain chambers or restructured. Its shape also changed several times in the course of the following decades when other areas came under Prussia, including the Duchy of Silesia in 1742 and the Principality of East Friesland in 1744 .

Through territorial acquisitions at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the number of total provinces in Prussia also increased.


Provinces of the old Prussian state until 1806 with indication of statistical key figures
Provincial Group number province Seizure Exit km² EW EW / km² Cities Cities> 5,000 inhabitants Cities 2,000-5,000 inhabitants Cities <2,000 inhabitants
east 1.0 176,596 4,104,000 23.24 525 18th 073 434

Duchy of Prussia in the 17th century

1.1 (Old) East Prussia 1618 1945 039,424 0.990,000 25.11 067 06th 025th 036
1.2 New East Prussia 1795 1807 051,240 0.877,000 17.12 129 00 008th 121
1.3 West Prussia 1772/76 1920/45 032,256 0.817,000 25.33 094 06th 018th 070
1.4 South Prussia 1793 z. T. 1807 053,676 1,420,000 26.46 235 06th 022nd 207
Central 2.0 109,310 4,203,400 38.45 380 33 104 243

Hzm Silesia 1791.jpg

2.1 Duchy of Silesia 1741 1945 040,656 2,047,000 50.35 147 11 043 093

Mark Brandenburg 1618.jpg

2.2 Mark Brandenburg 1415 z. T. 1945 035,728 1,177,000 32.94 123 13 034 076

Duchy of Pomerania in the 18th century.jpg

2.3 Duchy of Pomerania 1648, 1721 z. T. 1945 024,761 0.518,000 20.92 056 03 014th 039

Duchy of Magdeburg over LSA 2007.png

2.4 Duchy of Magdeburg with the county of Mansfeld 1648, 1680 (partly 1807–1813) 006.093 0.320,000 52.52 036 03 005 028
2.5 County of Hohnstein , Principality of Halberstadt , Quedlinburg 1648 1807-1813 002,072 0.141,400 68.24 018th 03 008th 007th
2.6 Principality of Erfurt and Eichsfeld 1802 1806 002,716 0.158,000 58.17 009 03 003 003
Northwest 3.0 017,645 0.873,000 49.48 104 08th 021st 075
3.1 County Kleve and County Mark 1612 1801 / 07-1815 004,004 0.202,000 50.45 036 03 010 023
3.2 Principality of Minden and County of Ravensberg 1648 1807-1815 001,951 0.166,000 85.08 014th 01 002 011
3.3 County of Lingen and County of Tecklenburg 1702 1807-1815 000.728 0.046,000 63.19 008th 00 000 008th
3.4 Principality of Munster 1802 1807-1815 002,744 0.127,000 46.28 009 01 001 007th
3.5 Principality of Paderborn 1802 1807-1815 002,800 0.098,500 35.18 023 00 002 021st
3.6 Principality of Hildesheim 1802 1807-1866 002,240 0.114,000 50.89 009 02 003 004th
3.7 Principality of East Frisia 1744 1807-1866 003,178 0.119,500 37.60 005 01 003 001
south 4th0 007,658 0.540,600 70.59 048 08th 008th 032
4.1 Principality of Ansbach 1791 1806 003,514 0.270,000 76.84 025th 05 003 017th
4.2 Principality of Bayreuth 1791 1807 003,220 0.223,000 69.25 018th 03 003 012
4.3 Principality of Neufchatel 1707 1806 000.924 0.047,600 51.52 005 00 002 003
Prussian monarchy 311.209 9,721,000 31.24 10570 67 206 784


1815-1866

After the Congress of Vienna , the state of Prussia was divided into ten provinces (the capital in brackets ) with the ordinance of 30 April 1815 to improve the establishment of the provincial authorities , which, with the exception of East Prussia, West Prussia and Posen as administrative units of Prussia, belong to the territory of the German Federal counted:

  1. Province of East Prussia ( Königsberg ), together with West Prussia Province of Kingdom of Prussia (Königsberg)
  2. West Prussia Province ( Danzig )
  3. Province of Pomerania ( Stettin )
  4. Brandenburg Province ( Potsdam )
  5. Province of Saxony ( Magdeburg )
  6. Grand Duchy of Poznan Province ( Poznan )
  7. Province of Silesia ( Wroclaw )
  8. Jülich-Kleve-Berg Province ( Cologne )
  9. Province of Westphalia ( Münster )
  10. Province of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine ( Koblenz )

Since 1822 the provinces of Jülich-Kleve-Berg and the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine formed the Rhine province with the capital Koblenz. In 1829 East and West Prussia were united to form the Province of Prussia (capital Königsberg). This reduced the number of provinces to eight.

In 1849 the princes of Hechingen and Sigmaringen renounced their rule, whereby both principalities fell to Prussia. They were combined to form the Sigmaringen administrative region, which was later also referred to as the Hohenzollernsche Lande .

In 1853 Prussia acquired a stretch of land on the Jade Bay and the Inner Jade from Oldenburg , on which a port was built. In 1869 this area was named Wilhelmshaven together with the surrounding settlement and in 1873 it was incorporated into the province of Hanover, which was formed in 1867 .

1866-1918

Administrative division on January 1, 1900

After the German War of 1866, Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover , the Electorate of Hesse , the Duchy of Nassau , the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and the Free City of Frankfurt am Main . Three provinces were formed from these areas:

On April 1, 1878, the province of Prussia was again divided into the two provinces of East Prussia (capital: Königsberg) and West Prussia (capital: Danzig ). Prussia thus comprised twelve provinces. "On April 1, 1881, B. [erlin] left the province of Brandenburg and formed a separate administrative district." Unlike the other provinces, Berlin only consisted of one urban district. Therefore, no separate provincial parliament, no regional director and no provincial committee were elected, but the city council, the mayor and the magistrate fulfilled the respective tasks simultaneously. As for every province, a state insurance company was founded for Berlin, separate from the Brandenburg one. The Prussian Minister of the Interior entrusted the President of the Police in Berlin to the President of the Police appointed by him . Medical and school matters continued to be dealt with together with Brandenburg, and the consistory in Berlin , which headed the Brandenburg Church Province of the Evangelical Church of the older Prussian provinces , remained responsible for Berlin and Brandenburg.

  • City of Berlin (urban district still without suburbs), as a provincial administrative district with functions similar to provinces

1919-1938

The twelve Prussian provinces, 1922–1938

The November Revolution abolished the monarchy and proclaimed a republic at the imperial and state levels . The previous kingdom now formed a democratic, republican state, the Free State of Prussia .

After the First World War, Germany was forced by the Treaty of Versailles to cede large territories, which, apart from the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine , which had been completely lost to France, exclusively affected Prussia:

  • The north of Schleswig-Holstein ( North Schleswig ) had to be ceded to Denmark
  • Most of the districts of Eupen and Malmedy in the Rhine Province were reclassified to Belgium (today's East Belgium )
  • Almost all of the province of Poznan was ceded to Poland .
  • Most of the province of West Prussia came to Poland and the Free City of Danzig, newly formed by the Allies . Only the eastern part of West Prussia remained with Prussia and was incorporated into the province of East Prussia.

The remaining areas of Posen and West Prussia, which also remained with Prussia, were united in 1922 to form a new (geographically divided) province, which was given the name Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia and the capital of which was Schneidemühl .

In 1919 the province of Silesia was divided into two provinces Lower Silesia (capital: Wroclaw ) and Upper Silesia (capital: Opole ). A year later, Berlin left the Brandenburg Provincial Association and formed its own province.

From 1922 the Free State of Prussia consisted of the following 12 provinces and Berlin:

1938-1947

Structure of the Greater German Reich 1944

In 1938 the two Silesian provinces were reunited, but separated again in 1941. The province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia was dissolved in 1938 and divided between the neighboring provinces of Pomerania, Brandenburg and Silesia . On March 21, 1939, the province of Brandenburg was renamed Mark Brandenburg. In 1944 the province of Hessen-Nessau was divided into Kurhessen and Nassau , and the province of Saxony into the province of Halle-Merseburg , the province of Magdeburg and the administrative district of Erfurt . The latter was no longer assigned to a Prussian province, but administered by the Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter of Thuringia.

Thus, from 1944 until its formal dissolution in 1947, Prussia consisted of 13 provinces and Berlin. The retroactive determination of the imperial borders by the Allies to December 31, 1937 did not change the number of provinces, since formally only the Rhine province and the provinces of Upper Silesia and East Prussia were reset to the 1938 status.

After 1945

After 1945 Prussia was acc. Article 1 of the Control Council Act No. 46 of the Allied Control Council dissolved and divided into four zones of occupation under the Soviet Union , Poland and the new German states :

The areas east of the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers - and the Swinoujscie and Stettin regions to the west - fell under Polish or Soviet administration in 1945. Most of the German population living east of the Oder-Neisse line , around 11 million people, fled or were expelled . After 1945, mainly Polish new settlers from central Poland and around 1.5 million displaced persons from the former Polish eastern regions were settled in the eastern regions of the German Reich .

The states of Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg, which are in the Soviet zone, were dissolved by the GDR in 1952 and replaced by 14 districts , but re-established in a slightly different form after German reunification in 1990.

Formerly Prussian territorial units in today's countries

Numerous Prussian administrative units continue to exist below the provincial level. Five of the 21 government districts still in existence today, as well as numerous rural districts, were founded in Prussian times and have in some cases hardly changed since then. The administrative districts of Arnsberg , Düsseldorf , Cologne and Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia are more than 200 years old (the service began on April 22, 1816) and are therefore among the oldest existing regional administrative units in Germany.

Each of the 16 states of today's Federal Republic has a more or less large share of the former Prussian territory:

Baden-Württemberg The former Hohenzollerschen Lande , the former administrative district Sigmaringen, belong to Baden-Württemberg . The two districts there, Sigmaringen and Hechingen , were dissolved at the end of 1972.
Bavaria The Prussian principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth / Kulmbach , which were founded in 1805/07, are located in Bavaria .
Berlin Berlin is the only country whose territory belonged 100% to Prussia. The current administrative structure of the city was essentially laid down in the Greater Berlin Act of 1920. The Neukölln , Reinickendorf and Spandau districts have remained largely unchanged since then.
Brandenburg Brandenburg mainly belonged to the Prussian province of the same name . In the north it includes areas formerly Mecklenburg, including the Fürstenberger Werder with the city of Fürstenberg / Havel . In the west and south it is part of the former areas of the Province of Saxony and the Free State of Saxony. The administrative districts of Potsdam and Frankfurt (Oder) were dissolved in 1946, but reappeared in 1952 to a different extent as the GDR districts of Potsdam and Frankfurt . Also in 1952, the districts were completely redesigned. The state of Brandenburg, newly founded in 1990, has no administrative districts.
Bremen The state of Bremen includes formerly Prussian areas of the province of Hanover in the area of Bremen-Nord and the city ​​of Wesermünde, which today belongs to Bremerhaven .
Hamburg In 1937, the State of Hamburg received the Prussian cities of Harburg-Wilhelmsburg , Altona and Wandsbek as well as other areas of the provinces of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein through the Greater Hamburg Act .
Hesse The north, west and east of the country belonged to Prussia since the occupation in 1866 and to the province of Hessen-Nassau from 1868 . The district of Wetzlar belonged to the Rhine province as an exclave from 1815 . The Wiesbaden administrative district was only dissolved in 1968, the Kassel administrative district has remained almost unchanged to this day. During four counties exist almost in its 1822 form created in non-Prussian part of Hessen, were all created in 1821 and 1866 adopted by Prussia Kurhessian merged into larger units circles during the regional reforms. The districts of Kassel and Fulda still exist under this name today, but have been expanded to include neighboring districts.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania The country includes most of the remaining German part of the Pomeranian Province and smaller areas of the Brandenburg Province . From the province of Schleswig-Holstein, the Barber-Lyaschtschenko Agreement in November 1945 added the communities of Dechow , Groß and Klein Thurow and Lassahn . The district of Rügen was except for a temporary breakdown in virtually unchanged from 1818 to 2011. Also, a county Demmin there were already so long. The district, which existed until 2011, was the product of the amalgamation of several smaller districts, including one in Mecklenburg.
Lower Saxony The largest part of Lower Saxony is made up of the province of Hanover . The administrative districts of Aurich , Hildesheim , Stade and Osnabrück , founded by Prussia, existed until 1978, the districts of Hanover and Lüneburg even until the district governments were abolished in 2004. The districts in the province of Hanover were created in 1885, some of them still exist today under the same name , but mostly enlarged by neighboring circles.
North Rhine-Westphalia The country emerged from the north of the Prussian Rhine province and the province of Westphalia as well as the Free State of Lippe , with the exception of the Lippe areas, the entire present-day country belonged to Prussian territory. The regional associations of Westphalia-Lippe and Rhineland continue the tradition of the two former provinces. Four of the country's five administrative districts date from the Prussian period.
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate comprises the southern part of the Rhine Province and a small part of the Hesse-Nassau Province . The administrative districts of Koblenz and Trier , founded in 1816, continued until 2000, when the middle administrative level was abolished in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Saarland The Saarland belonged to ⅔ the Prussian Rhine Province and ⅓ to the Bavarian Palatinate . Today's Saar- Palatinate district in Saarland was Bavarian, with the exception of Rentrisch , the towns of Ensheim and Eschringen , which today belong to Saarbrücken, and Schnappach , which today belongs to Sulzbach .
Saxony The Free State of Saxony comprises parts of Lower Silesia around Görlitz and Hoyerswerda as well as parts of the Province of Saxony north of Leipzig.
Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt is the successor state to the Prussian province of Saxony . With the exception of the former Free State of Anhalt and areas of Brunswick (eastern district of Blankenburg , Calvörde ), the area previously belonged entirely to Prussia. The administrative district of Magdeburg , founded in 1815, was only dissolved in 2004. The administrative district of Merseburg also continued to exist as the administrative district of Halle until 2004. In the GDR there were the districts Magdeburg and Halle in their place .
Schleswig-Holstein Like Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein emerged directly from the former Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein . Almost the entire state area belonged to Prussia, some areas (especially Großhansdorf , the cities of Lübeck and Geesthacht , the district of Eutin and the Domhof Ratzeburg ) only since the Groß Hamburg law of 1937. The Mecklenburg communities of Bäk , Mechow , Römnitz and Ziethen near Ratzeburg only came to this in November 1945 through the Barber-Lyaschtschenko Agreement .
Thuringia The north and center of today's Free State belonged to the administrative district of Erfurt in the province of Saxony .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Hassel: Statistical outline of all European states in terms of their size, population, cultural relations, action, financial and military constitution and their non-European possessions (2 parts). Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig 1805, pp. 29-52.
  2. ↑ Wording of the regulation for "Constitutions of the World": [1]
  3. ^ Meyer's large conversation lexicon (20 volumes). Completely revised and enlarged edition. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1903-08, here second volume: Astilbe bis Bismarck, Article Berlin , p. 700. The city name, abbreviated in the original, is here written out as B. [erlin].
  4. ↑ cf. Meyer's large conversation lexicon (20 volumes). Completely revised and enlarged edition. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1903-08, here second volume: Astilbe bis Bismarck, article Berlin , p. 700.