Minister President of Prussia explained

Post:Minister-President
Body:Prussia
Native Name:German: Ministerpräsident
Insignia:Coat of arms of Prussia.svg
Insigniacaption:Coat of arms of Prussia
Residence:Berlin
Precursor:Chief minister of Prussia
Formation:19 March 1848
First:Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg
Last:Hermann Göring
Abolished:23 April 1945

The office of Minister-President (German: Ministerpräsident), or Prime Minister, of Prussia existed from 1848, when it was formed by King Frederick William IV during the 1848–49 Revolution, until the abolition of Prussia in 1947 by the Allied Control Council.

History of the office

Under the Kingdom of Prussia the Minister President functioned as the chief minister of the King, and presided over the Landtag (the Prussian legislature established in 1848). After the unification of Germany in 1871 and until the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the office of the Prussian Minister President was usually held by the Chancellor of the German Empire, beginning with the tenure of Otto von Bismarck.

Under the Free State of Prussia the Minister President was the head of the state government in a more traditional parliamentary role during the Weimar Republic. The office ceased to have any real meaning except as a kind of political patronage title after the takeover by the national government in 1932 (Preußenschlag), and after Nazi Germany dismantled Prussia as a state in 1935 (Reichsstatthaltergesetz). Eventually, the office was abolished along with Prussia itself by the Allies in the aftermath of World War II.

Chief ministers of the Kingdom of Prussia (1702–1848)

List of ministers president of Prussia (1848–1945)

Ministers-president of the Kingdom of Prussia (1848–1918)

Political party:

width=80px rowspan=2 colspan=2Portraitwidth=30% rowspan=2Name
width=35% colspan=3Term of officewidth=28% rowspan=2Political party
Took officeLeft officeDays
Count Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg
19 March 184829 March 1848Non-partisan
Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen
29 March 184820 June 1848Non-partisan
Rudolf von Auerswald
25 June 18488 September 1848Non-partisan
Ernst von Pfuel
21 September 18481 November 1848Non-partisan
Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg
2 November 18486 November 1850Non-partisan
Baron Otto Theodor von Manteuffel
9 December 18506 November 1858Non-partisan
Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern
6 November 185812 March 1862Non-partisan
Prince Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen
17 March 186223 September 1862Non-partisan
Prince Otto von Bismarck
23 September 18621 January 1873Non-partisan
Count Albrecht von Roon
1 January 18739 November 1873Non-partisan
Prince Otto von Bismarck
9 November 187320 March 1890Non-partisan
Count Leo von Caprivi
20 March 189022 March 1892Non-partisan
Count Botho zu Eulenburg
22 March 189226 October 1894Non-partisan
Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst
29 October 189417 October 1900Non-partisan
Prince Bernhard von Bülow
17 October 190014 July 1909Non-partisan
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
14 July 190913 July 1917Non-partisan
Georg Michaelis
14 July 19171 November 1917Non-partisan
Count Georg von Hertling
1 November 191730 September 1918Centre
Prince Maximilian von Baden
3 October 19189 November 1918Non-partisan

Ministers-president of the Free State of Prussia (1918–1945)

Political party:

width=80px rowspan=2 colspan=2Portraitwidth=30% rowspan=2Name
width=35% colspan=3Term of officewidth=28% rowspan=2Political party
Took officeLeft officeDays
Ministers-president of the Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic
Paul Hirsch
12 November 191827 March 1920Social Democratic Party of Germany
Heinrich Ströbel
12 November 19189 January 1919Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
Otto Braun
27 March 192021 April 1921Social Democratic Party of Germany
Adam Stegerwald
21 April 19215 November 1921Centre Party
Otto Braun
5 November 192118 February 1925Social Democratic Party of Germany
Wilhelm Marx
18 February 19256 April 1925Centre Party
Otto Braun
6 April 192520 July 1932Social Democratic Party of Germany
Franz von Papen
Non-partisan
20 July 19323 December 1932
Kurt von Schleicher
Non-partisan
3 December 193228 January 1933
Franz von Papen
Non-partisan
30 January 193310 April 1933
Adolf Hitler
Nazi Party
30 January 193330 January 1935
Minister-president of the Free State of Prussia in Nazi Germany
Hermann Göring
Nazi Party
10 April 193323 April 1945
30 January 193523 April 1945

Timeline

See also