The Landtag of Prussia (German : Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (Herrenhaus) and the lower House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus). After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–19 the Landtag diet continued as the parliament of the Free State of Prussia between 1921 and 1934, when it was abolished by the Nazi regime.
In the course of the 1848 Revolution, King Frederick William IV of Prussia and his Minister President Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen had agreed to call for the general election of a national assembly in all Prussian provinces. The Prussian National Assembly however was dismissed by royal decree of 5 December 1848 and the King imposed the 1848 Constitution of Prussia. It contained a catalog of fundamental rights that included freedom of religion, speech and the press, and provided for a bicameral parliament consisting of a First Chamber (Erste Kammer, called House of Lords from 1855), as well as a Second Chamber (Zweite Kammer, from 1855 House of Representatives) whose members were elected by universal manhood suffrage according to the three-class franchise system that weighted votes based on amount of taxes paid. Both houses and the King of Prussia had the right to introduce bills, although the king remained the most powerful element in the government. [1] The first Parliament, which met in 1849, modified the constitution in mostly minor ways. The resulting 1850 Constitution of Prussia, [2] amended numerous times, remained Prussia's basic law until 1918.
Under the regency of Prince William I and his liberal prime minister Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern from 1858 (the "New Era"), the House of Representatives led by the newly established German Progress Party gradually developed into a serious political actor, culminating in a constitutional conflict in 1861: William I, who had just acceded to the Prussian throne, and his war minister Albrecht von Roon requested approval for an increment of the military budget, which the deputies refused. Roon urged the king to appoint Otto von Bismarck as Minister President. Bismarck acted on an alleged gap in the constitution ( Lückentheorie ) and openly sidestepped any power of the purse of the Prussian representatives, saying that "not by speeches and votes of the majority are the great questions of the time decided (...) but by iron and blood." The assembly raised a blistering protest and over the following years Bismarck's cabinet had to govern without a government budget passed by the legislature. In September 1866 the Minister President, at a peak of his power after the Battle of Königgrätz, reached the passage of the Indemnity Act (Indemnitätsgesetz) subsequently legalising his budget management. The balloting led to the split-off of the National Liberal Party which became a loyal supporter of Bismarck's policies.[ citation needed ]
During the German Revolution of 1918–19 the new Prussian government of Majority Social Democrats (MSPD) and Independent Social Democrats (USPD) under Paul Hirsch had the bicameral legislature abolished. A constitutional convention (Preußische Landesversamlung) was elected on 26 January 1919, after the introduction of equal franchise for all men and women. After the failed Kapp Putsch of 1920, the assembly confirmed the first cabinet of Minister-president Otto Braun and finally adopted the new Prussian constitution on 30 November. The Preußischer Landtag was re-established as the parliament of the Free State of Prussia in 1921. The provinces were represented in the Prussian State Council, which succeeded the former Herrenhaus as a kind of upper house. The Cologne mayor Konrad Adenauer served as its president until 1933. [3]
A legislative period lasted for no longer than four years. The parliament could be dissolved early by joint resolution of the prime minister and the presidents of the Landtag and the State Council or by a plebiscite. In 1931 just such a referendum, intended to dissolve the Prussian Landtag, took place on the initiative of the "Stahlhelm" veterans' organization, with the support of the Nazi Party and the German Communist Party. [4] The referendum failed. Landtag elections took place on 20 February 1921, 7 December 1924, 20 May 1928, 24 April 1932, and 5 March 1933. The last Prussian Landtag convened on 22 March 1933, and again on 18 May 1933 for the final time. A year after coming to power in Germany, the Nazi Party passed the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich," effective on 30 January 1934. Directed at replacing the German federal state with a unitary government, this law abolished the Prussian Landtag, along with all other provincial diets. [5]
In 1899, the House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus) moved into a building on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße No. 5 (present-day Niederkirchnerstraße), close to Potsdamer Platz and situated opposite to the Martin Gropius Bau. During the German Revolution of 1918–19 the Reichsrätekongress (national Workers' and Soldiers' Council) held its assemblies here from 16 to 20 December 1918. [6] : 136 On 1 January 1919, the Communist Party of Germany was founded here. Since 1993 the building has been the seat of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin: colloquially it is still named Preußischer Landtag just as the nearby building accommodating the Bundestag is still generally referred to as the Reichstag.
The seat of the Prussian House of Lords on Leipziger Straße was inaugurated in 1904. Both buildings were built back-to-back according to plans designed by Friedrich Schulze, they intercommunicate via a common restaurant wing. Upon the Nazi Machtergreifung , the Herrenhaus building served as an annex of the neighbouring Ministry of Aviation and Hermann Göring's Preußenhaus foundation. After World War II it housed several departments of the (East) German Academy of Sciences and since 29 September 2000 is the seat of the German Bundesrat.
| Portrait | Name | Political Party | Term of Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| President of the Preußische Landesversammlung | ||||
 | Robert Leinert | Social Democratic Party of Germany | 1919–1921 | |
| Presidents of the Landtag of Prussia | ||||
| | Robert Leinert | Social Democratic Party of Germany | 1921–1924 | |
 | Friedrich Bartels | Social Democratic Party of Germany | 1924–1928 | |
| 1928–1931 | ||||
 | Ernst Wittmaack | Social Democratic Party of Germany | 1931–1932 | |
 | Hanns Kerrl | National Socialist German Workers' Party | 1932–1933 | |
| 1933 | ||||
The Kingdom of Prussia constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1866 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Its capital was Berlin.
Prussia was a German state located on most of the North European Plain, also occupying southern and eastern regions. It formed the German Empire when it united the German states in 1871. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, expanding its size with the Prussian Army. Prussia, with its capital at Königsberg and then, when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany.
A Landtag is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non-federal matters.
The office of Minister-President, 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.
The Imperial Council was the legislature of the Austrian Empire from 1861 until 1918. It was a bicameral body: the upper house was the House of Lords, and the lower house was the House of Deputies. To become law, bills had to be passed by both houses, signed by the government minister responsible, and then granted royal assent by the Emperor. After having been passed, laws were published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. In addition to the Imperial Council, the fifteen individual crown lands of Cisleithania had their own diets.
The German Progress Party was the first modern political party in Germany, founded by liberal members of the Prussian House of Representatives in 1861 in opposition to Minister President Otto von Bismarck.
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingdom became a federated state of the new empire and was second in size, power, and wealth only to the leading state, the Kingdom of Prussia.
The Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin is the state parliament (Landtag) of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993 the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchnerstraße in Mitte, which until 1934 was the seat of the Prussian Landtag. The current president of the parliament is Cornelia Seibeld (CDU).
The Prussian House of Lords in Berlin was the upper house of the Landtag of Prussia, the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the lower house, the House of Representatives, it formed the Prussian bicameral legislature. The building is now used as the seat of the German Bundesrat.
Adolf Heinrich Graf von Arnim-Boitzenburg was a German statesman. He served as the first Minister-President of Prussia for ten days during the Revolution of 1848.
Maximilian (Max) Franz August von Forckenbeck was a German lawyer and liberal politician who served as Mayor of Berlin from 1878 until his death. His is considered one of the most important mayors of the city because of his prudent governing style during Berlin's rise as the capital of a unified Germany.
Rudolf Ludwig Cäsar von Auerswald was a German official who served as Prime Minister of Prussia during the Revolution of 1848. Later, during the ministry of Charles Anthony, Prince of Hohenzollern, he led the government in all but name.
The Prussian estates were representative bodies of Prussia, first created by the Monastic state of Teutonic Prussia in the 14th century but later becoming a devolved legislature for Royal Prussia within the Kingdom of Poland. They were at first composed of officials of six big cities of the region; Braunsberg (Braniewo), Culm (Chełmno), Elbing (Elbląg), Danzig (Gdańsk), Königsberg (Królewiec) and Thorn (Toruń). Later, representatives of other towns as well as nobility were also included. The estates met on average four times per year, and discussed issues such as commerce and foreign relations.
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often called a "Senate". In some countries, the House of Representatives is the sole chamber of a unicameral legislature.
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal government of Germany, and the commander-in-chief of the German Armed Forces during wartime. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Cabinet and heads the executive branch. The chancellor is elected by the Bundestag on the proposal of the federal president and without debate.
The Prussian House of Representatives was the lower chamber of the Landtag of Prussia, the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the upper house, the House of Lords, it formed the Prussian bicameral legislature. The Prussian House of Representatives was established by the Prussian constitution of 5 December 1848, with members elected according to the three-class franchise. At first it was called simply the "Second Chamber," with the name "House of Representatives" introduced in 1855.
The Prussian State Council was the second chamber of the bicameral legislature of the Free State of Prussia between 1921 and 1933; the first chamber was the Prussian Landtag. The members of the State Council were elected by the provincial parliaments and gave the provinces of Prussia a voice in the legislative process. The Council had an indirect right to introduce legislation, could object to bills passed by the Reichstag and had to approve expenditures that exceeded the budget.
The 1848 Constitution of Prussia was imposed on the Kingdom of Prussia by King Frederick William IV on 5 December 1848 in response to demands that arose during the German revolutions of 1848–1849. Although the Constitution was not the result of an agreement between the King and the Prussian National Assembly as originally intended, it included a list of fundamental rights, the introduction of jury courts, limitations on the monarch's powers and a mandate to ensure legal certainty.
The Prussian Constitution of 1920 formed the legal framework for the Free State of Prussia, a constituent state of the Weimar Republic, from 1918 to 1947. It was based on democratic parliamentary principles and replaced the Constitution of 1848/50. During the National Socialist era, it was eroded to the point of irrelevance and following World War II lost legal force when the state of Prussia was abolished by the Allies in 1947.
Karl Gisbert Friedrich Freiherr von Vincke was a Prussian officer and politician.
52°30′29″N13°22′55″E / 52.50806°N 13.38194°E
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