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Free State of Brunswick Freistaat Braunschweig (German)
State ofGermany
1918–1946
Flag Coat of arms
The Free State of Brunswick within theWeimar Republic
Territory of Brunswick (shown here with the post-World War IIinner German border between East and West Germany)
Capital	Brunswick(Braunschweig)
Government
• Type	Republic (de facto until 1933) National Socialistone-partytotalitariandictatorship (de facto 1933-1945)
Council Chairman
• 1918–1919	Sepp Oerter
• 1919–1920	Heinrich Jasper
Minister-President
• 1919–1920(first)	Heinrich Jasper
• 1946(last)	Alfred Kubel
Legislature	Landtag
Historical era	Interwar period
• Established	10 November 1918
• Abolitionde facto	14 October 1933
• Disestablished	1 November 1946
Preceded by Succeeded by Duchy of Brunswick Lower Saxony Saxony-Anhalt (1945–1952)
Today part of	Germany

TheFree State of Brunswick (German:Freistaat Braunschweig) was astate of theGerman Reich in the time of theWeimar Republic. It was formed after the abolition of theDuchy of Brunswick in the course of theGerman revolution of 1918–1919. Its capital wasBraunschweig (Brunswick). In 1933 it wasde facto abolished byNazi Germany. The free state was disestablished after theSecond World War in November 1946.

The Duchy of Brunswick had been established after the 1814Congress of Vienna, as a sovereign successor state of theGerman Confederation.^[1] It roughly comprised the incoherent territory of the formerPrincipality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, stretching fromHolzminden on theWeser River in the west toBlankenburg in theHarz mountain range andCalvörde in the east.^[2]

The Brunswick territory was largely surrounded by thePrussian provinces ofHanover (the formerKingdom of Hanover) andSaxony.^[2] From 1913 it was ruled by DukeErnest Augustus of theHouse of Hanover.^[3]

The reports on theKiel mutiny of 3 November 1918 sparked unrest in Braunschweig, when local revolutionaries led by theIndependent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) stormed the local prison, occupied the railway station and the police headquarters, and also attackedBrunswick Palace. On 8 November Duke Ernest Augustus of Brunswick was forced to abdicate and went into exile.^[4][5] Two days later, aworkers' council proclaimed the "Socialist Republic of Brunswick", ruled by a council of USPD revolutionaries.

However, their intentions to implement aSoviet republic failed, as in the first parliamentary elections on 22 December 1918 the USPD officials were outnumbered by theSocial Democrats (SPD), who reached 27.7% of the votes cast.^[6] On 22 February 1919, both parties formed acoalition government led by the USPD politicianJoseph ("Sepp") Oerter,^[7] that shifted the state's constitution towards aparliamentary republic. However, the government had to deal with subsequent uprisings in the capitalBraunschweig, led by the CommunistSpartacus League, which on 9 April called ageneral strike. Four days later, the Reich government declared thestate of emergency in Brunswick and crushed the Spartacist revolt with the aid of invadingFreikorps troops underGeorg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker.^[8][9]

On 30 April 1919, the BrunswickLandtag legislature elected a new state government under the Social Democratic prime ministerHeinrich Jasper, based on a coalition of SPD, USPD and the liberalGerman Democratic Party (DDP). TheFreikorps troops left Braunschweig ten days later, and the Reich government officially lifted emergency rule on 5 June.

Jasper's government stabilized public policy. However, in the 1920 state election, the SPD suffered a heavy loss of votes and the succeeding coalition government was again led by his USPD rival Sepp Oerter. The Brunswickfree state constitution was adopted on 6 January 1922.

In the 1922 elections, the SPD/USPD government finally lost its majority, whereafter the Social Democrats under Heinrich Jasper formed a coalition with the DDP and the national liberalGerman People's Party (DVP). At the same time, the risingNazi Party (NSDAP) established first local branches in Braunschweig andWolfenbüttel, until it was banned by the state government on 13 September 1923. Nevertheless, the party was represented in the BrunswickLandtag, when Sepp Oerter switched from left to right and joined the NSDAP in 1924.

After the 1924 elections, the DVP led a right-wing coalition government of several national liberal and conservative parties, among them theNational Socialist Freedom Movement (NSFB), a substitute of the outlawed Nazi Party. The Social Democrats under Heinrich Jasper once again were able to form a government upon the 1927 elections, however, it lost its majority in the following elections of 1930. The NSDAP reached 22.9% of the votes cast, whereafter the Nazi politicianAnton Franzen joined the new right-wing government as Minister of the Interior,^[10] succeeded by his party fellowDietrich Klagges on 15 September 1931.

Klagges was instrumental for the dismissal of opposition public servants and in organizing the anti-democraticHarzburg Front in October 1931. He is especially known for naturalizing the formerAustrian citizenAdolf Hitler, who had been stateless for seven years and aimed to run in the1932 German presidential election.^[11] After the failure of a first attempt to obtain him a tenure atBraunschweig University of Technology, Minister Klagges finally managed to appoint Hitler as a public functionary at the Brunswick delegation to theReichsrat inBerlin in 1932, which gave him citizenship of Brunswick, and thus automatically of Germany.^[12] There are no records of any activity by Hitler in this (high-paid) position. After his appointment asReich Chancellor on 30 January 1933, he was officially dismissed.

Before and after the NaziMachtergreifung,Communist and SPD politicians were persecuted and arrested in Brunswick.^[13] As part of theGleichschaltung (coordination) process, the "Provisional Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" was enacted on 30 March 1933. This dissolved all the sitting Landtage and reconstituted them on the basis of the recent5 March 1933Reichstag election results, which had given theNazi Party and its coalition partner theDNVP a working majority. Klagges was elected Minister-president of Brunswick on 6 May, and together with his party colleagues Justice MinisterFriedrich Alpers and Chief of PoliceFriedrich Jeckeln, he established a terror regime. He nevertheless found himself superseded byReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor)Wilhelm Friedrich Loeper, whose office had been established on 7 April by the "Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich." The last Landtag session was held on 13 June 1933, it was dissolved on 14 October and no new elections were scheduled. On 30 January 1934, the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" formally abolished all the Landtage and transferred thesovereignty of the states to the central government.

On 12 April 1945,US forces took the city of Braunschweig and deposed the Nazi government. The Brunswick territory became part of theBritish occupation zone, with the exception of the eastern Blankenburg and Calvörde areas, which fell toSoviet-administeredSaxony-Anhalt. On 7 May 1946, the British authorities appointed the Social Democratic politicianAlfred Kubel minister-president, the last before the Brunswick territory within the British zone merged with theState of Hanover (the former Prussian province), the Free States ofOldenburg andSchaumburg-Lippe into the newly founded state (Land) ofLower Saxony, effective on 1 November 1946.^[14]

TheBrunswick region remained a Lower SaxonVerwaltungsbezirk (from 1978:Regierungsbezirk) until its dissolution in 2004. The Brunswick state constitution of 1922 was not repealed until a 2011 resolution by theLandtag of Lower Saxony.

1. 1918–1919:Sepp Oerter (USPD)
2. 1919–1920:Heinrich Jasper (SPD)

1. 1919–1920:Heinrich Jasper (SPD)
2. 1920–1921:Sepp Oerter (USPD)
3. 1921–1922:August Junke (SPD)
4. 1922:Otto Antrick (SPD)
5. 1922:Heinrich Jasper (SPD)
6. 1924–1927:Gerhard Marquordt (DVP)
7. 1927–1930:Heinrich Jasper (SPD)
8. 1930–1933:Werner Küchenthal (DNVP)
9. 1933–1945:Dietrich Klagges (NSDAP)
10. 1945–1946:Hubert Schlebusch (SPD)
11. 1946:Alfred Kubel (SPD)

Reichsstatthalter forAnhalt and Brunswick (headquarters inDessau)

1. 1933–1935:Wilhelm Loeper
2. 1935–1937:Fritz Sauckel
3. 1937–1945:Rudolf Jordan

The Free State of Brunswick initially comprised the City of Braunschweig and the following rural districts:

• Blankenburg (divided in 1945 between British and Soviet zone of occupation)
• Braunschweig
• Gandersheim
• Holzminden (to the Prussian province of Hanover on 1 November 1941 in return for the District ofGoslar and the City ofGoslar)
• Helmstedt
• Wolfenbüttel

On 1 April 1942, the city district ofWatenstedt-Salzgitter was established on Goslar and Wolfenbüttel territory.

• Brunswick Land
• Brunswick Landtag elections in the Weimar Republic

• Reinhard Bein:Braunschweig zwischen rechts und links. Der Freistaat 1918 bis 1930. Döring, Braunschweig 1990,ISBN 3-925268-05-7.
• Reinhard Bein:Im deutschen Land marschieren wir. Freistaat Braunschweig 1930–1945. 6th edition. Döring, Braunschweig 1992,ISBN 3-925268-02-2.
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (eds.):Die Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. Jahrtausendrückblick einer Region. 2nd edition. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2001,ISBN 3-930292-28-9.
• Helmut Kramer (ed.):Braunschweig unterm Hakenkreuz. Magni Buchladen, Braunschweig 1981,ISBN 3-922571-03-4.
• Jörg Leuschner, Karl Heinrich Kaufhold,Claudia Märtl (eds.):Die Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des Braunschweigischen Landes vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. 3 vols. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2008,ISBN 978-3-487-13599-1.
• Richard Moderhack (ed.):Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte im Überblick. 3rd edition, Braunschweigischer Geschichtsverein, Braunschweig 1979.
• Werner Pöls, Klaus Erich Pollmann (eds.):Moderne Braunschweigische Geschichte. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1982,ISBN 3-487-07316-1.
• Hans Reinowski:Terror in Braunschweig – Aus dem 1. Quartal der Hitlerherrschaft. Zurich 1933.
• Ernst-August Roloff:Braunschweig und der Staat von Weimar. Waisenhaus-Buchdruckerei und Verlag, Braunschweig 1964.
• Ernst-August Roloff:Bürgertum und Nationalsozialismus 1930–1933. Braunschweigs Weg ins Dritte Reich. Hanover 1961.
• Ehm Welk:Im Morgennebel. 2nd edition, Verlag Volk und Welt, East Berlin 1954 (novel).

• States and territories established in 1918
• States and territories disestablished in 1946
• States of the Weimar Republic
• History of Brunswick
• Former states and territories of Lower Saxony

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