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.
| Minister-President of Prussia | |
|---|---|
| Ministerpräsident | |
 Coat of arms of Prussia | |
| Residence | Berlin |
| Appointer | King of Prussia (1848–1918) Landtag of Prussia (1918–1933) |
| Precursor | Chief minister of Prussia |
| Formation | 19 March 1848 |
| First holder | Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg |
| Final holder | Hermann Göring |
| Abolished | 23 April 1945 |
History of the office
editUnder 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 1918–1919 Revolution, 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)
edit- 1702–1711: Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg
- 1711–1728: Heinrich Rüdiger von Ilgen
- 1728–1739: Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow
- 1739–1749: Heinrich von Podewils
- 1749–1753: Georg Dietloff von Arnim-Boitzenburg
- 1749–1777: Count Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein
- 1777–1802: Friedrich Anton von Heynitz
- 1786–1798: Friedrich Wilhelm von Arnim-Boitzenburg
- 1802–1804: Count Christian Heinrich Kurt von Haugwitz (1st term)
- 1804–1806: Count Karl August von Hardenberg (1st term)
- 1806: Count Christian Heinrich Kurt von Haugwitz (2nd term)
- 1806–1807: Carl Friedrich von Beyme
- 1807: Count Karl August von Hardenberg (2nd term)
- 1807–1808: Baron Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein
- 1808–1810: Count Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten
- 1810–1822: Prince Karl August von Hardenberg (3rd term)
- 1822–1823: Otto von Voß[clarification needed]
- 1823–1841: Count Carl Friedrich Heinrich, Graf von Wylich und Lottum[clarification needed]
- 1841–1848: Ludwig Gustav von Thile[clarification needed]
List of minister-presidents of Prussia (1848–1945)
editMinister-presidents of the Kingdom of Prussia (1848–1918)
edit| Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) |
Term of office | Political party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Days | ||||
|
Count Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg (1803–1868) |
19 March 1848 | 29 March 1848 | 10 | Non-partisan | |
|
Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen (1803–1890) |
29 March 1848 | 20 June 1848 | 83 | Non-partisan | |
|
Rudolf von Auerswald (1795–1866) |
25 June 1848 | 8 September 1848 | 75 | Non-partisan | |
|
Ernst von Pfuel (1779–1866) |
21 September 1848 | 1 November 1848 | 41 | Non-partisan | |
|
Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg (1792–1850) |
2 November 1848 | 6 November 1850 | 734 | Non-partisan | |
|
Baron Otto Theodor von Manteuffel (1805–1882) |
9 December 1850 | 6 November 1858 | 2889 | Non-partisan | |
|
Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern (1811–1885) |
6 November 1858 | 12 March 1862 | 1222 | Non-partisan | |
|
Prince Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen (1797–1873) |
17 March 1862 | 23 September 1862 | 190 | Non-partisan | |
|
Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) First term |
23 September 1862 | 1 January 1873 | 3753 | Non-partisan | |
|
Count Albrecht von Roon (1803–1879) |
1 January 1873 | 9 November 1873 | 312 | Non-partisan | |
|
|
Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) Second term |
9 November 1873 | 20 March 1890 | 5975 | Non-partisan | |
|
Count Leo von Caprivi (1831–1899) |
20 March 1890 | 22 March 1892 | 733 | Non-partisan | |
|
Count Botho zu Eulenburg (1831–1912) |
22 March 1892 | 26 October 1894 | 948 | Non-partisan | |
|
Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (1819–1901) |
29 October 1894 | 17 October 1900 | 2179 | Non-partisan | |
|
Prince Bernhard von Bülow (1849–1929) |
17 October 1900 | 14 July 1909 | 3192 | Non-partisan | |
|
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (1856–1921) |
14 July 1909 | 13 July 1917 | 2921 | Non-partisan | |
|
Georg Michaelis (1857–1936) |
14 July 1917 | 1 November 1917 | 110 | Non-partisan | |
|
Count Georg von Hertling (1843–1919) |
1 November 1917 | 30 September 1918 | 333 | Centre | |
|
Prince Maximilian von Baden (1867–1929) |
3 October 1918 | 9 November 1918 | 37 | Non-partisan | |
Minister-presidents of the Free State of Prussia (1918–1945)
editPolitical party: SPD USPD Zentrum NSDAP None
| Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) |
Term of office | Political party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Days | ||||
| Minister-presidents of the Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic | ||||||
|
Paul Hirsch (1868–1940) |
12 November 1918 | 27 March 1920 | 501 | Social Democratic Party of Germany | |
|
Heinrich Ströbel (1869–1944) Co-prime minister |
12 November 1918 | 9 January 1919 | 29 | Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany | |
|
Otto Braun (1872–1955) First term |
27 March 1920 | 21 April 1921 | 390 | Social Democratic Party of Germany | |
|
Adam Stegerwald (1874–1945) |
21 April 1921 | 5 November 1921 | 198 | Centre Party | |
|
|
Otto Braun (1872–1955) Second term |
5 November 1921 | 18 February 1925 | 1201 | Social Democratic Party of Germany | |
|
Wilhelm Marx (1863–1946) |
18 February 1925 | 6 April 1925 | 47 | Centre Party | |
|
|
Otto Braun (1872–1955) Third term |
6 April 1925 | 20 July 1932 | 2662 | Social Democratic Party of Germany | |
|
Franz von Papen (1879–1969) |
Reichskommissar | 136 | Non-partisan | ||
| 20 July 1932 | 3 December 1932 | |||||
|
Kurt von Schleicher (1882–1934) |
Reichskommissar | 56 | Non-partisan | ||
| 3 December 1932 | 28 January 1933 | |||||
|
|
Franz von Papen (1879–1969) |
Reichskommissar | 70 | Non-partisan | ||
| 30 January 1933 | 10 April 1933 | |||||
|
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) |
Reichsstatthalter | 730 | Nazi Party | ||
| 30 January 1933 | 30 January 1935 | |||||
| Minister-president of the Free State of Prussia in Nazi Germany | ||||||
|
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) |
Ministerpräsident | 4396 | Nazi Party | ||
| 10 April 1933 | 23 April 1945 | |||||
| Reichsstatthalter | 3736 | |||||
| 30 January 1935 | 23 April 1945 | |||||
Timeline
edit