Province of Brandenburg

History

Pre-provincial period

The first people who are known to have inhabited Brandenburg were the Germanic Suebi. During the Migration Period, they were succeeded by the Polabian Slavs, whose fortress at Brandenburg an der Havel was conquered by the German king Henry the Fowler in 928/29. Henry subdued the Slavic tribes up to the Oder river and his son Otto I established the marca Geronis on their territory, with the government first conferred to the Saxon count Gero.

The Northern March was split off from the marca Geronis in 965, and large parts of it were lost in the Great Slav Rising of 983. The margravial title did not become hereditary until the time of Albert the Bear, another Saxon count from the noble House of Ascania, who established the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157. His son Margrave Otto I achieved the dignity of an arch-chamberlain of the Holy Roman Empire in 1177. Emperor Charles IV, by the Golden Bull of 1356, confirmed the electoral dignity of the Brandenburg margraves and in 1373 assigned the electorate to his son Wenceslaus. The Elector of Brandenburg held the seventh rank among the electors of the Empire and had five votes in the Council of Princes.

In 1415 Brandenburg was acquired by Burgrave Frederick of Nuremberg, the first member of the Swabian House of Hohenzollern to rule the margraviate. Over the centuries, the Hohenzollerns gradually rose to one of the most important dynasties of the Empire, rivalling the ruling House of Habsburg of the Holy Roman Empire, a process that intensified with the Protestant Reformation and the inheritance of the Polish Duchy of Prussia in 1618. The margraviate formed the core of the Brandenburg–Prussian state, and the "Great Elector" Frederick William I made various accessions to the territory, with the Treaty of Königsberg of 1656 marking a significant turn in its evolution. By the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau, Frederick William reached full sovereignty in his Prussian territories, which enabled his son Frederick I (Frederick III of Brandenburg) to assume the crown of a "King in Prussia" in 1701.

Establishment of the province

The Margraviate remained a constituent part of Prussia until after the Napoleonic Wars and the 1815 Congress of Vienna, when the Kingdom's administration was divided into ten provinces. Most of the Margraviate's territory was incorporated into the new province of Brandenburg, most notably the Mittelmark between the rivers Elbe and Oder and the Neumark region east of the Oder River. The Altmark, on the western bank of the Elbe, was incorporated into the Prussian Province of Saxony. The Province of Brandenburg also encompassed the territory of Lower Lusatia (where Cottbus had been a Brandenburgian exclave since the 15th century) as well as the area around Belzig and Jüterbog, all annexed from the Kingdom of Saxony because it had allied with Napoleon.

The Province, headed by an Oberpräsident, was subdivided into two governorates (Regierungsbezirke) named after their respective capitals, Potsdam in the northwest (incorporating the Mittelmark, Prignitz and the Uckermark) and Frankfurt (Oder) in the southeast (with the Neumark and Lower Lusatia). The provincial government was at first situated at the Potsdam royal residence. In 1827 it moved to Berlin, returned to Potsdam in 1843 and in 1918 settled in Charlottenburg. The Prussian capital Berlin originally formed part of the province, but in the course of the Industrial Revolution from the 1830s onwards it quickly developed to a major metropolis. From 1871 it was capital of the German Empire, and on 1 April 1881 it was made an autonomous city district (Stadtkreis Berlin) without, however, completely leaving the province. On 1 October 1920, Berlin was formally separated from the Province of Brandenburg.

In spite of the fact that serfdom had been officially abolished by the 1807 Prussian reforms, Brandenburg's rural outer regions were still characterised by the large-scale land holdings of the Junker nobility, similar to the situation in the eastern Prussian provinces of Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia. The conditions in the countryside remained largely unchanged even during the Revolutions of 1848 that led to violent fights in the streets of Berlin. The large estates had to deal with low soil quality and – except for brown coal in Lower Lusatia – the lack of natural resources. Provincial life was portrayed in the novels of Theodor Fontane, especially in his 1862–89 descriptive work Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg ("Ramblings through the Mark Brandenburg").

Free State of Prussia

After World War I, the Kingdom of Prussia was replaced by the Free State of Prussia as part of the Weimar Republic. Brandenburg became a province of the Free State without any change in size, although as a result of Germany's territorial losses under the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, it had a 35 km (22 mi) long border with the Second Polish Republic. The 1920 Greater Berlin Act expanded the borders of the German capital, incorporating numerous surrounding districts and towns from Brandenburg, including Charlottenburg, the seat of its provincial government. As a result of the expansion, Brandenburg lost half of its population and two-thirds of its tax base.

After Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube was appointed Oberpräsident of Brandenburg. He was succeeded by Emil Stürtz in 1936. Brandenburg was home to the concentration camps Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück and the residences of important Nazi leaders such as Hermann Göring's Carinhall.

During the war, Germany operated several prisoner-of-war camps with numerous forced labour subcamps in the province. They included Stalag III-A, Stalag III-B, Stalag III-C, Stalag III-D, Oflag II-A, Oflag III-A, Oflag III-B, Oflag III-C, Oflag 8 and Oflag 80 for Polish, Belgian, British, Dutch, French, Serbian, Italian, American, Czechoslovak, Soviet, Romanian, Greek, Bulgarian and other Allied POWs. In early 1945, the death marches of prisoners from various dissolved camps passed through the region.

In the late days of World War II, Brandenburg was the site of the bloody battles against the Soviet and Polish armies at the Seelow Heights, Halbe and finally the Battle of Berlin.

In 1945, after the war, the Neumark territory east of the Oder–Neisse line was ceded to the Republic of Poland to form the Zielona Gora Voivodeship (part of Poznan Voivodeship between 1945 and 1950; it became Lubusz Voivodeship in 1998 after merging with Gorzów Voivodeship). The remaining territory was part of the Soviet occupation zone as the state of Brandenburg, with its capital at Potsdam. It became part of East Germany when it was established in 1949. Along with the other states of East Germany, Brandenburg was dissolved in 1952 and divided into administrative districts. Brandenburg's territory roughly corresponded with the districts of Potsdam, Frankfurt/Oder and Cottbus. In 1990, following German reunification, Brandenburg was re-established as a state of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Demographics

According to the 1905 census, the total population of the Province of Brandenburg was 3,531,906 persons, of whom 97% declared German to be their mother tongue. Notable language minorities included Sorbians, who constituted 1% of the provincial population and overwhelmingly inhabited largely rural areas in Lower Lusatia, north of Cottbus in the Spreewald. Polish speakers, who constituted 1.3% of the population, were mostly concentrated in urban areas and the lignite mining regions in Lower Lusatia, as well as in farming communities in the Uckermark.

The following tables contain data collected by the Prussian statistical office from the census of 1905:

Government

The Prussian central government appointed an Oberpräsident ("upper president") for every province who carried out the state's functions on the provincial level and supervised the implementation of central policy at the lower levels of administration. In 1824 Brandenburg established a provincial Landtag (parliament). It served in an advisory role on proposed laws, with no decision-making or budgetary authority. Its primary function was administrative. Elections of its members were estates-based: the nobility and clergy received half of the seats in the Landtag, and representatives of the cities, farmers and hereditary tenants the remainder. Voting rights for all estates were based on landholdings of a specified size.

Under its 1848 constitution, the Kingdom of Prussia set up a two-chamber Landtag that served as the representative assembly for all of Prussia's provinces. The members of its lower house, the Prussian House of Representatives, were elected using the Prussian three-class franchise, which weighted votes based on the amount of taxes paid.

The provincial ordinance of 1875 strengthened self-rule within the provinces. Brandenburg's Landtag elected a provincial executive body, a provincial committee (Provinzialausschuss) and a head of province, the Landesdirektor ("Provincial Director"). The estates-based election system was abolished in favor of an indirect election: the district councils of each urban and rural district (Kreis) elected two members to the Landtag. It convened once a year to adopt the provincial budget. Its other responsibilities were administrative, overseeing such areas as public works, social welfare, urban development and the arts and sciences.

The first Weimar era Landtag election took place under the indirect voting system of the imperial period. It was not until the 1921 election that a universal, direct and equal franchise was used; three years later, the first woman was elected to the Landtag. Its functions remained non-legislative. As in the Empire, its functions were administrative except for the adoption of the budget.

Upper Presidents of Brandenburg

• 1815–1824: Georg Friedrich Christian von Heydebreck (1765–1828)
• 1825–1840: Friedrich Magnus von Bassewitz (1773–1858)
• 1840–1842: vacant
• 1842–1848: August Werner von Meding (1792–1871)
• 1848–1849: Robert von Patow (1804–1890), per pro
• 1849–1850: vacant
• 1849–1850: August Hermann Klemens Freiherr Wolff von Metternich (1803–1872), per pro
• 1850–1858: Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell (1786–1865)
• 1859–1862: Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell (1786–1865)
• 1862: Werner Ludolph Erdmann von Selchow (1806–1884)
• 1862–1879: Gustav Wilhelm von Jagow (1813–1879)
• 1879–1899: Heinrich von Achenbach (1829–1899)
• 1899–1905: Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (1856–1921)
• 1905–1909: August von Trott zu Solz (1855–1938)
• 1909–1910: Friedrich Wilhelm von Loebell (1855–1931)
• 1910–1914: Alfred von Conrad (1852–1914)
• 1914–1917: Rudolf von der Schulenburg (1860–1930)
• 1917–1919: Friedrich Wilhelm von Loebell (1855–1931)
• 1919–1933:Adolf Maier (1871–1963), DDP
• 1933–1936: Wilhelm Kube (1887–1943), NSDAP
• 1937–1945: Emil Stürtz (1892–1945), NSDAP, since 1936 per pro

Land Directors of Brandenburg

• 1876–1896: Albert Erdmann Karl Gerhard von Levetzow (1827–1903), German Conservative Party
• 1896–1912: Otto Karl Gottlob von Manteuffel (1844–1913), German Conservative Party
• 1912–1930: Joachim von Winterfeldt-Menkin (1865–1945)
• 1930–1933: Hugo Swart (1885–1952)
• 1933–1944: Dietloff von Arnim (1876–1945), NSDAP

Subdivisions

From 1822 the province of Brandenburg was divided into two Regierungsbezirke (governorates): Frankfurt and Potsdam. Between 1816 and 1822 there was a third governorate – the Governorate of Berlin – comprising the urban district of Berlin, the city of Charlottenburg and the municipalities of Gesundbrunnen, Lichtenberg, and Stralau. In 1822 the Berlin region merged into the Potsdam region.

Regierungsbezirk Berlin

Established in 1816, this governorate, an enclave in the Potsdam region, merged into the latter in 1822.

Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt

Urban districts (Stadtkreise)

1. Cottbus (1886–1950, and from 1954; 1947–1952, and from 1990 part of Brandenburg state)
2. Forst (Lusatia) (1897–1950; quarters west of the Oder merged in Cottbus district; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
3. Frankfurt (Oder) (until 1827, 1877–1950, and from 1952; 1947–1952, and from 1990 part of Brandenburg state)
4. Guben (1884–1950; quarters west of the Oder merged in Cottbus district; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
5. Landsberg (Warthe) (1892–1945)

Rural districts (Landkreise)

1. Arnswalde (1818–1945; from 1938 part of Pomerania province)
2. Calau (1818–1950; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
3. Cottbus (1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
4. Crossen (Oder) (1818–1945)
5. Cüstrin (until 1836; merged into Königsberg district)
6. Friedeberg Nm. (i.e. in the New March; 1816–1945; from 1938 part of Pomerania province)
7. Guben (1818–1950; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
8. Königsberg Nm. (i.e. in the New March; 1816–15 March 1946, remainder west of the Oder merged into Angermünde, Lebus and Oberbarnim districts)
9. Landsberg (Warthe) (1818–1945)
10. Lebus (1816–1950; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
11. Luckau (1816–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
12. Lübben (Spreewald) (1816–1952; in 1835 Beeskow area ceded to Beeskow-Storkow; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
13. Meseritz (1818–1945; until 1938 part of Posen-West Prussia)
14. Oststernberg (1873–1945; partitioned from Sternberg district)
15. Schwerin (Warthe) (1887–1945; until 1938 part of Posen-West Prussia)
16. Soldin (1818–1945)
17. Sorau (Lusatia) (1816–1 April 1946, remainder west of the Oder merged into Cottbus, Forst and Spremberg districts)
18. Spremberg (Lusatia) (1818–1993; 1947–1952, and from 1990 part of Brandenburg state)
19. Sternberg (1816–1873; partitioned into Ost- and Weststernberg)
20. Weststernberg (1873–1945; partitioned from Sternberg district)
21. Züllichau-Schwiebus (1818–1945)

Regierungsbezirk Potsdam

Urban districts (Stadtkreise)

1. Berlin (1822–1881; on 1 April 1881 the city was disentangled from the province of Brandenburg.)
2. Brandenburg (Havel) (from 1881; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
3. Charlottenburg (1877–1920; merged in Greater Berlin)
4. Eberswalde (1911–1950; merged in Oberbarnim district; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
5. Lichtenberg (1908–1920; from 1912: known as Berlin-Lichtenberg; merged in Greater Berlin)
6. Potsdam (from 1809; 1947–1952, and from 1990 part of Brandenburg state)
7. Rathenow (1925–1950; merged in Westhavelland district; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
8. Rixdorf (1899–1920; from 1912: known as Berlin-Neukölln; merged in Greater Berlin)
9. Schöneberg (1899–1920; from 1912: known as Berlin-Schöneberg; merged in Greater Berlin)
10. Spandau (1886–1920; merged in Greater Berlin)
11. Wilmersdorf (1907–1920; from 1912: known as Berlin-Wilmersdorf; merged in Greater Berlin)
12. Wittenberge (1922–1950; merged in Westprignitz district; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)

Rural districts (Landkreise)

1. Angermünde (1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
2. Beeskow-Storkow (1836–1950; combined from partitioned parts of Teltow-Storkow and Lübben; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
3. Jüterbog-Luckenwalde (renamed as Luckenwalde district in 1946; 1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
4. Niederbarnim (i.e. Lower Barnim; 1818–1952; widely merged in Greater Berlin in 1920; from 1947 remainder part of Brandenburg state)
5. Oberbarnim (i.e. Upper Barnim; 1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
6. Osthavelland (i.e. Eastern Havelland; 1816–1952; widely merged in Greater Berlin in 1920; from 1947 remainder part of Brandenburg state)
7. Ostprignitz (i.e. Eastern Prignitz; 1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
8. Prenzlau (1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
9. Ruppin (1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
10. Teltow (1836–1952; partitioned from Teltow-Storkow; widely merged in Greater Berlin in 1920; from 1947 remainder part of Brandenburg state)
11. Teltow-Storkow (1816–1835; partitioned into Teltow and Storkow, which merged with northern Lübben to Beeskow-Storkow)
12. Templin (1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
13. Westhavelland (i.e. Western Havelland; 1816–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
14. Westprignitz (i.e. Western Prignitz; 1818–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)
15. Zauch-Belzig (1817–1952; from 1947 part of Brandenburg state)