State elections were held in the

Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (german: Freistaat Preußen, ) was one of the constituent states of Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it continued to be the dom ...

on 24 April 1932 to elect all 423 members of the

Landtag of Prussia 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 Representa ...

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 The election saw the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

become the largest party in Prussia, winning 36% of the vote. The coalition of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

, Centre Party, and

German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...

(now the

German State Party The German State Party (german: Deutsche Staatspartei or DStP) was a short-lived German political party of the Weimar Republic, formed by the merger of the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei, DDP) with the People's National Rei ...

), which had governed Prussia since 1919, lost its majority. The SPD,

DNVP The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...

, and DVP all suffered huge losses. The Wirtschaftspartei lost all its seats, while the DVP and DStP were left with only a handful each. The Centre Party stayed steady, and the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

made minor gains. The resulting Landtag was divided between the SPD–Zentrum–DStP coalition, the Nazi–DNVP bloc, and the Communist Party. Prussia used the

constructive vote of no confidence The constructive vote of no confidence (german: konstruktives Misstrauensvotum, es, moción de censura constructiva) is a variation on the motion of no confidence that allows a parliament to withdraw confidence from a head of government only if t ...

, meaning a government could be removed from office only if there was a positive majority for a prospective successor. No parliamentary force held a majority, but since none were willing to cooperate with any of the others, the SPD-led coalition could not be removed. It continued in office as a minority government. This situation ended with the Preußenschlag on 20 July 1932. Reich President

Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fr ...

, on the advice of Reich Chancellor

Franz von Papen Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German conservative politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and General Staff officer. He served as the chancellor of Germany in 1 ...

, issued an emergency decree under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution dissolving the Prussian government and giving von Papen direct control over Prussia as ''Reichskommissar''.: :''Ein Tag als Lehrstück: für die antidemokratische Skrupellosigkeit der Konservativen jener Jahre, für die Hilflosigkeit und Ermattung der stets nur rhetorisch kraftvoll auftretenden Sozialdemokratie, für die Erosion und den Zerfall der republiktreuen Mitte - schon Monate vor der Etablierung des NS-Regimes.'' [One day as an object lesson: in the antidemocratic unscrupulousness of the conservatives of those years, in the helplessness and fatigue of the Social Democrats, who only rhetorically ever seemed powerful, in the erosion and breakup of the republican center — months before the establishment of the Nazi regime.] Prussia remained under direct control of the federal government until April 1933 when, at the behest of Adolf Hitler under the Enabling Act of 1933, state elections were held. The Nazis failed to win a majority, but the subsequent ban of the Communist Party and arrest of opposition deputies allowed them to secure control of the Landtag regardless, and

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

became Minister-President. The federal structure of Germany was effectively dissolved under the Nazi regime, and the Prussian government existed only symbolically. After the conclusion of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Prussia was dissolved by a declaration of the

Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority (german: Alliierter Kontrollrat) and also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and Allied-occupied Austria after the end of ...

Results

Results by constituency

See also

Notes

References