People's State of Hesse
| People's State of Hesse Volksstaat Hessen | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State of Germany | |||||||||||
| 1918–1945 | |||||||||||
The People's State of Hesse (red) within the Weimar Republic | |||||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||||
| Hessenlied "Song of Hesse" | |||||||||||
| Capital | Darmstadt | ||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||
| • Coordinates | 49°52′N 8°39′E / 49.867°N 8.650°E | ||||||||||
• 1925 | 7,692 km2 (2,970 sq mi) | ||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||
• 1925 | 1,347,279 | ||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||
| • Type | Republic | ||||||||||
| President | |||||||||||
• 1919–1928 | Carl Ulrich | ||||||||||
• 1928–1933 | Bernhard Adelung | ||||||||||
• 1933 | Ferdinand Werner | ||||||||||
• 1933–1945 | Jakob Sprenger (as Reichsstatthalter) | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar · World War II | ||||||||||
| 9 November 1918 | |||||||||||
• Constitution | 12 December 1919 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 19 September 1945 | ||||||||||
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The People's State of Hesse (German: Volksstaat Hessen) was one of the constituent states of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany from 1918 to 1945. Its former territory is now part of the German states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The term "People's State" referred to the fact that it was a republic (rather than implying that it was a socialist state) and was equivalent to the term Free State, which was used by most of the other states of the Weimar Republic.
The People's State of Hesse was created from the Grand Duchy of Hesse during the revolution of 1918–1919, which broke out after the German Empire was defeated in World War I. The revolution in Hesse was largely peaceful. A soldiers' and workers' council declared Grand Duke Ernest Louis deposed and proclaimed Hesse a republic on 9 November 1918. A popularly elected assembly then passed a republican constitution for the People's State. It had a one-chamber parliament that was led throughout the period of the Weimar Republic by the three moderate parties of the Weimar Coalition.
Parts of the People's State were occupied by the French until 1930 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. A separatist movement active in the Rhineland until 1923 affected parts of Hesse, but it had little popular support and was not able to establish a separate Rhineland state.
After the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933, it abolished the People's State's parliament and transferred state sovereignty to the central government. After the end of World War II in May 1945, the People's State was split between the American occupation zone east of the Rhine and the French occupation zone to its west. In 1946 the American-controlled region became part of the new state of Hesse and the French area of Rhineland-Palatinate.