Free State of Anhalt
| Free State of Anhalt | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State of Germany | |||||||||
| 1918–1945 | |||||||||
The Free State of Anhalt (red) within the Weimar Republic | |||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||
| Anhalt Lied "Song of Anhalt" | |||||||||
| Capital | Dessau | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| • Coordinates | 51°50′N 12°15′E / 51.833°N 12.250°E | ||||||||
• 1925 | 2,314 km2 (893 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1925 | 351,045 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Republic | ||||||||
| Reichsstatthalter | |||||||||
• 1933–1935 | Wilhelm Loeper | ||||||||
• 1935–1937 | Fritz Sauckel | ||||||||
• 1937–1945 | Rudolf Jordan | ||||||||
| Minister-President | |||||||||
• 1918–1919 | Wolfgang Heine | ||||||||
• 1919–1924 | Heinrich Deist | ||||||||
• 1924–1924 | Willy Knorr | ||||||||
• 1924–1932 | Heinrich Deist | ||||||||
• 1932–1940 | Alfred Freyberg | ||||||||
• 1940–1945 | Rudolf Jordan | ||||||||
| Legislature | Landtag of Anhalt | ||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar / World War II | ||||||||
• Established | 12 November 1918 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 23 July 1945 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Free State of Anhalt (German: Freistaat Anhalt) was a state of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933 and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. It is today part of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The Duchy of Anhalt became the Free State of Anhalt during the German revolution of 1918–1919. The ruling House of Ascania abdicated peacefully, and a constitutional assembly was elected which drew up a republican constitution for Anhalt as a member state of the Weimar Republic. Throughout most of the Republic's fourteen-year life, the Social Democratic Party was the dominant political force in Anhalt, and it saw relatively little of the violence that flared up in other parts of Weimar-era Germany. Anhalt was nevertheless the first Weimar state to elect a local parliament with a Nazi majority (May 1932).
Anhalt became part of the Nazi Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt in 1933. Late in World War II, Dessau, Anhalt's capital city, was almost completely destroyed by Allied bombing, as was the smaller city of Zerbst. The region was ceded to Russian occupation forces on 1 July 1945, and three weeks later the Free State of Anhalt formally ceased to exist when it was merged into the Soviet-administered state of Saxony-Anhalt. It was dissolved in 1952 but re-created in 1990 after the reunification of Germany.