Since Joram put no topic up for this, excuse me commenting something.
In 1932 von Papen removes the Prussian government, as Indy narrates after minute 10. But why does neither Indy in the episode, nor Sparty in the article about cover up related to the Altonaer Blutsonntag use the term “Preußenschlag”?
I waited for that one and was even confused for a short moment, if it really was the same event.
And it is a really catchy term, you gotta admit. And if you’re in a history class in Germany it is usually the starting point for the actual Nazi power grab. Because if monarchists can use it to topple a democracy with the measures taken, so can National-Socialists.
I also read the Abel-papers*, where a loooot of Nazis from the northern part of the Reich reference the Altonaer Blutsonntag. It was the moment where they felt unity while being under attack, but for the first time also how the “tables had turned”. Basically every Nazi member describes how they were persecuted and hunted not only by communists, but also by the state. This changed in Altona. Police “joined the ranks of the true Germans” and “united Party and State fought the red danger” (paraphrased). This actually gave them an upwind and a strong boost for the elections. They draw a direct line from there to the win of the elections in a few days later, where the NSDAP got the relative majority. The losses in November the same year (from ~37% to ~33%) is seen as a purge of the “Trittbrettfahrer” (opportunists) and phony “true Germans”/Nazis who lost faith after the establishment tried to push them down one last time.
One other interesting fact is that the police president responsble for Altona was a Social-Democrat. Now SPD men aren’t shy of clubbing communists as one can see in the in tales about the November revolution 1918, but admitting a big Nazi demonstration in “Klein-Moskau” (Little Moscow), is another level. As a thank you, von Papen sacked him after the Preußenschlag and he was “shot while fleeing” from KZ Esterwegen by the SA on August 12th 1933… while carrying a heavy log with two other inmates, yeah.
The Preußenschlag also highlights a few lesser known malfunctions in the Weimar constitution: Von Papen could be Reichskanzler and Reichskommissar at the same time. Now you might say: Yeah, but only by a special decree from Hindenburg. Well also could be and actually was the Prime Minister prior to the Preußenschlag. And he was elected by the Prussian parliament, not appointed by the Reichspresident like the chancellor. Also then keep in mind that with Prussia you controlalready 40% in the second chamber of parliament. Blocking a 2/3rd majority needed to Veto anything from the Reichstag. Making it de facto obsolete, because no one could go against Prussia from the beginning.
So one state to rule them all and why was the Reichspresident able to directly appoint heads of federal states? They shouldn’t be able to do this ideally. Now Reichsexecution was (and is) in the constitution to force the states to execute Reichslaws properly, but not by decree of a single person. But Art. 48 explicitly stated it was the Reichspresident alone. In todays Germany it is a lot more complicated than that.
On paper, the Reich and its states were seperate entities, but the Reich could “intervene”, through the president, in the states quite easily. Also someone forgot to prohibit ruling both the Reich and a state, thus eliminating this separation in a situation willingly enforced by von Papen. (I found no other time this situation of Reichskanzler = PM of Prussia existed prior to von Papen.) But only a Prussian head of state could pull this off, since Prussia controlled the only thing able to block the Reich… on paper: The Reichsrat. Which was flawed from the start anyways. It was not a chamber equal to the Reichstag and the Reichsgovernment even led the whole thing. That was actually a weaker position than the 1867 established Bundesrat had held in the Kaiserreich. All you then had to worry about was a revolution in the south, which never was a prospect in 1932. But the Bavarian head of state had an emergency plan… in 1933. So I stop here. Maybe they mention it.
*Abel-papers: Letters from Nazis from 1934 describing what brought them into the party prior to 1933.