The Province of Westphalia () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar Republic and from 1918 to 1933, and of Nazi Germany from 1933 until 1945.
The province was formed and awarded to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. It combined some territories that had previously belonged to Prussia with a range of other territories that had previously been independent principalities. The population included a large population of Catholics, a significant development for Prussia, which had hitherto been almost entirely Protestant. The politics of the province in the early nineteenth century saw local expectations of Prussian reforms, increased self-government, and a constitution largely stymied. The Revolutions of 1848 led to an effervescence of political activity in the province, but the failure of the revolution was accepted with little resistance.
Before the nineteenth century, the region's economy had been largely agricultural and many rural poor travelled abroad to find work. However, from the late eighteenth century, the coal mining and metalworking industries of the Ruhr in the south of the province expanded rapidly, becoming the centre of the Industrial Revolution in Germany. This resulted in rapid population growth and the establishment of several new cities, which formed the basis of the modern Ruhr urban area. It also led to the development of a strong labour movement, which led to several large strikes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
After World War II, the province was combined with the northern portion of Rhine Province and the Free State of Lippe to form the modern German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Early history Foundation and structure Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Kingdom of Westphalia as a client state of the First French Empire in 1807. Although named for the historical region of Westphalia, it contained mostly Hessian, Angrian and Eastphalian territories and only a relatively small part of the region of Westphalia. After the reconquest of the region by the Sixth Coalition in 1813, it was put under the administration of the .
It was not until the Congress of Vienna in 1815 that the Province of Westphalia came into being. Although Prussia had long owned territory in Westphalia, King Frederick William III made no secret of the fact that he would have preferred to annex the entirety of the Kingdom of Saxony.
The province was formed from several territories: regions in Westphalia under Prussian rule since before 1800 (the Prince-Bishopric of Minden and the counties of Mark, Ravensberg and Tecklenburg); the Prince-Bishoprics of Münster and Paderborn, acquired by Prussia in 1802–1803; the northernmost parts of the geographically enormous Bishopric of Münster, however, became part of the Kingdom of Hanover or the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg; the small County of Limburg, acquired in 1808; the portions of the Principality of Salm which had been annexed by France in 1810 and the southern part of the Duchy of Arenberg were acquired by Prussia in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna; the Duchy of Westphalia, placed under Prussian rule in 1816 following the Congress of Vienna; the Sayn-Wittgensteiner principalities of Hohenstein and Berleburg, along with the principality of Nassau-Siegen (in 1817); the Free Imperial City of Dortmund, given to Prussia in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna (occupied by Prussia since 1813)
In 1816, the district of Essen was transferred to the Rhine Province.
The new province had an area of . The establishment of Westphalia and the neighbouring Rhine Province marked a decisive economic and demographic shift to the west for Prussia. It also marked a significant expansion of the number of Catholics in Prussia, which had hitherto been nearly exclusively Protestant. At the beginning of Prussian rule, the province had around 1.1 million inhabitants, of which 56% were Catholic, 43% Protestant, and 1% Jewish.
With the foundation of the province, the new administrative structure created during the Prussian reforms was introduced. The administrative incorporation of the province into the Prussian state was chiefly accomplished by the first , Ludwig von Vincke. The province was divided administratively into three (government districts): Arnsberg, Minden, and Münster. The borders of the province were slightly altered in 1851 and during the Weimar Republic.
In general, the Prussian administration focussed on the alignment of political institutions and administration, but legally they were distinct. In most parts of Westphalia, the General State Laws for the Prussian States (PrALR) were the fundamental basis of the law. In the Duchy of Westphalia and the two Sayn-Wittgensteiner principalities, however, the old regional legal traditions were retained until the introduction of the (civil law code) on 1 January 1900.
Reaction to the establishment of the province
The establishment of the province provoked different reactions in the region. In areas that had already been under Prussian control, like Minden-Ravensberg and the County of Mark, the return to their old connection with Prussia was celebrated. In Siegerland, acceptance of Prussian rule was eased by the fact that Protestantism was the main religion. Catholic areas, like the former prince-bishoprics of Münster and Paderborn and the Duchy of Westphalia, were particularly sceptical of the new lords. The Catholic nobility, which had played a leading role in the old prince-bishoprics, was mostly hostile. Twenty years after the province's establishment, Jacob Venedey called the Rhenanians and Westphalians ("have-to-be-Prussians").Jacob Venedey: Preußen und das Preußentum. Mannheim 1839, p. 202, cited in Conrad, Westfalen im Vormärz., p. 5.
In practice, the incorporation of the region into the Prussian state faced a number of problems. Firstly, the administrative unification was opposed by the mediatised houses (). These nobles, who had ruled small principalities of their own before the Napoleonic Wars, retained special privileges of their own well into the nineteenth century. They maintained a certain amount of control or oversight over schools and churches. The second major problem for unification was the question of the redemption of manorial rights by the peasants within the context of peasant liberation. Although a law was passed in 1820 that allowed for redemption through monetary rents, there were also numerous individual regulations and regional peculiarities. Redemption remained controversial until 1848 and prompted significant conflicts in the provincial Landtags in the period before 1848, since these bodies were dominated by the landed nobility.Keinemann: Westfalen im Zeitalter der Restauration. pp. 59–68. The uncertainties surrounding land ownership were a cause of rural uprisings at the beginning of the Revolution of 1848. In the longer term, the fear that the peasants would be expelled from their land by great estates was not fulfilled. Instead, the two western provinces of Prussia remained the areas with the lowest number of large estates.
One thing that initially contributed to the acceptance of Prussia was the policy of reform, which aimed at the establishment of a "civic order". This involved the creation of a predictable system of administration and justice, rights of self-administration for communities, the emancipation of the Jews, and the liberation of the economy from guilds. The educated bourgeois class (the ), both Protestant and Catholic, recognised that the Prussian government was the prime motor of change. In the longer term, the combination of such different territories into a single province had consequences for identity and self-perception. Throughout the 19th century, there always remained a consciousness of the old territories' pasts, but alongside this, a Westphalian self-perception also developed (fostered by the Prussian government). This often came into competition with the developing German national consciousness.
Constitutional debate and the Restoration Period Bourgeois Westphalians like and Benedikt Waldeck were particularly hopeful for the promulgation of a constitution. In newspapers like the and , the desire for a constitution was clearly articulated from the beginning. Draft constitutions were issued by Sommer and of Dortmund. Other participants in the debate included and . This optimistic attitude shifted with the beginning of the Restoration Period, when the absence of a national constitution and the censorship of the press became clear. , who was later a member of the Reichstag, wrote as a schoolboy in 1820, that it was not for the "pathetic squabbles of princes" that people had fought in 1813, but so that "justice and law would have to be the foundation of public life as well as citizenship."Michael Epkenhans, "Westfälisches Bürgertum, preußische Verfassungsfrage und Nationalstaatsgedanke 1830–1871." in Teppe/Epkenhans, Westfalen und Preußen. p. 126.
The establishment of provincial parliaments () in 1823 had little impact on the criticism, since they lacked central legislative powers. They had no right to raise taxes, were not involved in the drafting of laws, and had only advisory functions on important matters. The representatives were not allowed to discuss administrative matters and their minutes were subject to censorship.
The first met in the Münster City Hall in 1826. The high voter turnout shows that, despite all the restrictions, the bourgeoisie saw the Landtag as a forum for the expression of their views (the lower classes had no voting rights). The Baron vom Stein as first (presiding officer of the Landtag) did not restrict discussion to purely local matters, and under the surface, the constitutional question played an important role in discussions in the Landtag in 1826 and in the next Landtag in 1828. This became even clearer during the Landtag of 1830/31, when and even the noble Baron of Fürstenberg openly called for the establishment of a constitution for Prussia. The question of what such a constitution should look like was fiercely debated. Most nobles, including Fürstenberg, sought a restoration of the old order, while the bourgeoisie pursued early liberal ideas. In this, Bracht was supported by industrialist Friedrich Harkort and publisher , among others. Other members of the "opposition" included the mayor of Hagen, and the mayor of Telgte, . Even among the landed nobility, there were supporters of liberalism, such as Georg von Vincke.
The district ordinance () of 1827 also clearly diverged from the basic ideas of the Prussian reformers. It provided for the election of district councils, which were basically drawn from the circle of the landed nobility and gave the people of the districts only a right to present their views for consideration; the appointment was reserved for the king. Equally untimely was the revised civic ordinance () of 1831, which heavily restricted the voting right for town councils and provided for organs of self-government which were really just offices of the central government. The municipality ordinance () was similar.zu den Anfangsjahren der Provinz etwa: Karl Teppe, Michael Epkenhans: Westfalen und Preußen. Integration und Regionalismus. Paderborn 1991, ISBN 3-506-79575-9.
Lead-up to the 1848 Revolution