Free state (government)

Free state is a term occasionally used in the official titles of some states.

In principle the title asserts and emphasises the freedom of the state in question, but what this actually means varies greatly in different contexts:

English Parliament, in the act forming the Commonwealth of England of 1649 to 1660, declared that "England is confirmed to be a Commonwealth and Free State and shall from henceforth be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State." The Commonwealth had a republican constitution.

In Germany the term free state (in German, Freistaat) comes from the 19th century as a German word for republic. After the German Revolution of November 1918, when Imperial Germany became the Weimar Republic, most of the German states within the German Reich called themselves a Free State. Others used expressions like Republik or Volksstaat (people's state) – though unpopular, as that term was associated with the enemy France. After the Nazis came to power they abolished the concept of a federal republic and all the states, and re-organized Germany into Gaue with appointed leadership.

The states were re-established after World War II; however, from 1952 only Bavaria (successor to the Kingdom of Bavaria) still called itself a Free State and that made Freistaat a synonym for Bavaria. After the reunification, the reestablished Saxony (successor to the Kingdom of Saxony) used the name again in 1992 and Thuringia began to use it for the first time in 1993.

Historically, Germany had Imperial Free Cities, who were subject only to the Emperor. In 1871 Germany knew three Free Cities, Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck; the last lost its status in 1937. Since 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany has Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt, Free and Hanseatic City) and Bremen (Freie Hansestadt), and Berlin as a city which is also a state. Like the Free States these three cities have no special rights in the federation.

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