Reichsreform and Prussian Verwaltungsreform in 1932

Some forty years ago, the German Empire was described as “a compact between a lion, half a dozen foxes, and a score of mice.†Although the “lion†has lost his special prerogatives and some of the “mice†have since vanished, the problem of the “political menagerie†is still largely unsolved. Shall Germany become a unitary state, or shall it retain certain federal characteristics? What shall be the territorial organization and powers of the states and their relations to the Reich? The framers of the Weimar constitution of 1919 wrestled with these questions, but were able to reach no permanent answers. The present article is an attempt to summarize recent developments bearing upon the problem of Reichsreform, particularly the federal aspects thereof, and to link these developments with Verwaltungsreform in Prussia.