Kingdom of Germany
Kingdom of Germany Königreich Deutschland | |
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Motto: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit "Unity and Justice and Freedom" | |
Anthem: Endlich Wohlstand | |
Capital and | Berlin |
Official languages | German |
Demonym(s) | German |
Government | Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
Monarch | |
• 1920-1933 | William III |
Chancellor | |
• 1920 (first) | Philipp Scheidemann |
• 1933 (last) | Adolf Hitler |
Legislature | Reichstag |
Reichsrat | |
Currency | Papiermark (1920-23) Rentenmark (1923-33) Reichsmark (1924-33) |
ISO 3166 code | DE |
The Kingdom of Germany (German: Königreich Deutschland) was a period of the German Reich that lasted from 1920 to 1933, during which, following a brief period of republicanism under the short-lived Weimar Republic, Germany became a fully-fledged constitutional monarchy under its one and only monarch, King William III (formerly Prince George, Duke of Southampton) of the House of Hanover. Following a brief period of chaos and considerable instability during its early years, Germany went on to experience a period of relative prosperity which ended with the Great Depression in 1929, an event that precipitated the establishment of Nazi Germany by Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1933. In that same year, King William III hastily abdicated the German throne and fled the country to the neighbouring United Kingdom, effectively ending the brief period of the House of Hanover's reign over Germany and the centuries-old tradition of German monarchism.
In 1990, following the reunification of West and East Germany, a nationwide referendum was held on whether to re-institute the Hanoverian monarchy in Germany. Ultimately, this proposal only received around 30% of support among the German public and was therefore never acted upon, hence the existence of the modern-day Federal Republic of Germany.