Die Verwaltungsgliederung Preußens zwischen historisch-ständischen, administrativ-staatlichen und liberal-politischen Interessen (1815–1867)

The paper deals with the question of the ›administrative districts‹ in an overall Prussian perspective and emphasizes, above all, the central political role played by the provincial districts and their main authorities within the state space and the administrative activity. On this basis, it will be possible to adequately appreciate the revolutionary but unsuccessful attempt to abolish them 1848 by the liberal-democratic wing of the Constitutional Commission within of the Prussian National Assembly, as it has not yet been made by historiography. First, the origins of the spatial-territorial division of Prussia existing around the middle of the nineteenth century are discussed. Within this framework special attention has been paid to the introduction of a provincial division, which led to that organization of internal administration in four instances under the minister (provinces, governmental districts, districts, municipalities), which was a peculiarity of the prussian political and administrative spatial division compared with the other states of the German Confederation. Questions such as those on the basic division of the state space are so radical that they are usually placed with some prospect of success only in the case of state foundations or revolutions. Immediately afterwards, they tend to be included in the list of »depolitized technicalities«, although they retain their fundamental importance for ensuring the political and administrative continuity of the state.