Gau East Prussia

Gau East Prussia (German: Ostpreußen) was an administrative division of Nazi Germany encompassing the province of East Prussia in the Free State of Prussia from 1933 to 1945. Before that, from 1925 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area, having been established at a conference in Königsberg on 6 December 1925. In 1939, Gau East Prussia expanded following the annexation of the Klaipėda Region from Lithuania and the occupation of Poland, while a sliver of territory from the gau was transferred to Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. After Germany's attack on the USSR, the Belarusian city of Hrodna (German: Garten) also became part of the Gau.

Gau East Prussia
Gau of Nazi Germany
1925–1945
Flag
Coat of arms

Map of Gau East Prussia
CapitalKönigsberg (now Kaliningrad)
Area 
 1941 -
48,867 km2 (18,868 sq mi)
Population 
 
2,119,879
Government
Gauleiter 
 19251926
Wilhelm Stich
 19261927
Bruno Gustav Scherwitz
 19271928
Hans Albert Hohnfeldt (acting)
 19281945
Erich Koch
History 
6 December 1925
 Disestablishment
1 August 1945
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Province of East Prussia
Klaipėda Region
Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Białystok Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
People's Republic of Poland
Today part ofBelarus
Poland
Lithuania
Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast)

After the war, the territory of the former Gau became part of the Russian SFSR exclave of Kaliningrad in the Soviet Union, major sections were given to Poland, and the area of the Klaipėda Region was returned to the Lithuanian SSR and Hrodna - to the Belarusian SSR within the Soviet Union.

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