The state parliament consisted of a
Landtag of 35 members, elected for a term of four years by
universal suffrage. The state administration, headed by a
Minister of State was responsible to the
Landtag and could be removed by a vote of no confidence. For most of the Weimar period, the governments were headed by either a
Social Democrat or a
Nationalist. However, following the
Nazi seizure of power at the national level, they enacted the "
Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" which established more direct control over the states by means of the new powerful position of
Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor).
Friedrich Hildebrandt was installed in this post on 26 May 1933. He immediately moved to take full control of the state apparatus by the appointment of a fellow-Nazi,
Fritz Stichtenoth, as Minister of State on 29 May 1933. By the end of the year, Hildebrandt, who was also
Reichsstatthalter of the larger neighboring
Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, moved to consolidate his domains and merged the two states into a new united state of
Mecklenburg, effective 1 January 1934. And with that, the brief fifteen-year existence of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz passed into history. ==Rulers of Mecklenburg-Strelitz==