For the term free state as it arises in United States history, see: Free state.
Flag of the now defunct Orange Free State
Flag of the modern Free State of Bavaria
Free state is an ambiguous term occasionally used in the official titles of states. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for republic but not all "free states" have been republics. While the historical German free states and the Orange Free State were republican in form, the Congo and Irish Free States were forms of kingdom.
In Germany the term free state (in German, Freistaat) was part of the full names of most Länder (federal states) during the inter-war period. The term was synonymous with republic and was introduced to emphasise the transition of Imperial Germany to the Weimar Republic after the defeat in World War I and the fact of the German Revolution, which deposed all German monarchs. Similar to how a Free City (Freistadt), like, for example, the Imperial Free Cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, were not ruled by a hereditary monarch but by an elected council of burghers, all of the free states were no longer ruled by a noble or royal head of state but by elected representatives of the citizens. The term Freistaat is still used for the states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia.
In South Africa the term free state was used in the title of the nineteenth century Orange Free State (Oranje Vrystaat in Afikaans) and is today used in the title of its successor, Free State province; both entities were established as republican in form. In contrast, the Congo Free State came into being between 1877 and 1884 as a private kingdom or dictatorship of King Leopold II of Belgium.
The Irish Free State of 1922-1937 was a form of constitutional monarchy under the British monarch. The Irish state was a special case because the term free state was deliberately chosen as a literal translation of the Irish word saorstát. At the time in which Irish nationalists were negotiating the secession of most of Ireland from the United Kingdom the word saorstát was a commonly used Irish word for republic. The British did not wish to permit the creation of an Irish republic (which would mean severing all links with the British crown) and so insisted that the literal translation of saorstát be used in the new state's English title instead.
Whereas most German immigrants of the 18th century came from the Palatine or Württemberg, states along the Rhine River in the southern and western regions of the German lands, those in the second wave of immigration came mainly from the north and east-Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony.
Germans contributed substantially to its growth: By 1841, 28 percent of the total population was German; 10 years earlier the figure was only 5 percent, By 1850, when Cincinnati was known as the "Queen City of the West," the German community (including those born in America) made up half its population.
German involvement in the labor movement did not sit well with nativists, who, in the last decades of the 19th century, were again seeking support for anti-immigration laws.
In South Africa the term freestate was used in the title of the nineteenth century Orange FreeState (Oranje Vrystaat in Afikaans) and is today used in the title of its successor, FreeState province; both entities were established as republican in form.
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