Preußenschlag  The Preußenschlag of 1932 (, "Prussian coup"), also known in English as the coup in Prussia or the putsch in Prussia, was the takeover of the Free State of Prussia, the largest State of German Reich, by Chancellor Franz von Papen, using an emergency decree issued by President Paul von Hindenburg under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution on July 20, 1932. It was a major step towards the end of the Weimar Republic, as it later facilitated the Nazification () of Germany after Adolf Hitler's rise to power on 30 January 1933. The pretext for this measure was violent unrest in some areas of Prussia and the alleged inability of the Prussian government to handle the matter. The main trigger was the "" ("Altona Bloody Sunday"), a violent clash between the SA and Communists in Altona on 17 July 1932. 18 people died, 16 of them by police bullets. It is more likely however that the Prussian government headed by Minister-President Otto Braun, with authority over the powerful Prussian police force, was simply one of the last major forces standing in the way of Papen's plans for nationalist rule.