Rhineland
The
Rhineland (
Rheinland in
German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river
Rhine in the west of
Germany. A geographical term originally, 'Rhineland' has also acquired some political and cultural connotations, becoming a political entity first as the
Confederation of the Rhine, then later the
Prussian
Rhine Province (also known as
Rhenish Prussia), and continuing in the names of the German
states of
Rhineland-Palatinate and
North Rhine-Westphalia. Following the
First World War, the western part of Rhineland was occupied by
Entente forces, then demilitarized under the
Treaty of Versailles. German forces reoccupied the territory in
1936, as part of a diplomatic test of will, three years before the outbreak of the
Second World War.
The Rhineland is in the western part of Germany, and abuts international boundaries with France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. The River
Rhine forms the region's eastern boundary south (upstream) of a point north of
Bingen.
The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country (
Westerwald,
Hunsrück and
Eifel), cut by river valleys, principally the Rhine and
Mosel. The north takes in the
Ruhr valley.
Some of the bigger cities in the Rhineland include
Aachen,
Bonn,
Cologne,
Duisburg,
Düsseldorf,
Essen,
Koblenz,
Krefeld,
Mönchengladbach,
Saarbrucken and
Wuppertal.
The
Rhine Province was created in
1824 by joining the
provinces of
Lower Rhine and
Jülich-Cleves-Berg. Its capital was
Koblenz; it had 8.0 million inhabitants (1939). In
1920, the
Saar was separated from the Rhine Province and administered by the
League of Nations until a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to Germany. At the same time, in 1920, the districts of
Eupen and
Malmedy were transferred to
Belgium (see
German-Speaking Community of Belgium). In
1946, the Rhine Province was divided up between the newly-founded states of
North Rhine-Westphalia and
Rhineland-Palatinate.
Today, the German region of Rhineland consists of the states of
Saarland,
North Rhine-Westphalia and
Rhineland-Palatinate. It is one of the prime German industrial areas, containing significant mineral deposits (coal, lead, lignite, magnesium, oil and uranium) and easy water transportation. Agriculture is also important and there are highly valued vineyards in the
Rheinpfalz,
Rheingau and the
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area.
Following the
Armistice of 1918, Allied forces occupied the Rhineland as far east as the river with some small bridgeheads on the east bank at places like
Cologne. Under the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles of
1919 (formally ending
World War I) the occupation was continued. The treaty specified three occupations Zones, which were due to be evacuated by Allied troops five, ten and finally 15 years after the formal ratification of the treaty, which took place in 1920. So the occupation was intended to last until 1935. In fact, the last Allied troops left Germany five years prior to that date in 1930 in a good-will reaction to the
Weimar Republic's policy of reconciliation in the era of
Gustav Stresemann and the
Locarno Pact.
The French troops especially had become notorious for their harsh behavior towards the local civilian population. The French in a clear breach of the Treaty tried to separate the occupied areas from Germany by establishing an independent
Rhenish Republic as a French puppet state. Separatist riots were encouraged and supported by the French, who tried to exploit traditional anti-Prussian resentments in the overwhelmingly
Catholic region. In the end, the separatists failed to gain any decisive support among the population.
The treaty of Versailles also specified the de-militarization of the entire area to provide a buffer between Germany on one side and
France,
Belgium and
Luxembourg (and to a lesser extent, the
Netherlands) on the other side, which meant, that no German forces were allowed there after the Allied forces had withdrawn. Furthermore (and quite unbearable from the German perspective) the treaty entitled the Allies to reoccupy the Rhineland at their will, if the Allies unilaterally found the German side responsible for any violation of the treaty.
In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the spirit of the
Locarno Pact,
Nazi Germany reoccupied the Rhineland on Saturday,
March 7,
1936. The occupation was done with very little military force, the troops entering on bicycles, and could easily have been stopped had it not been for the
appeasement mentality of post-war
Europe.
France could not act due to political instability at the time. In addition, since the remilitarization occurred on a weekend, the British Government could not find out or discuss actions to be taken until the following Monday. As a result of this, the governments were inclined to see the remilitarisation as a
fait accompli.
Hitler took a risk when he sent his troops to the Rhineland. He told them to 'turn back and not to resist' if they were stopped by the French Army. The French did not try to stop them because they were currently helding elections in their country and no president wanted to start a war with Germany.
The British government agreed with the act in principle, "The Germans are after all only going into their own back garden"
Lord Lothian, but rejected the Nazi manner of accomplishing said act. Not even ardent opposition to appeasement, such as that found in Winston Churchill and the Labour Party, advocated military action.
The remilitarization of the Rhineland was very popular with locals, because of a resurgence of German nationalism and harboured bitterness over the Allied occupation of the Rhineland until
1930 (
Saarland until
1935).
An interesting side-effect of the French occupations was the offspring of French colonial troops. These coloured Germans were not accepted into broader German society and were known as
Rhineland Bastards. They were an object of the Nazi sterilisation programmes in the 1930s. The American poet
Charles Bukowski was born in 1920 in
Andernach as the son of a German mother and a Polish-American US soldier, serving among the occupation troops. Bukowski describes his father in a harsh way as a man, making intentional use of his army food supplies to get a German woman (Bukowski's mother) in his bed. This is an allusion to the intentional malnutrition of the civilian population in the time between the signature of the armistice and the peace treaty.
For five months from September, 1944 until February, 1945 the
U.S. First Army fought a costly battle to capture the
Hurtgen Forest. In terrain which negated Allied advantages and enhanced those of the German defenders, the US Army lost 24,000 troops. The value of their sacrifice has been argued over by military historians.
In early 1945, after a long winter stalemate, military operations by most Allied armies in Northwest Europe resumed with the goal of reaching the Rhine river. From their winter positions in The Netherlands, the
First Canadian Army under General
Henry Crerar reinforced by elements of the
British Second Army under General
Miles Dempsey, drove through the Rhineland beginning in the first week of February 1945. Operation
Veritable lasted several weeks, with the end result of clearing all German forces from the west side of the Rhine river. The supporting operation by the First US Army, Operation
Grenade, was planned to coincide from the , in the south. This was delayed for two weeks however, by German flooding of the Roer valley.
On March 7, 1945 a company of armored infantry of the US 9th Armored Division captured the last intact bridge over the Rhine at
Remagen. General
George Patton's Third US Army would also make a crossing of the river the day before the much anticipated Rhine crossings by 21st Army Group (
First Canadian Army and
British Second Army) under General (later Field Marshal)
Bernard Montgomery in the third week of March 1945.
Operation
Varsity was a massive airborne operation in conjunction with Operation
Plunder, the amphibious crossings. By early April, the Rhine had been crossed by all the Allied armies operating west of the river, and the battles for the Rhineland were over.
In the British and Canadian armies, the term
Rhineland often refers only to fighting west of the river in February and March 1945, with subsequent operations on the river and to the east known as "Rhine Crossing". Both terms are official Battle Honours in the Commonwealth forces.
*
Rhineland Bastards*
Alsace-Lorraine*
Rhine
