Everything about The Rhineland totally explained
The
Rhineland (
Rheinland in
German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river
Rhine in the west of
Germany. After the collapse of the
French Empire in the early 19th century, the German-speaking regions at the middle and lower course of the Rhine river were annexed to the kingdom of
Prussia. The Prussian administration reorganised the territory as the
Rhine Province (also known as
Rhenish Prussia), a term continuing in the names of the
German states of
Rhineland-Palatinate and
North Rhine-Westphalia. Following the
First World War of the early 20th century, 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.
Geography
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,
Taunus and
Eifel), cut by river valleys, principally the Rhine and
Mosel. The north takes in the
Ruhr valley.
Some of the larger cities in the Rhineland include
Aachen,
Bonn,
Cologne,
Duisburg,
Düsseldorf,
Essen,
Koblenz,
Krefeld,
Leverkusen,
Ludwigshafen,
Mainz,
Mannheim,
Mönchengladbach,
Wiesbaden and
Wuppertal.
The political entity
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 by 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. The town of
Wetzlar became part of
Hesse.
Today, the German region of Rhineland consists of the states of
Saarland, the southwestern half of
North Rhine-Westphalia, and the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate. North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the prime German industrial areas, containing significant mineral deposits (
coal,
lead,
lignite,
magnesium,
oil and
uranium) and water transport. In Rhineland-Palatinate agriculture is more important, including the vineyards in the
Ahr,
Mittelrhein,
Mosel,
Nahe,
Pfalz (Palatinate) and
Rheinhessen regions.
Following World War I
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 the occupation was continued. The treaty specified three occupation 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, thus 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.
Sections of the Rhineland bordering Belgium were annexed from Germany by the
Treaty of Versailles. The cantons of
Eupen,
Malmedy and
Sankt Vith though entirely German in culture and language became the
East Cantons of
Belgium.
The French troops especially had become notorious for their harsh treatment of 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 unbearably 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 remilitarized the Rhineland on Saturday,
March 7,
1936. The occupation was done with very little military force, the troops entering on bicycles, and no effort was made to stop it (See
Appeasement of Hitler).
France couldn't act due to political instability at the time, and, since the remilitarisation occurred on a weekend, the British Government couldn't 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 didn't try to stop them because they were currently holding elections 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.
Winston Churchill, however, advocated military action through cooperation by the British and the French.
The remilitarization of the Rhineland was favoured by some of the local population, because of a resurgence of German nationalism and harboured bitterness over the Allied occupation of the Rhineland until 1930 (
Saarland until 1935).
A side-effect of the French occupations was the offspring of French colonial troops. These mixed-race 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.
The 1944–1945 military campaigns
Two different military campaigns were fought in the Rhineland.
U.S. Army
For five months, from September 1944 until February 1945, the
U.S. First Army fought a costly battle to capture the
Hurtgen Forest. The heavily forested and ravined terrain of the Hurtgen negated Allied combined arms advantages(close air support, armor, artillery) and favoured German defenders. The U.S. Army lost 24,000 troops. The military necessity of their sacrifice has been debated by military historians.
Canadian Army
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. 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
River Roer, in the south. This was delayed for two weeks however, by German flooding of the Roer valley.
Other actions
On
March 7,
1945 a company of armoured infantry of the
U.S. 9th Armored Division captured the last intact bridge over the Rhine at
Remagen. General
George Patton's Third US Army also made a crossing of the river the day before the much anticipated Rhine crossings by the 21st Army Group (
First Canadian Army and the
British Second Army) under Field Marshal
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.
Battle Honours
In the official histories of the British and Canadian armies, the term
Rhineland 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Rhineland'.
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