Occupation of the Rhineland

• 11 November 1918: Armistice ending the fighting in World War I signed • 28 June 1919: Treaty of Versailles and the Rhineland Agreement signed == Background ==

Versailles negotiations At the peace negotiations that began in Versailles in January 1919, French prime minister Georges Clemenceau sought to fix France's border with Germany at the Rhine. All the territories on the west bank of the river were to be detached from Germany and form one or more sovereign states aligned with the French Third Republic. He saw the idea, which had originated with General Ferdinand Foch, as the only way to remain secure against Germany, noting that it had invaded France four times in 100 years (1814, 1815, 1870 and 1914). Clemenceau was unable to convince his allies to accept the proposal. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson advocated the right of peoples to self-determination, which he said should not be denied the Germans. British prime minister David Lloyd George did not want the settlement to "leave a legacy of injustice which would rankle as Alsace–Lorraine had rankled". As a compromise, the United States and the United Kingdom agreed that if Germany should attack France again, they would enter the war on its side. Clemenceau then accepted a maximum fifteen-year time limit for the occupation. As a prerequisite for withdrawal, Germany would be required to fulfil the requirements of the peace treaty and meet its reparations obligations on time. The function of the occupation was thus changed from an instrument for weakening Germany to a bargaining chip for Germany's reparations obligations. Treaty provisions Article 42 of the Treaty of Versailles stipulated that the west bank of the Rhine and "the right bank to the west of a line drawn 50 kilometres to the East of the Rhine" be demilitarised. The provisions that related specifically to the occupation of the Rhineland were laid out in articles 428 through 432. The key article (428) states: As a guarantee for the execution of the present Treaty by Germany, the German territory situated to the west of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads [at Cologne, Koblenz, Mainz and Kehl, per Article 429], will be occupied by Allied and Associated troops for a period of fifteen years from the coming into force of the present Treaty. Article 429 added that if Germany fulfilled its obligations under the treaty, the Cologne region (under the British) would be evacuated after five years, the Koblenz zone (American) after ten years, and the remainder after fifteen years. On 28 June 1919, the day on which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, France, Belgium, the Great Britain, the United States and Germany signed a separate agreement "with regard to the military occupation of the territories of the Rhine" as provided for in Article 432 of the Treaty. The thirteen articles of the Rhineland Agreement included the following points: was to continue. • No German troops were permitted in the zone; that is, it was to be demilitarised. • The Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission (IARHC) was constituted as the supreme representative of the Allied Powers in the occupied Rhineland. It was to be made up of one member each from Belgium, France, Great Britain and the United States. It could issue such ordinances as it thought necessary. • Germany retained civil and criminal jurisdiction except for offenses against occupation troops, which were subject to Allied military jurisdiction. • Civil administration also remained in German hands, except where the IARHC deemed it otherwise necessary for the needs of the occupation. • Germany was to bear the costs of the occupation. • Allied troops were to be housed in German military facilities. If those proved insufficient, the occupation authorities could take possession of any facilities they thought necessary. Civilian and military officers and their families could be billeted on German civilians. • The IARHC could declare a state of siege wherever and whenever it thought necessary. Military authorities could use the means they believed were required to restore order when it was threatened. == Occupation ==

The occupied Rhineland made up 6.5% of Germany's total area and had a population of about seven million. While the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles were in progress, the region was under a state of siege and the number of occupation troops stood at approximately 240,000 (220,000 French and 20,000 Belgian). By February 1920, a year after the Treaty had gone into effect, the number had dropped to 94,000 French and 16,000 Belgian troops. In March and April 1920, a violent workers' uprising in the Ruhr district was suppressed by the German Reichswehr with assistance from units of the paramilitary Freikorps. As a reaction to the incursion of German troops into the demilitarised zone east of the Rhine, French troops temporarily occupied Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt and several other smaller cities beginning on 6 April 1920. Because the United States Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, the American representative, General Henry Tureman Allen, was only an unofficial observer on the Commission, although either he or a deputy attended all Commission meetings, and when Allen attended he expressed his opinions freely. At the request of the state of Prussia, to which the majority of the occupied territory belonged, German interests were represented by the newly created Reich Commissioner's Office for the Occupied Rhine Territories. The first Prussian state commissioner was Karl von Starck; he was succeeded in 1921 by . Bavaria also had a state commissioner, since a small part of its territory was also occupied. The legislative powers of the Commission, which had been granted to it in order to protect the occupying troops, were not precisely defined. The Commission was authorised to both approve and amend national laws affecting the Rhineland and decrees issued by Rhineland officials, making it de facto the supreme public authority in the occupied Rhineland. The Commission supervised German administration in the occupied territory through a system of district delegates who were placed at the side of the respective local German administrative officers. In March 1921, Germany created a special department within the Ministry of the Interior to handle matters relating to the occupied territories. In August 1923, the department became the cabinet-level Reich Ministry for the Occupied Territories. It was tasked with safeguarding German interests in dealing with he occupying powers, including the IARHC, and with representing the interests of the occupied territories in the Berlin government. The separatist movements had ended by early 1924. Work in the factories and mines stopped, and the German government supported the region's idled workers through printing additional money, which led to the hyperinflation that all but wrecked the German economy. During the course of the Ruhr occupation, 132 Germans were killed and approximately 188,000 evicted from their homes. Germans who fraternised could face stigmatisation or physical violence within their own communities. End of the occupation The British occupation zone around Cologne was to have been vacated in January 1925, but it was delayed by the French due to disagreements about the German army's compliance with the armaments reduction requirements imposed on it in the Treaty of Versailles. As a result of the agreements reached in the Locarno Treaties, British troops withdrew from their zone in January 1926. After Germany accepted the Young Plan, which was negotiated in a second attempt to settle the issue of German reparations, the Allies agreed to evacuate the Rhineland by 30 June 1930, five years before the date set in the Treaty of Versailles. The occupation zone that included Koblenz was evacuated in November 1929, and the last of the occupying troops withdrew from the Mainz zone on 30 June 1930. The evacuation was followed by bloody German settlements with separatists who had cooperated with the French. In accordance with the Treaty of Versailles – and also the Locarno Treaties, in which Germany had voluntarily agreed to the demilitarisation of its territory west of a line drawn 50 kilometres east of the Rhine in 1925 – the area remained a demilitarised zone until Adolf Hitler had it occupied by the Wehrmacht in breach of the treaties on 7 March 1936. ==Occupying forces==

American forces (1918–1923) The United States Army occupied the central area of the Rhineland along the Mosel river and the Koblenz bridgehead. General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.), created the Third Army for the purpose, which in early 1919 comprised some 250,000 men. Command was given to Major General Joseph T. Dickman. The Americans opened their headquarters in a Prussian government building by the Rhine in Koblenz. The U.S. flag flew over Koblenz's Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on the Rhine's east bank. In July 1919, the Third Army was disbanded and replaced by the American Forces in Germany (AFG) under the command of Major General Henry Tureman Allen. After a steady troop withdrawal, the AFG comprised some 20,000 men in a reduced territory by late 1919. Compared to the situation in the French occupation zone, the Americans' relations with the German population were much better. General Allen took part in saving Ehrenbreitstein Fortress from destruction by the Allied forces in 1922. On 9 January 1923, under the Warren G. Harding administration, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution withdrawing American forces from Germany. General Allen received the telegram on 10 January. After more than four years of occupation, the last Americans left their headquarters in Koblenz in January 1923. The flag was lowered at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, the American headquarters, on 24 January. On 27 January American General Allen officially handed over control to the French. On 3 February, the United States withdrew General Allen as its observer from the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission. Two weeks later the Americans physically left the Rhineland. Belgian Army of Occupation Belgium maintained an army of occupation (, AO) in the Rhineland from 1918 to 1929. It consisted of 20,000 soldiers in five divisions with its headquarters at Aachen and its troops stationed in Krefeld. They were commanded by Armand Huyghé. Belgium also participated in the Occupation of the Ruhr in 1923. Eleven Belgian soldiers were killed in an attack on a railway bridge near Hochfeld (today part of Duisburg) on 30 June 1923. British Army of the Rhine The British Army entered German territory on 1 December 1918. Cologne was entered on 6 December, and the bridgehead was occupied 12 December. The British Army of the Rhine was established as the occupying force in March 1919. Based at Cologne, they published The Cologne Post. They were withdrawn in January 1926. The French were the last to vacate the occupied Rhineland, on 30 June 1930. ==See also==