The region of the Saar had been previously annexed by France (as the , 1685) and occupied during the French Revolution (1790–1798) and the
Napoleonic Wars, when it had been included in the
First French Empire as the
Sarre department between 1798 and 1814.
Post–World War I Under the
Treaty of Versailles, the Saar was initially occupied by combat units from the United Kingdom and
France. In 1920, Britain and France established a nominally independent occupation government for the
League of Nations mandate of the Saar: the greater part of the area under its control was carved out of the
Prussian
Rhine Province and was supplemented by two
Bavarian districts (Homburg and St. Ingbert) taken from the
Rhenish Palatinate. This was sanctioned by a 15-year
League of Nations mandate which stationed League of Nations troops from Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in the Saar until 1935. The Saar's coal industry, the dominant industry in the region at the time, was nationalized and directly administered by France, in compensation for the destruction of French mines by the retreating Germans in 1918.
Plebiscite On 13 January 1935, a
plebiscite held in the territory at the end of the 15-year term, resulted in 90.7% of voters casting their ballot in favour of a return to Germany, and 0.4% voting for union with France. Others (8.9%) favoured the third option of a continued British–French occupation government. After political agitation and manoeuvring by Chancellor
Adolf Hitler for the re-union of the Saarland with the
German Reich () it was reincorporated in 1935. Its area was not redivided among the Prussian
Rhine Province and the Bavarian Palatinate, but united with the latter as the
Gau of
Saar-Palatinate (). In 1942 it was renamed (Western
March), as it was planned to be expanded to incorporate parts of German-occupied French
Lorraine which, however, did not materialise.
Post–World War II In July 1945, two months after World War II had ended in Europe, the Allied forces were redeploying from the areas they had conquered into their respective zones of occupation. On 10 July 1945, US forces left the Saar, and French troops established their occupational administration. On 16 February 1946, France disentangled the Saar from the Allied zones of occupation and established the separate Saar Protectorate, which was
de facto no longer under the joint Allied jurisdiction by the
Allied Control Council for Germany. French officials deported a total of 1,820 people from the Saar in 1946 and 1947, most of whom ultimately were allowed to return. However, France had not agreed to the expulsions approved (without input from France) in the Potsdam agreement by the Allies, so France refused to accept war refugees or expellees from the eastern annexed territories in the Saar protectorate or the French zone. However, native Sarrois returning from Nazi-imposed removals (e.g. political and Jewish refugees) and war-related relocations (e.g. evacuation from air raids) were allowed to return to the areas under French control. France aimed at winning over the Saar population for a future annexation. With effect from 20 July 1946, 109 municipalities of the Prussian
Rhine Province within the French zone were added to the Saar Protectorate. By 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar and allied occupied Germany. By further territorial redeployments between the Saar Protectorate, constituted in early 1947, and neighbouring
Rhineland-Palatinate (a new state established on 30 August 1946 in the French zone), 61 municipalities returned to Germany, while 13 other municipalities were ceded to the Saar Protectorate between 8 June 1947 and 1949, followed by one further Palatine municipality incorporated into the Saar in the latter year. In the speech
Restatement of Policy on Germany, given in
Stuttgart on 6 September 1946, the US Secretary of State
James F. Byrnes stated the US's motive in detaching the Saar from Germany as "The United States does not feel that it can deny to France, which has been invaded three times by Germany in 70 years, its claim to the Saar territory". On 16 July 1947 the
Saar mark replaced the
Reichsmark as legal tender in the Saar Protectorate, followed by the integration of the Saar into the French currency area on 15 November the same year. While only
French franc banknotes circulated from 1954 on,
Saar franc coins, designed similar to French coins, were issued too. On 15 December 1947 the Saar was constituted by its constitution as the Saarland (took effect two days later), with an elected government under the control of the French high commissioner
Gilbert Grandval. December 1947 had severe flooding along the Saar river, water higher than in the past 150 years, with extensive relief efforts undertaken. On 23 March 1948 the customs union with France was confirmed, taking effect on 1 April. Initially, a policy of industrial disarmament was pursued in Germany by the Allied powers (see
industrial plans for Germany). As part of this policy, limits were placed on permitted production levels, and industries in the Saar were dismantled as they had been in the Ruhr, although mostly in the period before the detachment (see also The 1949 letter from the UK Foreign minister
Ernest Bevin to the French Foreign minister
Robert Schuman, urging a reconsideration of dismantling policy). This policy was quickly reversed in mid-1946 or early 1947. France's attempts to internationalize the Ruhr (see
International Authority for the Ruhr) were abandoned in 1950 when, in the face of
Cold War pressures in Europe, the French government took an historic step in deciding that the only viable political model for the future lay in European integration. This resulted in the
Schuman Declaration, a plan drafted for the most part by
Jean Monnet. The plan put forward a rapprochement between France, Germany, and other European countries wanting to participate. As a first step, France and Germany were to agree to pool their markets for coal and steel, following the establishment of the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). With the participation of
West Germany in the ECSC, agreement on termination of the International Authority for the Ruhr came into force on 25 June 1952. However, France delayed the return of the Saar. Under French rule, pro-German parties were initially banned from contesting the elections. Much support was given to the , a Francophile movement founded by Saar exiles in Paris in early 1945, with many of the exiles having returned after the war. However, in the general election of December 1952, 24% of the voters cast blank ballots in support of banned pro-German parties (while the majority still voted for one of the legal parties who wanted the Saar to remain autonomous).
Referendum and becoming a state of West Germany In the
Paris Agreements of 23 October 1954, France offered to establish an independent "Saarland", under the auspices of the
Western European Union (WEU), but a
referendum held on 23 October 1955 rejected this plan by 67.7% to 32.3% (out of a 96.5% turnout: 423,434 against, 201,975 for) despite the public support of West German Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer for the plan. The rejection of the plan by the Sarrois was interpreted as support for the Saar to join the Federal Republic of Germany. On 27 October 1956 the
Saar Treaty established that Saarland should be allowed to become a state of
West Germany, as provided by article 23 of its (constitution), and so Saarland did on 1 January 1957. West Germany agreed to the
channelization of the
Moselle, which reduced freight costs for the French steel industry in
Lorraine. West Germany also agreed to the teaching of
French as the first foreign language in schools in the Saarland; although no longer binding, the agreement is still generally followed. The treaty also stated that economic union with West Germany was to be completed by 1960, with the exact date of the replacement of the Saar and French franc by the
Deutsche Mark being kept a secret called "Day X" (). Although the Saar became a state of West Germany (as
Saarland) on 1 January 1957, the franc remained legal tender in Saarland until 6 July 1959. Thus on that date the (little reunification) was completed, after more than 13 years of separation. As a footnote to the creation of the
European Union, the territorial dispute over control of the Saarland was one of the last between member states and led to the
European flag being given a politically neutral ring of twelve stars rather than the originally proposed 15 (one of which was to represent a nominally independent Saar as a member of the
Council of Europe). == Ministers-President ==