is one of the 16
States Of Germany . The capital is
Saarbrücken . It has an area of 2570 km&
2 and 1.08 million inhabitants. In both area and population it is the smallest of the German ''Flächenländer'' ("area states"), i.e. those that are not
City State s.
The state borders
France (département of the
Moselle ) in the south and west,
Luxembourg in the west and
Rheinland-Pfalz in the north and the east.
It is named after the
Saar River , which is an
Affluent of the
Moselle River (a
Rhine tributary) and runs through the state from the south to the northwest. Most inhabitants live in a city agglomeration on the French border, surrounding the capital of Saarbrücken.
See also
List Of Places In Saarland .
Saarland is divided into six districts:
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Merzig-Wadern
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Neunkirchen
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Saarbrücken
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Saarlouis
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Saarpfalz
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Sankt Wendel
The territory was established in
1920 in accordance with the
Treaty Of Versailles . It comprised portions of the
Prussia n
Rhine Province and the
Bavaria n
Rhenish Palatinate . The area was put under the control of the
League Of Nations represented by the following Chairmen of the Commission of Government:
- 26 February 1920 - 18 March 1926 Victor Rault (France) (b. 1858 - d. 19..)
- 18 March 1926 - 8 June 1927 George Washington Stephens (Canada)(b. 1866 - d. 1942)
- 8 June 1927 - 1 April 1932 Sir Ernest Colville Collins Wilton (U.K.) (b. 1870 - d. 1952)
- 1 April 1932 - 1 March 1935 Geoffrey George Knox (from 1935, Sir Geoffrey George Knox) (U.K.) (b. 1884 - d. 1958)
It was in practice administered by France for 15 years, very much against the wishes of almost all Germans both inside and outside the territory.
In rather than follow
Alsace and join
France . The Nazis appointed Josef Bürckel (b. 1895 - d. 1944) on 1 March 1935 as ''
Reichskommissar für die Rückgliederung des Saarlandes'', then changed his style from 17 June 1936 to ''Reichskommissar für das Saarland'', and from 8 April 1940 to ''Reichskommissar für die Saarpfalz''; finally from 11 March 1941, he was made ''
Reichsstatthalter in der "Westmark"'' (the region's new name, meaning "Western
March or Border"), till 28 September 1944 when he was succeeded by Willi Stöhr (b. 1903, also NSDAP), until 21 March 1945.
After was started by France.
The
Morgenthau Plan of 1944, which became heavily entrenched in parts of the U.S. government, might also have influenced the U.S. decision to transfer the Saar to France, as it spelled out the need to cripple Germany industrialy in order to preclude future wars. In order to achieve this Germany would, amongst other things, have to surrender the areas richest in industry or the minerals necessary for industrial production (coal and iron). These areas included
Silesia , the
Ruhr Area and the Saarland.
The , and January 1952 - June 1955 as the first of two French '
Ambassador s', his successor being Eric de Carbonnel (b. 1910 - d. 1965) till 1956.
However Saarland was allowed a regional administration very soon, consecutively headed by:
- a President of the Government, 31 July 1945 - 8 June 1946: Hans Neureuther Non-party
- a Chairman of the (until 15 December 1947, Provisional) Administration Commission, 8 June 1946 - 20 December 1947: Erwin Müller (b. 1906 - d. 1968) Non-party
- Minister-presidents (as in any ''Bundesland''):
- ---20 December 1947 - 29 October 1955 Johannes Hoffmann (b. 1890 - d. 1967) CVP
- ---29 October 1955 - 10 January 1956 Heinrich Welsch (b. 1888 - d. 1976) Non-party
- ---10 January 1956 - 4 June 1957 Hubert Ney (b. 1892 - d. 1984) CDU
In
1954 , France and the
Federal Republic Of Germany (West Germany) developed a very detailed plan, called the ''Saarstatut'', to establish an independent Saarland, but a second plebiscite rejected this plan by 67.7%. French attempts to limit campaigning against this plan using undemocratic means did not sit well with the inhabitants, and made the plebiscite's result more decisive than had been expected. On
October 27 ,
1956 , the
Saar Treaty established that Saarland should be allowed to rejoin the Federal Republic of Germany, which it did on
January 1 ,
1957 .
The Saarland's reunification with the Federal Republic of Germany was sometimes referred to as the ''kleine Wiedervereinigung'' ('minor reunification', as opposed to the post-cold war reabsorption of the
DDR ). The
French Franc remained for another year as the territory's currency, until West Germany's
Deutsche Mark replaced it in
1958 . The Saar Treaty established that
French , not
English as in the rest of West Germany, should remain the first foreign language taught in Saarland schools; this provision is still largely followed today, although no longer binding.
The
Saar competed in the qualifying section of the
1954 Football World Cup , but failed after coming second to
West Germany but ahead of
Norway . They also competed in the
1952 Summer Olympics (See
Saarland At The 1952 Summer Olympics ).
From 1920 to 1935, and then from 1947 to 1959, the inhabitants used
Postage Stamp s issued specially for the territory; see
Postage Stamps And Postal History Of The Saar for details.
In 1954 the Paris mint coined 10, 20, and 50 "franken" pieces. The following year a 100 franken was also minted. Following reunification Saarland switched to the West German mark.
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France )
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Canada )
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United Kingdom )
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United Kingdom )
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NSDAP )
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NSDAP )
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CVP )
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''See also:
Saarland State Election, 2004 ''
Although falsely believed by some to be
Francophone —likely due to its history and some French town names such as
Saarlouis and Beaumarais—, the native population of the Saarland speaks
Rhine Franconian (in the southwest) and
Moselle Franconian (in the northeast) dialects of
German . Outside of the Saarland, specifically the Rhine Franconian variant spoken in the Landeshauptstadt
Saarbrücken is generally considered to be ''the'' Saarland dialect. In general, both dialects an integral part of the “Saarlandish” identity and thus a strong source of
Local Patriotism .
Both dialects, even more so in their respective Saarland flavour, share many characteristic features, some of which will be explained below.
A curious fact is that female persons are gramatically not attributed the feminine, but the neutral “gender”. The result are phrases such as hat mir's gesaat'' ('''''it''' told me so'', instead of '''''she''' told me so''; vs. correct High German: '''''Sie''' hat es mir gesagt''). This fact stems from the word ''Mädchen'' (girl) being neutral in German language.
The
Conjunctive is normally composed with the words ''dääd'' (“would do”) or ''gäng'' (“would go”) as auxiliary verbs: ''Isch dääd saan, dass...'' (“I would say that...”) instead of correct High German ''Ich würde sagen, dass...''.
Declination is rather crippled:
- The Genitive case does not exist at all and is entirely replaced by constructs with the Dative case.
- In most cases, a word is not altered when cast into the Dative case. Exceptions are mostly Pronoun s.
- The same holds for the Accusative case. Even more so, it is accepted practice to use the Nominative case instead of the Accusative.
Diphthongs are almost non-existing. The Saarlandish variant of a High-German word that contains a diphthong usually will have a long
Vowel in its place. Moreover, the vowel ''ü'' does not exist in the dialect. It is mostly replaced by ''i''.
The French language has had a considerable influence on the vocabulary, although the pronunciation of imported French words usually is quite different from their original. Popular examples comprise ''Trottwaa'' (from ''troittoir''), ''Fissääl'' (from ''ficelle''), and the imperative or greeting ''aalleh!'' (from ''allez!'').
A curious fact is that the English phrase ''My house is green'' is pronounced almost the same (in the Rhine Franconian variant): ''Mei Haus is grien''. The main difference lies in the pronuncation of the ''r'' sound.
