Johns Family Research Group - State of Rhineland-Palatinate

Johns Family Research Group


Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Coat of Arms

Rhineland-Palatinate (Rhineland-Pflaz), Saarland (Saar)

* Size of Region: 2,574 kilometers (994 sq mi)
* 2000 Estimated Population: 1.04 million
* Capital: Saarbrücken (180,000)
* Major Cities: Neunkirchen (51,000), Homburg (46,000), Völklingen (43,000), Sankt Ingbert (40,000), Saarlouis (38,000).

Geographical data: The Saar is the smallest German regional state. It borders on France and Luxembourg. About thirty percent is covered by forests, with the greatest forested regions found in the Saar middle forest and the high forest of the Schwarzwald [which is a part of the Hunsrück]. The economical centers are to be found in the densely settled Saar valley.

Historical data: Before industrialization in the 19th century, the Saar had a weak territorial center in the duchy [and later principality] of Saarbrücken, and was generally influenced by the neighboring realms of Trier, Metz, the Palatinate, and Lorraine [later France]. After the new order in Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic wars, the region fell to the Prussian Rhine province, and smaller parts to the Rhineland-Palatinate, as awarded by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the middle of the 19th century, coal mining and the production of steel were greatly intensified on the banks of the Saar, such that an economic unit was formed that soon merged with Lorraine; which had been annexed after conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870:71 by the newly founded German Reichstag (parliament).

At last, in 1920, the Saar region became a political unit after the Peace Treaty of Versailles (1919) was put into effect. After French attempts at annexation had failed in 1918:19 due to the opposition of Great Britain and America, the region was administered by the League of Nations for 15 years. France got the region's coal mines as compensation for the destruction of the French mines during the First World War and was able to integrate the Saarland in its customs jurisdiction, later even economically.

The plebiscite of l935, in which 90.8 percent of the population voted for affiliation with the German Reich, was a vote for National Socialist rule in respect of the changing political scene in Germany. With this affiliation, the Saar region was united with the Palatinate and hence was called the Saarpfalz. After conclusion of the Second World War, France once again tried to annex the Saar region. But, due to the resistance of the other allies it only achieved economic integration. In 1946, the coal mines of the Saar were put under French administration, and in 1948 a customs union with France was enforced. The political status of the Saar was as yet undefined.

On intervention of the Federal Government for the right of the inhabitants of the Saarland to decide for themselves due to the resistance building up in the region itself, and finally thanks to the pan-European attempts at integration, France and the Federal Republic of Germany finally achieved formulating the Statute of the Saar in 1954, with the intention of "europeanizing" the Saarland in the context of the Western European Union. This issue was, however, put to an end with the results of a popular vote in 1955, with two-thirds of the inhabitants against these plans. Finally, on January 1st, 1957, the Saarland was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany. The economical and customs trading unions with France came to an end in 1959. France's agreement to this referendum is an important landmark in the process of Franco-German reconciliation. The reintegration of the Saarland was effected in accordance with article 23 of the Basic Law (constitution); an unprecedented step that was to serve as a model for German unification in 1990.

Good-neighborly relations: The political evolution of this by far the smallest of Germany's states [apart from the city-states] mirrors the vicissitudes of German history in the 20th century. Saarland's higher education institutions, the university, the polytechnics, the art college and the music academy, are concentrated in Saarbrücken, the state capital. Because this region is contiguous with France and Luxembourg, the activities of all of these academic institutions are of a trans-frontier nature.

The name of the city, Saarlouis, reminds us that here, well over 300 years ago, the French King Louis XIV built a fortress to defend his conquests in Western Germany. This city is today home to a large automobile factory.

Not only higher education but industry too has long since crossed national boundaries. The Saarland in Germany, Lorraine in France, and all of Luxembourg are developing ever closer ties, so that the abbreviation "Saar-Lor-Lux" now stands for one of Europe's core regions. True, the Saarland has been somewhat effected by the coal and steel crisis. The Federal Government is supporting a recovery program that is producing results. The region also hopes to derive fresh impetus from the European internal market beginning in January 1993, especially in the mechanical engineering, metal-processing and chemical industries.

The Saarland's joie de vivre: Traditional branches of industry of supra-regional importance are glass and ceramics. The distinctive features of goods produced by large companies such as Villeroy & Boch are high quality as well as richness of form and color; a symbiosis perhaps, of German thoroughness and French charm.

In fact, it seems that the people of this area in general have acquired a touch of the French "joie de vivre". They have a partiality for culinary delights and wine, and on a fine day their capital is like an open-air stage. A native of the city, the film director Max Ophüls, also having directed films in America under the stage name of Max Oppenheimer (1902-1957), made film history with the charming though melancholy comedy "Liebelei."

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Released 12.16.1999
Revised 01.13.2004 16:19 PDT Version 3.3.
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