Rhineland

Historical region of Renania, 1830.
In green, the province of the Prussian Renania, and in red the province of Westfalia.

The region of Rhineland (in German: Rheinland, in Frankish Ripuarian, Rhingland) is the name with which which designates the land on both sides of the Rhine River, west of Germany. It lies east of Germany's border with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Since the 1950s, the Rhineland region has been made up of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. The latter constitutes one of the most powerful industrial regions in Germany, also having important mineral deposits (uranium, magnesium, oil, among others) and accessible river transportation. In the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, agriculture is more important, especially its prized vineyards.

History

Porta Nigra, built at the time of the Roman Empire in Tréveris.

Old Age

During the Roman Empire, the Rhineland was known as a buffer zone between Gaul and the Germanic peoples to the east. It was later included in the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia.

Contemporary Age

After the fall of the First French Empire, in the early 19th century, the German-speaking Middle and Lower Rhine regions were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia. The Prussian administration reorganized the annexed territories as the Rhine Province, and this term continues present in the names of the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Province of the Rhine was created in 1824, when the provinces of Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg were united. Prussia annexed Nassau and Meisenheim after the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 and Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. In the following decades, the Rhineland became the most prosperous part of Germany, particularly North Prussia, which was highly industrialized.

World War I

Interwar Period

Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann.

Following the November 11, 1918 armistice that ended World War I, the western part of the Rhineland was occupied by Triple Entente forces; under the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the region was demilitarized. However, the Treaty proved unenforceable, and the French government, far from enjoying dominance in Europe, suffered a financial crisis.

In accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles the occupation was continued. The same treaty specified three occupation zones, which were to be evacuated by Allied troops within 5, 10, and 15 years after the formal ratification of the treaty, which occurred in 1920. That same year the Saar region was separated from the rest of the province and administered by the League of Nations and the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium. The occupation ultimately lasted only 10 years, as Allied troops withdrew in 1930, as a show of goodwill towards the Weimar Republic and its policy of reconciliation, in the era of Gustav Stresemann and the Locarno Pact.

In clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the French tried to separate the occupied areas from Germany, establishing the Rhenish Republic, as a puppet state of France. The secessionist attempts had as one of their main supports the anti-Prussian sentiment of the population, as well as the Catholic religion that identified the majority. The movement was not very successful, and was not welcomed by the majority of the population.

The Treaty also established the total demilitarization of the area, to protect France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Thus, after the withdrawal of the Allied troops, German troops would not be allowed to establish themselves in the area. The treaty also included a disgraceful clause for the German people, which established the right of the Allies to invade the region, if they felt that Germany had violated the treaty.

A side effect of the French occupation of the interwar period are the so-called Rhineland Bastards, sons of local people and foreign (mainly French) occupation soldiers. This population group suffered sterilization programs and harassment by the Nazi Regime in the 1930s.

Rhineland crisis

The Treaty of Versailles was de facto violated on March 7, 1936, when Wehrmacht troops entered the Rhineland. Although they could have easily been stopped by the Allies (most of the soldiers entered on bicycles), anti-war sentiment in Europe was stronger, and this violation was tolerated. In addition, taking advantage of the international tension with Italy due to the invasion of Ethiopia, Nazi Germany carried out the remilitarization of the Rhineland, contrary to what was planned at Versailles.

Several factors were aligned so that the events occurred without major fright, since the Führer Adolf Hitler told his soldiers that if the French army stopped them, they would not oppose and return to other areas of Germany. France, however, faced more pressing issues, such as the victory of the Popular Front in the French legislative elections, the Spanish Civil War, and the great strikes that had relegated the situation in the Rhineland to French concerns.

The occupation of the Rhineland, on the other hand, was successful among the local population, due to a resurgence of German nationalism and resentment against the Allied troops.

World War II

Members of the Wehrmacht, prisoners, parade through an Aachen street in 1944.

During 1944 and 1945, two separate campaigns were carried out in the Rhineland area during World War II. From September 1944 to February 1945, the US First Army waged a constant battle to capture the Hürtgen Forest. The terrain favored the defenders, and made it difficult for the Allies to move, so the campaign caused 24,000 US Army casualties.

In early 1945, after a long period of inactivity (due to winter), most of the Allied operations in North-West Europe planned to reach the Rhine River. From their positions in the Netherlands, the First The Canadian Army, under the orders of General Henry Crerar, together with the British Second Army, commanded by General Miles Dempsey, invaded the area, beginning operations the first week of February 1945..

Operation Veritable lasted several weeks, and its end result was the defeat of all German troops on the west side of the Rhine River. The American support operation Grenade was planned to coincide with the British troops and Canadians in the South. The meeting was delayed two weeks, by German defense operations.

On March 7, 1945, an armed company of the 9th US Armored Division captured the last intact bridge over the Rhine near Remagen. General George Patton's Third US Army would also cross the river a day before the highly anticipated British-Canadian Army crossing. By April, all Allies with operations in the west had crossed the Rhine, and the battles for the Rhineland were over.

Since 1946

In 1946, the Rhine Province was divided between two newly founded states: Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. The town of Wetzlar became part of Hesse.

Geography

The Rhineland is located in western Germany, and has international borders with France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The southern and eastern regions have mainly a rugged geography, made up of valleys formed by rivers (mainly the Rhine and the Moselle). Towards the northern region, lies the valley of the Ruhr river.

Some of the most important cities in the Rhineland are Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Koblenz, Krefeld, Ludwigshafen, Mainz, Mönchengladbach and Wuppertal.

Culture

Lorelei, siren of German mythology, which was placed on a rock on the Rhine and with its singing seduced the navigators.

The Rhineland is a predominantly Catholic region. Within German culture, the inhabitants of the region are famous for a carefree lifestyle, characterized by the tradition of carnivals, the cultivation (and consumption) of wine, as well as the tradition of singing and local songs (songs Renanas). This is an image that local people also like to cultivate.

The Rhine valley is characterized by its landscapes of great beauty, and these, together with their towns and castles, have been the subject of German romanticism since the 17th century XIX, with numerous stories, legends, poems and songs referring to the town. Among the many writings that mention it, Heinrich Heine's Lorelei and the Song of the Nibelungs are the best known.

The Rhineland is also known for its cathedrals, monasteries and an extraordinary tradition of literature (for example, the historic library of Cologne Cathedral, which dates back to the early Middle Ages).

World Heritage Site

The Upper Middle Rhine Valley, between Bingen and Koblenz, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. The Lorelei Crag is one of the most admired by tourists.