From 1947 to 1956 the Saarland was a French-occupied territory ( the " Saar Protectorate ") separate from the rest of Germany.

After World War II, the Saarland came under French occupation and administration again, as the Saar Protectorate.

In 1957 the Saar Protectorate joined West Germany under the Article 23 procedure as Saarland.

In 1947, France created the nominally politically independent Saar Protectorate and merged it economically with France in order to exploit the area's vast coal reserves.

In 1955, the French, under pressure from West Germany and her newfound allies, held a plebiscite in the Saar Protectorate on the question of reunification or independence.

In June 1947 the French occupying force in the Saar Protectorate introduced the Saar Mark, which was at par with Rentenmark and Reichsmark.

After Hitler's Machtergreifung in 1933, he participated in the communist resistance against the Nazi regime from the Saar Protectorate.

After 1949 an analogous term, Bundesdeutsche ( i. e. federal Germans ), was colloquially used to distinguish de facto citizens of the West German Federal Republic of Germany, from people entitled to German citizenship, but as a matter of fact unwilling or unable to exercise it, such as citizens of East Germany and East Berlin, or of the Saar Protectorate.

Its preamble stated the obligation to achieve German unity and the draft also provided for the accession of " other parts of Germany ", as it was applied to the joining of the former Saar Protectorate in 1957 and German reunification in 1990.

The French Saar Protectorate did not participate in this election.

As part of this policy, German factories were disassembled and moved to France, and the coal-rich industrial Saar Protectorate was occupied by France, as had been done post-World War I, in the Territory of the Saar Basin.

The Saar Protectorate was a short-lived post-World War II protectorate ( 1947 – 56 ) partitioned from defeated Nazi Germany ; it was administered by the French Fourth Republic.

On 16 February 1946, France disentangled the Saar area from the allied zones of occupation and established the separate Saar Protectorate, which was no longer under the joint allied jurisdiction by the Allied Control Council for Germany.

With effect of 20 July 1946, 109 municipalities of the Prussian Rhine Province within the French zone were added to the Saar Protectorate.

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.

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 November 15 the same year.

Hanover was thus a gateway to the Rhine, Ruhr and Saar river valleys, their industrial areas which grew up to the southwest and the plains regions to the east and north, for overland traffic skirting the Harz between the Low Countries and Saxony or Thuringia.

In addition to the mandates, the League itself governed the Territory of the Saar Basin for 15 years, before it was returned to Germany following a plebiscite, and the free city of Danzig ( now Gdańsk, Poland ) from 15 November 1920 to 1 September 1939.

Saar was a province formed from parts of Prussia and the Rhenish Palatinate and placed under League control by the Treaty of Versailles.

The divestiture of Germany's overseas colonies, along with three territories disentangled from its European homeland area ( the Free City of Danzig, Memel Territory, and Saar ), was accomplished in the Treaty of Versailles ( 1919 ), with the territories being allotted among the Allies on May 7 of that year.

During the war, the German Empire was founded and the Saar region became part of it.

In 1933, a considerable number of communists and other political opponents of National Socialism fled to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany that remained under foreign occupation following the First World War.

The French attempt to gain economic control over the Saar was more successful at the time, with the final vestiges of French economic influence ending in 1981.

The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme and introduced conscription.

The attempt to turn the Saar protectorate into a " European territory " was rejected by a referendum in 1955.

The Saar was to have been governed by a statute supervised by a European Commissioner reporting to the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union.

After World War I, the Territory of the Saar Basin was handed over to France.

General Le Bœuf, flushed with anger, was intent upon going on the offensive over the Saar and countering their loss.

However, planning for the next encounter was more based upon the reality of unfolding events rather than emotion or pride, as Intendant General Wolff told him and his staff that supply beyond the Saar would be impossible.

In 1920, under massive French pressure, the Saar was separated from the Rhine Province and administered by the League of Nations until a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to the German Reich.

He was convinced that airborne troops would be used in this offensive but was unsure where they would be deployed, suspecting areas along the Siegfried Line north of Aachen or possibly even near the Saar.

Another major issue which the Council of Four discussed was the future of the German Saar province.

The nearby Saar region, containing much of Germany's remaining coal deposits, was handed over to economic administration by France as a protectorate in 1947 and did not politically return to Germany until January 1957, with economic reintegration occurring two years later.

In one instance a bridge was pushed over the Saar River while under artillery and tank fire.

In 1815 Saarbrücken came under Prussian control, and for two periods in the 20th century ( 1919 – 35 and 1945 – 57 ) it was part of the Saar territory under French administration.

The castle of Sarabrucca was located on a large rock by the name of Saarbrocken overlooking the river Saar.

Following his role as Gauleiter, Bürckel headed up the civil administration in Lothringen and from 1941 was governor of the Gau Westmark, composed of the Bavarian Palatinate district and the Prussian Saar territory.

* A memorial to the Great Northern Migration by Alison Saar

Prior to its creation as the Territory of the Saar Basin by the League of Nations after World War I, the Saarland ( or simply " the Saar ", as is frequently referred to ) did not exist as a unified entity.

Within the Holy Roman Empire these territories gained a wide range of independence, threatened, however, by the French kings, who sought, from the 17th century onwards, to incorporate all the territories on the western side of the river Rhine and repeatedly invaded the area in 1635, in 1676, in 1679 and in 1734, extending their realm to the Saar River and establishing the city and stronghold of Saarlouis in 1680.

In his speech " Restatement of Policy on Germany ", made in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946, United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated the U. S. motive in detaching the Saar from Germany: " 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 ".

During the confusion of the French Revolution the mortal remains were salvaged by the Boch industrialist family ( founders of Villeroy & Boch, ennobled in 1892 ) and hidden in an attic room in Mettlach on the Saar River.

The Saar Offensive was a French attack into the Saarland defended by the German 1st Army in the early stages of World War II.

The part which went into the Saar became commonly known as Saarpfalz, and was administrated by the two Bezirksamt St. Ingbert and Homburg.

* Saar ( 1947 – 1956 ), not colonial or amical, but a former part of Germany that would by referendum return to it, in fact a re-edition of a former League of Nations mandate.

* Germany's main centers of mining and industry, including the Saar area, the Ruhr area and Upper Silesia were to be internationalized or annexed by neighboring nations.

: ( b ) France should get the Saar and the adjacent territories bounded by the Rhine and the Moselle rivers.

The memorandum drafted by Churchill provided for " eliminating the warmaking industries in the Ruhr and the Saar ... looking forward to converting Germany into a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character.

The Saar, another important source of coal and industry for Germany, was likewise to be lost by the Germans.

In November 1947 it was replaced by the Saar franc.

The neighboring Saar area, containing much of Germany's remaining coal deposits, was by the U. S. handed over to French economic administration as a protectorate in 1947 and did not politically return to Germany until January 1957, with economic reintegration occurring a few years later.

The Battle of Spicheren was not intended by Moltke, who wished to keep Bazaine's army on the Saar until he could attack it with the second army in front and the first army on its left flank.