As is well known, the French sought in the years following the war to detach Germany this side of the Rhine feom the Prussia with which it had been united for a century. Their calculation seemed plausible at the time. French cultural influences had always been strong throughout the whole region, and its Gallicization might actually have proved feasible if Napoleon's puppet Kingdom of Westphalia had endured, But the passage of a century distinguished by the rapid growth of national sentiment had left its mark upon the people. Rhineland and Saarland were German in 1920, whatever they may have been in 1896.
Saarlanders were to make their choice between union with France, union with Germany and continuance of the League of Nations regime.
Well before the 15 years were up, the French had realized that the plebiscite could have only one result. Relations between the Saarlanders and the Army of Occupation were courteous but distant; it was also appreciated that the people spoke German, and not a patois, as in Alsace. Accordingly, in 1928, when the understanding between Briand and Stresemann made it possible for occupied German territory to be evacuated, the return of the Saarland to Germany without a plebiscite was discussed between Paris and Berlin. But the discussions came to nothing, and, apart from the withdrawal of troops, the situation had not been changed when Hitler came into power, Almost exactly' two years elapsed between Hitler's appointment as Chancellor and the taking of the plebiscite. They were years of increasing tension, which at one time became so acute that the French were prepared to send their troops into the Saarland again. Throughout 1933, Socialists, Jews and other elements for which there was no place in the Third Reich flocked to a territory which, though German, was still free.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.