The Coolidge examiner., 1936-01-31

Prepared by National Geographic society,
Washington, D. C.-WNU Service.
THOUGH barely 73S square
miles in area and with fewer
l. than $4,000 people, the Saar
has been one of Europe's most pub
licized regions since the World war.
Powder keg of Europe; witches
caldron; political sore spot. For
years such graphic labels have been
tackled onto this small but highly
industrialized region lying north
of Alsace-Lorraine between France
and Germany.
From the days of Attila and the
Caesars down to Foch and Won
Hindenburg, its valleys and wooded
hills have rocked and echoed to the
tramp and shouts of marching
armies.
Geographically, the Saar is an ir
regular patch of hilly land crossed
by small valleys. 1t lies alongside
Luxembourg, forms a buffer state
between France and Germany, and
was cut from the two German states
of Prussia and Bavaria.
With a population about equal to
that of Boston proper, it shelters
more than 1000 people per square
mile-one of the most densely set
tied areas in all Europe.
nn0 int
states as Andora, Liechtenstein, San
Marino and Monaco are smaller
than this tiny, yet dynamic coun-
try. America knows no state so
dwarfsh. Delaware is about three
times the Saar's size, yet has less
than a third its population.
Saarbrucken, metropolis Of the
Saar, has only 132, 400 people; yet
in one year Saar trains haul 60,000,-
600 passengers
Sit in any stuffy cafe at Saar-
brucken, watch the guests eat red
cabbage and boiled pork, or sip fat
stems of beer as the band plays
heavy Wagner music, and the place
seems just another German indus
trial center.
But look into its eventful annals,
or make a careful trip about its
historic roads and ruins, and you
find a land with a past peculiar to
itself.
Saar Problem in Caesars Time.
There was, in fact, Saar prob
lem even in Roman times, when
blond men from the east of the
Rhine already had invaded this
basin. In Caesars commentaries"
you read Of these early German
settlers. One Roman report of the
time says that 100000 barbarians,
enamOred of Gaul, had settled here.
Caesar feared these Germans
might menace Rome itself; so he
helped the Gauls drive them back
across the Rhine. His battles on
the Aisne and elsewhere were pre-
cursOrs of centuries of fighting along
the Rhine.
Some Roman military roads here
abOuts are shown on the Peutinger
map of about 200 A. d. One ran
north from ArgentOratum (now
Strasbourg) to the Saar basin.
About this same time the Romans
built a castle at a point on the Saar
river where it was bridged by their
military road from Paris to Mainz.
Saarbrucken was so named, mean
ing "Saar Bridge"
Dense forests chOked all the ba-
sin then. forests frequented by
heather druids, by wild Celtic tribes
who hunted deer and boars with
spears. Scattered ruins of men
HRS. dolmens and cromlechs, SYM
hols of the druid cult, have been
found in the Saar forests.
Roman ruins are there-if yOu
dig-ruins of villas, of baths and
bridges. some almost in the shadow
of early Christian churches. At
Tholey is a church that dates from
the Thirteenth century. In sharp
contrast. near Saarbrucken is a
mosque built by the French dur
ing the World war, wherein their
Moroccan soldiers might pray!
Long Held by Germans.
Strategically, the Saar lies on a
natural route between France and
Germany, and for centuries they
have disputed as to where their
boundary lines should be fixed.
Soon after the break up of Char
lemagne's empire, and the Treaty
of Verdun. in S43, the Saar became
German soil.
Briefly, for more than a thou
sand years prior to the Versailles
treaty. Germany held the Saar, eX-
cept for two short periods. the sec
ond being the years from 1893 to
1915, when Napoleon pushed the
Trnnch frontier 70 the Rhine.