page_title: Saar Protectorate
section_title: Post-World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Saar Protectorate / History / Post-World War II
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Bild der Verfassung des Saarlandes von 1948 Die Abbildung zeigt das Deckblatt der Verfassung des Saarlandes von 1948 GNU-FDL
context_page_description: The Saar Protectorate was a short-lived protectorate partitioned from Germany after its defeat in World War II; it was administered by the French Fourth Republic. On rejoining West Germany in 1957, it became the smallest "federal state", the Saarland, not counting the "city states" of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen. It is named after the Saar River.
  The region around the Saar River and its tributary valleys is a geographically folded, mineral-rich, ethnically German, economically important, heavily industrialized area. It has well-developed transportation infrastructure, and was one of the centres during the Industrial Revolution in Germany. Around 1900, the region formed the third-largest area of coal, iron, and steel industry in Germany. From 1920 to 1935, as a result of World War I, the region was under the control of the League of Nations as the Territory of the Saar Basin. Near the end of World War II it was heavily bombed by the Allies as part of their strategic bombing campaigns.
  Geographically, the post–World War II protectorate corresponded to the current German state of Saarland.
context_section_description: In July 1945, two months after World War II had ended in Europe, the Allied forces were redeploying from the areas they had conquered into their respective zones of occupation. On 10 July 1945, US forces left the Saar and French troops established their occupational administration. On 16 February 1946, France disentangled the Saar 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.
  French officials deported a total of 1,820 people from the Saar in 1946 and 1947, most of whom ultimately were allowed to return. However, France had not agreed to the expulsions approved (without input from France) in the Potsdam agreement by the Allies, so France refused to accept war refugees or expellees from the eastern annexed territories in the Saar protectorate or the French zone. However, native Sarrois returning from Nazi-imposed removals (e.g. political and Jewish refugees) and war-related relocations (e.g. evacuation from air raids) were allowed to return to the areas under French control. France aimed at winning over the Saar population for a future annexation.
  The principal reason for the French desire for economic control of the Saar was the large coal deposits. France was offered compensation for the return of the Saar to Germany: the treaty permitted France to extract coal from the Warndt coal deposit until 1981.
  With effect from 20 July 1946, 109 municipalities of the Prussian Rhine Province within the French zone were added to the Saar Protectorate. By 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar and allied occupied Germany. 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.
  In the speech Restatement of Policy on Germany, given in Stuttgart on 6 September 1946, the US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated the US's motive in detaching the Saar from Germany as "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".
  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. While only French franc banknotes circulated from 1954 on, Saar franc coins, designed similar to French coins, were issued too. On 15 December 1947 the Saar was constituted by its constitution as the Saarland, with an elected government under the control of the French high commissioner Gilbert Grandval. On 23 March 1948 the customs union with France was confirmed, taking effect on 1 April. In July the same year the Sarrois nationality replaced the German nationality of the Saar population.
  Initially, a policy of industrial disarmament was pursued in Germany by the Allied powers (see industrial plans for Germany). As part of this policy limits were placed on permitted production levels, and industries in the Saar were dismantled as they had been in the Ruhr, although mostly in the period before the detachment (see also The 1949 letter from the UK Foreign minister Ernest Bevin to the French Foreign minister Robert Schuman, urging a reconsideration of dismantling policy). This policy was quickly reversed in mid-1946 or early 1947.
  Under the Monnet Plan France attempted to gain economic control of the German industrial areas in its assigned zones, especially areas with large coal and mineral deposits, such as the Ruhr (in the British zone) and the Saar. Similar attempts to gain control of, or permanently internationalise, the Ruhr (see International Authority for the Ruhr) were abandoned in 1951, when France r
caption: Constitution of Saarland 1947/48
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