Dutch annexation of German territory after World War II At the end of World War II , plans were made in the Netherlands to annex German territory as compensation for the damages caused by the war . In October 1945 , the Dutch state asked Germany for 25 billion guilder s in reparations , but in February 1945 it had already been established at the Yalta Conference that reparations would not be given in monetary form . The plan which was worked out in most detail was the one made by Frits Bakker - Schut , and hence became known as the Bakker - Schut Plan . In its most ambitious form , this plan included the cities of Cologne , Aachen , Münster and Osnabrück , and would have enlarged the country by 30 to 50 percent . The local population had to be either deported , or , when still speaking the original Low German dialects , Dutchified . The plan was largely dropped after U . S . dismissal of it . Eventually , an area of a total size of 69 km was allocated to the Netherlands . Almost all of this was returned to West Germany in 1963 after Germany paid the Netherlands 280 million German marks . Many Germans living in the Netherlands were however declared ' enemy subjects ' after World War II ended and put into an internment camp in an operation called Black Tulip . A total of 3 , 691 Germans were ultimately deported . Liberation . In the first year following the liberation of the Netherlands in May 1945 , dozens of pamphlets and brochures were published that propagated annexation of territory of the former German Reich , preferably without the accompanying German population . Several highly - placed persons , including then Foreign Minister Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens , put forth their own ideas regarding annexation in these publications . Opinions varied widely as to how much territory should be annexed . Some people only wanted a few border corrections , others drew the new border past Hamburg . The proponents of annexation joined in several local committees . On June 19 , 1945 , the Hague committee to examine the question of Dutch territorial expansion was founded . During a meeting of this committee on July 12 , 1945 , it was decided to split the committee in the " Study Group Territorial Expansion " ( Studiegroep Gebiedsuitbreiding ) , chaired by Ph . J . Idenburg , and the " Action Committee " ( Comité van Actie ) , which had as its primary function the education of the Dutch population about the expansion plans . Six days later , the latter committee was renamed the " Dutch Committee for Territorial Expansion " . It was chaired by former Finance minister Johannes van den Broek . On August 25 , 1945 , Minister Van Kleffens founded the " State Commission for the Study of the Annexation Question " , which was charged with writing a final report regarding the annexation question by May 1946 . The Study Group Territorial Expansion set up many groups that reported about their findings . The final judgment of the State Commission would be largely based on the results of this study group . The Dutch Committee for Territorial Expansion published on the progress of the study group by giving out brochures and giving lectures . The annexation question however led to intense discussions , which lead certain groups to go their own way and among other things found the Annexation Committee of the Foundation for Agriculture . Bakker Schut Plan . Bakker Schut was the president of the National service for the National Plan , secretary of the Dutch Committee for Territorial Expansion , and a member of the State Commission for the Study of the Annexation Question and of the Study Group Territorial Expansion . In his expansion plan , he suggested to annex a large part of northwestern Germany . All the land west of the line Wilhelmshaven - Osnabrück - Hamm - Wesel would be added to the Netherlands , as well as the land east of Limburg , where the border followed the Rhine until close to Cologne , then diverging towards Aachen in the west . In this A Variation of the plan , among others the large cities of Aachen , Cologne , Münster , Oldenburg and Osnabrück were annexed . Bakker Schut called this the Weser border and ended his writings with the slogan " Nederland ' s grens kome aan de Wezer " ( The border of the Netherlands be at the Weser ) . In a smaller plan B , the west - Rhineland cities Cologne , Mönchengladbach and Neuss were not annexed . In a third option , plan C , the proposed annexation was much smaller . It included an area west of Varel , the entire Emsland , and the area around Wesel until near the Duchy of Cleves . Areas to be annexed . The areas which were to be annexed according to the Bakker Schut Plan were the following then existing districts and cities . Motivation . Bakker Schut was aware that it was difficult to claim this area on historical grounds , due to the long - time German rule of the territory , and the historically - German speaking population . Hence , he justified the annexation using arguments like increased power and greater security for the Dutch state . He furthermore considered the annexation as compensation for war damages and as a part of the population policy to be followed . Contrary to what might be expected , after an inventory he considered the natural resources of the territory to be annexed as insufficiently important to motivate annexation . In his view , even a transfer of the entire Ruhr Area would not be sufficient to pay for the damages . Forced migration . A big point of discussion in Bakker Schut ' s expansion plan was the proposed forced migration of the original German population . Millions of Germans would have to be expelled to the remaining German territories , ostensibly because it was feared that increasing the Dutch population from 9 to 11 million people could cause trouble in providing everybody with food . A pamphlet titled " Oostland - Ons Land " ( East land - Our land ) contained a complete schedule for the extradition of the population , starting with all inhabitants of municipalities with a population of at least 2 , 500 , all former members of the NSDAP and related organizations , and all inhabitants who had settled in the area after 1933 . In special cases , the inhabitants could request to be naturalized , for instance if they had made efforts for the Dutch state during the war , if they usually spoke Low Saxon instead of High German , if they had no family members up to the second degree that lived in Germany , or if they wished to become Dutch . Dispute . In the Dutch cabinet , a dispute about the annexation question arose . Van Kleffens promoted territorial expansion , while Minister of Social Affairs Willem Drees ( later Prime Minister ) was dead set against it . Generally , socialists were against annexation and Protestants and liberals were reluctant . The Catholics saw advantages in the territorial expansion , mainly as a method to give the farmers near the border more room , and because the German territories to be annexed were predominantly Catholic , so that remaining inhabitants would have increased the percentage of Catholics in the Netherlands . Nevertheless , Dutch churches objected to the proposed mass extradition , because in their eyes the German population could not be found guilty of the crimes of the Nazis during World War II . Prime Minister Wim Schermerhorn was also not in favor of annexing German territory , but Queen Wilhelmina , an energetic supporter of the annexation plan , strongly urged him to start negotiating on this with the Allies . In 1946 , in the name of the Dutch government , he officially claimed 4 , 980 km of German territory , which was not even half of the area envisioned by Van Kleffens . The Dutch - German border would be drawn from Vaals via Winterswijk to the Ems River , so that 550 , 000 Germans would live inside the Dutch national borders . Implementation . In 1947 , the large scale annexation was rejected by the Allied High Commission , on the grounds that Germany already contained 14 , 000 , 000 refugees from the annexations in the east , and that the remaining territory could not handle more refugees . Furthermore , the allies ( in particular the Americans ) considered it vital to have a stable West Germany in view of the coming Cold War . At a conference of foreign ministers of the western allied occupation forces in London ( January 14 until February 25 , 1947 ) , the Dutch government ( Cabinet Beel I ) claimed an area of 1 , 840 km . This claim included apart from the island Borkum large parts of the Emsland , Bentheim , the cities Ahaus , Rees , Kleve , Erkelenz , Geilenkirchen and Heinsberg and the areas around these cities . In 1946 , about 160 , 000 people lived in this area , of whom more than 90 % spoke German . This plan was a very simplified version of the C - variation of the Bakker Schut Plan . The KVP considered this proposal much too small , while the CPN rejected any kind of reparations in the form of territorial expansion . The London conference of April 23 , 1949 , only permitted some less far - reaching border modifications . At 12 o ' clock of the very same day , Dutch troops occupied an area of 69 km , the largest parts of which were Elten ( near Emmerich am Rhein ) and Selfkant . Many other small border corrections were executed , mostly in the vicinity of Arnhem and Dinxperlo . At that time , these areas were inhabited by a total of almost 10 , 000 people . Return . Starting in March 1957 , West Germany negotiated the return of these areas with the Netherlands . These negotiations led to an agreement ( ; short : Ausgleichsvertrag , i . e . treaty of settlement ) made in The Hague on April 8 , 1960 , in which Germany agreed to pay 280 million German marks for the return of Elten , Selfkant , and Suderwick , as Wiedergutmachung . The territory was returned to Germany on August 1 , 1963 , except one small hill ( about 3 km² ) near Wyler village , called ( link to Dutch Wikipedia ) which was annexed by the Netherlands .