Rhine Province

This article is about the Prussian province. For the region in general, seeRhineland.For the Bavarian district, seePalatinate (region).

Rhine Province Rheinprovinz(German)
Province ofPrussia
1822–1945
Flag Coat of arms
The Rhine Province (red), within theKingdom of Prussia,within theGerman Empire
Capital	Koblenz
Area
• Coordinates	50°22′N7°36′E
• 1939	24,477 km2(9,451 sq mi)
Population
• 1905	6,435,778
• 1939	7,931,942
History
• Established	1822
• Loss ofSaar	1920
• Disestablished	1945
Political subdivisions	Aachen Cologne Düsseldorf Koblenz Trier
Preceded by Succeeded by Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg Saar Protectorate North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Hesse
Today part of	Belgium ∟Liège Germany ∟Hesse ∟North Rhine-Westphalia ∟Rhineland-Palatinate ∟Saarland

TheRhine Province(German:Rheinprovinz), also known asRhenish Prussia(Rheinpreußen) or synonymous with theRhineland(Rheinland), was the westernmostprovinceof theKingdom of Prussiaand theFree State of Prussia,within theGerman Reich,from 1822 to 1945. It was created from the provinces of theLower RhineandJülich-Cleves-Berg.Its capital wasKoblenzand in 1939 it had 8 million inhabitants. TheProvince of Hohenzollernwas militarily associated with theOberpräsidentof the Rhine Province. Also, for a short period of time, the Province of Hohenzollern was indirectly and de facto controlled by the Rhine Province.

The Rhine Province was bounded on the north by theNetherlands,on the east by the Prussian provinces ofWestphaliaandHesse-Nassau,and the grand duchy ofHesse-Darmstadt,on the southeast by thePalatinate(a district of theKingdom of Bavaria), on the south and southwest byLorraine,and on the west byLuxembourg,Belgiumand the Netherlands.

The small exclave district ofWetzlar,wedged between the grand duchy states Hesse-Nassau andHesse-Darmstadtwas also part of the Rhine Province. The principality ofBirkenfeld,on the other hand, was an enclave of theGrand Duchy of Oldenburg,a separatestate of the German Empire.

In 1911, the extent of the province was 10,423 km²(4,024 sq mi); its extreme length, from north to south, was nearly 200 km (120 mi), and its greatest breadth was just under 90 km (56 mi). It included about 200 km (120 mi) of the course of the Rhine, which formed the eastern border of the province fromBingentoKoblenz,and then flows in a north-northwesterly direction inside the province, approximately following its eastern border.It is now part ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia,Rhineland-Palatinate,Saarland,andHesse.

Rhine Province, 1905

Demographics

The population of the Rhine Province in 1905 was 6,435,778, including 4,472,058Roman Catholics,1,877,582Protestantsand 55,408Jews.The left bank was predominantly Catholic, while on the right bank about half the population was Protestant. The great bulk of the population was ethnically German, although some villages and towns in the northern part (Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg) were more oriented toward the Netherlands. On the western and southern frontiers (especially in theSaarland) resided smaller French-speaking communities, while the industrial region of theRuhrhoused recentPolish migrantsfromthe eastern provinces of the Empire.

The Rhine Province was the most densely populated part of Prussia, the general average being 617 persons per km².The province contains a greater number of large towns than any other province in Prussia. Upwards of half, the population were supported by industrial and commercial pursuits, and barely a quarter by agriculture. There was theUniversity of Bonn,and elementary education was especially successful.

Government

Former Prussian government building of the Rhine Province in Koblenz

For purposes of administration the province was divided into the five districts (Regierungsbezirke) ofKoblenz,Düsseldorf,Cologne,AachenandTrier.Koblenzwas the official capital, thoughColognewas the largest and most important city. Being a frontier province, the Rhineland was strongly garrisoned, and the Rhine was guarded by the three strong fortresses of Cologne withDeutz,Koblenz withEhrenbreitstein,andWesel.The province sent 35 members to the GermanReichstagand 62 to thePrussian House of Representatives.

Economy

Agriculture

Of the total area of the Rhine Province about 45% was occupied by arable land, 16% by meadows and pastures, and 31% by forests. Little except oats and potatoes could be raised on the high-lying plateaus in the south of the province, but the river-valleys and the northern lowlands were extremely fertile. The great bulk of the soil was in the hands of small proprietors, and this is alleged to have had the effect of somewhat retarding the progress of scientific agriculture. The usual cereal crops were, however, all grown with success, and tobacco, hops, flax, hemp and beetroot (for sugar) were cultivated for commercial purposes. Large quantities of fruit were also produced.

The vine-culture occupied a space of about 30,000 acres (120 km²), about half of which was in thevalley of the Mosel,a third in that of the Rhine itself, and the rest mainly on theNaheand theAhr.In the hilly districts more than half the surface was sometimes occupied by forests, and large plantations of oak are formed for the use of the bark in tanning.

Considerable herds of cattle were reared on the rich pastures of the lower Rhine, but the number of sheep in the province was comparatively small, not greatly in excess of that of the goats. The wooded hills were well stocked with deer, and a stray wolf occasionally found its way from the forests of theArdennesinto those of theHunsrück.

The salmon fishery of the Rhine was very productive, and trout abound in the mountain streams.

Mineral resources

The great mineral wealth of the Rhine Province furnished its most substantial claim to the title of the "richest jewel in the crown of Prussia".

Besides parts of the carboniferous measures of the Saar and the Ruhr, it also contains important deposits of coal nearAachen.Iron ore was found in abundance near Koblenz, the Bleiberg in theEifelpossessed an apparently inexhaustible supply of lead, and zinc was found near Cologne and Aachen. The mineral products of the district also included lignite, copper, manganese, vitriol, lime, gypsum, volcanic stones (used for millstones) and slates. By far the most important item was coal.

Of the numerous mineral springs, the best known were those of Aachen and Kreuznach.

Industries

The mineral resources of the Rhine Province, coupled with its favourable situation and the facilities of transit afforded by its great waterway, made it the most important manufacturing district in Germany.

The industry was mainly concentrated around two chief centres, Aachen andDüsseldorf(with the valley of theWupper), while there were naturally few manufacturers in the hilly districts of the south or the marshy flats of the north. The largest iron and steel works were atEssen,Oberhausen,Duisburg,Düsseldorf and Cologne, while cutlery and other small metallic wares were extensively made at Solingen, Remscheid and Aachen.

The cloth of Aachen and the silk ofKrefeldformed important articles of export. The chief industries ofElberfeld-Barmenand the valley of the Wupper was cotton-weaving, calico-printing and the manufacture of turkey red and other dyes. Linen was largely made atMönchengladbach,leather atMalmedy,glass in the Saar district and beetroot sugar near Cologne.

Though the Rhineland was par excellence the country of the vine, beer was produced in quantities, distilleries were also numerous, and large quantities of sparklingMosel winewere made at Koblenz, chiefly for exportation to Britain.

Commerce was greatly aided by the navigable rivers, a very extensive network of railways, and the excellent roads constructed during the French régime. The imports consist mainly of raw material for working up in the factories of the district, while the principal exports are coal, fruit, wine, dyes, cloth, silk and other manufactured articles of various descriptions.

History

In the 1815Congress of Vienna,Prussia gained control of the duchies of Cleves, Berg, Gelderland and Jülich, the ecclesiastical principalities of Trier and Cologne, the free cities of Aachen and Cologne, and nearly one hundred small lordships and abbeys which would all be amalgamated into the new Prussian Rhine Province.In 1822 Prussia established the Rhine Province by joining theprovincesofLower RhineandJülich-Cleves-Berg.Its capital wasKoblenz;it had 8.0 million inhabitants by 1939.

PopesPius VIII(in 1830) andGregory XVI(in 1833) raised concerns regarding the pastoral care ofCatholicsin the Upper Rhineland, both writing letters of concern to the local bishops.

Aftermath of World War I

The occupation zones (Rhineland andRuhr) 1923. Green (Saar):League of Nations(France), blue:France,brown:United Kingdom,yellow:Belgium,blue/yellow (Ruhr): France/Belgium

Following theArmistice of 1918,Allied forces occupied the Rhineland as far east as the river with some small bridgeheads on the east bank at places likeCologne.Under the terms of theTreaty of Versaillesof 1919 the occupation was continued and theInter-Allied Rhineland High Commissionwas set up to supervise affairs. The treaty specified three occupation zones, which were due to be evacuated by Allied troops five, ten and finally 15 years after the formal ratification of the treaty, which took place in 1920, thus the occupation was intended to last until 1935. Initially, 5 zones ofOccupation of the Rhinelandwere established, but the American Forces handed over their zone in 1923, since they had not ratified the Treaty of Versailles, to the French. The treaty also separated theSaarfrom the Province and administered by theLeague of Nationsuntil a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to Germany. In fact, the last Allied troops left Germany five years early, in 1930, in a goodwill reaction to theWeimar Republic's policy of reconciliation in the era ofGustav Stresemannand theLocarno Pact.

French troops leaving Mainz (1930)

Sections of the Rhineland, which had once belonged to theHabsburg Netherlands'Duchy of Limburg,were annexed by Belgium according to theTreaty of Versailles.The cantons ofEupen,MalmedyandSankt Viththough (with the exception of Malmedy) German in culture and language, became theEast Cantonsof Belgium. Although a plebiscite was held in early 1920, it was not conducted as a secret ballot but required only those opposed to Belgian annexation to register their formal protest. Only a few did so because of the threat of a confiscation of ration cards.Germanis now the third official language of Belgium, along withFrenchandDutch(seeGerman-Speaking Community of Belgium).

After the enlargement of the French occupation zone by the American withdrawal from theoccupation (1919–1930),the French encouraged the establishment of an independentRhenish Republicby banking on traditional anti-Prussian resentments in the history of thePalatinate.In the end, the separatists failed to gain any decisive support among the population since they were viewed as puppets of the French.

The Treaty of Versailles also specified the demilitarization of the entire area to provide a buffer between Germany on one side and France, Belgium and Luxembourg (and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands) on the other side, which meant that no German forces were allowed there after the Allied forces had withdrawn. Furthermore, quite unbearably from the German perspective, the treaty entitled the Allies to reoccupy the Rhineland at their will if the Allies unilaterally found the German side responsible for any violation of the treaty.

In 1932Wetzlar(Landkreis Wetzlar), formerly an exclave of the Rhine Province situated betweenHesse-Nassauand thePeople's State of Hesse,was transferred to Hesse-Nassau.

Nazi period

German federal election, March 1933: 33 of 35 parliamentary districts won by the Nazi Party, 2 (Cologne-Aachen, Koblenz-Trier) by the Centre Party

In the last freeGerman federal election in March 1933,two of the four parliamentary districts of the Rhine Province (Cologne-Aachen and Koblenz-Trier) were the only districts in Germany in which theNazi Partydid not win the plurality of votes.

In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the spirit of theLocarno Pact,Nazi Germanyremilitarized the Rhinelandon Saturday, March 7, 1936. The occupation was done with very little military force, the troops entered on tractors and no effort was made to stop it during the Westernappeasement of Hitler) even though the French had an overwhelming force nearby. France did not act because of its political instability, and since the remilitarization occurred during a weekend, the British government could not find out or discuss actions to be taken until the following Monday.As a result, the governments were inclined to see the remilitarization as afait accompli.

Adolf Hitlertook a risk when he sent his troops to the Rhineland. He told them to "turn back and not to resist" if they were stopped by the French Army. The French, however, did not try to stop them because they were about to holdlegislative elections,PresidentAlbert Lebrundid not want to start an unpopular war against Germany and French intelligence greatly overestimated the number of German troops.

The British government did not oppose the remilitarization in principle, andLord Lothianfamously stated that "the Germans are after all only going into their own back garden".However, the British government rejected the Nazi manner of accomplishing the act, which they had been willing to concede by negotiations with Germany.Winston Churchilladvocated military action by co-operation by the British and the French but did not demand war over the issue.

The remilitarization of the Rhineland was supported by most of the local population because of a resurgence ofGerman nationalismand the bitterness that had been harboured over the Allied occupation of the Rhineland until 1930 andSaarlanduntil 1935.

A side effect of the French occupations was the offspring of French soldiers and German women. Those children, who were seen as the continuing French pollution of German culture, were shunned by the broader German society and were known asRhineland Bastards.Children fathered by French colonial or American troops of African ancestry were especially despised and became targets ofNazi sterilisation programmesin the 1930s. The American poetCharles Bukowskiwas born in 1920 inAndernachas the son of a German mother and an American soldier, who served in the occupation troops.

1944–1945 military campaigns

Two different military campaigns were fought in the Rhineland. The first operation of the campaign was the AlliedOperation Market Gardenthat sought to allow theSecond British Armyto advance past the northern flank of theSiegfried Lineand enter theRuhrindustrial area. After the failure of that operation for five months, from September 1944 until February 1945, theFirst United States Armyfought a costly battle to capture theHürtgen Forest.The heavily forested and ravined terrain of the Hürtgen negated Allied combined arms advantages (close air support, armor, artillery) and favoured German defenders. The U.S. Army lost 24,000 troops. The military necessity of their sacrifice has been debated by military historians.

In early 1945, after a long winter stalemate, military operations by most Allied armies in Northwest Europe resumed with the goal of reaching the Rhine. From their winter positions in The Netherlands, theFirst Canadian Armyunder GeneralHenry Crerarreinforced by elements of theBritish Second Armyunder GeneralMiles Dempsey,drove through the Rhineland beginning in the first week of February 1945. OperationVeritablelasted several weeks, resulting in the clearance of all German forces from the west side of the Rhine river. The supporting operation by the US Ninth Army, OperationGrenade,was planned to coincide from theRiver Roer,in the south. This was delayed for two weeks, however, by German flooding of the Roer valley.

On March 7, 1945, a company of armoured infantry of theU.S. 9th Armored Divisioncaptured the last intact bridge over the Rhine atRemagen.GeneralGeorge Patton's Third US Army also made a crossing of the river the day before the much anticipated Rhine crossings by the 21st Army Group (First Canadian Armyand theBritish Second Army) under Field MarshalMontgomeryin the third week of March 1945. OperationVarsitywas a massive airborne operation in conjunction with OperationPlunder,the amphibious crossings. By early April, the Rhine had been crossed by all the Allied armies operating west of the river, and the battles for the Rhineland were over.

In the official histories of the British and Canadian armies, the term Rhineland refers only to fighting west of the river in February and March 1945, with subsequent operations on the river and to the east known as "Rhine Crossing". Both terms are official Battle Honours in the Commonwealth forces.

End of the province

Following the unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945, the Rhineland was split between theFrenchandBritish Occupation Zones.

The Rhineland and the other Prussian provinces were abolished in 1946 and theAbolition of Prussiain 1947 formally endedPrussia's existence as a state. The territory of the former province was incorporated into three different states of the newFederal Republic of Germany.The northern part of the province, under British administration, was merged with the former province of Westphalia to formNorth Rhine-Westphalia.Most of the southern portion, which was under French administration, was merged with thePalatinate(previously an exclave ofBavaria) and various other territories to formRhineland-Palatinate.The French organised theSaarlandas a separateprotectorateon 16 February 1946 and it eventually joined the Federal Republic as a separate state in 1957.

Within North Rhine-Westphalia, theLandschaftsverband Rheinland(LVR), which was established in 1953 as regional council, still holds considerable administrative power and can be regarded as a direct successor of the Rhine Province administration. There is no equivalent successor in Rhineland-Palatinate or Saarland.

References

• Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Rhine Province".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 242–243.

Further reading

• Brophy, James M.Popular Culture and the Public Sphere in the Rhineland, 1800–1850(2010)excerpt and text search
• Collar, Peter.The Propaganda War in the Rhineland: Weimar Germany, Race and Occupation after World War I(2013)excerpt and text search
• Diefendorf, Jeffry M.Businessmen and Politics in the Rhineland, 1789–1834(1980)
• Emmerson, J.T.Rhineland Crisis, 7 March 1936(1977)
• Ford, Ken; Brian, Tony (2000).The Rhineland 1945: The Last Killing Ground in the West.Oxford: Osprey.ISBN1-85532-999-9.
• Marsden, Walter (1973).The Rhineland.New York: Hastings House.ISBN0-8038-6324-1.
• Rowe, Michael,From Reich to State: The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, 1780–1830(2007)excerpt and text search
• Sperber, Jonathan.Rhineland Radicals: The Democratic Movement and the Revolution of 1848–1849(1992)

External links

• "Rhine, Province of the".The American Cyclopædia.1879.
• Muirhead, James Fullarton(1886)."Prussia, Rhenish".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. XX (9th ed.).