Rhineland
On the 7th of March 1936, German troops marched into the Rhineland, breaking a ban on military presence there set by the Treaty of Versailles. France and the United Kingdom had the means to push back the German units, which were not yet especially strong, but neither country acted. That inaction gave Hitler the confidence to accelerate German rearmament, a decision that helped set the course toward war in 1939.
The region Hitler tested that day had never had one fixed shape. Its borders and even its name had shifted for centuries, moving between Roman colonies, Frankish dukes, French annexation, and Prussian provinces. Where does the Rhineland actually begin and end? Why did it become one of Germany's great industrial regions? And how did control over this strip of land along the Rhine keep changing hands?
Ripuarian and Salian Franks settled the banks of the Rhine in the early medieval period, and the territory they occupied became part of Frankish Austrasia. During the High Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States emerged from the old stem duchy of Lotharingia. They never developed a shared political or cultural identity.
A clearer sense of the term took shape between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The Holy Roman Empire had grouped its territories into regional districts called Imperial Circles. Three of the ten circles through which the Rhine flowed carried the river's name. They were the Upper Rhenish Circle, the Electoral Rhenish Circle, and the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle. The last of these roughly matches today's North Rhine-Westphalia.
After the War of the First Coalition, a short-lived Cisrhenian Republic existed from 1797 to 1802. It covered French-annexed territory west of the Rhine, plus a small portion of bridgeheads on the eastern bank. Once the French empire fell, the regions of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and Lower Rhine were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the Rhine Province, also known as Rhenish Prussia.
That name lives on in the modern German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. In the early 1800s, Rhinelanders crossed the Atlantic and settled the Missouri Rhineland, a German wine-producing region in the U.S. state of Missouri, naming it for soil and terrain that reminded them of home. By 1860, nearly half of all settlers in Missouri Rhineland had come from Koblenz, the capital of the Rhine Province.
West of the Rhineland lie its borders with Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the closest thing the region has to a fixed edge. To the east, it takes in the towns along the river and the Bergisches Land, reaching toward the Westphalian Siegerland and the Hessian uplands. In the south, aside from the Saarland, it stretches to the North Palatine Uplands, matching roughly how the term is used today.
Hill country dominates the south and east: the Westerwald, the Hunsrück, the Siebengebirge, the Taunus, and the Eifel, all cut by river valleys. The Middle Rhine runs through this terrain up to Bingen, fed by the Ahr, the Moselle, and the Nahe. Further north, the lower Ruhr marks the edge of the North German plain, while in the south the river carves through the Rhenish Massif.
The western part of the Ruhr industrial region and the Cologne Lowland fall within the Rhineland. That concentration of factories makes it the main industrial heartland of Germany. Cities across the region include Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Koblenz, Krefeld, and Leverkusen. Others include Mainz, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Oberhausen, Remscheid, Solingen, Trier, and Wuppertal.
Toponyms and family names across the Rhineland often trace back to this Frankish heritage. On the western shore, Roman influence still shows strongly, including in the local tradition of viticulture, and in the core territories much of the population belongs to the Catholic Church. That Catholic identity, rooted in Roman-era settlement along the west bank, would keep shaping the Rhineland's relationship with whichever power governed it next.
Between the Ardennes and the Rhine, the earliest recorded inhabitants were Celtic tribes, the Treveri and the Eburones. Both had been shaped by contact with their Germanic neighbors. On the river's east bank, between the Main and the Lahn, lived the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti. Farther north settled the Usipetes and the Tencteri.
Julius Caesar conquered the Celtic tribes on the Rhine's west bank, and Augustus later built a line of fortified posts along the river. Even so, Rome never secured a firm hold on the east bank. As Roman power declined, the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine. By the end of the 5th century, they had conquered all the territory once under Roman influence. By the 8th century, Frankish rule stood firmly established across western Germania and northern Gaul.
The Treaty of Verdun then split the Carolingian Empire along the Rhine. The eastern part of the province fell to East Francia, while the western part remained with the kingdom of Lotharingia. That division left Lotharingia short-lived, and within a century its lands would be pulled into a far larger empire based further east.
By the death of Emperor Otto I in 973, both banks of the Rhine belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. In 959, the Rhenish territory had already been split between the duchy of Upper Lorraine, on the Mosel, and Lower Lorraine, on the Meuse. As central imperial power weakened, the region broke apart into numerous small independent principalities, each following its own separate history. The old Lotharingian divisions became obsolete. The Lower Lorraine lands came to be known as the Low Countries. The name Lorraine itself narrowed to the upper Moselle region that still carries it today.
After the Imperial Reform of 1500 and 1512, the territory sat within the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian, Upper Rhenish, and Electoral Rhenish Circles. Notable Rhenish Imperial States included the ecclesiastical electorates of Cologne and Trier. They also included the duchies of Jülich, Cleves, and Berg, united from 1521 as the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. The County of Sponheim, several other Imperial Counties, and the Free Imperial Cities of Aachen and Cologne rounded out the list.
Aachen served as the site where German emperors were crowned, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine played a large role in German history. Despite its political fragmentation, the Rhenish territory prospered and stood among the foremost ranks of German culture and progress. That held true even through repeated warfare at the hands of its French neighbors. Those French incursions were only a preview. By the century's end, France would not just raid the Rhineland's principalities but annex and remake them outright.
At the Peace of Basel in 1795, France took control of the entire left bank of the Rhine, home to about 1.6 million people spread across numerous small states. In 1806, the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine, a political creation controlled by Napoleon.
France held direct control of the Rhineland until 1814, using that time to liberalize its government, society, and economy in lasting ways. Coalition forces made repeated attempts to retake the region, and France repelled every one of them. French administrators swept away centuries of outmoded restrictions built up under the old patchwork of petty principalities. In their place came a rational, centralized system run from Paris by Napoleon's own relatives. The most significant changes were the abolition of feudal privileges and historic taxes. Legal reforms under the Napoleonic Code followed, along with a reorganized judicial and local administrative system.
Jews were freed from the ghetto under the new order. That was part of a wider economic integration with France, which brought new prosperity to the Rhineland, especially in industrial production. Lowered trade barriers let business move faster too. Resistance to French rule stayed limited. Most Germans, especially urban elites, welcomed the new regime. The one real point of friction was French officials' hostility toward the Roman Catholic Church, the faith of most residents.
These reforms proved lasting: the Napoleonic Code stayed in effect for a century afterward. Decades later, Rhineland workers and peasants often invoked Jacobinism to oppose unpopular government programs. Meanwhile, the region's intelligentsia pushed to keep the Code in place. Within a matter of years, though, a new power would sit astride the left bank instead of Paris.
Prussian influence in the Rhineland began in 1609, on a small scale, with the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves. A century later, Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian territory.
The Congress of Vienna expelled the French and handed the whole of the lower Rhenish districts to Prussia. Prussian administrators let residents keep the liberal institutions they had grown used to under French rule. The Rhine Province then stayed part of Prussia, even after German unification in 1871.
Occupation returned to the Rhineland after the Armistice with Germany on the 11th of November 1918, this time carried out by American, Belgian, British, and French forces. Under the Treaty of Versailles, German troops were barred from all territory west of the Rhine and from within 50 kilometers east of it.
In 1920, under heavy French pressure, the Saar was separated from the Rhine Province and placed under League of Nations administration until a 1935 plebiscite returned it to Germany. That same year, the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium.
In January 1923, after Germany failed to meet its reparations payments, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr district and tightly controlled its industrial areas. Germans responded with passive resistance, which triggered hyperinflation and left France with very little of the reparations it wanted. French troops finally left the Ruhr in August 1925.
The occupation of the remaining Rhineland ended on the 30th of June 1930. Toward the end of the Second World War, the region again became a battleground: in 1945, Allied forces overwhelmed its German defenders. By the time the guns fell silent, the question of who would govern the Rhineland next was, once again, wide open.
In 1946, occupying authorities divided the Rhineland into three newly founded states: Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate. North Rhine-Westphalia became one of the leading German industrial areas. It held significant deposits of coal, lead, lignite, magnesium, oil, and uranium, along with strong water transport links.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, agriculture carries more weight, especially the vineyards of the Ahr, the Mittelrhein, and the Mosel. Those vineyards are still worked today, one more chapter in a landscape that has never stopped changing hands.
Common questions
What is the Rhineland?
The Rhineland is a loosely defined area of western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section, and it sometimes extends into parts of Belgium. It has historic ties to the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, and the German Empire.
When did Germany remilitarize the Rhineland?
Germany remilitarized the Rhineland on the 7th of March 1936, sending troops into territory the Treaty of Versailles had ordered kept free of German forces. France and the UK took no action to stop it, and the episode helped push Hitler toward the rearmament that led to war in 1939.
Where is the Rhineland located?
The Rhineland lies along the Rhine in western Germany, stretching west to the borders with Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. To the east it reaches the Bergisches Land and the edges of the Westphalian and Hessian regions, and to the south it extends to the North Palatine Uplands.
How did France come to control the Rhineland in the 1790s?
At the Peace of Basel in 1795, France took the whole of the Rhine's left bank, home to about 1.6 million people across numerous small states. In 1806, the Rhenish princes joined the Confederation of the Rhine, a political creation controlled by Napoleon.
Which German states make up the Rhineland today?
In 1946 the Rhineland was divided among the newly founded states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate. North Rhine-Westphalia became a major German industrial area with deposits of coal, lead, lignite, magnesium, oil, and uranium, while Rhineland-Palatinate is known more for agriculture, including vineyards along the Ahr, the Mittelrhein, and the Mosel.
Who lived in the Rhineland before the Romans arrived?
Before Roman rule, the territory between the Ardennes and the Rhine was occupied by Celtic tribes, including the Treveri and the Eburones, both shaped by their Germanic neighbors. On the Rhine's east bank, the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti, settled between the Main and Lahn rivers, while the Usipetes and Tencteri lived farther north.
All sources
11 references cited across the entry
- 1BookGermany: A regional and economic geographyRobert E. Dickinson — Methuen — 1964
- 2BookImmigrant Women in the Settlement of MissouriRobyn Burnett — University of Missouri Press — 2005
- 3BookThe Westfalians: From Germany to MissouriWalter D. Kamphoefner — Princeton University Press — 2014
- 4BookThe RhinelandWalter Marsden — Hastings House — 1973
- 5BookThe French Revolution in Germany: Occupation and Resistance in the Rhineland 1792-1802T. C. W. Blanning — 15 December 1983
- 7James Fullarton Muirhead
- 8Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr10 April 1933