Rhineland

Province of Prussia from 1815. Its unchallenged annexation by Nazi Germany in 1936 was a harbinger of World War II.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), following World War I, the Rhineland was to be occupied by Allied forces for 15 years, with a permanent demilitarized zone. Demilitarization was reaffirmed by the Treaties of Locarno, but German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann achieved the removal of the British forces in 1926 and French forces in 1930. Both treaties were violated when Adolf Hitler's troops marched into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland in 1936. Britain and France merely protested, and it remained under German occupation. It was the scene of heavy fighting in 1944, and was recaptured by US troops in 1945, becoming one of the largest states of West Germany after the end of the war.

See also Germany: history 1919-49; the Saarland, rearmament, and the Rhineland.