Saarland

Administrative region (German Land) in southwest Germany, bordered by Rhineland-Palatinate and the French département of Moselle; area 2,570 sq km/992 sq mi; population (2003 est) 1,066,600. Formerly called the Saar or the Saar Territory, the region is highly industrialized, with a large iron and steel industry based on vast coal fields. The capital is Saarbrücken, and other major towns include Neunkirchen, Völklingen, and Saarlouis. The region is one-third forest, and crossed northwest-south by the River Saar.

Economy

Early status Saarland was administered by France under League of Nations supervision after World War I, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935 the population decided by plebiscite to return to Germany, and in that year the territory reverted to the Reich. It was given the name Saarbrücken by Hitler. At the end of World War II, the area became a Land in the French zone of occupation.

Autonomy Early in 1947 the French detached an area containing over 200,000 inhabitants from Saarland proper. In October 1947 a new Landtag (legislature) was elected. The parties urging economic union with France gained a large majority, and in November 1947 a new constitution, which made Saarland an autonomous state, politically separated from Germany but having economic union with France, was ratified with only one dissentient. After British and US agreement in principle the French National Assembly ratified this in February 1948. In March 1950 France, subject to allied approval, granted Saarland virtually complete self-government in return for its coal output for 50 years.

Reintegration An agreement on its future status was signed by France and the German Federal Republic on 23 October 1954; it was rejected in a referendum in October 1955. In October of the following year France and the German Federal Republic signed an agreement in Luxembourg in accordance with which Saarland returned to Germany (the Federal Republic) on 1 January 1957, and its economic reintegration with Germany was completed on 31 December 1959.