Rhenish Republic
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The Rhenish Republic (Rheinische Republik), as proclaimed at Aachen / Aix-la-Chapelle, in October 1923, comprised three territories, named North, South and Ruhr, with regional capitals respectively in Aachen / Aix-la-Chapelle, Koblenz and Essen. 'Rhenish Republic' is best understood as the aspiration of a poorly focused liberation struggle, rather than as a 'conventional' republic. The moniker was one applied by the short-lived separatist movement that erupted in the German Rhineland during the politically turbulent years following Germany's defeat in the First World War. The objectives of the many different separatist groups ranged widely, from the foundation of an autonomous Rhenish Republic to some sort of a change of the status of the Rhineland within the Germany State. Others advocated full integration of the Rhineland into France. Similar political currents were stirring to the south: June 1919 had seen the proclamation by Eberhard Haaß of the 'Pfälzische Republik', centred on Speyer in the occupied territory of the Bavarian Upper Rhineland.
Rhenish separatism in the 1920s should be seen in the context of resentments fostered by economic hardship and the military occupation to which the previously prosperous region was subjected. After 1919, blame for the disaster of the World War defeat was variously apportioned to the military, or more simply the French: France, like Germany, had been profoundly traumatised between 1914 and 1918, and conduct of her occupation of the left bank of the Rhine was perceived as unsympathetic, even among her western wartime allies. Increasingly, however, blame was directed against the German government itself, in far off Berlin. By 1923, when the German currency collapsed, it is apparent that the French occupation forces headquartered at Mainz, under the command of Generals Mangin and Fayolle, were having some success in their encouragement of anti-Berlin separatism in the occupied zones.
After 1924, economic hardship began slowly to diminish, and a measure of brittle stability returned to Germany under the Weimar State: the appeal of Rhenish separatism, never a mass movement, faded as continuing French occupation increasingly served to highlight the attractions of some more robust German state. The brief French military occupation of the Ruhr region initiated January 1923 to enforce reparations payments, attracted increasingly strident criticism from Great Britain and The United States: the French vacated the Ruhr region in the summer of 1925, following the agreement in September 1924, under the Dawes Plan, of a slightly less punitive reparations régime. The end of the Rhenish Republic can be dated at December 1924, when its leading instigator, Hans Adam Dorten 1880 - 1963, was obliged to flee to Nice. By 1930, when French troops also vacated the left bank of the Rhine, the concept of a Rhenish Republic independent of Berlin no longer featured on the popular agenda.
For later generations of English speakers, the Rhenish Republic is remembered (if at all) largely because of the active support Rhenish separatism received in the 1920s from the mayor of Cologne, an unapologetic Rhenish partisan, who as an old man would campaign successfully for the installation of a provisional(West) German government at Bonn in 1949.
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[edit] Historical Context
The Cisrhenian Republic 1797 - 1802 and subsequent incorporation of the region into the French Empire lasted for less than a generation, but introduced to the occupied Rhineland many of the (at the time revolutionary and widely welcomed) features of the modern state. One objective of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was to undo Napoléon's territorial changes; so the Rhineland and Westfalia reverted to the king of Prussia, while the Upper Rhine region became a western province of Bavaria. However, throughout the nineteenth century Prussia's western territories adhered to the Napoleonic legal system, and in many other detailed respects the relationships involving citizens and the state had been permanently transformed under Buonaparte. In addition, mutual intolerance of religious differences, stretching back centuries, endured between protestant Prussia and the predominantly Roman Catholic populations of the Rhineland. The reincorporation of most of the Rhineland into Prussia did not run smoothly, and was in some important respects incomplete more than a century later: many Rhinelanders continued to regard rule by Prussia (and after 1871 by Prussia's curiously conservative successor state), as a form of foreign occupation.
[edit] Chronology
[edit] Dr. Adenauer Calls a Meeting
On 1st February 1919 more than sixty of the Rhineland's civic leaders together with locally based Prussian National Assembly Members convened in Cologne at the invitation of the city's mayor, Konrad Adenauer of the Catholic Center Party. There was only one item on the agenda: "The Creation of the Rhenish Republic" ("Die Gründung der Rheinischen Republik").
In addressing delegates, Adenauer identified the wreckage of Prussian hegemonistic power as the inevitable consequence ("notwendige Folge") of the Prussian system. Prussia was viewed by opponents as "Europe's evil spirit" and was "ruled over by an unscrupulous caste of war-fixated militaristic aristocrats" ("von einer kriegslüsternen, gewissenlosen militärischen Kaste und dem Junkertum beherrscht"). The other German states should, therefore, no longer put up with Prussian supremacy. Prussia must be divided up, and her western provinces separated out to form a West German Republic. This should render impossible future domination of Germany by Prussia's eastern militaristic ethos. Adenauer was, however, keen that his West German Republic should remain inside the German Political Union.
Agreement on blaming Berlin was the easy part: the complexity of the practical issues to be addressed in defining a federalist agenda for an economically destitute territory that politically, linguistically and legally was part of Germany, but most of which was occupied militarily by France, must have been daunting. In the end, the Cologne meeting produced a two point resolution. The meeting asserted as valid the right of the Rhineland peoples to political self determination. The proclamation of a West German Republic was to be deferred, however, so that the Prussian state might be divided up. In this way a practical solution could first be agreed with the occupying power and her allies regarding the reparations issue.
During the months following Adenauer’s Meeting, separatist movements with a range of priorities and agendas appeared in many Rhineland towns and villages.
[edit] Hans Adam Dorten and the Wiesbaden Proclamation
Hans Adam Dorten 1880 - 1963 was an army reserve officer and the owner of a racing-stud. Born in Endenich and by training a lawyer, he was also a former Düsseldorf public prosecutor.
In a speech at Wiesbaden, on 1st June 1919, Dorten proclaimed 'The Independent Rhenish Republic', which was to incorporate the existing Rhineland Province along with parts of Hessen and Bavaria's Upper Rhineland. A Non-violent putsch was also attempted across the river in Mainz. This, along with other poorly coordinated localised actions inspired by Dorten’s Wiesbaden Proclamation, failed to attract significant popular support and soon failed. The Supreme Court in Leipzig issued an arrest warrant against Dorten, citing High Treason, but by remaining in the French occupied territories the indicted party was protected from arrest: the warrant against Dorten was never executed.
At liberty, Dorten continued his struggle: on 22nd January 1922 he founded in Boppard a political party, the ‘Rhenish Peoples’ Union’ (‘Rheinische Volksvereinigung’) , chaired by Bertram Kastert (1868 – 1935), a senior Cologne pastor. Thanks to the outstanding treason indictment, Dorten and his circle found themselves shunned by members of the mainstream political parties. The Rhenish Peoples’ Union stayed in the shadows, its weekly publication, ‘German Standpoint’ (‘Deutsche Warte’) and its leader’s other campaigning activities depending on French sponsorship.
[edit] The Occupation of the Ruhr
During 1923 Germany was shaken by adverse international developments and by a dramatic further deterioration in the economic climate: the year was one of crises.
The German government fell into arrears with war reparations payments. In response, on 8 March 1921 French and Belgian troops moved in to occupy Duisburg and Düsseldorf. On 9 January 1923 the Reparations Commission determined that Germany had wilfully held back from making payments due, and two days later troops occupied the rest of the Ruhr Area: thus the Rhineland's richest industrial region now bore, on behalf of Germany, the principal burden of the reparations imposed at Versailles. In the fighting that followed more than a hundred people lost their lives. More than 70,000 were turned out in order to make space for French and Belgian workers. Mostly young men, those suddenly evicted and deprived of their livelihoods frequently found themselves homeless and some ended up joining one or other of the various active Rhenish separatist groups. Respectable Rhinelanders, appalled at their unkempt appearance, were inclined to dismiss the dispossessed as work-shy thieving riff-raff ("arbeitsscheues Diebsgesindel").
Currency stability that had underpinned several decades of sustained economic growth in much of Europe well into the second decade of the twentieth century was a casualty of the First World War. The statesmen who devised the Versailles settlement were not economists. Their aspirations did not extend to creating the balanced economic environment needed to support future growth: even at the time their approach to the economic aspects of the Versailles Peace settlement drew strident criticism from one eminent and closely informed commentator. In 1923 the antebellum price stability remained a distant memory for Europeans, but the occupation of the Ruhr coincided with, and in the view of many commentators triggered, a tipping point for the German currency. Prices escalated: the usefulness of money collapsed and hyperinflation took hold. Commerce virtually ceased. Writing in the journal Die Weltbühne (The World Stage), from the perspective of August 1929, the distinguished political commentator Kurt Tucholsky offered an assessment: “There was no appetite in the Rhineland for union with France, but little enthusiasm for continued union with Prussia. All that people wanted, and were entitled to, was an end to the hellish nightmare of hyperinflation and the creation of an autonomous republic with its own currency."
[edit] Separatism across the Rhineland
Koblenz had been the administrative capital of the Prussian Rhine Province since 1822. Amidst the tumoil of economic collapse, it was here that on 15th August 1923, the ‘United Rhenish Movement’ (die „Vereinigte Rheinische Bewegung“) was formed from a merging of several existing separatist groups. Leaders included Hans Adam Dorten (1880 – 1963) of the ‘Rhenish Peoples’ Union’ (die „Rheinische Volksvereinigung“) and a journalist named Josef Friedrich Matthes (1886–1943) of the ‘Rhenish Independence League’ (der „Rheinischen Unabhängigkeitsbund“) which had been founded by Josef Smeets from Cologne. Another leading figure present was Leo Deckers from Aachen/Aix la Chapelle. The unambiguous goal of the ‘United Rhenish Movement’ was the complete separation of the Rhineland from Prussia, and the establishment of a Rhenish Republic under French protection. The creation of The Republic was to be publicly proclaimed: meetings would be convened across the Rhineland. Endorsement from the French, with their military headquarters upriver in Mainz, was taken for granted: it is not clear what thought was given to the possibility that commanders of France's junior partner in the occupation might take a less benign view of separatist activities just across the border from Belgium's Eupen enclave, west of Aachen, only recently incorporated into Belgium under the terms of the Versailles settlement.
Two months later, ten kilometres to the east of Aachen, the tricolour flag of the Rhenish Republic appeared outside a house in a the small town of Eschweiler. Inside, the movement set up a communications center on 19th October 1923. A week after that, the separatists attempted a putsch against the townhall. Surrender of the townhall was refused however: a truce briefly ensued. The next day, the government urged resistance and eventually, on 2nd November 1923, Belgian occupation troops expelled the separatists from Eschweiler.
Meanwhile in Aachen itself, separatists led by Leo Deckers and Dr.Guthardt captured the city hall, where in the Imperial Chamber they proclaimed the ‘Free and Independent Rhenish Republic’ on 21st October 1923. The next day the separatists came up against counter demonstrators who surrounded and wrecked their Sekretariat in Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz, near the theatre. 23rd October opened with shooting in the streets: meanwhile the city fire brigade reclaimed the city hall, forcing the separatists to retreat to government buildings. That day Belgian troops imposed a state of emergency.
On 25th October the local police were placed under the command of the Belgian occupation forces after attempting to storm the separatists out of the government buildings, only find themselves thwarted by occupation troops. Across town, changes at the Technical High School included the exclusion from Aachen of non-resident students.
On 2nd November, the city hall was retaken by the separatists, now reinforced by around 1000 members of the “Rhineland protection force” (der „Rheinland-Schutztruppen“). Belgian High Commissar, Baron Rolin-Jaquemyns, responded by ordering an immediate end to the separatist government and called the troops off the streets. The City Council convened in the evening and swore loyalty to the German State („Treuebekenntnis zum Deutschen Reich“).
Parallel coup attempts in many Rhenish towns blew up, most of them following much the same pattern. Local government representatives and officials were expelled from civic buildings which were taken over. The Rhenish Tricolour flag was raised over the occupied city halls. Notices were posted and leaflets distributed informing citizens of the change of régime. However, civic putsches did not prevail everywhere: In Jülich, Mönchengladbach, Bonn and Erkelenz, separatist attempts to take over public buildings were immediately thwarted, sometimes violently: other districts remained entirely untouched by separatist agitation.
To the north, in Duisburg, separarists inaugurated on 22nd October 1923 a mini-state that would endure for five weeks. Local members of ‘Rhenish Independence League’ took to the streets, proclaiming, disingenuously, that their new republic had come into being without any input from the French: attempts to suppress the Duisburg republic more rapidly were nonetheless blocked by the French occupation forces.
Back in the regional capital, Separatists had tried to seize power on 21st October 1923. The next day saw hand to hand fighting involving the local police. During the night of 23rd October, Koblenz Castle, which had been out of the limelight since 1914 when the Kaiser had briefly established his wartime headquarters there, was captured by Separatists with French military support. The occupiers were temporarily evicted by local police the following day, only to renew their occuption that night.
On 26th October the French High Commissioner, Paul Tirard, confirmed that the separatists were in possession of effective power (als „Inhaber der tatsächlichen Macht“). Subject to the self-evident superior authority of the occupiers, he stated that they needed to introduce all the necessary measures („alle notwendigen Maßnahmen“ einleiten). Separatist leaders Hans Adam Dorten and Josef Friedrich Matthes interpreted Tirard’s intervention as an effective carte blanche from the occupation forces. A cabinet was formed and Matthes, as its chairman, designated “Prime Minister of the Rhenish Republic” („Ministerpräsident der rheinischen Republik“).
The new government’s power was heavily dependent on finance and support from the French occupation force, as well as on the separatists' own “Rhineland protection force” which was primarily recruited from men expelled from their homes by the French militarisation of the Ruhr region. The 'protection force' was poorly equipped: many members were too young to have received any military training. Their implementation of the new government’s orders, in the absence of detailed instructions, was rough and ready at best, and sometimes violent. A night-time curfew was imposed and press freedom was greatly curbed. The separatist government received virtually no support from Rhineland government staff who mostly refused to acknowledge its authority or simply stayed away from their desks. In view of its French military backing, the wider population offered Dorten’s régime little meaningful support.
From his occupation headquarters in Mainz, General Mangin, born 1866 in Sarrebourg (which had become a German town less than five years after his birth), would no doubt have had a far more richly calibrated appreciation of the possibilities presented by Rhenish separatism than the ministers in far away Paris: it is possible to infer, between the approach of the French commanders on the ground and priorities of the Poincaré government, a disparity which became impossible to overlook once Dorten launched his coup in Koblenz: at the same time Paris was coming under heavy political pressure internationally over the increasingly costly French occupation of the Ruhr. In Koblenz, cabinet meetings were often combative and confused, the leaders Dorten and Matthes proving unable to contain their personal rivalries. The French power brokers now quickly distanced themselves from the Rhenish Republic project, drastically cutting back on their financial support. The Matthes government issued Rhenish bank notes and ordered an extensive ‘Requisitioning’ exercise: this was the signal for the “Rhineland protection force” to embark upon a level of arbitrary widespread looting which greatly exceeded anything necessary simply for feeding the hungry ‘protection troops’. In many towns and villages the situation slid towards chaos. The civil population became increasingly hostile, and the French military found themselves attempting, with increasing difficulty, to preserve some level of order.
Between 6th and 8th November a force of “Rhineland protection force” members, calling themselves the Northern Flying Division („Fliegende Division Nord“), launched an attack on Maria Laach and the surrounding farmsteads. Nearby in Brohl where two residents, Anton Brühl and Hans Feinlinger, had set up a local force to oppose the attackers, a death squad turned up and engaged in am orgy of plunder reminiscent, according to one commentator, of the Thirty Years’ War. A father and son, belonging to the villagers' resistance force, were shot.
10th November saw an outburst of looting at Linz am Rhein: the townhall was taken over and the local mayor was forced from office. From here the looters moved on to Unkel, Bruchhausen und Rheinbreitbach on the southern rim of the Siebengebirge district. All sorts of items of evident value were ‘requisitioned’ in addition to food and vehicles.
On 12th November the separatists gathered together close by in Bad Honnef, there intending to establish a new headquarters. The town hall was taken over, and two days later the Rhenish Republic proclaimed. Food and alcoholic drink were seized in numerous hotels and residences, and a large celebration took place in the Kurhaus (Health and Recreation Spa center), during which the the Kurhaus furnishings went up in flames.
[edit] References
- This article is based on the excellent German Wikipedia article on The Rhenish Republic.
