44-726: Saarpfalz ( Saar-Palatinate ) is a Kreis (district) in the south-east of the Saarland , Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Saarbrücken , Neunkirchen , Kusel , Kaiserslautern , Südwestpfalz , district-free Zweibrücken , and the French département Moselle . After the Treaty of Versailles , the Saar basin was placed under the administration of the League of Nations for 15 years. The Palatinate area, then part of Bavaria ,
88-683: A League of Nations mandate . Saarland was returned to Nazi Germany in the 1935 Saar status referendum . Following World War II in Europe , the territory was occupied by France then became the Saar Protectorate on 17 December 1947. After the 1955 Saar Statute referendum , it joined the Federal Republic of Germany as a state on 1 January 1957. Saarland used its own currency, the Saar franc , and postage stamps issued specially for
132-609: A city agglomeration on the French border, surrounding the capital of Saarbrücken. See also List of places in Saarland . Saarland is divided into six districts ( German : Landkreise ): The following table shows the ten largest cities of Saarland: Saarland is the most religious state in Germany. The adherents of the Catholic Church comprise 56.8% of the population, organised in the two dioceses of Trier (comprising
176-547: A trio of men enjoying a beer, flanked by baby carriages, the slogan reading "Mutter schafft" (meaning "Mum's at work" in Saarlandish, but plays on the High German word Mutterschaft 'motherhood'); another depicts a trio of men at a bar, with one realizing his beer has been drunk by one of the others, the slogan reading "Kenner war's" (meaning "It was no one" [ Keiner war es ] in Saarlandish, but playing on
220-418: Is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of 2,570 km (990 sq mi) and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin , Bremen , and Hamburg , and the smallest in population apart from Bremen. Saarbrücken is the state capital and largest city; other cities include Neunkirchen and Saarlouis . Saarland
264-538: Is able to speak French, and it is compulsory at many schools. Saarbrücken is also home to a bilingual "Deutsch-Französisches Gymnasium " (German-French high school). In January 2014 the Saarland state government announced its aim of making the region fully bilingual in German and French by 2043. The Saar competed in the qualifying section of the 1954 FIFA World Cup , but failed after coming second to West Germany but ahead of Norway . It also competed as Saar in
308-521: Is by far the smallest of the Flächenländer ("area-states"). It is less than one sixth the size of Schleswig-Holstein , the next smallest German state. One third of the land area of the Saarland is covered by forest, one of the highest percentages in Germany. The state is generally hilly; the highest mountain is the Dollberg with a height of 695.4 m (2,281 ft). Most inhabitants live in
352-684: Is home to the Saarland University and the administrative headquarters of the Franco-German University . People in the Saarland speak Rhine Franconian (in the southeast, very similar to that dialect spoken in the western part of the Palatinate) and Moselle Franconian (in the northwest, very similar to that dialect spoken along the river Moselle and the cities of Trier or even in Luxembourg). Outside of
396-566: Is mainly surrounded by the department of Moselle ( Grand Est ) in France to the west and south and the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany to the north and east; it also shares a small border about 8 kilometres (5 miles) long with the canton of Remich in Luxembourg to the northwest. Having long been a relatively small part of the long-contested territories along
440-532: Is normally composed with the words dääd (High German täte = "would do") or gänge ("would go") as auxiliary verbs: Isch dääd saan, dass... ("I would say that...") instead of the High German Ich würde sagen, dass... . Declension is rather different: Diphthongs are less common than in Standard German. This is because the Standard German diphthongs ei and au are each
484-574: The 1952 Summer Olympics and the field handball world championships in the beginning of the 1950s. 1955 Saar Statute referendum A referendum on the Saar statute was held in the Saar Protectorate on 23 October 1955. The statute would have made the territory an independent polity under the auspices of a European Commissioner , to be appointed by the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union , while remaining in
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#1732783785369528-646: The European Coal and Steel Community , which led to the termination of the International Authority for the Ruhr (whose purpose was to regulate Ruhr coal and steel production and distribution). However, the Treaty sidestepped the issue of the Saar protectorate: an attached protocol stated Germany and France agreed the Treaty would have no bearing on their views of the status of the Saar. In 1948,
572-617: The Treaty of Versailles . The occupied area included portions of the Prussian Rhine Province and the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate . In practice the region was administered by France. In 1920, this was formalized by a 15-year mandate by the League of Nations . In 1933, a considerable number of communists and other political opponents of Nazism fled to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany that remained outside national administration following
616-441: The post-alveolar fricative as in frisch 'fresh', causing High German minimal pairs such as Kirche 'church' and Kirsche 'cherry' to be pronounced in the same way. French has had a considerable influence on the vocabulary, although the pronunciation of imported French words is usually quite different from their originals. Popular examples include Trottwaa (from trottoir ), Fissääl (from ficelle ), and
660-514: The First World War. As a result, anti-Nazi groups agitated for the Saarland to remain under French administration. However, with most of the population being ethnically German, such views were considered suspect or even treasonous, and therefore found little support. When the original 15-year term was over, a plebiscite was held in the territory on 13 January 1935 in which 90.8 percent of those voting favoured rejoining Germany. Following
704-577: The Franco-German linguistic border, Saarland first gained specific economic and strategic importance in the nineteenth century due to the wealth of its coal deposits and the heavy industrialization that grew as a result. Saarland was first established as a distinct political entity in 1920 after World War I as the Territory of the Saar Basin , which was occupied and governed by France under
748-507: The French government established Saarland University under the auspices of the University of Nancy . It is the principal university in the state, the other being Saarland University of Applied Sciences [ de ] (HTW Saar). The Saarland was headed by a military governor from 30 August 1945: Gilbert Yves Edmond Grandval (1904–1981), who remained, on 1 January 1948, as High Commissioner , and from January 1952 – June 1955 as
792-399: The High German word Kenner 'connoisseur', translating to "It was a connoisseur"); a third shows an empty beer crate in outer space, the text reading "All" (meaning "empty" in Saarlandish, but playing on the same High German word meaning "outer space"). The French language has a special standing in Saarland due to its geographical proximity to France. Today, a part of the population
836-705: The River Saar to seize Saarbrücken. The first shots of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 were fired on the heights of Spichern during the Battle of Spicheren , south of Saarbrücken . The Saar region became part of the German Empire which came into existence on 18 January 1871, during the course of the war. In 1921, the Saargebiet was occupied by Britain and France under the provisions of
880-558: The Saarland in a half-hearted offensive, occupying some villages and meeting little resistance, before withdrawing. After 8 April 1940 Bürckel's title was changed again to Reichskommissar für die Saarpfalz (Reich Commissioner for the Saar Palatinate); finally, after 11 March 1941, Bürckel was made Reichsstatthalter in der Westmark (Reich Governor of the Western Borderland). He died on 28 September 1944 and
924-615: The Saarland, either alone or in coalition , since the accession of the state to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957. After the 2022 state elections the previous Grand Coalition between the CDU and SPD, the two largest parties in the Landtag, was replaced by an SPD majority government, the only single-party majority government of any German state, led by minister-president Anke Rehlinger . The gross domestic product (GDP) of
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#1732783785369968-717: The Saarland, specifically the Rhine-Franconian variant spoken in the state capital Saarbrücken is generally considered to be the Saarland dialect. The two dialect regions are mainly separated by the das / dat isogloss; in the northwestern portion of the state, including cities such as Saarlouis, standard German das is pronounced with a final [t] instead of an [s] . In general, both dialects are an integral part of Saarland identity. Both dialects, particularly in their respective Saarland flavour, share many characteristic features, some of which will be explained below. Women and girls are often referred to using
1012-418: The U.S. position on detaching the Saar from Germany: "The United States does not feel that it can deny to France, which has been invaded three times by Germany in 70 years, its claim to the Saar territory". The Saar and Ruhr areas were historically a central location for coal mining. This attracted the steel industry, which is essential for the production of munitions. The Treaty of Paris (1951) established
1056-640: The city and stronghold of Saarlouis in 1680. It was not the king of France but the armies of the French Revolution who terminated the independence of the states in the region of the Saarland. After 1792 they conquered the region and made it part of the French Republic . While a strip in the west belonged to the Moselle department , the centre in 1798 became part of the Sarre department , and
1100-529: The cross in the top right is the symbol of Trier , both owned a large part of the district in the past. The crosier is the bottom left represents the clerical possessions of the monasteries, while the silver lion in the bottom right is the symbol of the county of Homburg. 49°15′N 7°15′E / 49.25°N 7.25°E / 49.25; 7.25 Saarland Saarland ( German: [ˈzaːʁ̞lant] , Luxembourgish: [ˈzaːlɑnt] ; French : Sarre [saʁ] )
1144-771: The east became part of the Mont-Tonnerre department . After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the region was divided again. Most of it became part of the Prussian Rhine Province . Another part in the east, corresponding to the present Saarpfalz district, was allocated to the Kingdom of Bavaria . A small part in the northeast was ruled by the Duke of Oldenburg . On 31 July 1870, the French Emperor Napoleon III ordered an invasion across
1188-463: The first of two French ambassadors, his successor being Éric de Carbonnel (1910–1965) until 1956. Saarland, however, was allowed a regional administration very early, consecutively headed by: In 1954, France and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) developed a detailed plan called the Saarstatut (Saar Statute) to establish an independent Saarland. It was signed as an agreement between
1232-775: The formerly Prussian part of Saarland) and Speyer (for the smaller eastern formerly Palatine part). 17.5% of the Saarlandic population adhere to the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD), organised in the two Landeskirchen named Evangelical Church in the Rhineland and Evangelical Church of the Palatinate , both following the same former territorial partition. 25.7% are not affiliated with one of these churches. Saarland has
1276-462: The highest concentration of Roman Catholics of any German state, and is the only state in which Catholics form an absolute majority (over 50%). Except for the periods between 1985 and 1999, as well as since 2022 – when the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has held a majority of seats in the Landtag (state diet) – the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has governed
1320-497: The imperative or greeting aalleh! (from allez! ). The English sentence "My house is green" is pronounced almost the same in the Rhine Franconian variant: Mei Haus is grien . The main difference lies in the pronunciation of the ⟨r⟩ sound. Regional beer brewer Karlsberg has taken advantage of the Saarlandish dialect to create clever advertising for its staple product, UrPils. Examples include
1364-535: The local rulers were the counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken . Within the Holy Roman Empire these territories gained a wide range of independence, threatened, however, by the French kings , who sought from the 17th century onwards to incorporate all the territories on the western side of the river Rhine . They invaded the area in 1635, 1676, 1679, and 1734, extending their realm to the river Saar and establishing
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1408-438: The neuter pronoun es , with the pronunciation being something like Ähs : Ähs hat mir's gesaat ( ' it told me so', instead of ' she told me so'; vs. High German: Sie hat es mir gesagt ). This stems from the word Mädchen (girl) being neuter ( es is correct when referring to words like Mädchen but would not be used by itself in reference to a woman). The subjunctive in Rhine Franconian
1452-485: The north and the east. It is named after the river Saar , a tributary of the Moselle (itself a tributary of the Rhine ), which runs through the state from the south to the northwest. Saarland is about the same size as neighboring Luxembourg with Luxembourg being 2,586sq km (998 sq mi) and Saarland at 2,570sq km (990sq mi. Within Germany, it is slightly larger than the combined area of the three city-states , But Saarland
1496-510: The past, coal mining was an important branch of industry. However, the last coal mine in Saarland closed in 2012, ending 250 years of coal mining history in the region. The decision to close the mines was motivated by safety concerns about earthquakes in the region. The unemployment rate stood at 5.8% in October 2018 and was higher than the national average but below the EU28 average. Saarland
1540-546: The referendum Josef Bürckel was appointed on 1 March 1935 as the German Reich 's commissioner for reintegration ( Reichskommissar für die Rückgliederung des Saarlandes ). Once the reincorporation was accomplished, on 17 June 1936 his title was changed to Reichskommissar für das Saarland (Reich Commissioner for the Saarland). In September 1939, in response to the German invasion of Poland , French forces invaded
1584-654: The remains of Roman villas and villages. Roman rule ended in the 5th century, when the Franks conquered the territory. For the next 1,300 years the region shared the history of the Kingdom of the Franks , the Carolingian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire . The region of the Saarland was divided into several small territories, some of which were ruled by sovereigns of adjoining regions. Most important of
1628-428: The result of a merger of two Middle High German vowels – however, these mergers did not take place in the Saarland, and only one of the two merged vowels is pronounced as a diphthong. The front rounded vowels ö , ü , and eu are replaced by e , i , and ei respectively. Both the Rhine Franconian and Moselle Franconian dialects (and Luxembourgish ) have merged the palatal fricative sound as in ich with
1672-614: The state was €35.4 billion in 2018, accounting for 1.1% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €32,800 or 109% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 93% of the EU average. The GDP per capita was the second lowest of all states in West Germany. Important income sources are the automobile industry, steel industry, ceramic industry and computer science and information systems industry. In
1716-672: The territory until 1959. The region of the Saarland was settled by the Celtic tribes of Treveri and Mediomatrici . The most impressive relic of their time is the remains of a fortress of refuge at Otzenhausen in the north of the Saarland. In the 1st century BC, the Roman Empire made the region part of its province of Belgica , and the Celtic population mixed with the Roman conquerors. The region became wealthy, which can still be seen in
1760-549: The two countries on 23 October 1954 as one of the Paris Pacts , but a plebiscite held on 23 October 1955 rejected it by 67.7%. On 27 October 1956, the Saar Treaty declared that Saarland should be allowed to join West Germany, which it did on 1 January 1957. This was the last significant international border change in Europe until the fall of Communism over 30 years later. The Saarland's unification with West Germany
1804-584: Was sometimes referred to as the Kleine Wiedervereinigung ('little reunification', in contrast with the post-Cold War reunification with the GDR ). After unification, the Saar franc remained as the territory's currency until West Germany's Deutsche Mark replaced it on 7 July 1959. The Saar Treaty established that French, not English as in the rest of West Germany, should remain the first foreign language taught in Saarland schools; this provision
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1848-422: Was still largely followed after it was no longer binding. Since 1971, Saarland has been a member of SaarLorLux , a euroregion created from Saarland, Lorraine , Luxembourg , Rhineland Palatinate , and Wallonia . The state borders France (department of Moselle , which forms part of the region of Grand Est ) to the south and west, Luxembourg ( Grevenmacher District ) to the west and Rhineland-Palatinate to
1892-692: Was succeeded by Willi Stöhr , who remained in office until the region fell to advancing American forces in March 1945. After World War II , the Saarland came under French occupation again and became the Saar Protectorate . France did not annex the Saar or expel the local German population, in contrast to the fate of the territories which were merged by Poland and the USSR. In his speech " Restatement of Policy on Germany ", made in Stuttgart on 6 September 1946, United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated
1936-467: Was therefore split in two parts. The part which went into the Saar became commonly known as Saarpfalz, and was administered by the two Bezirksamt St. Ingbert and Homburg. The Saarpfalz district was created in 1974 when the St. Ingbert and Homburg districts were merged. Since 1997 the district has had a partnership with Henrico County, Virginia . The lion in the top left is the symbol of the Palatinate (Pfalz),
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