Saar Protectorate

Saar Protectorate
Saarprotektorat  (German) Protectorat de Sarre  (French)
Protectorate of France
1947–1957
Flag Coat of arms
Borders of post-World War II Germany (1949). The Saar Protectorate is in orange.
Capital		Saarbrücken
Languages		French German Rhine Franconian Moselle Franconian
Government		Protectorate under control of French Fourth Republic
Historical era		Cold War
•	Established	15 December 1947
•	WEU referendum	23 October 1955
•	Saar Treaty	27 October 1956
•	Joined Germany	1 January 1957
Area
•	1947	2,568 km² (992 sq mi)
Currency		Saar mark Saar franc
Preceded by Succeeded by Allied-occupied Germany West Germany Saarland
Today part of		Germany

The Saar Protectorate (German: Saarprotektorat; French: Protectorat de Sarre) was a short-lived protectorate (1947–56) partitioned from Germany after its defeat in World War II; it was administered by the French Fourth Republic. On rejoining West Germany in 1957, it became the smallest "area state" (Flächenland), the Saarland, not counting the "city states" (Stadtstaaten) of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. It is named after the Saar River.

The region around the Saar River and its tributary valleys is a geographically folded, mineral-rich, ethnically German, economically important, heavily industrialized area. It has well-developed transportation infrastructure that was one of the centres of the Industrial Revolution in Germany and around 1900 formed the third-largest area of coal, iron, and steel industry in Germany (after the Ruhr Area and the Upper Silesian Coal Basin). From 1920 to 1935, as a result of World War I, the region was under the control of the League of Nations as the Territory of the Saar Basin. Near the end of World War II it was heavily bombed by the Allies as part of their strategic bombing campaigns.

Geographically, the post–World War II protectorate corresponded to the current German state of Saarland (established after its incorporation into West Germany on 1 January 1957). A policy of industrial disarmament and dispersal of industrial workers was officially pursued by the Allies after the war until 1951 and the region was made a protectorate under French control in 1947. Cold War pressures for a stronger Germany allowed renewed industrialization, and the French returned control of the region to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957.