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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Earth knowledge Bureau (ID:diqiuzhishiju), author: Yue Xiang, proofread manuscript: Chao Qian / Editor: tuna

When it comes to German industrial areas, people often think of Ruhr first. In fact, Sallan, located on the west bank of the Rhine, is also an important industrial area. The famous Flynn Steel works has been listed as a World Heritage site. With its unique geographical location, Sallan plays a very special role in the political and economic stage of Germany.

Folkingen Steel works as an industrial site

Represents the golden age of the German iron and steel industry

(figure: Wiki) ▼

The area of Salland in southwestern Germany is only about 2600 square kilometers, bordering Rhineland-Pfarz, France, Luxembourg and Belgium. It is the smallest state in Germany except Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin, but it is an important weather vane in German politics. In history, the Saar region has been repeatedly contested by Germany and France, and the strategic position is very important.

The whole area of Salan is only a little larger than that of Miyun District in Beijing (▼).

Small as it is, Saarland (the German name of Saar) happens to be stuck between Luxembourg and Lorraine, France, and is an anointed place on the west bank of the Rhine. If the French take Salland after taking Alsace Lorraine, they will have a chance to go north along the Moselle and realize their dream of using the Rhine as a natural boundary.

If the Germans could occupy Salland, they would have one more barrier to guard the bridgehead on the west bank of the Rhine: the attack could hit the joint of Alsace-Lorraine (that's how the Germans eliminated the Maginot Line in front of Sallan in World War II). The guard can serve as an "anvil" to attract French attacks (such tasks were assigned to Sallan in the Schriffen Plan I and the Yellow Plan of World War II), creating breakthroughs and outflanking French forces for Germans on other fronts.

Because of this, Salland became a focus of contention between the French and the Germans, changing hands between the two more than ten times in modern times.

Whether it's World War I or World War II.

Sallan will always be at the forefront of the struggle between Germany and France.

(figure: wiki) ▼

Before entering recorded history, the Celtic barbarians lived in Sallan (editor's note: more specifically, the Celtic Gauls). In the first century BC, the Romans conquered the place and incorporated it into the province of Belgica, from which the name Belgium came into being.

During the period of the Roman Republic, the present-day state of Sal was inhabited by ▼, the Bergai Gauls.

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Salland became part of the Frankish Kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire. In feudal times, even such a small place belonged to many non-subordinate princes, the most important of which was count Salbrucken, the German prince, who was ruled by Sal Brucken, the capital of the present-day Sal state. Other lords who ruled parts of Thrall include Archbishop Trier (the hometown of Marx), the Duke of Lorraine, and so on.

The Holy Roman Empire adopted a unique "elector" system.

Bishop Trier is one of the "electors".

The state of Sal at that time belonged to the fief of Bishop Trier.

Changing hands repeatedly into modern times, France took the lead in becoming the overlord on the European continent. During the Thirty years' War, the Duke of Richelieu sent the Bourbon army into Salland for the first time in 1635. " The Sun King Louis XIV also sent troops to invade Salam in 1676 and 1679, respectively, advancing the territory to the banks of the Sal River (the Saar River merges with the Moselle River, and the Moselle River into the Rhine), and in 1680 established the city of Sal Luis, which had an arched border on the riverside, and three years later used the "Sun" emblem as its emblem.

During the Franco-Dutch War, Louis XIV and his army crossed the Rhine

And dealt a heavy blow to the Netherlands, thus winning the title of "the Great"

(figure: wiki) ▼

However, the struggle between the French and the Germans over Salland is far from over.

In 1689, continental European countries repeatedly defeated by Louis XIV (Austria, Brandenburg, Saxony and other German states plus the Netherlands) formed the Augsburg Alliance, followed by Britain to form a "Great Alliance". Waged a nine-year "Grand Alliance War" with France.

In the absence of an absolute winner, the exhausted warring parties signed the Riswick Peace Treaty in 1697, and France withdrew from Salland as promised.

The main force of the Great Alliance, the Anglo-Dutch coalition force is led by William III.

(Prince William III of Orange, the mortal enemy of the Sun King)

(figure: wiki) ▼

In 1734, Louis XV invaded Salland again.

In the end, it was not any French king who completely annexed Salland, but the revolutionaries during the French Revolution. In 1792, the whole of Salland was incorporated into the newly established French Republic.

Its territory includes all the territory of present-day France

And ▼, the land of the Holy Roman Empire on the west bank of the Rhine.

After Napoleon's complete defeat, Prussia, which played a key role in the Battle of Waterloo, was given a large part of Salland in accordance with the Treaty of Vienna, and the fate of the region was completely separated from that of Alsace-Lorraine, where he was born. In the tide of the industrial revolution, Sallan rapidly developed into the center of coal and iron and steel industry because of its rich coal resources.

After Germany's fiasco in World War I, France not only wanted to retake Alsace Lorraine, which was lost in the Franco-Prussian War, but also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to seize Salland. This has become an important part of the Treaty of Versailles that makes Germans feel humiliated: under the treaty, Sallan will be spun off from Germany and placed under the trusteeship of the League of Nations for 15 years, and its final ownership will be decided by a referendum after the end of the trusteeship.

After World War I, the territory of Germany changed ▼.

In fact, Sallan has been under French control since then and has become an independent administrative region. In her book German Eagle-German History in medallion, Lin Chunjie points out that the newly designed medallion in Sal highlights the local urban union and inherits the French elements from Louis XIV:

In the upper left, there are two hammers inserted on the wheels of the train, the bottom of which is black, which is the emblem of the city St. Inbett, symbolizing the developed steel industry here.

In the upper right, the red rose on a white background is the city emblem of St. John.

In the lower left, the golden sun and blue clouds, with a white background, is the city emblem awarded to Sal Louis by Louis XIV, the sun king.

In the lower right, the white lion with blue background is the city emblem of Salbrucken. "

(editor's note: usually when discussing the left and right side of the coat of arms, it is based on the relative position of the coat of arms itself, not the observer. Here it is described from the observer's point of view, which is the same below.)

St. John (Sankt Johann) has worked with Saarbr ü cken, Malstatt-Burbach

Merged into what is now the new city of Salbroken.

Its red rose element may be related to the Lancaster family in England.

(base: German Eagle-German History in medallion) ▼

In 1933, when the Nazis ruled Germany, a large number of leftists fled to Salland, but everyone was worried that the 15-year deadline was approaching. At this time, Erich Honecker, a 22-year-old who was born and raised in this country and graduated from the International Lenin School in Moscow, took part in leading Salland's campaign against the integration of the German Empire.

But this is still an era of nationalism, with 90.8% of Saar residents demanding a return to Germany in a 1935 referendum. Honecker was arrested and imprisoned in the same year and did not escape until the Soviets invaded Berlin in April 1945.

After Thrall protected Nazi Germany's defeat, France reoccupied Salland as a "liberated victorious country" (French troops also symbolically occupied several villages in Sallan during the German blitz on Poland in 1939).

According to the French-led Sal Constitution of 1947, Sallan will break away from Germany and achieve political autonomy as a "Sal protector" using the French franc.

At this time, the launch of the new Sal emblem has a stronger French Republic characteristics:

The shield emblem is a cross pattern made up of the color of the French flag (blue, white and red). The arch bridge above the shield emblem symbolizes that Salland is the bridge between Germany and France.

There are only pure French elements left.

The elements of Britain and Salben are gone.

(base: German Eagle-German History in medallion) ▼

Saar's Protective collar and the German ▼ occupied by the allies after World War II

In 1953, as a "quasi-national", the "Thrall Protective collar" also sent its own "national football team" to wear the above medallion to participate in the 1954 Bern World Cup qualifiers, and happened to be in the same group with the Federal German team. it's a pity it didn't qualify.

Sal trailed 2-0 in the away game against Norway

After that, he turned the defeat into a victory by 3-2 in the situation of 10 men.

(source: Youtube) ▼

What is the strength of this Sallan football team? It won two big victories in 1950 (5-3) and 1951 (5-2), and later reached the quarterfinals of the 1954 World Cup. In the World Cup qualifier, he only lost to the world champion Federal Germany, which later created the "Bern miracle".

This is the only major match attended by Thrall's football team.

Its players, coaches and staff were later included in the West German team.

From the French point of view, the best result is, of course, the annexation of Salland, which is really not possible, and it is necessary to "Europeanize" Salland. In short, it is necessary to let Sallan cut with Germany in all aspects.

The residents of Thrall are mainly Catholic and have always been placed under the jurisdiction of Archbishop Trier by the Holy see. So France strongly applied to the Vatican to establish a separate "Archdiocese of Thrall", which was later abandoned by Archbishop Trier's fierce opposition.

Since the Trier diocese used to be the elector, it has a great deal of real power.

Bishop Trier naturally could not tolerate anyone breaking up Salbang and setting up another mountain.

However, post-World War II Europe was not done by France. In order to confront the Soviet and Eastern camps and make our Germans willingly join the United front of the "free world", the United States had to consider the ideas of the Federal Republic of Germany on the Thrall issue.

After several rounds of mediation by the United States, Germany and France reached a compromise on the premise of promoting European integration, allowing Saar residents to hold a referendum. At that time, Germany had already been tarnished by the scourge of the Nazis, and the Federal Republic of Germany agreed to this plan is actually a huge gamble. Will the Saar, who had been on a "thief ship" in 1935, change their mind?

In the 1935 referendum, Thrall's citizens were still committed to Germany.

On October 23, 1955, 66.7% of Saar residents called for a return to Germany in a referendum. As a result, Sallan became the tenth state of the Federal Republic of Germany on January 1, 1957. At the same time, the Federal Republic of Germany also agreed to give France considerable economic compensation.

After the official return, Sallan launched the new state emblem that has been used so far:

"the upper left is a white lion with a blue background, symbolizing the Earl of Salbrucken.

The upper right is the White Red Cross, symbolizing the Archbishop of Trier.

On the lower left are three mutilated white eagles (without beaks and claws) on a red sloping beam, with a yellow bottom, symbolizing the Duke of Lorraine.

On the lower right is a golden lion with a crown and red tongue, with a black bottom, symbolizing the Duke of Pfartz-Zwebrucken.

These four patterns symbolize the four lords who ruled Salland respectively, with distinct German colors.

The disassembly and origin of the various components of the Saarbrucken state emblem

(base: German Eagle-German History in medallion) ▼

The settlement of Thrall's sovereignty issue removed a stumbling block to the reconciliation between Germany and France and paved the way for future European integration.

In the year after Sallan's return to the Federal Republic of Germany (1958), on the other side of the Iron Curtain, Honecker, a young Sal, joined the Politburo of the United Socialist Party of the Democratic Republic of Germany at the age of 46 and organized the construction of the Berlin Wall three years later. He became the helm of the other half of Germany in 1971, then promoted mutual recognition between Germany and Germany, returned to his hometown Sal during a visit to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987, and finally witnessed the reunification of Germany with mixed feelings.

Today, the beautiful Salam has become the core of the European region (Great Region), which includes the territories of Germany, Lu, France and Belgium. It is a place where multi-ethnic and multi-cultural meet.

Germany's second-largest coal and steel heavy industrial zone, once second only to the Ruhr, has seen few plumes of smoke from steel mills, instead taking the automobile and auto parts industry and service industry as the pillar industry.

The industry that persisted for a long time has changed, and the political party that has been in power for a long time has changed.

Can Sallan choose the future as he did in Germany?

The author thanks:

I would like to thank teacher Lin Chunjie for agreeing to quote directly the materials from his monograph "German Eagle-German History in medallion".

References:

1. Lin Chunjie, German Eagle-German History in medallion, Zhejiang University Press

2. Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland

3. Https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland

4. Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland_national_football_team

5. Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification

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