CdZ area of ​​Lorraine

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The Lorraine CdZ area existed from 1940 to 1944 and is spatially identical to the Moselle department , but not to Lorraine , of which it only includes part.

It was French territory that was under a German head of civil administration (CdZ) and was intended to be incorporated into the German Empire as part of the Reichsgau Westmark .

history

The occupation

CdZ areas around 1941

Towards the end of the French campaign, German troops from Saarbrücken broke through the fortifications of the French Maginot Line . Since this had already been bypassed from the west - the German troops were already approaching the Swiss border from the upper reaches of the Marne - the French troops received their command on June 12, 1940, to evacuate Lorraine . This also happened except for the actual fortifications , which initially remained occupied.

With the armistice of June 22, 1940, these troops surrendered in the Nancy area and south. After that, Lorraine was occupied by all Germans , initially under military administration .

German civil administration

By Führer decree of August 2, 1940, the German part of Lorraine from 1871 to 1918, the area of ​​the former Lorraine district , territorially identical to the French department of Moselle, was placed under a German head of civil administration. He was responsible for managing the entire civilian administration. He was directly subordinate to Hitler , received general instructions and guidelines from him and had to "take care of the reconstruction of the Lorraine region according to the technical instructions of the Supreme Reich Authorities".

The Reich Commissioner for the Saar Palatinate (since May 15, 1941: Reich Governor in Westmark) and Gauleiter of the NSDAP Josef Bürckel in Saarbrücken were appointed head of civil administration in Lorraine .

The city of Saarbrücken became the seat of administration. For the time being, there was a branch office of the head of civil administration in Metz , to deal with the previous French prefecture . On April 1, 1941, this branch was closed.

Eviction and resettlement

The evacuation of the border population at the beginning of the war immediately opened up opportunities for the National Socialists to lock out unpopular parts of the ancestral French population. Further violent expulsions followed, affecting around 60,000 people at the end of 1940 alone. One of the best-known protest actions of the locals was a patriotically charged procession on the feast of the Assumption on August 15, 1940. In front of the Metzer Marian Column erected in 1924, which was used by the last German bishop of Metz, Willibrord Benzler , as a consecration memorial for the sparing of the city in First World War had been promised at Metzer St. Jakobsplatz (Place Saint-Jacques), hundreds of Metz had silently deposited bouquets of flowers that were tied with ribbons in the colors of the French tricolor . The chief of the protective police took this as an opportunity to ban numerous Pro-French residents as well as the Metz bishop Joseph-Jean Heintz from the area immediately. The Jews who remained in the CdZ area became victims of the Wagner-Bürckel campaign in October 1940 .

With the ordinance of December 7, 1940 for the reorganization of the settlement area in Lorraine, the property of the people emigrated from Lorraine was confiscated and confiscated as "property hostile to the Reich". French-speaking Lorraine residents, mostly of rural origin, were given the choice of moving to France or to the new Reichsgau Wartheland . At the same time, landless German farmers from the Saar should be given the opportunity to settle in Lorraine, which is not only spatially but also culturally and linguistically neighboring, “up to the German linguistic border” and thus avoid relocating to the east. By October 1943, around 80,000 Lorraine residents, 15% of the pre-war population, were affected by the resettlement. 387 villages were evacuated. The resettlement campaign was "primarily to be used for the formation of new German farmers and for settlement purposes". For this purpose, on January 7, 1941, a cultural office (reallocation and settlement authority) was initially set up only in Metz.

By order of July 10, 1942, the settlement of the Lorraine border region was transferred to the "Bauernsiedlung Westmark GmbH" in Saarbrücken.

A rough estimate of the population shift due to expulsion, resettlement and conscription to the Wehrmacht is made possible by the results of the consumer group statistics, which were obtained from the data on food allocations and were published by the Federal Statistical Office in 1953. According to the small consumer group statistics, the population of the Moselle department in 1936 was 696,246 people. In contrast, the civilian population cared for in the Lorraine CdZ area - excluding the Forbach administrative district, which was ceded to the city of Saarbrücken in 1943 - comprised only 537,981 people at the end of August / beginning of September 1944 (including 42,180 group caterers). In the city of Metz, 81,059 civilians were cared for (1936: 117,551 inhabitants), in the district of Metz 83,374 (1936: 100,609 inhabitants), in the district of Diedenhofen 131,033 (1936: 148,054 inhabitants), in the district of Saarburg (Westmark) 53,263 (1936: 59,277 inhabitants) ), in the Saargemünd district 70,526 (1936: 92,527 inhabitants), in the Salzburgen district 25,297 (1936: 33,296 inhabitants), in the Sankt Avold district 93,429 (1936: 144,932 inhabitants).

Other ways to complete "Germanization"

A key element in integrating the German-speaking population into National Socialist Germany was the "Deutsche Volksgemeinschaft in Lothringen" (DVG), a subsidiary organization of the NSDAP, founded in 1940 .

By decree of September 28, 1940, the spelling of all first and last names was changed to the German spelling.

By order of February 13, 1941, the designation of the "native" Lorraine population was set to "German ethnicity, Lorraine".

On August 23, 1942, the ordinance on citizenship was issued, according to which German-born Lorraine residents acquired this if they

By order of August 14, 1944, other "Germans" of Lorraine acquired German citizenship if they

The planned full integration of the Lorraine area into the German Reich and its interlocking with the Saarland and the Palatinate to form a new Reichsgau Westmark - spatially identical to the equally expanded and renamed Gau Saarpfalz of the NSDAP - did not take place until the end of the war.

Administrative division

Initially the French division remained, the arrondissements became German districts .

After that initially existed:

On October 1, 1940, the communities of Langenheim , Martinsbann , Montenich , Sankt Julian and Wallern from the district of Metz were incorporated into the urban district of Metz.

On December 1, 1940, the districts of Diedenhofen-Ost and Diedenhofen-West were merged to form the new district of Diedenhofen , with border corrections in favor of the district of Metz, and the districts of Bolchen and Forbach to form the new district of Sankt Avold .

On January 25, 1941, the Saarburg district was given the additional designation "(Westmark)" to distinguish it from the district of the same name in the Rhine province, Trier district. The district of Salzburg was finally renamed Salzburgen.

On April 1, 1941, the city district of Metz was again through the incorporation of the municipalities of Bornen , Manningen , Masch , Mühlen bei Metz , Pleppweiler , Jussingen , Sigach and Wappingen from the district of Metz and the municipality of Bettsdorf b. Diedenhofen from the district of Diedenhofen enlarged. Furthermore, at the same time border corrections took place between the districts of Diedenhofen, Metz, Sankt Avold, Saargemünd and Salzburgen. Incidentally, the entire community structure was changed by a regional reform in that many communities were dissolved and merged with others.

In the area of ​​the district of Salzburgen, the number of inhabitants had decreased so much due to the expulsion of the French-speaking inhabitants to the rest of France that the number of municipalities had to be reduced to 21 large municipalities.

On April 1, 1943, the town of Forbach, which had already been enlarged to include Stieringen and Schönecken , together with the communities of Alstingen , Kleinrosseln and Spichern, was separated from the district of Sankt Avold and transferred to the administration of the city and district of Saarbrücken as a special administrative district for Forbach . This happened in anticipation of the formation of the Reichsgau Westmark - which did not take place until the end of the war - and the planned formal incorporation into Saarbrücken.

For the dishes, see the list of dishes in the Lorraine CdZ area .

Local constitution

Initially, the previous French municipal law continued to apply.

On January 1, 1941, the German municipal code of January 30, 1935, valid in the German Reich , was introduced, which provided for the enforcement of the Führer principle at the municipal level. For this purpose, an implementing ordinance was issued on February 1, 1941, according to which joint mayor's offices could be formed from several municipalities .

On April 1, 1941, the district regulations for Lorraine of March 25, 1941 were introduced, according to which, among other things, the previous cantons were dissolved.

Place names

Initially, the German place names valid until 1918 were provisionally valid in their German version. Later, on January 25, 1941, all place names were set in a German version, some of which differed considerably from the one in 1918.

Judiciary

From November 1, 1940, the German Courts Constitution Act and the Code of Civil Procedure were in effect in Lorraine . The previous cantonal courts were converted into local courts , the previous first instance courts into regional courts . In Metz, a higher regional court senate was set up as the court “head” .

From April 1, 1942, five labor courts began their work under the Metz regional labor court .

On May 1, 1942, all German criminal law and criminal procedure law came into force in Lorraine . There was also a special court in Metz .

On March 1, 1943, the entire German civil law was introduced in Lorraine.

post Office

Starting from the Reichspostdirektion Saarbrücken, 15 German post offices were set up in Lorraine between July 17 and August 28, 1940 . From January 1, 1942, only the postage stamps customary in the Old Reich were valid . On September 1, 1943, the general (Reich) postal service was ordered, so that the previous German postal service could cease operations.

Wehrmacht

After the decree of August 2, 1940, the commanders-in-chief of the German armies initially continued to exercise military sovereignty in Lorraine .

By decree of October 12, 1940, the exercise of military sovereignty was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army (Commander-in-Chief of the Substitute Army ) in accordance with the provisions applicable in the German Reich. Accordingly, Lorraine was added to Military District XII in Wiesbaden on October 17, 1940 .

On April 16, 1941, the military surveillance of the Reich German conscripts in Lorraine was announced by the newly established military district commands Diedenhofen, Metz, Saargemünd and Sankt Avold.

By ordinance of August 19, 1942, compulsory military service in the German armed forces was also extended to include the "German people belonging to the people" in Lorraine for those born between 1920 and 1924.

On February 16, members born in 1914 and younger also became conscripted.

The end

After the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 , allied American troops reached the Moselle on both sides of Thionville from the west until mid-September 1944. They came to a halt on the front line west of the Metz fortress . During the battle for Metz, the city ​​itself was temporarily held for the German Reich by an improvised task force made up of ensigns from the war school .

On November 8, 1944, when Paris was already under the free French government under de Gaulle, Allied American troops attacked again in the Battle of Lorraine . The attack led first to the enclosure of Metz, then to the conquest of the city, and ended in mid-December 1944 at the 1940 border with the western wall . This ended the German occupation of Lorraine and Lorraine belonged again to France. As a department of Moselle (Moselle), it is now part of the Grand Est region .

Circles in the CdZ area of ​​Lorraine 1944

City district (s)

  1. Metz
  2. Forbach , county , the county-level city since 1943 Saarbrücken affiliated

Counties

  1. Diedenhofen
  2. Metz
  3. Saarburg (Westmark)
  4. Sarreguemines
  5. Salt castles
  6. Sankt Avold , formed in 1940 from the Forbach District and the Bolchen District

Other CdZ

people

  • Josef Bürckel (1895–1944), Gauleiter, Reich Governor and Head of the Civil Administration of the CdZ Lothringen
  • Fritz Wambsganß (1886–1979) Head of the Education and Religion Department, in the civil administration

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For more information, see for example Lorraine # history , Département Moselle # history
  2. ^ Christian Fauvel: Metz 1940-1950, De la tourmente au renouveau, Metz 2017, p. 34.
  3. ↑ Isabel Heinemann: Science, Planning, Expulsion: Reorganization Concepts and Resettlement Policy in the 20th Century. Stuttgart 2006, p. 87.
  4. ↑ Federal Statistical Office (Ed.): Statistical Reports, Work No. VIII / 19/1, The civilian population of the German Empire 1940–1945. Results of the consumer group statistics. Wiesbaden 1953; Page 43. For the district of Sankt Avold, the assignment of the administrative district Forbach is to be observed, which is reflected in a strong increase in the population of the urban district of Saarbrücken (May 1939: 133,345 inhabitants - August / September 1944: 203,802 cared for civilians; page 39)
  5. ↑ On August 15th, the Allies landed in Provence and came up the Rhone Valley. Paris was liberated on August 19th
  6. ↑ Landesplanungsgemeinschaft Westmark (ed.): Map "Political Limits in Gau Westmark", as of August 1941, printed as map supplement 8 in: Walther Hubatsch (Ed.): Outline of German Administrative History 1815-1945. Volume 7, Marburg / Lahn 1978; it shows "Stieringen (Wm.)" and "Schönecken (Wm.)" as parts of the city of Forbach, marked as dissolved with a "former municipality boundary" and the municipality name in brackets
  7. ↑ Order regarding the renaming of the Lorraine place names, from January 25, 1941. In: Ordinance sheet for Lorraine No. 12, 1941, pages 130–149.