East Belgium

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The three eastern cantons of Belgium: Eupen (yellow area above), St. Vith (yellow area below) and Malmedy (green area)

The nine Belgian municipalities in which the population is German-speaking and which belong to the German-speaking Community of Belgium (DG) are now - in the narrower sense - referred to as Ostbelgien or Eastern Cantons (the term New Belgium was common in the 1920s ).

Wilhelm von Humboldt (No. 19) and Karl August von Hardenberg (No. 21) - both on the right edge of the picture - reach for Prussia to the west at the Congress of Vienna - including what is now East Belgium

In a broader sense, in addition to these nine municipalities, Malmedy and Waimes / Weismes , whose majority of the population is French-speaking and are therefore part of the French-speaking community of Belgium, are also included in East Belgium. They have in common with the nine municipalities of the DG that they belonged to Prussia from 1815 ( Congress of Vienna ) to 1919 ( Versailles Treaty ) and thus to the German Empire from 1871 . Prussia grouped the municipalities in two districts, the Eupen district and the Malmedy district ; this explains the old German name of the region as Eupen-Malmedy .

The - more general - term German-speaking Belgians , whose settlement area extends beyond the municipalities of the eastern cantons and includes the Montzener Land , which has been part of Belgium since 1830, should be distinguished from the terms Ostbelgien / Ostkantons and in particular from the term German-speaking Community . Like all of East Belgium, the municipalities of the Montzener Land are also among the municipalities with facilities in which the linguistic minorities can claim special rights.

This article deals with Ostbelgien in terms of the nine DG communities and the two francophone communities Malmedy and Weismes. The area includes the 20 to 50 km wide border strip with Germany with an area of ​​1036 km², which was incorporated into the Belgian state association on July 1, 1925 - after a five-year transition period as the Eupen-Malmedy governorate . These are the following cantons :

History of East Belgium

Celts, Romans and Franks

Celtic settlement

The settlement of the East Belgian area can be proven for almost 10,000 years. a. through flint artefacts from the Mesolithic and weapons finds from the Neolithic. A Celtic settlement from around 200 BC. BC indicate place and river names such as Amel (as a settlement as early as 57 B.C.E. under Roman influence ), Braunlauf , Warche , Our (also the place name Ouren ) and Rur .

Present-day Belgium and neighboring areas as Roman provinces

Roman provinces under Trajan (117 AD) - the area between today's Luxembourg- Belgian-German and today's Dutch- Belgian-German border triangle belonged to the Roman province of Germania inferior ; the area south of it to the province of Belgica
The division of the Roman Empire into the Western Roman and Eastern Roman Empire after the death of Emperor Theodosius I in 395 - today's Luxembourg / Belgian-German border area belonged to the Western Roman Empire

The history of the area was shaped by its border location even before the turn of the century. In Roman times , the border between the Roman cities of Cologne and Tongeren ran through this region or rather a little north and east of the region. Since late antiquity, the border between the Germanic and Romance language areas has been strengthening here. From 300 onwards - under Roman and Irish Scottish influence - Christianity spread .

Franconian Empire

The Franconian land grabbing , which can be recognized by place names on -ingen, -ier and -heim , began around 450. For further clearings and local foundations between 600 and 800 are endings on -weiler, -hausen, -dorf, -bach, -berg or -born typical. The influence of the Franks continued to grow when they subjugated the likewise Germanic Burgundians in the south in 534 .

Settlement in the 7th century in what is now the state of Luxembourg and the surrounding area.

Around 648, the Frankish King Sigibert III. Monks from Aquitaine use a wooded area in the Ardennes as the basis for the Malmedy and Stavelot ( Stablo ) abbey foundations on the border between the Romance and Germanic language areas. They were subordinated to the dioceses of Liège (Stablo) and Cologne (Malmedy) (see below for further history ).

" Gaul " in the year 481 - in the north: the Franconian Empire

In the 8th century numerous settlements arose around the Franconian royal courts Amel, Büllingen ( first documented mention 850 ), Manderfeld ( first mentioned: 854 ), Neundorf ( first mentioned: 888 ), Thommen ( first mentioned: 816 ) and Walhorn ( founded: 859 ), the became centers in the spell of Aachen , the Carolingian capital. Their empire collapsed around 900 - a process that was accelerated by looting by the Normans (881–891) and Hungarians .

When the Franconian Empire was divided up , the area of ​​interest here initially belonged to the so-called Mittelreich Lotharingen , but then fell to the East Franconian Empire , from which the Holy Roman Empire later developed. See (with maps of the various divisions) ...

Today's East Belgium from the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire (from the 10th century) to the Congress of Vienna (1815)

Lower and Upper Lorraine around 1000 - what is now East Belgium belonged to the former at the time

When the Holy Roman Empire developed out of Eastern Franconia , its territories also included the area dealt with here, as part of the Duchy of Lower Lorraine . Lower Lorraine mainly extended to what is now Belgian and southern Dutch territory as far as the Lower Rhine and the northern Middle Rhine (see map on the left ). Initially, the county of Luxembourg , the Moselle region from Trier to Koblenz and the southern Eifel around Prüm (for the latter see Abbey of Prüm ) did not belong to Lower Lorraine . Later, probably in the 12th century, these areas were transferred from Upper to Lower Lorraine . After that, the Duchy of Lower Lorraine split into several duchies, including the Duchy of Brabant with the area of ​​interest here (see below ).

The rule of Luxembourg, Triers and Limburg as well as the rise of Brabant from 1288

In parallel to the development just described were formed

Limburg in 1250 - (right above the center in dark pink), surrounded u. a. from the Principality of Liège in the west and the County of Jülich in the east
  • in about the northern center of the Duchy of Lower Lorraine from 1020 the county of Limburg (see map on the right), which eventually rose to become the Duchy itself, which included Eupen in the extreme southeast ;
The Imperial Abbey of Stablo-Malmedy - on the eastern edge of the Principality of Liège
  • west of Limburg - but emerged with greater north-south expansion and later (14th century) - the Bishopric of Liege , on the eastern border, the monastery Malmedy was thatfrom a certain point in time - together with the Stablo monastery - appeared independently as the Stablo-Malmedy Imperial Abbey .;
Luxembourg around 1350: The map is labeled in Dutch: "Aken" = "Aachen"; "Clubs" = "Cologne". The river that flows through Luxembourg City is the Alzette , whose eastern extension is the Sauer , whose tributary from the north is the Our . The areas south of Aachen - with the exception of Malmedy - belonged to Limburg and Luxembourg. In Werden (near Essen ) (in the northeast corner of the map) the old Dutch "Rhenish Reimbibel" was created - probably as early as the 12th century (see also the article " History of Dutch Spelling ", where from " Mittel fränkische [r] Reimbibel "is spoken, but this is still cited as a testimony to the" spelling of the Old Dutch "[ie the Old Lower Franconian ]).

and finally and above all

  • the - initially: castle; then: County - Luxembourg ( from 963/1083 ).

Compared to the current border situation, it is of particular interest that even then most of the areas south of Aachen did not belong to Jülich, but predominantly to Limburg and Luxembourg.

In addition, the diocese of Trier , which was founded in the 3rd century, increased in territorial importance without, however (apart from the narrow and short strip mentioned below ) - to judge from the available maps - ever extending to what is now East Belgian territory. In addition, the Archbishops of Trier obtained membership of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire in 1198 . As a result, like the other two spiritual electors ( Mainz and Cologne ), they were archchancellors of one of the three parts of the empire ("Italy", "Germania", "Gaul") - for the latter, and that means for Burgundy . In the late Middle Ages , however, this office became a meaningless title without any influence. Please refer:

The gradually increasing population in the region cleared and built new villages; the village of Sankt Vith was first mentioned in 1130. Also Krewinkel , Mackenbach , Neundorf , Ouren and Weweler grew.

Imperial Abbey of Stablo-Malmedy as part of the Dutch-Westphalian Empire from 1500

The shrinking of the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Empire from 1500 to 1548

The union of Malmedys and Stablos (to form an imperial abbey ) was to last into modern times. In 1500 the area was added to the Dutch-Westphalian Circle (later mainly the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Circle, finally just called the Westphalian Circle) - that is, one of the ten Imperial circles into which the Roman-German King and later Emperor Maximilian I the Holy Divided up the Roman Empire (see adjacent maps). Nominally, the areas were thus united with those of northwest Germany; the Lower Rhine Empire was only dissolved in 1806 when all areas on the left bank of the Rhine came to France.

Limburg and Luxembourg as parts of the Burgundian Empire

The HRR empire districts and independent areas around 1512; Burgundian circle in green. In 1548 this legal circle increased by the areas that the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Empire lost at the same time. The Burgundian Treaty also exempted the Burgundian territories from being subject to the jurisdiction of the Imperial Court of Justice . In addition to Malmedy (which remained with the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Circle), the Burgundian Empire also included the areas that now form East Belgium as part of what was then Luxembourg.

Just because Malmedy belongs to the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Empire, however, the influence of the emperor, who usually resides in Vienna, on the region should not be overestimated. The areas belonging to Limburg and Luxembourg - and thus large parts of today's East Belgium - wereruled de facto from Brabant, which as part of the Burgundian Empire bordered the Dutch-Westphalian district to the west and was strongly influenced by nearby France and its culture. The leading social groups in these areas were largely alienated from the Reich; Therefore, in 1548, at the Reichstag in Augsburg, the Burgundian Treaty was concluded , according to which the circle of supremacy of the realm was largely withdrawn (for example in judicial matters), but the realm committed itself to ongoing "protection and protection" of the same, while the Burgundian circle in return Reich sums were supposed to pay as much as two and, during the Turkish wars, as much as three electors. In addition, other areas that had previously been assigned to the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Imperial Circle and had now come to the Habsburgs were incorporated into the district as part of the Duchy of Burgundy. French was the language of the branatic court in Brussels and the higher administrative authorities in Brabant, a circumstance that was to shape the culture and mentality of the southern Dutch region in the long term. Accordingly, the Burgundian Circle did not participate in the anti-French alliance of the so-called Front Imperial Circles, which was formed in 1687 .

Some smaller areas

The transition from Limburg and Luxembourg to the Habsburg-Spanish line

Limburg in Civitatis Orbis Terrarum (1575)

Brabant, Limburg and Luxembourg, on the other hand, fell to Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1430 and to the Habsburgs in 1477 through the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Archduke Maximilian of Austria (along with the other Dutch provinces). After Maximilian's grandson Charles V abdicated in 1556, all Dutch provinces went to the Habsburg-Spanish line, which finally removed them mentally and ultimately also politically from the other parts of the Roman-German Empire and prepared their later independence.

After the defection of the Protestant northern Netherlands (independent republic from 1581, confirmed in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, today the Kingdom of the Netherlands ), the predominantly Catholic southern Netherlands, from which the Kingdom of Belgium later developed, initially remained under Habsburg rule ( Spanish Netherlands ). 1706–1714 large areas of the Spanish Netherlands were occupied by troops from England and the Dutch Republic during the War of the Spanish Succession .

Today's East Belgium as part of the Austrian Netherlands from 1713/14

The peace treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt (1713/14) finally established the Austrian line of the House of Habsburg as the ruling dynasty in the south of the Netherlands.

The Austrian Netherlands (in orange) almost had the outline of the future Kingdom of Belgium as early as 1789. Luxembourg is still part of it. The Principality of Liège lies like a wedge between Brabant and East Belgium-Luxembourg.

The now Austrian Netherlands can be viewed as an almost independent state structure, which was linked to Austria through a personal union and was ruled by a Habsburg regent in Brussels. Furthermore, the French culture and language set the tone, even if in correspondence of the middle and lower management of the east-lying areas (eastern Belgium, Luxembourg) since ancient times and used the German. When the centralist reforms of Emperor Joseph II restricted the autonomy of the southern Netherlands from 1780, the United Belgian States declared themselves independent in 1790 , but were recaptured and temporarily occupied by France in 1794 (see Peace of Campo Formio 1797). In 1814 the country was conquered by the anti-Napoleonic coalition during the Napoleonic Wars .

From the Congress of Vienna (1815) to the end of World War II (1945)

Prehistory of the Prussian expansion to East Belgium

The first Brandenburg-Prussian acquisitions in the west of the Holy Roman Empire were made at the beginning of the 17th century. As far as they were on the left bank of the Rhine, they initially concerned the north of the Rhineland ( Kleve ); the main area of ​​Prussia was still in the center and east of the empire and was still predominantly East Elvish . By the eve of the Congress of Vienna, funds were essentially added to Prussian territory in the west .

1789: Ostbelgien belongs mainly to the duchies of Limburg and Luxembourg, which are themselves part of the Austrian Netherlands.

Prussian-German rule in East Belgium (1815 to 1919)

In 1905. The eponymous main towns in the districts south of Aachen are marked in red: Eupen , Malmedy , Montjoie and Schleiden .

With the exception of Neutral Moresnet , the East Belgian territories became Prussian territory due to the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and thus belonged to them

  • from 1815 to 1866 to the German Confederation , a confederation of states agreed upon by the “sovereign princes and free cities of Germany” including the Emperor of Austria and the kings of Prussia, Denmark (with regard to Holstein) and the Netherlands (with regard to Luxembourg). Although this had federal features, since it developed legal provisions that applied to all member states, but it had no state authority; this remained with the member states. In particular, the federal government had the task of guaranteeing the internal and external security of the member states; thus the federal purpose was significantly more limited than that of the Holy Roman Empire, which was dissolved in 1806.
  • from 1866 to 1871 to the North German Confederation , which was founded by Prussia and its allies after the dissolution of the German Confederation as a result of the German War in the summer of 1866 without the participation of the defeated Austria and the southern German states.
  • finally to the German Empire from 1871, to which the southern German states, but not Austria, belonged and in which, as in the North German Confederation, Prussia assumed a dominant position as the largest member state.

In contrast, the other territories of the southern and northern Netherlands formed the Kingdom of the United Netherlands , which was divided into the Kingdom of Belgium and the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1830.

The separation of the East Belgian areas from the Brabant-South Dutch culture meant a major turning point and realignment in the history of East Belgium, even though French was initially still respected as the administrative language in the Walloon-speaking communities. The old Belgian-Prussian boundary stones still remind of the former course of the border.

Prussia established five districts in the areas south of Aachen acquired in 1815: Malmedy and St. Vith (in 1821 the districts of St. Vith and Malmedy were merged), Eupen , Montjoie (later Germanized: Monschau) and district of Gemünd ; The latter was expanded in 1829 by the southeastern district of Blankenheim and renamed the Schleiden district. The five districts belonged to the administrative district of Aachen , which in turn belonged to the newly formed Prussian province of Lower Rhine (later merged into the Rhine province ). The eponymous cities of Malmedy / Sankt Vith, Eupen, Montjoie (Monschau) and Gemünd or Schleiden were the seat of the respective district administration.

Statistics from 1820 contain the following information for the five districts in question:

circle Area
in square miles		 Public and private
buildings
Total population		 including
Catholics
Protestants
Jews
Eupen district 3.38 2,791 17,292 16,950 342 - - Gemünd district 15.03 8,143 29,424 27,939 1,345 140
Malmedy district 14.89 2,672 13,158 13,155 3 - - Montjoie County 6.79 2,957 17,312 16,147 1,165 -
St. Vith district - 2,446 10,282 10,261 21st -
Administrative region of Aachen in total 73.93 67,139 312,566 301,809 9,098 1,659

While the annexation to Prussia in 1815 initially did not arouse resistance, the Germanization policy that began after the unification of the empire (1871) caused unrest. The French-speaking sections of the population were not ready for assimilation. According to the results of the census of December 1, 1900, the Malmedy district had a significant minority of residents with 28.7% Walloon speakers who spoke a mother tongue other than German. In contrast, the proportion of non-German speakers in the Eupen district was barely 5%.

Revision of Prussian expansion: referendum (1920) and annexation to Belgium (1925)

After the First World War , the borders in East Belgium were redrawn in the Treaty of Versailles (1919). According to the Versailles Treaty, all the communities on the border strip of Eupen-Malmedy were separated from the German Reich and provisionally placed under Belgium. The referendum of 1920, which went down in the history of Belgium as “petite farce belge” , became a point of contention between the Belgian authorities and parts of the local population as well as between Belgium and the German Empire for decades. A large part of the population seems to have viewed the survey as an injustice, as it was neither free nor secret nor independent. The citizens only had the opportunity to vote against the annexation to Belgium by adding themselves to public lists in Malmedy or Eupen . Since the first to exercise this right were subjected to great pressure ( expulsion , exclusion from exchanging money and distributing ration cards , dismissal from civil service, etc.), only 271 of the 33,726 voters decided to put their negative attitude towards Belgium on record. All in all, only one list was laid out in Eupen and Malmedy. Under flimsy pretexts and the threat of reprisals, access was often made difficult or even impossible for those willing to enter.

After a five-year transition period under the government of the Royal High Commissioner General Herman Baltia , the area around Eupen , Malmedy , St. Vith and Neutral-Moresnet ( Kelmis ) was incorporated into the Belgian state association in 1925. From 1918 to 1925, the East Belgian media were subject to censorship . With Hugo Zimmermann, the city ​​of Eupen received a “forced mayor” appointed by the Belgian government.

A curiosity is the route of the Aachen-Luxembourg railway line ( Vennbahn , now closed). By drawing the new border she would have crossed the state border several times. Instead, the railway area was declared Belgian territory.

Efforts by the Belgian and German governments to return the areas

Since 1925, the German and Belgian governments have been negotiating the return of the area in exchange for compensation. Specific plans have been drawn up to buy back the area from Belgium for 200 million gold marks . This failed because of political resistance and pressure from France on Belgium.

The situation of the Catholic Church

From a church perspective, the situation in “New Belgium” was not easy, as a large part of the local clergy still felt connected to the Archdiocese of Cologne . As the situation escalated, the Primate of Belgium Cardinal Mercier called Pope Benedict XV. for help. This created the diocese of Eupen-Malmedy through the papal bull Ecclesiae Universae of July 30, 1920 . Titular Bishop was the Bishop of Liège, Monsignor Rutten, who was solemnly installed on October 13 and elevated the parish church of Malmedy to a cathedral . A new papal bull dated April 15, 1925 repealed this condition and the area was incorporated into the diocese of Liège .

“Heimattreue” (anti-Belgian) Belgians and German subversion

As early as 1919, pro-German political organizations such as the Agricultural Association Eupen-Malmedy (1919), the Heimatbund Eupen-Malmedy-St. Vith (1926) and the Christian People's Party ( 1928/29 ).

After Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor , Eupen formed around the German doctor Dr. Paul Dohmen was a loosely-knit circle of staunch National Socialists who, after one year, registered 150 members and grew to 1,737 members by March 1939:

“For reasons of conspiracy, they called themselves the 'Association for Nature and Local History', in order not to give the Belgian authorities any reason to intervene. At the head of the association was one of the most ardent representatives of National Socialist ideas in Eupen, the gardener Josef Kerres . The club was finally renamed the 'glider club' after the purchase of a glider. Similar organizations were founded as offshoots in Malmedy and St. Vith under the companies 'Saalschutz' and 'Bogenschützengesellschaft'. "

- Herbert Ruland : Belgium: Contemporary history and memory of 2 world wars in a complicated country

But even before 1933, so-called “ national politics ” was practiced in Germany . So had Franz Thedieck , after World War II. State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for "All-German Affairs" [...] [intelligence], even before he had been "commissioner of the Prussian government for Eupen-Malmedy used 1931, 'for, Prussian Defense unit against separatism in the Rhineland ', whose area of ​​care also included Eupen-Malmedy . "

The German attack on Belgium in 1940 and its consequences

Language and political borders in Ostbelgien in the first half of the 20th century

During the Second World War , which began on September 1, 1939 with the German attack on Poland , the Eupen-Malmedy area was incorporated into the German Reich on May 18, 1940 after Belgium was conquered by the German Wehrmacht . On June 1, 1940, the German Reich annexed other predominantly German-speaking communities in "Old Belgium" that had not belonged to the German Reich before 1920:

Further annexation plans of the Gauleiter Josef Grohé , which provided for a larger inclusion of non-German-speaking areas, including Vielsalm and Stavelot , did not prevail.

Over 8,000 East Belgians served in the German Wehrmacht from autumn 1941, including on the Eastern Front . The heavy losses led to the bitterness of many East Belgians, who increasingly doubted the annexation by Germany. In December 1944, in the course of the Ardennes offensive, first Malmedy and then Sankt Vith were badly hit by bombing raids by the Western Allies; Furthermore, many villages were devastated during the German offensive in the winter of 1944/45. See also:

After Germany's defeat in 1945, the occupying powers handed Eupen-Malmedy over to Belgium.

The time since the Second World War

Results of the Belgian-German border treaty of 1956: The restoration of the border from 1920 is recognized by the Federal Republic of Germany ; Fringshaus is exchanged for the Wallerscheider forest ; five small towns that Belgium at the end of World War II on the restoration of the borders of 1920 also had occupied, be vacated.

After Belgian annexation attempts in 1949, further areas of Germany fell temporarily to Belgium. On September 24, 1956, the German-Belgian border treaty on the rectification and inviolability of the existing border was signed. The border was corrected on August 28, 1958 ( Federal Law Gazette II p. 262 ). The town of Losheimergraben and the western part of the town of Leykaul as well as some forest areas were excluded from the return . This also recognized that the area around Eupen-Malmedy-Sankt Vith belonged to Belgium.

After years of the purge policy, which subjected all Belgian Wehrmacht soldiers to strict scrutiny and sometimes arbitrary punishments, and which left the population with a massive handicap in everyday life (suspicion of active collaboration with the German occupier during the World War; restrictive issuing of permits for crossing the border to Germany; attempt a state-mandated assimilation to French culture), a German-speaking area was officially recognized again for the first time since 1945 in the course of the regionalization of Belgium in the language law of 1963, which was promoted by the Walloon-Flemish conflict .

In 1973 the Council of the German Cultural Community (RdK) was set up, which was able to expand its powers and financial resources in the following years. Today, the German-speaking Belgians have extensive autonomy thanks to the powers of the German-speaking Community (DG) with their own parliament and government . The neighboring, partly German-speaking communities of Old Belgium are not included in this area . The areas of Malmedy and Weismes , in which the majority of French and Walloon dialects have been spoken since ancient times , on the other hand, belong to the French Community of Belgium. In all eleven communities in East Belgium, the respective linguistic minority enjoys relief in the form of special rights; they belong to the facility communities .

Since the détente between the Federal Republic of Germany and Belgium, which was not least promoted by the establishment of the EC in 1957, the German-speaking East Belgians increasingly see themselves as a link between a German and French language and cultural area that spans national borders. The memory of the historical - albeit not conflict-free - relations with Austria , Spain and the Netherlands may also play a certain role in this new self-image. In addition to local and national-Belgian issues, East Belgian politics is mainly involved in the development of the triangle, the Euregio Meuse-Rhine around the regional centers of Maastricht (NL), Liège (BE) and Aachen (DE).

See also

Portal: German-speaking community  - overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of German-speaking community

literature

General

19th century

  • Sebastian Scharte: Prussian - German - Belgian. National experience and identity. Life on the German-Belgian border in the 19th century. Waxmann, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-8309-2406-7 .

(particularly) 1919-1945

  • H.-Dieter Arntz : Persecution of Jews and help to escape in the German-Belgian border area. Schleiden, Euskirchen, Monschau, Aachen and Eupen / Malmedy districts. Kümpel, Euskirchen 1990, ISBN 3-9800787-6-0 .
  • Luise Clemens, Andreas Fickers, Monika Röther: From the Prussian gazette to the loyal mouthpiece. The Malmedy-St.Vither “People's Newspaper” in the press landscape of the interwar period. In: Heinz Warny (Ed.): Two centuries of German-language newspaper in East Belgium. Grenz-Echo-Verlag, Eupen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86712-016-6 , pp. 211-238.
  • Burkhard Dietz, Helmut Gabel, Ulrich Tiedau (eds.): The grip to the west. The " West Research " of the ethnic-national sciences on the north-western European area 1919-1960. (= Studies on the history and culture of Northwest Europe. 6). Waxmann, Münster [a. a.] 2003, ISBN 3-8309-1144-0 .
  • Bruno Kartheuser: The 30s in Eupen-Malmedy. Insight into the network of Imperial German subversion (Volume 1 of: ders., Walter Schmald: SD in Tulle . Krautgarten, St. Vith 2001 ( library records in the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog ; book prospectus (PDF); excerpts from French, Dutch and German-language press reviews and others Comments on the book )).
  • Peter M. Quadflieg : "Forced Soldiers" and "Ons Jongen". Eupen-Malmedy and Luxembourg as recruiting areas for the German Wehrmacht in World War II. (= Aachen studies on economic and social history. 5). Shaker Verlag , Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8322-7078-0 .
  • Martin R. Schärer: German annexation policy in the west. The reintegration of Eupen-Malmedy in the Second World War. (Series: Europäische Hochschulschriften , R. 3, History and their auxiliary sciences , Volume 38), Lang: Bern / Frankfurt am Main / Las Vegas, 1st edition: 1975. 2nd, improved edition with an introduction and a register: 1978 .

After 1945

  • Christoph Brüll u. a. (Ed.): Borderline experiences. A history of the German-speaking community of Belgium . Volume 5: Purge, Reconstruction, Autonomy Discussions (1944–1973). Grenz-Echo Verlag, Eupen 2013, ISBN 978-3-86712-086-9 .
  • Christoph Brüll (Ed.): An East Belgian zero hour? State Archives, Brussels 2013, ISBN 978-90-5746-585-7 .
  • Gerd Kleu: The reorganization of the eastern cantons of Belgium 1945–1956. Klartext, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-417-7 .
  • Ulrike Schwieren-Höger, Jörn Sackermann: East Belgium and the German-speaking Community of Belgium. Grenz-Echo-Verlag, Eupen 2006, ISBN 90-5433-214-X .

Encyclopedia Article

  • Encyclopedia Americana . International Edition. Complete in Thirty Volumens, Scholastic Publishing, Danbury CT 2005 (quoted as Ency. Am. + Volume [Roman numeral] + year of publication + page + Lemma < sv >).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Highlighted in yellow on the right of the map.
  2. ^ "Ostbelgien" instead of "DG" , Belgian Radio and Television Center of the German-speaking Community (BRF) , September 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ The dialects spoken in Eupen and north of it are Lower Franconian ; see also Rhein-Maaslandisch . The dialects east and south of Eupen are Middle Franconian .
  4. ↑ Highlighted in green on the right of the map.
  5. ↑ Before Ostbelgien fell to Prussia for around a hundred years, it had belonged mainly to the duchies of Luxembourg and Limburg since the Middle Ages . Please refer
    • especially on Eupen and Limburg: "The canton of Eupen was part of the Duchy of Limburg until […] 1794." ( Ency. Am. V [2005], 662, sv Eupen )
    such as
  6. ↑ The term German-speaking Belgians does not usually include the small group of Germanophones from the southern Areler Land in the province of Luxembourg ; today their dialect is usually assigned to Luxembourgish . The municipalities of the Areler Land are not part of the municipalities with facilities .
  7. ↑ In contrast to the nine predominantly German-speaking and the two predominantly French-speaking municipalities of the eastern cantons, in which the rights of the linguistic minority are consistently applied, in relation to the Montzener Land one speaks of dormant facilities , since there regulations in favor of the linguistic minority are possible, but not implemented systematically (or not at all).
  8. ↑ Finally, it should be mentioned that not all areas in the German-Belgian-Luxembourg border area that fell to Prussia in 1815 were spun off from Prussia in 1919.
  9. ↑ Only in the High Fens between Eupen and Malmedy is the area considerably narrower.
  10. ↑ The Gallic version of Celtic was loud Caesar of different tribes in parts of present-day France to the Seine and Marne (river) , and in Switzerland speaking on the Upper Rhine ( C. Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico , Book 1, Chapter 1 ) . A few inscribed objects (instrumenta) can also be found north of the Seine (up to today's Belgium) and in northern Italy (Pierre-Yves Lambert, La langue gauloise , éditions errance 1994). The Celtic language area as a whole was much larger: see the adjacent map .
    Celtic language areas over time or the spread of Celtic peoples and languages:
  11. Area of ​​the Hallstatt culture in the 6th century BC Chr.
  12. Largest Celtic extension, around 275 BC. Chr.
  13. Lusitania (Celtic settlement uncertain)
  14. The "six Celtic Nations ", which had a significant number of speakers of Celtic languages until the early modern period .
  15. The current range of Celtic languages
    16. Map based on: John Haywood, Atlas of the Celtic World , Thames & Hudson: London, 2001, pp. 30–37 and other sources .
  16. ↑ In 590 an Irish monk left the British Isles for the first time to do missionary work on the mainland. Columban the Younger (* 540; † 615) was the first to appear in the Merovingian ( Merovingian : oldest royal family of the Franks from 5th to 8th centuries) area. He founded a monastery called Annegray in the Franconian Empire .
  17. ↑ Clovis I, king of the Franks, (* 466; † 511 near Paris ) converted to Catholic Christianity around 500 - probably under the influence of his wife Chrodechild (* around 474 in Lyon; † 544 in Tours ) . In Lyon , the Christian - was in the year 177 - Roman times martyr Blandina been (* 150) killed.
  18. ↑ See: 1400 Limburg.png(the Principality of Liège around 1400 in purple).
  19. ↑ Emperor Heinrich IV placed Malmedy under the rule of the Stablo monastery (Stavelot) around 1080.
  20. ↑
    The High Fens extends from areas west of Malmedy to areas east of today's German border (here outlined in red)

    Parts of the High Fens also belonged to the territory of the imperial abbey , which in any case also extends to areas west of Malmedy, so that this is not an argument against the thesis of the then predominantly Limburg and Luxembourg (i.e. later: Brabant) influence in East Belgium.

  21. ↑ Andlermühle; northeast of it: Manderfeld; southwest of it: Schönberg (all three: Verviers, Liège, Wallonia, Belgium). OpenStreetMap , accessed January 30, 2019 .
  22. ^ JH Kaltenbach: The administrative district of Aachen: A guide for teachers, travelers and others. Friends of Homeland Studies , 1850, page 456: “[…]; In 1374 […] Emperor Karl IV transferred the fiefdom [for the Schöneberg Castle] to the Archbishop of Trier […]. Until the French occupation, Schönberg was the seat of a Churttrier office, which was divided into 3 courts: Amelscheid [today: Belgium], Auw [today: Germany] and Manderfeld [today: Belgium]. ”(A more detailed one follows Modification of the extent of the various courtyards, from which it can be seen that Schönberg belonged to Amelscheid.)
  23. ↑
    Kleve - and to the south of it Geldern, before it became Prussian.

    For a detailed representation of the area around Kleve and Geldern from 1614–1672 see the map on the right . The part of the Spanish Netherlands that borders Kleve on the map passed to Prussia in 1713 .

  24. ↑ Luxembourg was still involved in the German Confederation, but no longer in the North German Confederation: see History of Luxembourg # Grand Duchy of Luxembourg within the German Confederation and the maps in the articles on the German and North German Confederation.
  25. ↑ together with the city and district of Aachen and the districts of Düren , Erkelenz , Geilenkirchen , Heinsberg and Jülich
  26. ↑ Topographical-statistical overview of the administrative district of Aachen . Aachen, 1820.
  27. ↑ Foreign-language minorities in the German Reich, census of December 1, 1900 ( Memento of April 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  28. ↑ On the history of the German-speaking community. (No longer available online.) Parliament of the German-speaking Community in Belgium, archived from the original on February 6, 2013 ; Retrieved July 22, 2017 .
  29. ↑ On the term “subversion” in the present context, see the two publications by Bruno Kartheuser named in the bibliography and on the web links.
  30. ↑ Schärer: Annexation Policy . P. 32: “In Eupen-Malmedy various organizations fought for the return to Germany: The 'Heimatbund Eupen-Malmedy-St. Vith '(1926); [...]; the 'Agricultural Association Eupen-Malmedy' (1919), whose activities facilitated the integration of agriculture in 1940 ”and other organizations.
  31. ^ Belgium: Contemporary history and memory of 2 world wars in a complicated country. Accessed January 31, 2019 . , according to footnote 45: “In 1925, the 'New Belgians' were able to take part in elections to the Belgian Chamber for the first time. Even in the run-up to the elections, the question arose whether a new movement should be founded based on the Center Party , which dominated the Reichstag elections almost like a monopoly before the political changes were made, or whether the Catholic electorate should orient itself towards the relevant Belgian party should. Eventually the latter was realized. In the elections on April 5, 1925, the Catholic Union in the Eupen-Malmedy area received two-thirds of the votes cast, but the Socialists, who also unconditionally advocated the right to self-determination in the New Belgian region, received a quarter of the votes. Out of disappointment with the attitude of the Catholic Union on this issue, a 'Christian People's Party' (CVP) was founded before the chamber elections in 1929, which put the revisionist idea of ​​a re-organization of the area into Germany at the center of its election agitation. While the socialists were able to keep their share of the vote roughly, the Catholic Union experienced its fiasco and sank below almost 20%; the newly founded CVP received 52% straight away. "
  32. ^ Belgium: Contemporary history and memory of 2 world wars in a complicated country. Accessed January 31, 2019 . , Section "The establishment of the 'Heimattreuen Front'"
  33. ↑ Schärer: Annexation Policy . P. 32 at footnote 43.
  34. ↑ A 'company' is specifically a name under which a business is operated ( Section 17 of the Commercial Code ); in general every name or - in the case of secret services and (other) conspiratorial organizations: every legend - under whom something happens.
  35. ↑ See on these structures also Schärer: annexation policy . P. 32: "Activist SS-like cover organizations of the 'glider pilots' in Eupen [...], the 'Saalschutz' in Malmedy and the 'archers in St. Mitte'" - all founded in the mid-1930s.
  36. ^ Belgium: Contemporary history and memory of 2 world wars in a complicated country. Accessed January 31, 2019 . , Section "The establishment of the 'Heimattreuen Front'" (with further references in footnote 46)
  37. ^ Bruno Kartheuser: Subversion nazie et action secrète. (PDF) p. 28 , accessed on February 1, 2019 . "Bureau de contre-espionnage (defense) pour combattre le séparatisme rhénan" (emphasis added).
    See the terminology: From 1920 to 1944 the German military intelligence service was called "Abwehr"; but also the foreign ministry (foreign office) had a "defense department"; The Association for Germanness Abroad also competed with the military intelligence service for competencies (see Defense (intelligence service) #Abwehr AA ).
    Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer is said to have "in December 1949 [...] in a personal conversation [...] made Thedieck the offer to take over the management of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is currently being established" ( Stefan Creuzberger , Kampf für die Einheit . The all-German ministry and the political culture of the Cold War 1949–1969, Droste: Düsseldorf, 2008 ( review by Sehepunkte ), p. 69 at footnote 110) (see for more details on this in the article     Franz Thedieck (politician) #Verfassungsschutz ) - this offer would probably not be without previous community service experience Thediecks is done.
  38. ↑ He had held this office from 1923 to 1930 (see the article Franz Thedieck (Politician) #Life und Beruf ).
  39. ↑ Schärer: Annexation Policy . P. 32 at footnotes 39 and 40.
  40. ↑ GR-Atlas: List of municipalities in the fourth paragraph ( Memento from July 14, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  41. ↑ 2 volumes; searchable online; u. a. on the subversion of the Nazi military secret service agents Alfred Toepfer , Friedrich Carl Marwede , Friedrich Scheuermann, Hans Otto Wagner, Alfred Kehrl.