British International Police Force - Saarbrücken 1934

[Brian Wolfe]

International Police Force, Saar 1934

This photo arrived the other day and I purchased it because I think it shows a very significant period in history. More than that I believe it captures an event that is about to take place that was one of the first of the “dominos” to fall that led up to the Second World War.

As the note on the back of the photo states (see image below) these are the British Troops of the International Police Force marching through the streets of Saarbrücken on the last day before the plebiscite that would restore the territory of the Saar Basin to Germany.

A movement to establish an International Police Force was started in the 1930s with the idea that this force would enforce the peace. One of the main supporters for this initiative was Lord David Davies and he outlined his own version in his book, The Problem of the Twentieth Century (1930). His work influenced British planners to support some sort of international policing in keeping with the intentions of the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations.

The Saar Basin, a region of German, was occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France after the First World War under a League of Nations mandate. Originally this was under the auspices of the Treaty of Versailles. The occupation of this highly industrialized Saarland was to be for a period of fifteen years. During this occupation the coal reserves of the area were controlled by France, possibly as a condition imposed upon German in an effort to pay for the cost of the war. Once this fifteen year occupation was ended there was to be a plebiscite to determine the Saar’s future.

In Germany, at this time, the Nazi Party, under Adolf Hitler, was gaining power. Contrary to what one might take from news films of the time, shown in documentaries today, not everyone was a supporter of this regime. Many opponents fled Germany and a considerable number of them settled in the Saar Region. Naturally as the plebiscite date drew closer the opponents of the Saar returning to German control openly supported remaining with British and French occupation under the League of Nations mandate.

On 13 January 1935 the plebiscite was held and the region returned to Germany and the control of the Nazis. The vast number of the population being German made the occupation and therefore control by the British and no doubt especially the French very unpopular. During the actual time of the plebiscite there was a fear of Bolshevism, this plus the support of the local Catholic authorities and a general dislike of the occupation sealed the fate of the Saar. On 17 January 1935 the Saar was returned to Germany approved by a motion of the League of Nations and on 1 March the Saar was officially absorbed into the German Reich.

Former politicians, collaborators of the occupation and opponents of the Nazi Party in the Saar were all arrested and imprisoned, once Hitler had control of the region. Following this act Adolf Hitler announced to the world that Germany had no further territorial demands to make of France. Today we know that this was only the beginning of territorial demands, which were to be followed by statements from Hitler that Germany “had no further demands”, until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

Regards

Brian

Research material for this article from:

Wikipedia,

Saar (League of Nations)

The International Encyclopaedia of Political Science:

Policing the World, Lord Davies and the Quest for Order in the 1930’s.

[Brian Wolfe]

This is the photo itself.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Brian - a great historical story - I hadn't even heard of it. Were they actually Army - there to do a Police job,

or , were they actually British Police Officers ? Post War we often sent Police contingents, but, I don't remember

earlier ones. Mervyn

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Mervyn,

As you can imagine I was torn between this section and the Police section. From what I understand these were military on a policing duty so I felt this was the correct section.

Using the military makes sense considering all of the factions that were in the area which might have resulted in the need for more force than would be expected from a police officer.

As a side note, I'm sorry about the small size of the letters. I wrote this in a word document and then imported it into the post. This lets me work on a piece over several days, otherwise I never get the time to finish a post in good time. I'll try to fix this problem for the next such post, perhaps using a larger size lettering on this end. It's funny because the blog section works just fine doing it the way I did for this post. I guess everyone knows the Alt+ or - trick.

Regards

Brian

[leigh kitchen]

Brian, somebody recently gave me the catalogue for Bosley's auction of 7the December 2012, an album was sold in that auction (Lt Col. RHGO Spence, Intelligence Officer to the International Force Saarbruecken), one photo, illustrated in the catalogue is of "British Troops marching under Nazi Drapes".

It appears to have been taken from a spot on the other side of the road, directly opposite the spot that yours was taken from, just as the men with tubas are passing.

[Brian Wolfe]

That's interesting, Leigh. It would be great to see if the "other" fellow was in one of their photos. A photo of a photographer taking a shot from the other side of the street. If you still have the catalouge any chance of posting a photo on the form from the other view?

Regards

Brian

[leigh kitchen]

Will do, it doesn't show the photographer but it was taken opposite "Heinrich Most" and shows the small projecting balcony that appears "above" the word "Most" in your photo. I would've scanned it but haven't got the scanner rigged up at the moment - hopefully later today.......

[Brian Wolfe]

I almost hate top admit it, but, to me, this is exciting stuff! Perhaps I need to get out more.

It's not often that something like this comes along; to be able to see two perspectives of the same event in pre-war history especially at the same location.

I'm looking forward to your scan.

Regards

Brian