Eupen-Malmedy
Eupen-Malmedy is a small, predominantly
Eupen-Malmedy became part of Belgium in the aftermath of
History
Background
The history of the area dates back to the 6th century, when Christianity was first introduced to Southern Rhineland. In 651, Frankish monks established Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy; Malmedy then became part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège, while Stavelot was attached to the Archdiocese of Cologne. Following the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Stavelot-Malmedy became a part of Middle Francia. Ultimately, the principality of Stavelot-Malmedy was an independent state within the Holy Roman Empire until 1795.[1]
The northern part around
In 1795, as the French Revolutionary Army entered the Austrian Netherlands, the area was also taken over and eventually incorporated in its entirety into the French department of the Ourthe.
Prussian administration, 1815–1919
At the
This change did not significantly affect the inhabitants of this region. Even in the mainly French or Walloon speaking Malmedy, changes went smoothly since the municipality was allowed to continue to use French for its administration until the Kulturkampf when the authorities forbade the use of French.
For instance, during a visit to the city in 1856, the King
Most of the territory had spoken German or German dialects for centuries, with Walloon being spoken by about two-thirds of the population in the district of Malmedy at the time it was newly created in 1816.[3] The overwhelmingly German-speaking district of Sankt Vith further south was, in 1821, united with the district of Malmedy to form a new, much larger district of Malmedy that then had a majority of German-speakers.
While the local francophone and germanophone population initially enjoyed good relations with each other, the relations soured after Bismarck ascended to power in 1862. Tension between the Walloon and germanophone communities further increased after the rise of German Empire in 1871. Bismarck's Kulturkampf policy greatly alienated the majority Catholic population of Eupen-Malmedy, and the policy soon escalated into exclusion of minority languages and discrimination of minorities. Only the use of the standard German language was permitted, and the Walloon population was prosecuted for speaking French publicy. After French and Walloon languages were excluded from both education and administration, Walloon administrations were expelled in 1879.[4]
According to the 1 December 1900 population census this new district of Malmedy had only a minority of 28.7% Walloon-speaking inhabitants. The smaller but more populous district of Eupen was almost entirely German-speaking, with Walloon and French speaking minorities making up less than 5 percent.[5] During the German occupation of Belgium during World War I, German policy of Flamenpolitik (favouring the Flemish over the Walloons) affected Eupen-Malmedy as well.[6]
Provisional Belgian administration, 1919–1925
During
In 1919, a Transitional Government was established for Eupen-Malmedy by the Belgian government. It was headed by a Belgian general,
The reaction of the German population to annexation varied. At the time, most of the population considered the republican government of Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann to be on a brink of collapse or a socialist revolution, which led some activists to advocate for the creation of the Rhenish Republic (which would eventually be created in 1923, but last only a month). Others did argue that the area should be annexed by Belgium - this idea was based on the premise that the "first Belgian king, Leopold I, himself of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, seemed a more endearing prospect than being party to a revolutionary republic as was being fought over in Germany". Local germanophone population of Eupen-Malmedy was heavily influenced by monarchism as well as Catholicism at the time.[11]
While most of the population was passive and indifferent to both the referendum and Belgian annexation, the Germans of Eupen-Malmedy were roughly evenly split into a pro-Belgian and pro-German camp, which ran across already existing ideological divides. Catholic and socialist circles supported annexation into Belgium, and were represented by German-speaking newspapers such as Die Fliegende Taube, La Semaine and Die Arbeit. The pro-German position was represented by liberal and secular circles, organized around newspapers such as Der Landbote and Eupener Zeitung.[12]
Previously part of the
Integration into Belgium, 1925–1940
In June 1925, Eupen-Malmedy was finally incorporated into the Belgian state as part of
The early Belgian administration of Eupen-Malmedy was paralleled by secret negotiations between Belgium and the
Various ethnic German organisations emerged in the Eupen-Malmedy region in the late 1920s, campaigning to promote German culture and the return of the territory to Germany.[16] After the rise to power of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany in 1933 and the revanchist campaign under the slogan Heim ins Reich (lit. 'Back Home to the Reich'), agitation in Eupen-Malmedy increased and many inhabitants began to wear swastika badges.[13] Local socialists began to distance themselves from calls to return to Germany.[17] In 1935, an openly pro-Nazi party emerged locally, known as the Homeland-Loyal Front (Heimattreue Front), which achieved a majority in all three of the Eupen-Malmedy districts in the elections of 1936 and 1939.[18]
Annexed to Germany, 1940–1945
In
Local support for the German takeover eroded sharply after the
Return to Belgium, 1945–present
After the war, the Belgian state reasserted sovereignty over the area, which caused the male inhabitants of the area who had served in the German army to lose their civil rights as "traitors to the Belgian state". After the war, the Belgian authorities opened 16,400 investigations into citizens from Eupen-Malmedy, representing around 25 percent of the region's entire population. In comparison, the figure for the rest of Belgium represented less than five percent.[22][20]
After the war, demands to return Eupen-Malmedy to Germany faded. The first regionalist political party, the
Languages
The linguistic situation of the wider area is complex since it lies on the border between the
Historically, in Aubel, Baelen, Plombières, Welkenraedt (neighbouring Belgian municipalities),
"The New Year's wishes have hardly been uttered when the children start going round from house to house in order to celebrate the three kings. The individual groups sing a song at the doors and demand a “lôtire” for their efforts, in other words a small sweetmeat. They sing in Walloon and say that the kings have sent them."[24]
The East Cantons as a whole should therefore not be confused with the German language region created in 1963 or with the German-speaking Community of Belgium, which does not include the (smaller) Malmedy and Waimes areas.
Current administration
After becoming part of Belgium in the 1920s, the municipalities composing these territories were grouped into the three cantons of Eupen, Malmedy, and Sankt Vith. The administration was overhauled during the local government reforms of 1976–77, and are now administered as follows:
- Eupen: Eupen and Kettenis
- Kelmis (in French La Calamine): Kelmis, Neu-Moresnet and Hergenrath
- Raeren: Raeren, Eynatten and Hauset
- Elsenborn
- Manderfeld and Rocherath
- Amel (in French Amblève): Amel, Herresbach, Heppenbach and Meyerode
- Burg-Reuland: Reuland and Thommen
- Malmedy: Malmedy, Bévercé and Bellevaux-Ligneuville
- Waimes (in German Weismes): Waimes, Faymonville and Robertville
Linguistically, the Canton of Malmedy is mostly Francophone while the Cantons of Eupen and Sankt Vith are mostly Germanophone. When the three language-based
See also
- Areas annexed by Nazi Germany
- Belgian annexation plans after the Second World War
- German-speaking Community of Belgium
- Low Dietsch
- Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy
References
- ISBN 978-1-349-95295-3.
- ^ a b c d Dewulf 2009, p. 70.
- ^ Hahn, Hans-Henning; Kunze, Peter (1999). Nationale Minderheiten und staatliche Minderheitenpolitik in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert [National minorities and state minority politics in Germany in the 19th century] (in German). Berlin: Akademie Verlag GmbH.
- ^ O'Connell 2018, p. 7.
- ^ "Foreign-language minorities in the German Reich according to the population census of 1 December 1900 (German)". Archived from the original on 14 April 2011.
- ^ O'Connell 2018, p. 10.
- ^ a b c d O'Connell 2013, p. 12.
- ^ O'Connell 2013, p. 13.
- ^ a b c O'Connell 2013, p. 15.
- ^ Dewulf 2009, p. 71.
- ^ O'Connell 2018, p. 26-27.
- ISSN 2364-4303.
- ^ a b O'Connell 2013, p. 34.
- ^ O'Connell 2013, pp. 18–23.
- ^ Grathwol 1975, pp. 221–50.
- ^ O'Connell 2013, pp. 33–4.
- ^ O'Connell 2013, p. 39.
- ^ O'Connell 2013, pp. 40–1.
- ^ a b c O'Connell 2013, p. 41.
- ^ a b c d Cook 2004, p. 143.
- ^ Dewulf 2009, p. 72.
- ^ O'Connell 2013, p. 43.
- ^ Dewulf 2009, p. 73.
- ^ "The Feast of Epiphany". Archived from the original on 2008-12-24. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
Bibliography
- Cook, Bernard A. (2004). Belgium: A History. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-5824-3.
- Dewulf, Jeroen (2009). ""O liebes Land", "o Belgiens Erde": The Development of the German-Speaking Community in Belgium Reflected in the Light of the Flemish Struggle for Autonomy". German Studies Review. 32 (1): 65–81. JSTOR 27668656.
- Grathwol, Robert P. (1975). "Germany and the Eupen-Malmédy Affair, 1924-26: "Here Lies the Spirit of Locarno"". Central European History. 8 (3): 221–50. S2CID 143743132.
- O'Connell, Vincent (2013). ""Left to Their Own Devices". Belgium's Ambiguous Assimilation of Eupen-Malmedy (1919-1940)" (PDF). Journal of Belgian History. 43 (4): 10–45.
Further reading
- Enssle, Manfred J. (1980). Stresemann's Territorial Revisionism: Germany, Belgium, and the Eupen-Malmédy Question, 1919-1929. Wiesbaden: Steiner. ISBN 9783515029599.
- Marks, Sally (1981). Innocent Abroad: Belgium at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Chapel Hill: ISBN 9780807897201.
- O'Connell, Vincent (2011). "Dictating Democracy: the Impact of Governor Baltia's Transitory Regime on Local Government In Eupen-Malmedy, 1919-1922-1925". The International Journal of Regional and Local Studies. 7 (1–2): 162–87. S2CID 153820141.
- O'Connell, Vincent (2018). The Annexation of Eupen-Malmedy: Becoming Belgian, 1919-1929. New York: ISBN 978-1-137-59089-3.
External links
- Brüll, Christoph: Eupen-Malmedy, In: 1914-1918-Online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.