Rhine Province

Rheinprovinz Rhine Province Province of Prussia ←   ← 1822 – 1946 →   →   → Flag Coat of arms The Rhine Province (red), within the Kingdom of Prussia, within the German Empire Capital Koblenz 50°22′N 7°36′E / 50.367°N 7.6°E / 50.367; 7.6Coordinates: 50°22′N 7°36′E / 50.367°N 7.6°E / 50.367; 7.6 History  - Established 1822  - Loss of Saar 1920  - Disestablished 1946 Area  - 1939 24,477 km² (9,451 sq mi) Population  - 1905 6,435,778   - 1939 7,931,942       Density 324.1 /km²  (839.3 /sq mi) Political Subdivisions Aachen Cologne Düsseldorf Koblenz Trier Today part of North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Hesse Eupen-Malmedy

The Rhine Province (German: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia (Rheinpreußen) and the Rhineland (Rheinland), was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Empire, from 1822-1946.

Origins and boundaries

It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg. Its capital was Koblenz and in 1939 it had 8.0 million inhabitants. The Province of Hohenzollern was militarily associated with the Oberpräsident of the Rhine Province.

It was the most westerly province of the Kingdom of Prussia, bounded on the north by the Netherlands, on the east by the Prussian provinces of Westphalia and Hesse-Nassau, and the grand duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, on the southeast by the Electoral Palatinate, on the south and southwest by Lorraine, and on the west by Luxemburg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The small district of Wetzlar in the midst of the province of Hesse also belonged to the Rhine Province, which, on the other hand, surrounded the Oldenburg principality of Birkenfeld.

In 1911, the extent of the province was 10,423 sq. km.; its extreme length, from north to south, was nearly 200 km., and its greatest breadth was just under 90 km. It included about 200 km. of the course of the Rhine, which formed the eastern frontier of the province from Bingen to Coblenz, and then flowed through this eastern frontier in a north-westerly direction.^[1]

Rhine Province, 1905

Agriculture

Of the total area of the Rhine province about 45% was occupied by arable land, 16% by meadows and pastures, and 31% by forests. Little except oats and potatoes could be raised on the high-lying plateaus in the south of the province, but the river-valleys and the northern lowlands were extremely fertile. The great bulk of the soil was in the hands of small proprietors, and this is alleged to have had the effect of somewhat retarding the progress of scientific agriculture. The usual cereal crops were, however, all grown with success, and tobacco, hops, flax, rape, hemp and beetroot (for sugar) were cultivated for commercial purposes. Large quantities of fruit were also produced.

The vine-culture occupied a space of about 30,000 acres, about half of which was in the valley of the Mosel, a third in that of the Rhine itself, and the rest mainly on the Nahe and the Ahr. In the hilly districts more than half the surface was sometimes occupied by forests, and large plantations of oak are formed for the use of the bark in tanning.

Considerable herds of cattle were reared on the rich pastures of the lower Rhine, but the number of sheep in the province was comparatively small, not greatly in excess of that of the goats. The wooded hills were well stocked with deer, and a stray wolf occasionally found its way from the forests of the Ardennes into those of the Hunsrück.

The salmon fishery of the Rhine was very productive, and trout abound in the mountain streams.^[1]

Mineral resources

The great mineral wealth of the Rhine province furnished its most substantial claim to the title of the “richest jewel in the crown of Prussia.”

Besides parts of the carboniferous measures of the Saar and the Ruhr, it also contains important deposits of coal near Aix-la-Chapelle. Iron ore was found in abundance near Coblenz, the Bleiberg in the Eifel possessed an apparently inexhaustible supply of lead, and zinc was found near Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle. The mineral products of the district also included lignite, copper, manganese, vitriol, lime, gypsum, volcanic stones (used for millstones) and slates. By far the most important item was coal.

Of the numerous mineral springs the best known were those of Aix-la-Chapelle and Kreuznach.^[1]

Industries

The mineral resources of the Prussian Rhine province, coupled with its favourable situation and the facilities of transit afforded by its great waterway, made it the most important manufacturing district in Germany.

The industry was mainly concentrated round two chief centres, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf (with the valley of the Wupper), while there were naturally few manufactures in the hilly districts of the south or the marshy flats of the north. The largest iron and steel works were at Essen, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne, while cutlery and other small metallic wares were extensively made at Solingen, Remscheid and Aix-la-Chapelle.

The cloth of Aix-la-Chapelle and the silk of Crefeld formed important articles of export. The chief industries of Elberfeld-Barmen and the valley of the Wupper were cotton-weaving, calico-printing and the manufacture of turkey red and other dyes. Linen was largely made at Gladbach, leather at Malmedy, glass in the Saar district and beetroot sugar near Cologne.

Though the Rhineland was par excellence the country of the vine, beer was produced in quantities, distilleries were also numerous, and large quantities of sparkling Moselle were made at Coblenz, chiefly for exportation to England.

Commerce was greatly aided by the navigable rivers, a very extensive network of railways, and the excellent roads constructed during the French régime. The imports consist mainly of raw material for working up in the factories of the district, while the principal exports are coal, fruit, wine, dyes, cloth, silk and other manufactured articles of various descriptions.^[1]

People

The population of the Rhine province in 1905 was 6,435,778, including 4,472,058 Roman Catholics, 1,877,582 Protestants and 55,408 Jews. The Roman Catholics muster strongest on the left bank, while on the right bank about half the population is Protestant. The great bulk of the population was of German stock, although the northern part (Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg) was more closely related to the Netherlands. On the western and southern frontiers resided smaller French-speaking communities.

The Rhine province was the most thickly populated part of Prussia, the general average being 617 persons per sq. m. The province contains a greater number of large towns than any other province in Prussia. Upwards of half the population are supported by industrial and commercial pursuits, and barely a quarter by agriculture. There was the university at Bonn, and elementary education was especially successful.^[1]

Government

Former prussian gouvernment building of the Rhine Province in Koblenz

For purposes of administration the province was divided into the five districts of Coblenz, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Trier. Coblenz was the official capital, though Cologne was the largest and most important town. Being a frontier province the Rhineland was strongly garrisoned, and the Rhine was guarded by the three strong fortresses of Cologne with Deutz, Coblenz with Ehrenbreitstein, and Wesel. The province sent 35 members to the German Reichstag and 62 to the Prussian house of representatives.^[1]

History

The Prussian Rhine province was formed in 1815 out of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, the ecclesiastic Electorate of Trier and Electorate of Cologne, the free cities of Aachen and Cologne, and nearly a hundred small lordships and abbeys.

Pre-Roman

At the earliest historical period, the territories between the Ardennes and the Rhine were occupied by the Treveri, the Eburones and other Celtic tribes, who, however, were all more or less modified and influenced by their Germanic neighbours. On the right bank of the Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, were the settlements of the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti, while farther to the north were the Usipetes and Tencteri.^[1]

Roman and German conquests

Julius Caesar conquered the tribes on the left bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine, but the Romans never succeeded in gaining a firm footing on the right bank. As the power of the Roman empire declined the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the 5th century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence. The Germanic conquerors of the Rhenish districts were singularly little affected by the culture of the Roman provincials they subdued, and all traces of Roman civilization were submerged. By the 8th century the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germany and northern Gaul.

On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun the part of the province to the east of the river fell to East Francia, while that to the west remained with the kingdom of Lotharingia.^[1]

Holy Roman Empire

By the time of Otto I. (d. 973) both banks of the Rhine had become part of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Rhenish territory was divided between the duchies of Upper Lorraine, on the Mosel, and Lower Lorraine on the Meuse.

As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland split up into numerous small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes and special chronicles. The old Lotharingian divisions became obsolete, and the name of Lorraine became restricted to the district that still bears it.

In spite of its dismembered condition, and the sufferings it underwent at the hands of its French neighbours in various periods of warfare, the Rhenish territory prospered greatly and stood in the foremost rank of German culture and progress. Aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine bulked largely in German history.^[1]

Prussian influence

Prussia first set foot on the Rhine in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves and about a century later Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian. At the peace of Basel in 1795 the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was resigned to France, and in 1806 the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine. The congress of Vienna assigned the whole of the lower Rhenish districts to Prussia, which had the tact to leave them in undisturbed possession of the liberal institutions they had become accustomed to under the republican rule of the French.^[1]

20th Century

In 1920, the Saar was separated from the Rhine Province and administered by the League of Nations until a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to the German Reich. At the same time, in 1920, the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium (see German-Speaking Community of Belgium). In 1946, the Rhine Province was divided into the newly-founded states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate.

References