The Saar Conflict And Its Settlement Between France And Germany After World War Ⅱ

Saar is an area between France and Germany, whose strategic position is very important. Since modern times, Saar had established the great steel enterprise using its own abundant coal resources, and become the important industrial area on the Rhine River. After the referendum in 1935, Saar eventually returned to Germany as the legitimate territory under Nazi Germany. After World WarⅡ, France took the action unilaterally according to the foreign policy of wartime and diplomatic support of the Anglo-American powers, and basically realized its diplomatic goal—economically Saar integrated with France while separated from Germany politically. However, France's unilateral action is lack of legitimacy. After the start of the cold war, the Allied powers had changed their Germany policy gradually and had an increasingly marked reservation to the French policy.After the Federal Republic of Germany being founded, its attitude is clear on the Saar problem, it didn't admit emphatically the policy which France had taken. France continued to take further measures to reinforce its domination for obtaining permanent status. The Federal Republic firmly opposed to what France had done. The debate and contradictions between France and Germany become increasingly fierce, and became the important barrier that the federal republic of Germany regained the state sovereignty.From 1952 beginning, Saar problem became the prerequisite to sign and ratify EDC (European Defense Community).Under the British and American pressure, both governments successively conducted two negotiations based on the Europeanization of the Saar, eventually not being to reach an agreement in economy. In October 1954, when the Allies were ready to sign the Paris Agreements, the French Government still made the settlement of Saar problem as the prerequisite. Both governments had to continue negotiation again on the basis of the Europeanization of the Saar according to the Van Naters Plan. Both sides make concessions and eventually reached the Europeanization of Saar, and sign the Saar convention (1954). According to the agreement, Saar residents had the right to decide whether to accept Europeanization via referendum or not. On October 23, in 1955, Saar residents vetoed the 1954 Saar convention, and the Pro-German Party also won the Parliamentary elections and claimed to return to Germany. Then France had to accept the fact. After a series of negotiations, the economic interests of France in Saar also were satisfied. By the end of 1956, Saar was integrated into the Federal Republic and the economy of Saar was also fully integrated into the Federal of Republic three years later. Since then, Saar became the twelfth state of the federal republic.