Article about: Dutch annexation of German territory after World War II The Bakker-Schut Plan. To the left is the Netherlands, to the right is the part of Germany known as Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westp
Dutch annexation of German territory after World War II
The Bakker-Schut Plan. To the left is the Netherlands, to the right is the part of Germany known as Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The coloured areas in the middle are the parts proposed for annexation by the Netherlands.The Bakker-Schut Plan was proposed by the Netherlands after the end of World War II. It entailed giving the Netherlands huge monetary reparations from Germany and included the annexation of part of Germany, in its most ambitious form even including the cities of Cologne, Aachen, Münster and Osnabrück, that would have enlarged the country by 30 to 50 percent. The local population had to be either deported, or, when still speaking the original Low German dialects, dutchified. The name of the plan is derived from the commission member charged with working out the details. The plan was largely dropped after U.S. dismissal of it. Many Germans living in the Netherlands were however declared 'enemy subjects' and put into a concentration camp in an operation called Black Tulip. A total of 3,691 Germans were ultimately deported. The U.S. responded by expelling several thousand Dutch subjects living in the Allied occupation zones.
Implementation
The large scale annexation was in 1947 rejected by the Allied High Commission, on the grounds that Germany already contained 14,000,000 refugees from the annexations in the east, and that the remaining territory could not handle more refugees.
The London conference of April 23, 1949, did however permit some less far-reaching border modifications. At 12 o'clock of the very same day, Dutch troops occupied an area of 69 km2, the largest parts of which were Elten (near Emmerich am Rhein) and Selfkant. At that time, these areas were inhabited by a total of almost 10,000 people. The parcels transfered were named as follows:
Boertange
Denekamp
Losser
Rekken
Ramsbeek
Dinxperlo
Elten
Millingen
Beek
Reichswald
Hommersum
Siebengewald
Arcen
Sittard
Waubach
River Worm
Kerkrade
Vaals
Minor alterations to theis border were made in June 10, 1963.
The territory was returned to Germany on August 1, 1963, except one small hill near Wyler village, called Duivelsberg/Wylerberg which was annexed by Netherlands
Hi Nick, I had never heard of this plan before, so thanks for posting about it.
But I do know the area around Beek very well indeed. The local people have told me about the different border changes there, in particular one old lady who described it to me very well, saying how the Germans wanted it back a little at a time. To reinforce the Dutch claim to the hills there is a very large wooden Dutch flag situated on the highest point still there today. Some "then and now " pics here:
All very interesting and part of the general ethnic cleansing in response to Nazi policies of German imperialism at the expense of subject peoples in the years 1938-1945. One forgets, too, that in its way, Holland had a bad time in the second world war. The issue of the Saar was not resolved until 1955, and the fate of the territories beyond the Oder Neisse remains, at least in the hearts of those expelled from the Sudetenland, an issue, even if the FRG renounced any claim to these territories in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Especially the Benes decree that expelled Germans and Hungarians from Czechia and Slovakia, that is, once more Czechoslovakia in the wake of its liberation, are but one piece of the mosaic. Far greater, of course, was the expelling of ethnic Germans from eastern Europe in the wake of the German defeat, in some cases meaning the end of German settlements and towns with a rich and important tradition. All the reality of war and nationalism, a sad phenomenon which in Iraq and Afghanistan remains as urgent as it was in Europe. Or, to be Euro centric, one can hardly not mention the fate of nationalities and nation states in south eastern Europe even today. Or, look at the southern Caucasus just this very summer....all very brisant und aktuell.
One must thank God that the European Union has made much of this problem unimportant, as the meaning of these borders and nationality and nation have changed greatly in my life time.
Yet, eleswhere in the world, the construction of border fortifications and the stringing of barbed wire are in full swing.
Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year to a planet that seems prone to repeat its worst mistakes.
Thank you for this thread. Living just across the border from Siebengewald, it is more than interesting to know that my mother´s family, talking Platt and with the "van" in the name, might have been "dutchified" if the Bakker-Schut Plan would have been pushed through.
The Bakker-Schut Plan
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