When was France taken back from Germany?
55462881#12
The Germany army invaded Poland in September 1939: The French and British governments responded by declaring war on Germany a few days later, although military assistance to Poland was not significant. For most of the residents of Paris and London there was little immediate impact before May 1940 when the Germany army invaded France. By that time thousands of people who had been forced to escape from Germany to Paris for reasons of political activism and/or race had been identified as enemy aliens and arrested. (Similar steps were taken by the London government.) Walter and Ruth Fabian were briefly held in Paris and then moved to a detention centre at Marolles, a run down village near Blois. Walter Fabian was able to use his time here to read Nausea, a prescient and subsequently well regarded novel by a then little known novelist called Jean-Paul Sartre. He was also able to produce a few articles for newspapers in Switzerland. Some 25,000 German and Austrian political internees were by now being transferred to vast internment camps in the southwest of the country. In order to avoid that fate Walter Fabian volunteered for service in the French Foreign Legion at the start of January 1940, which involved service in North Africa. Ruth seems to have returned briefly to Paris where Annette, the couple's daughter, was born early in March 1940. She then headed back south with her baby and settled in the "Free zone", administered from Vichy by a puppet government and still, at this stage, permitted a significant measure of autonomy by the Germans.
Walter Fabian
2382934#11
Area of eastern France taken over by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War. During 1870–1871, there was a single issue for the whole territory. Stamps of Germany replaced this and were used 1872–1918. The area was returned to France after World War I. French stamps have been used since 1918 except for the German occupation in World War II (1940–1944) when separate issues were made for Alsace and Lorraine.
Compendium of postage stamp issuers (Al–Aq)
47012170#10
France was occupied by Nazi Germany from 22 June 1940 until early May 1945. An occupying power endeavours to normalise life as far as is possible since this optimises the maintenance of order and minimises the costs of occupation. The Germans decreed that life, including artistic life should resume as before (the war). There were exceptions. Jews were targeted, and their art collections confiscated. Some of this consisted of modern, degenerate art which was partly destroyed, although some was sold on the international art market. Masterpieces of European art were taken from these collectors and French museums and were sent to Germany. Known political opponents were also excluded and overtly political art was forbidden.
Art and World War II
58006979#0
France entered World War I on August 3, 1914, when Germany declared war. France played only a small part in the diplomatic crisis of July 1914–its top leaders were out of the country from July 15 to July 29, when most of the critical decisions were taken. Austria and Germany deliberately acted to prevent the French and Russian leadership from communicating during the last week in July. But this made little difference as French policy in strong support of Russia had been locked in. Germany realized that a war with Russia meant a war with France, and so its war plans called for an immediate attack on France – through Belgium – hoping for a quick victory before the slow-moving Russians could become a factor. France was a major military and diplomatic player before and after the July crisis, and every power paid close attention to its role. Historian Joachim Remak says:
French entry into World War I
15439204#10
In 1871 Grandfontaine benefited from a last minute renegotiation following the surrender of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany. France was keen to retain a railway line of which, under the terms originally imposed, six kilometres near Avricourt would have ended up in Germany. The Germans were however to return the small amount of land involved to France in return for a large area of woodland surrounding the nearby communes of Raon-sur-Plaine and Raon-lès-Leau in Lorraine. The woodland provided excellent scope for profitable forestry and contributed to the prosperity of Grandfontaine (now in Germany). After 1919 and again in 1944, when Alsace and Lorraine were transferred back to France, there was no appetite for returning to the pre-1871 frontier between Alsace and Lorraine: the lucrative forests remain in Alsace and the Grandfontaine commune has retained them, notwithstanding the protests from Raon across the mountains in Lorraine.
Grandfontaine, Bas-Rhin
2949977#42
France was not invited to the Potsdam Conference. As a result, it chose to adopt some decisions of the Potsdam Agreements and to dismiss others. France maintained the position that it did not approve post-war expulsions and that therefore it was not responsible to accommodate and nourish the destitute expellees in its zone. While the few war-related refugees who had reached the area to become the French zone before July 1945 were taken care of, the French military government for Germany refused to absorb post-war expellees deported from the East into its zone. In December 1946, the French military government for Germany absorbed into its zone German refugees from Denmark, where 250,000 Germans had found a refuge from the Soviets by sea vessels between February and May 1945. These clearly were war-related refugees from the eastern parts of Germany however, and not post-war expellees.
Allied-occupied Germany
215166#8
Under the Versailles Settlement, the Rhineland was demilitarized. Germany accepted this arrangement under the Locarno Treaties of 1925. Hitler claimed that it threatened Germany and on 7 March 1936 he sent German forces into the Rhineland. He gambled on Britain not getting involved but was unsure how France would react. The action was opposed by many of his advisers. His officers had orders to withdraw if they met French resistance. France consulted Britain and lodged protests with the League, but took no action. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin said that Britain lacked the forces to back its guarantees to France and that in any case, public opinion would not allow it. In Britain, it was thought that the Germans were merely walking into "their own backyard". Hugh Dalton, a Labour Party MP who usually advocated stiff resistance to Germany, said that neither the British people nor Labour would support military or economic sanctions. In the Council of the League, only the Soviet Union proposed sanctions against Germany. Hitler was invited to negotiate. He proposed a non-aggression pact with the Western powers. When asked for details he did not reply. Hitler's occupation of the Rhineland had persuaded him that the international community would not resist him and put Germany in a powerful strategic position.
Appeasement
206997#8
In 1871, the newly created German Empire's demand for Alsace from France after its victory in the Franco-Prussian War was not simply a punitive measure. The transfer was controversial even among the Germans: The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, was initially opposed to it, as he thought it would engender permanent French enmity toward Germany. Some German industrialists did not want the competition from Alsatian industries, such as the cloth makers who would be exposed to competition from the sizeable industry in Mulhouse. Karl Marx also warned his fellow Germans: "If Alsace and Lorraine are taken, then France will later make war on Germany in conjunction with Russia. It is unnecessary to go into the unholy consequences."
Alsace-Lorraine
13224#117
Disputes between France and Prussia increased. In 1868, the Spanish queen Isabella II was expelled by a revolution, leaving that country's throne vacant. When Prussia tried to put a Hohenzollern candidate, Prince Leopold, on the Spanish throne, the French angrily protested. In July 1870, France declared war on Prussia (the Franco-Prussian War). The debacle was swift. A succession of German victories in northeastern France followed, and one French army was besieged at Metz. After a few weeks, the main army was finally forced to capitulate in the fortress of Sedan. French Emperor Napoleon III was taken prisoner and a republic hastily proclaimed in Paris. The new government, realising that a victorious Germany would demand territorial acquisitions, resolved to fight on. They began to muster new armies, and the Germans settled down to a grim siege of Paris. The starving city surrendered in January 1871, and the Prussian army staged a victory parade in it. France was forced to pay indemnities of 5 billion francs and cede Alsace-Lorraine. It was a bitter peace that would leave the French thirsting for revenge.
History of Germany
4170535#86
After guaranteeing the independence of Poland, both declared war on Germany on the same day, 3 September 1939, after the Germans ignored an ultimatum to withdraw from the country. When Germany began its attack on France in 1940, British troops and French troops again fought side by side. Eventually, after the Germans came through the Ardennes, it became more possible that France would not be able to fend off the German attack. The final bond between the two nations was so strong that members of the British cabinet had proposed a temporary union of the two countries for the sake of morale: the plan was drawn up by Jean Monnet, who later created the Common Market. The idea was not popular with a majority on either side, and the French government felt that, in the circumstances, the plan for union would reduce France to the level of a British Dominion. When London ordered to withdraw the English expeditionary corps from France without telling the French and Belgium forces and then refused to provide France a real air support the proposal was definitely turned down. Later The Free French resistance, led by Charles de Gaulle, were formed in London, after de Gaulle gave his famous 'Appeal of the 18th of June', broadcast by the BBC. De Gaulle declared himself to be the head of the one and only true government of France, and gathered the Free French Forces around him.
France–United Kingdom relations