The Saarlander
Vauban reports to Louis XIV: "It looks like Canada here: a lot of forest, a lot of water and no people." The repopulation of the Saar basin by Nassauer, Tyrolean etc. begins with his fortifications - the birth of the "Saarlander".
In 1766, Louis XV exchanged the rule of Püttlingen with Prince Christian Ludwig zu Wied-Runkel for the Wadgassen Abbey. He sold Püttlingen in 1788 to Prince Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken. In 1792 the French revolutionary troops occupied the areas on the Saar and Püttlingen became Puttelange and belonged to the Moselle department. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the area was divided between Prussia, Bavaria and Oldenburg (see map). Even after the customs borders fell in 1834, the economic boom began and the agricultural land turned into an industrial culture with coal mines, ironworks and glassworks. - If you had managed to assemble the locomotive delivered from England correctly, Germany's first railway would have run in Saarland!
The Saarland
In 1870 France declares war on Prussia. After Alt-Saarbrücken has been occupied for a few days, the battle on the Spicherer Heights takes place on August 6, with almost 9,000 dead. From 1871 to 1919 the areas on the Saar belonged to the German Empire (Rhine Province), which extends to Metz and Nancy.
In 1920 the Saar region was founded - the Saarland was born under French occupation. In 1935 the area was incorporated into the German Empire under the name Saarland.
After the Second World War, the Territoire du Bassin de la Sarre initially belonged to the French occupation zone. In 1947 the Saarland received its own constitution and the Saarlanders their own citizenship. On October 23, 1955, a referendum on the Europeanization of the Saar area is carried out, the result of which subsequently means that the Saarland has been part of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1957.
What remained or remains?
- Many Saarlanders have French relatives.
- Most of the Saarlanders feel like Europeans because of all the pushing back and forth.
- If you cross the border to Rhineland-Palatinate, you drive to "Reich", in the other direction you drive to buy Cremant or Petit Four.
- You are occasionally told that you actually speak German very well.
- The 'savoir vivre' is so close that the Saarland has the highest density of starred restaurants in Germany.
- ...
- The Saarland Clock Museum has an extensive collection of Comtoise clocks
- and one or the other interesting French clock (see next page).
The wall clock (around 1800) has a white porcelain plate with - from the outside to the inside - Arabic numbers from 1 to 31 for the days of the month, a minute ring, a ring with Roman numbers from 1 to 12 and a wreath with the four phases of the moon. In the innermost wreath, the abbreviations for two times seven days of the week are painted: JEU (Jeudi-Thursday), VEN (Vendredi-Friday), SAM (Samedi-Saturday), DIM (Dimanche-Sunday), LUN (Lundi-Monday), MAR (Mardi -Tuesday), MER (Mercredi-Wednesday). The symbols for Jupiter (Thursday), Venus (Friday), Saturn (Saturday), Sun (Sunday), Moon (Monday), Mars (Tuesday) and Mercury (Wednesday) follow. The clock has two onion-shaped brass hands for the hour and minute, and two black lacquered hands for the day of the week and day of the month. The brass movement has a solid wood frame with finger joints. The work probably originally had a spindle walk and was professionally rebuilt. It now has a rare escapement with a toothed escapement wheel with pins, like an Amant escapement (pin escapement, scissor escapement, Mannhardtgang), but an anchor with a large opening angle. The seconds pendulum (one full oscillation per second) moves in a special, rare pendulum suspension.
