Saarland – A European History

Saarland – A European History

The Saarland is a modern, cosmopolitan German federal state in the heart of Europe. An immediate neighbour of France and Luxembourg, it has developed into a region in which international cooperation in politics and commerce has become as much a matter of course as cross-border practices in cultural and everyday life. A European consciousness and lifestyle inspired by the French joie de vivre connect the citizens of this youngest of the old West German states.
Saarland’s special character is the product of a long and varied, yet often conflict-ridden history. This exhibition follows the course of such a European history up to the birth of the Saarland as a German federal state almost one hundred years ago. The aim is to show that Saarland’s self-awareness and the special relationship it enjoys with its European neighbours did not begin to develop after it became a German federal state but had, in fact, already taken root when the Saarland was under the administration of the League of Nations in the 1920s. Nevertheless, it was only after the painful ordeals of two world wars and the experiences of the conflicts resulting in two referendums that the particular learning process was set in motion, which would firmly establish the spirit of friendship and reconciliation and make the Saarland the most Frenchified and most European of all the German federal states.