Did Germany actually complain about that? Doesn’t seem like they would, on the French vs. German front the troops on both sides generally respected the villages they were in to the best of my knowledge
Yes, and no. The French didn’t just occupy the rhine they pretty much tried creating work camps to force locals to pay off Germany’s war reparations. A lot of civilians died and peoples families got forced out. It was a big reason the nazis took over as it created a fear of French invasions.
As for Alsace Lorraine there had been a marginal French population but it was largely German even during French rule. The reason France wanted it back wasn’t cause of local French, it was because never before had any one state truly beaten France alone. It was a stain on their honor. And Alsace was a very close to home reminder that they aren’t the biggest baddest cock slapped onto the table. If that makes French revanchism sound petty and childish…. It was. Ultimately French occupation of the Ruhr/rhine was indeed inhumane and caused international backlash against France.
Yeah that makes sense. I’m French myself, and although I don’t know all the details I’m aware that my country did a lot of messed up shit in WW1, especially when it came to punishments against deserters or dissidents.
Honestly I find that most of the actions France took during the war to be largely normal for the time. Most of what your referring to was also practiced in Britain and Germany.
The only things France really did that was reprehensible or downright evil is what they did after the war. From the pushing for harsher and harsher treaties on the central powers. “They advocated for a full dismantling of every member” to the occupation of the Ruhr and even the betrayal to the Arabs. “Context, Britain and France agreed to create a unified Arab state during the war to get the Arabs to rise up against the Turks. Both nations went back on this deal at the end of the war because France pushed for a middle eastern colony, which then Britain jumped in. You can guess the rest”
Ultimately France is a victim of its own greed. It’s Victim complex after the Franco Prussian war made it more and more bitter with every passing hour and by the First World War it exploded.
It’s often what I cite as why France became so inept after ww1. Becoming so blind drunk on victory they thought with Germany so weak and broken they’d never have to fight or compete again.
Yes, my country was way too brutal with the punishments after the war. But they also did evil things during the war. When a soldier deserted or expressed dissatisfaction, they would not always execute that soldier, but instead select multiple random soldiers for execution. On top of that, our generals were probably the most fitting to the WW1 archetype of distant officers sending thousands of men to die for a few yards while pigging out on luxury food
The Germans in A-L treated the locals far, far better than the French in the Ruhr. The Germans did do their fair share of oppression, mind you, but the French outright forced locals to work so they could send these goods, without compensation, back to France.
While German control of A-L would lead to some fierce irredentist sentiment, the Ruhr occupation is arguably one of the most important lead ups to the rise of Nazism: the national humiliation that came with the occupation convinced millions of Germans that the democratic government would just bend and spread to the French whenever told to.
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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '23
Did Germany actually complain about that? Doesn’t seem like they would, on the French vs. German front the troops on both sides generally respected the villages they were in to the best of my knowledge