World History: Germany in late 1918 was in turmoil after four long years of war. These had brought heavy casualties at the front and increasing deprivation and hunger at home as a result of the Allied blockade. Social tensions were mounting. Until late in the war the prospect of ultimate victory had always been promised by the military elite to a largely subservient population. Now Germanys true position had been exposed and with this came a whole range of emotions -- despair over the future, anger at being deceived and trauma over the loss of life for nothing. On the far Right, reaction to the defeat was expressed by blaming the home front and the influence of the Left. There was universal dismay at the terms of the Armistice but always hope that these would be mitigated when a negotiated Peace Treaty was signed. Dismay turned to fury, especially on the Right, when Allied terms were presented to the new republican Reich government and it was made known that these would not be negotiable -- disarmament, confiscation of German colonies, the return of Alsace to France, transfer of other territory to Belgium and Poland, and massive reparations. To ensure that these would be paid, the Rhineland would be occupied by the Allies for up to 15 years. Widespread protest against the imposition of the Versailles Treaty erupted across Germany but it was to no avail. From the German perspective there could not possibly be a return to hostilities. The nation was defenceless. The one weapon that remained and could be safely employed was propaganda. It would express defiance and through its use the outside world could be persuaded of the injustice done to the German nation. Hopefully, it was thought, this would lead to revision of the Treaty. The occupation of the Rhineland, especially by the traditional enemy, France, was particularly galling but worse was to come when the French employed colonial native troops -- mainly from Africa -- in their armies of occupation. To a proud European power accustomed to ruling colonial subjects, who were regarded as belonging to a lower level of civilisation, this represented the ultimate humiliation. The Propaganda War in the Rhineland Soldiers of the 1st Moroccan-Madagascan Infantry Regiment outside their quarters in Ludwigshafen in 1921 | Source: BArch, Bild 183-R11929 So, linked to the general protest and propaganda against the terms of the Versailles Treaty emerged a vicious and vitriolic campaign against the use of colonial troops -- the so-called Schwarze Schmach, or Black Humiliation (which I believe better reflects the feelings of those who coined the phrase). However, this was hardly the most significant problem being faced in the Rhineland. France had a long-standing interest in extending her eastern frontier to the Rhine for reasons of security and this made the Rhineland province of the Pfalz -- geographically distant from its mother state Bavaria -- of great strategic interest. Unable to annex the Pfalz through opposition from her Allies at the end of hostilities, France now attempted to woo the population of the Pfalz, or Palatinate, away from the German Reich, actively encouraging a nascent separatist movement. To counter this threat the Bavarian government set up an organisation, the so-called Pfalzzentrale, which was to play a major part in the propaganda war that broke out in 1919.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 17:10:11 +0000
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