Editing Saarland (section)

=== Interwar history ===
{{Main|Territory of the Saar Basin}}
In 1921, the [[Territory of the Saar Basin|Saargebiet]] was occupied by Britain and France under the provisions of the [[Treaty of Versailles]]. The occupied area included portions of the Prussian Rhine Province and the Bavarian [[Palatinate (region)|Rhenish Palatinate]]. In practice the region was administered by France. In 1920, this was formalized by a 15-year mandate by the [[League of Nations]].

In 1933, a considerable number of communists and other political opponents of [[Nazism]] fled to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany that remained outside national administration following the First World War. As a result, anti-Nazi groups agitated for the Saarland to remain under French administration. However, with most of the population being ethnically German, such views were considered suspect or even treasonous, and therefore found little support.

When the original 15-year term was over, a [[Saarland status referendum, 1935|plebiscite]] was held in the territory on 13 January 1935 in which 90.8 percent of those voting favoured rejoining Germany.