Francfort place de l'Opéra Illustration 1920

French occupation of Frankfurt occurred from 6 April to 17 May 1920 as part of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland. The principal city occupied was

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, but the French also occupied

Dieburg Dieburg () is a small town in southern Hesse, Germany. It was formerly the seat of the district ("Kreis") of Dieburg, but is now part of the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg. History The town of Dieburg was first named in 1492 in the tax books of the ...

, Darmstadt, Hanau and Homburg. The occupation was in response to the mobilisation of armed forces by the government of Hermann Müller to suppress the Ruhr Uprising - which in turn was part of a widespread strike movement which defeated the

Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo th ...

French economic concerns

On 20 January 1920

Alexandre Millerand Alexandre Millerand (; – ) was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 20 January to 23 September 1920 and President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924. His participation in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet at the s ...

succeeded

Georges Clemenceau Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...

as Prime Minister of France. On 31 January he attended the first meeting of the

Conseil supérieur de la guerre The Conseil supérieur de la guerre (CSG, Superior War Council) was the highest military body in France under the Third Republic. It was under the presidency of the Minister of War, although vice presidents presided in his absence and took care of ...

since the

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

and enquired whether the French Army was capable of occupying the Ruhr.

Edmond Buat Edmond Alphonse Léon Buat (17 September 1868 – 30 December 1923) was a general in the French Army, who served as Chief of the Army Staff from 25 January 1920 until his death. World War I In World War I, Buat commanded first the 121st Infa ...

, the Chief of Staff of the French Army, replied this would only be possible with the mobilisation of reserves.

The Kapp Putsch

The Kapp Putsch was an attempted coup on 13 March 1920 by parts of the ''

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshape ...

'' (military), the

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, rega ...

and other conservative, nationalist and monarchist factions. They aimed to undo the German Revolution of 1918–1919, overthrow the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

and establish a right-wing autocratic government in its place.

The French justification for the occupation

The French claimed that Articles 42 to 44 of the peace treaty of Versailles concerning the demilitarisation of the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

had been broken. These had designated a neutral zone 50 kilometres deep on the left bank of the Rhine. In this area any construction of fortifications or any military maneuvers were strictly forbidden, it being further specified that any breach would "be regarded as committing a hostile act against the Powers signatory of the present Treaty and as calculated to disturb the peace of the world." When the German Army sent 7,000 troops into the areas north of the

River Lippe The Lippe () is a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Rhine and in length with an elevation difference of 125 metres and a catchment area of 4.890 km². The source is located at the edge of the Teutoburg ...

, the French government concluded that this was a breach of the treaty, and promptly responded by sending their own troops into the Neutral Zone.

Hauptwache incident

On 7 April, some Moroccan soldiers of the 3rd Moroccan Tirailleurs Regiment were stationed at the Hauptwache in the centre of Frankfurt. Originally they were surrounded by a curious crowd. However the situation deteriorated and the troops opened fire with a machine gun. This led to nine people being killed and twenty six wounded. The following day, when newspaper publishing was recommenced, the Mayor Georg Voigt, the Police Chief Ehler and the President of the Alternative Government, Cossman, issued a call for calm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frankfurt, Occupation Of The 20th century in Frankfurt 1920 in international relations Aftermath of World War I in Germany French military occupations Occupation of the Rhineland