SS State of Burgundy
Encyclopedia
The SS state of Burgundy (German
: SS-Staat Burgund) or Order-State of Burgundy (German
: Ordensstaat Burgund; a historical reference to the State of the Teutonic Order) was a proposed state which the leadership of Nazi Germany hoped to create in certain areas of Western Europe
during World War II.
, an ancient Germanic tribe
) is a vague term, geographically speaking. A wide number of different countries and regions throughout history have been referred to by this name or controlled by a Burgundy-based state.
The most outspoken proponent of re-creating a German-controlled Burgundian state was Heinrich Himmler
, leader of the SS. According to Himmler Burgundy, which he called "an ancient economic and cultural centre", had been "reduced to nothing more than a French appendage, known only for its wine production
". This plan entailed the transformation of Burgundy into a model-state nominally located outside of the Greater German Reich, but nevertheless ruled by a National Socialist government, and which would also have its own army, laws, and postal services. It was supposed to encompass French Switzerland (Romandy), Picardy
with Amiens
, the Champagne district
with Reims
and Troyes
, the Franche Comté with Dijon
, Chalons
, and Nevers
, Hainaut and Luxembourg
. It was also to have a connection
to both the Mediterranean Sea
as well as the English Channel
. The capital and administrative seat was tentatively proposed as either Dijon
or Nancy (Nanzig) as its capital. Its official language was to become German
, but would initially be also French
.
Its government would be presided over by a chancellor
, who was to be responsible to a representative of the German Reich who would receive the title of Reichsverweser. It was assumed that the Reichsführer-SS
(Himmler himself at the time) would assume the second of these two offices, and that Léon Degrelle
, leader of the Belgian fascists
, would become its first chancellor. Degrelle himself was a notable proponent of the motion. His own objective in collaborating with the Germans during the war was to restore the Burgundian domain of Charles the Bold before his death in 1477 under his own rule.
Whether these were merely the dreams of Himmler personally or, as he so claimed, enjoyed Hitler
’s full support is inconclusive from the historical record. Hitler's own objective towards France were to eliminate it permanently as a strategic threat to German security. The 1940 campaign
in Western Europe
was in fact carried out entirely so that its western flank could be secured before Germany would commit its armies to conquering Lebensraum
in the Soviet Union
. With this in mind, extensive plans were made so that France could be reduced to a minor state and a permanent German vassal
kept firmly in the state of dependence that she had found herself in after the 1940 armistice and which it would thus have no further reason to fear.
At Hitler’s request a plan was produced after the fall of France in 1940 that would provide for the outright annexation
into Germany of a large strip of Eastern France by reducing it to its late mediæval borders with the Holy Roman Empire
. This memo, produced by the Reich Interior Ministry forms the basis for the so-called northeast line which separated the 'forbidden zone' of German-occupied France from the rest of the areas under military control. It proposed the deportation of its French
inhabitants and the settlement of a million German peasants. He considered these areas, as well as Wallonia to be "in reality German" and should therefore be re-integrated.
In 1942 Hitler did mention that the former area of the Kingdom of Burgundy
, which France "had taken from Germany in her weakest moment" would also have to be annexed to Nazi Germany after the incorporation of the forbidden zone, but to which areas he referred by this statement remains unclear.
state. Hitler himself mentioned this intention on at least one occasion to his military leaders, but ultimately seemed to have taken little interest in the project.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: SS-Staat Burgund) or Order-State of Burgundy (German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Ordensstaat Burgund; a historical reference to the State of the Teutonic Order) was a proposed state which the leadership of Nazi Germany hoped to create in certain areas of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
during World War II.
History
The name "Burgundy" itself (derived from the BurgundiansBurgundians
The Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe...
, an ancient Germanic tribe
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
) is a vague term, geographically speaking. A wide number of different countries and regions throughout history have been referred to by this name or controlled by a Burgundy-based state.
The most outspoken proponent of re-creating a German-controlled Burgundian state was Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, leader of the SS. According to Himmler Burgundy, which he called "an ancient economic and cultural centre", had been "reduced to nothing more than a French appendage, known only for its wine production
Burgundy wine
Burgundy wine is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône River, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here - those commonly referred to as "Burgundies" - are red wines made from Pinot Noir grapes or white wines made from...
". This plan entailed the transformation of Burgundy into a model-state nominally located outside of the Greater German Reich, but nevertheless ruled by a National Socialist government, and which would also have its own army, laws, and postal services. It was supposed to encompass French Switzerland (Romandy), Picardy
Picardy
This article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...
with Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...
, the Champagne district
Champagne (province)
The Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...
with Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
and Troyes
Troyes
Troyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about southeast of Paris. Many half-timbered houses survive in the old town...
, the Franche Comté with Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
, Chalons
Chalon-sur-Saône
Chalon-sur-Saône is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the largest city in the department; however, the department capital is the smaller city of Mâcon....
, and Nevers
Nevers
Nevers is a commune in – and the administrative capital of – the Nièvre department in the Bourgogne region in central France...
, Hainaut and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
. It was also to have a connection
Corridor
- Entertainment :* Corridor * Corridor , the first Indian graphic novel, written by Sarnath Banerjee* Corridor , a short story collection by Alfian Sa'at published in 1999* Corridor of uncertainty in the game of cricket...
to both the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
as well as the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
. The capital and administrative seat was tentatively proposed as either Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
or Nancy (Nanzig) as its capital. Its official language was to become German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, but would initially be also French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Its government would be presided over by a chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
, who was to be responsible to a representative of the German Reich who would receive the title of Reichsverweser. It was assumed that the Reichsführer-SS
Reichsführer-SS
was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...
(Himmler himself at the time) would assume the second of these two offices, and that Léon Degrelle
Léon Degrelle
Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle was a Walloon Belgian politician, who founded Rexism and later joined the Waffen SS which were front-line troops in the fight against the Soviet Union...
, leader of the Belgian fascists
Rexism
Rexism was a fascist political movement in the first half of the 20th century in Belgium.It was the ideology of the Rexist Party , officially called Rex, founded in 1930 by Léon Degrelle, a Walloon...
, would become its first chancellor. Degrelle himself was a notable proponent of the motion. His own objective in collaborating with the Germans during the war was to restore the Burgundian domain of Charles the Bold before his death in 1477 under his own rule.
Whether these were merely the dreams of Himmler personally or, as he so claimed, enjoyed Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
’s full support is inconclusive from the historical record. Hitler's own objective towards France were to eliminate it permanently as a strategic threat to German security. The 1940 campaign
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
in Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
was in fact carried out entirely so that its western flank could be secured before Germany would commit its armies to conquering Lebensraum
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. With this in mind, extensive plans were made so that France could be reduced to a minor state and a permanent German vassal
Vassal state
A vassal state is any state that is subordinate to another. The vassal in these cases is the ruler, rather than the state itself. Being a vassal most commonly implies providing military assistance to the dominant state when requested to do so; it sometimes implies paying tribute, but a state which...
kept firmly in the state of dependence that she had found herself in after the 1940 armistice and which it would thus have no further reason to fear.
At Hitler’s request a plan was produced after the fall of France in 1940 that would provide for the outright annexation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
into Germany of a large strip of Eastern France by reducing it to its late mediæval borders with the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
. This memo, produced by the Reich Interior Ministry forms the basis for the so-called northeast line which separated the 'forbidden zone' of German-occupied France from the rest of the areas under military control. It proposed the deportation of its French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
inhabitants and the settlement of a million German peasants. He considered these areas, as well as Wallonia to be "in reality German" and should therefore be re-integrated.
In 1942 Hitler did mention that the former area of the Kingdom of Burgundy
Kingdom of Burgundy
Burgundy is a historic region in Western Europe that has existed as a political entity in a number of forms with very different boundaries. Two of these entities - the first around the 6th century, the second around the 11th century - have been called the Kingdom of Burgundy; a third was very...
, which France "had taken from Germany in her weakest moment" would also have to be annexed to Nazi Germany after the incorporation of the forbidden zone, but to which areas he referred by this statement remains unclear.
Brittany State
There were also proposals for an independent BrittanyBreton nationalism and World War II
Before and during World War II, the Breton nationalist movements were associated, as a whole, with anti-French and even pro-Nazi positions. The extent of and motivation for these affiliations has been a matter of historical controversy....
state. Hitler himself mentioned this intention on at least one occasion to his military leaders, but ultimately seemed to have taken little interest in the project.
See also
- New Order (Nazism)
- German occupation of France during World War II
- Greater Germanic ReichGreater Germanic ReichThe Greater Germanic Reich , fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation is the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany tried to establish in Europe during World War II...