The Forgotten Story Of Independent Saarland 

But how many deaths did your error cause?! Must’ve been in the single digits.

cyrilio It's Germany, we can't be too sure.

@@cyrilio i was so offended by that error, i dropped dead instantly, yes, im german!

As a born Thuringian spotted, that sth. looked weird there. 😉

@@mats7492 Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

Not true. In the news, they refer to "an area the size of Saarland" all the time. :)

Autsch. No it's not. It's an official Unit for Measurement of anything larger than a Soccer Field. At least for some TV Formats. Everything is measured in "Saarlands". Forest Fires, Oil Spills in the Oceans, The Area of spreading Epidemics, the Dimension of the Plastic Carpets in the Oceans and so on.

Der Auditor funny how every country has this - when I lived in the USA it was West Virginia www.coldmountainreview.org/issues/spring-2018/the-size-of-west-virginia-by-valerie-nieman

@@turingmachine4617 The international version is New York City, but as a Chilean we have two versions: Santiago (the capital) as a surface measurement unit, and the whole country as a ruler 😆

@@turingmachine4617 "An area the size of Wales" for anyone in the UK en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measurement#Wales

The Saar region was never thrown off by Germany.

So'n Saarland Ding :) liegt wohl in der Familie xD

I was cleaning up at my grandparents home when i discovered my great great grandmothers ID card from 1919 saarland and it was in french kind of interesting.

My Family motherers side all burn in Saarland and live in Metlach but i live in Berlin

That reminds me of a joke about an old Jew who died and went to Heaven only to be stopped at the gates: "Listen here, Mr. Rabinovitch, I see here you were born in Austria-Hungary, studied in Czechoslovakia, got married in Hungary, lived in the USSR and died in Ukraine. We're a little suspicious regarding world-wanderers here..." "Dear me, I've never even set foot out of Mukachevo!"

Your poor grandmother, what a time she has had The story of this place is a true reflection of the madness of the 20c

She didn't need to see the world. The world came to her!

That is so true. And we always recognize each other by the different saarländian accents.

Dat glawwschde awwa!

Ei jo

That is absolutely true. I remember hiking Ireland 30 years ago. One evening in the last hostel east of New York City. The hostel was completely empty, except for 2 Germans and an Austrian. Boy, was the Austrian p****d when we found out that we 2 Germans were both from the Saarland ...

Eijo

Just this morning I was lamenting that we don’t have one here in Ireland and was hoping to see one on RU-vid

I never knew I needed one until now!

I think that just before I open the curtains in the morning, so far the garden has been a great disappointment! :)

Sounds like something you might say if you’ve got a mouthful of bread

@CommandoDude This is why Germans have developed a special power that allows them to string separate words together into one.

*Rucksackdeutscher

@@Rhinelander Ups, Tschulligung. Auch nach 20 Jahren Deutschland mache ich immer noch Fehler. I bin a Zugroasta ^^

My colleagues only ever call me frenchy for being a proud Saarländer, so you had a very lucky colleague for only being called "Rucksackdeutscher" xD

@@Rhinelander Or, as they would say in Canada----Rowsdower!

He also had better jokes.

Same, I live since I was born in Saarland and I was in the summer holidays the first time at the Saarschleife, I look this video like " I knew this place, I was there" (I'm sorry about my englisch haha, I'm a German girl and learn englisch since 3 years now)

Same I still live there

How do you call a woman from Saarland? Saarländerin?

@@itsleonhard185 how is it? I did my Erasmus in Saarbreucken. I miss the place badly. Please remember me when schwenking next time.

cool wie ist es wenn die eltern geschwister sind ? xD Spaß xD

same

thanks to the recommendation algorithm!

Same

Isch aach

Same im from there too lol

Yueu cc. Kk

I saw this video for the first time today and I swear to you I came back multiple times during the day just for that joke.

Mauerpfeifer Saarbrücken the best eletronic club in the Saarland

Also Helmut Schön, born in Dresden (East Germany), was coach of the sovjet-zone team in 1949/50, what makes him even more part of the twisted history of the different germanys.

Ei joo! Do gugge na, was?

Geh fort!

Hie kommt kenner meh rin

@@kyty3225 warum es saarland is doch enfach scheen

@@jeffersonatomix ich han gemennt et kommt kenner meh in unser saarlännich Kommentarabdälung rin. Die is besetzt

Careful if I were you , those people are not known for being faithful and whatnot .

@@andreisimion247 why do you think so? People from Outside told me often they Got the feeling that we're more kinda rude, but Just because we are very honest without a mean intention. But there are Always people of different character at any place.

I'm honestly surprised nobody made an incest joke yet, Saarland is Germanys Alabama/Tasmania when it comes to jokes

That made me genuinely laugh out loud, thanks Tim

The world needs more umlauts

Martijn Hooijer I didn’t know you could umlaut Y!

@@logoseven3365 we germans only do ü,ä and ö

Dezzmotion I took 4 years of German. I remember numbers, hello, goodbye, and 3 songs. I started playing with my phone to write my response and was pleasantly surprised by the ‘ÿ’. I wasted 17 years of my life, I should have bought an iPhone instead of going to school!... ...in 1976...

Well, not in Germany that is.

For anyone who wants to know the area of Brazil in Saarland, its 3324,4. Thank you Katapult Magazin for providing me with this precious piece of information. By the way, the smallest state in Germany is Bremen with a size of just 0,2 Saarland with Hamburg (0,3) and Berlin (0,4) following closely.

@@Illuminati_HD It is, though. I've heard and read "an area almost as big as/twice as bis as/bigger than the Saarland" ("Eine Fläche fast so groß wie/doppelt so groß wie/größer als das Saarland") multiple times when large areas have been described (for example large forest fires). While comparisons to other Bundesländer to describe an area might happen as well, they are for some reason by far less common than comparisons to the Saarland.

Just like an area the size of Wales....

Yes, something like: if the Saarland would be covered with solar panels, we could run the whole of germany on renewables.

wieder was gelernt :D danke

This is an EXCELLENT fact.

Cool.

When I look at this, I can only see Wjejwudisheyeufiebsh

An other fun fact is Ernst Thälmann Island was not mentioned in the reunification between East and West, making it last remaining part of East Germany. Sadly it's uninhabited and so far from Germany that everybody just kind of forgot about it.

@@dickjohnson4447 What? I never heart of that. Tim can you make an episode about that fact?

Well done you beat me to it.

And probably the only one😁👍

Salü!

When you live in Alsace which is saarland but the opposite and get this video recommended lol

Him and Oversimplified. Great and fun ways to learn history.

Agreed

So true 👍

In German schools you most likely don't even get told this story here, that's how forgotten it is.

Which is quite important today, because right wing nuts are waving the flag of the empire on their rallies :(

@@Piktogrammdd1234 Crazy nuts wanting a future for indigenous people, absolute madmen.

The Nazis murdered millions of civilians in concentrations camps and death camps.

I have noticed that a lot of non-German sources incorrectly use the black-white-red tricolor to represent the 1919-1933 "Wiemar Republic" (otherwise known as _Deutsches_ _Reich,_ usually translated as "German Empire", but meaning "German Realm" in this context). Yes, the black-white-red flag did serve as the basis for various military flags used by the German government of the time (and yes, Germany _did_ have a military at the time: the _Reichswehr,_ or "Realm Defense"). However, the national flag of the German Realm remained black-red-gold, like today's Germany. Meanwhile, the black-white-red became used in less monarchist sense, getting a more nationalist usage during this time, as opposed to the moderate pro-republican groups using the black-red-gold flag (or the opposite extreme: the communists with the red flag, but that's a different story). This is why, as you said, the Nazis revived the black-white-red flag from before World War I, with this status as a flag for a newly-founded dictatorship lasting until 1935, when it was replaced by a certain _other_ black-white-red flag (no coincidence here, the Nazis just rearranged the pre-WWI flag colors to fit their own usages). This is also why out of the many political groups in the modern-day Federal Republic of Germany that use the "monarchist" black-white-red tricolor, few, if none, are actually monarchist. When the existence of democracy was very controversial: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Germany#Weimar_Republic_(1918%E2%80%931933) Military flags of the _Reichswehr_ in the German Realm: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_flags#Weimar_Republic_(1919%E2%80%931933)

Worth noting that reinstating the Kaiserreich flag was popular with most political factions in interwar germany, moderate and not. The "red, black & mustard" flag was seen by many as an emblem of a failed experiment, that had only brought political bedlam and economic ruin. The NSDAP reinstated it to play lip service to the traditionalists, but didn't hesitate to use the Bremen incident as an excuse to substitute it as the national flag with their own party banner. Just after WWII the Kaiserreich flag was among several considered by East Germany, before they opted for a defaced version of the Red, Black & Mustard. (I like the nickname, but mainly because I think most shades of yellow look terrible on flags) Today the Kaiserreich flag is chiefly used by German Monarchists, with other less decent factions use thereof being chiefly a crutch against german laws banning party flags like the swastika from public use.

das ganze video ist sehr ungenau und enthält mehrere fehler. Der größte im titel; niemand hat das saarland "vergessen".

@@demonte6582 während die Sache mit Thüringen durchaus ein Fehler ist; ist die Entscheidung, den Titel so zu nennen eher eine bewusste Überspitzung. Zumal ich es für recht wahrscheinlich halte dass viele Deutsche durchaus nicht mit der Saarländischen Geschichte vertraut sind.

@@raileon Natürlich sind die wenigsten deutschen mit deutscher geschichte vertraut. Besonders in gegenden mit hohen afd-wähleranteil fällt das immer wieder auf.

@@demonte6582 da haben Sie wohl recht.

@@demonte6582 good one xD

Das ganze in nur zwei Dialekte zu unterteilen, grenzt ja fast schon an grobe Beleidigungen. Ich hör mich doch nicht an wie ein Trierer. xD

Dann schreib halt ach uff blat

Wir sind doch keine trierer lol wir reden nur SAARLÄNDISCH AAAAAAAAAAA

Geh fort

Also eisch find de Schmelzer Dialekt am schlimmste Do griwwelts mA immer in der Ore datt mit der zwei Dialekte stimmt off gar kä fall

Oops!

I was just about to write it, too

@@LukasPasseck I am usually too late to the party. This time it feels like I won the youtube comment lottery

@Oliver Eales no

I am sure people in Thuringia would very much appreciate being on the other side of the inner German border all those years.

Saar-chasm.

@@someopinion2846 It works both ways, which is why it's so funny.

For non-Brits, what's the "Isle of Dogs". Doesn't sound great.

@@Tflexxx02 It's a peninsular formed by a bend in the River Thames in east London.

@@Tflexxx02 "Isle of Dogs" sounds fantastic to me, and I'll be crushingly disappointed if that name is less literal than Japan's "cat islands".

They keep their recipes in the family, just like their bloodline

@@maximilianbeyer5642 haha, it's like Germany's Alabama

@@maximilianbeyer5642a married couple in Alabama go for a divorce, they ask if they can stay as brother and sister?

Yes, definitely Ocean. My favourite joke of the video.

I though that seemed off but I don't know enough about Germanic tribes to dispute it...

Yea Frank Ocean, that's the one I noticed and made me rewind and pause. Brilliant

To be frank, it was funny.

With me I noticed a goatee I thought I recognised and rewound to confirm it was Zappa. Then the joke sunk in.

fun fact: my favourite football club did actually play in Ligue 2 for one season but then got kicked out again after they won the League... Edit: I'm talking about 1. FC Saarbrücken or FC Sarrebruck as it was called in the French time. got promoted to the 3rd tier of German football last season.

@@jlkanne8330 Wow. i didn't know that. Although, as an Elversberger, I also wouldn't care much about it.

For a second there I was like "there is no way such a small nation could stick around in that specific area", but then I remembered Luxembourg exists ...

All for a portion of Dibbelabbes!

@@graup1309 Luxembourg and Belgium were already founded as a buffer between Prussia/Germany and France. We don't need a third one.

Merci ! Danke! Aus Paris.

I thought it was Saar-chasm

We do! My hometown is actually right on the edge of national park "Saar-Hunsrück". Saarland has some beautiful corners, I tell you!

In the UK we use Wales. Wales > football pitches > double decker buses.

@@acciid haha ... I wonder what other countries are using? Comment below! :)

@@luckyqualmi Rhode Island is what we use in America, as in "the forest fire started by fireworks set of at a gender-reveal party burned an area the size of Rhode Island".

And don't forget the French 1 ltr beer bottles ...

@@ludwigskirchesaarbrucken5800 - is there any way to claim any frenchness for the "Schwenker" in all of its three meanings?

When I lived in Freiburg im Breisgau (just over the border, on a clear day I could see the Vosges from the top op the building where I worked) I was told that the region of Alsace had changed so many times between Germany and France that they feel more Alsacian than French (or German). Although, to be fair, in Freiburg (which has always been German AFAIK) I saw more flags of Baden than flags of Germany, outnumbering them about 2:1 or 3:1 (and almost no flags of the state, Baden-Württemberg). So maybe it's a common thing in that region to be more connected to the region than the country it's in?

@@daanwilmer The problem is rather that symbols of nationalism e.g. the German flag are a bit frowned upon in a non-footbal context. Local flags however do get a pass.

Just so you know Alsace and Lorraine are two different regions/entities

Ah cheers! And to be fair, a year ago we were on 1000 subscribers - pretty much everyone here has only been watching for about a year :D

That is really interesting. I like to read this personal stories about other times. It was very good of you to do this research about times that are due to be forgotten.

So where was your uncle living when he was there?

Der Vater aller Lappen der Nation in Mettlach

@@bokhans Ah that's a bit far away. If in Saarbrücken, i would have taken a picture of the exact building for you or something 🤷‍♂️

Der Vater aller Lappen der Nation thanks for thinking of me. I do a lot of travel so i guess i have to check it out myself. It was only a small group from sweden stationen there. Investigating your relatives is such an adventure. I found out not long ago that my grandfather housed a man that was the last to be sentenced to death in Sweden. He and my grandfather made a bomb in the kitchen and what followed was the reason he was sentenced to death.

And true. Saarland has besides the highest Michelin stars the highest ratio of metal bands per citizen. At least I understood the ‚metal way‘ as a hidden reference to this fact.

No, yöü äctüälly lölled!

Me too, pixlplague!

@@andreassteinel9712 pretty sure it's a reference to some bands putting umlaut-dots on random letters in their name. the most famous band that did this is of course a rockband, not a metal one. motörhead. the most famous metal band that did this is mötley crüe

@@jurgnobs1308 Motley Crew aren't metal, they rubbish. \m/

We Brit's don't particularly dislike the french... but have to keep up our side of the - now rather a wee bit less intense - perpetual sparring match ;-) .

We just want bourdoux back.

Actually two!

Considering Saarland, it's four parts; considering Austria five; considering the separate allied zones (until 1948), eight parts...

That's right, we need to invade Poland

@@carlosandleon The 2+4 treaty 30 years ago ended the territorial dispute. The only area still under Polish occupation is the independent Free City of Danzig

@@MrTohawk What about Kaliningrad? That's still Russian right?

@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan Germany accepted it's 1990 borders. Danzig was not German and got invaded by Germany just like Poland.

Zweibrücken is of course not part of the Saarland. Just right across the border. You see that if you want to go to the "Globus" on Mary's assumption (Mariä Himmelfahrt). The hardware store (Baumarkt) is in Rhineland-Palatinate, and open. The grocery story is just across the border in Saarland and therefore closed, since Mary's Assumption is a public holiday in Saarland but not RLP.

@@arthur_p_dent I know it's not in Saarland, but it was 5 minutes away. Your comment seems very nitpicky and condescending. As an American, I was simply excited to learn more of the history of a place that was so close to me. Now I want to explore it.

@@timm9631 sorry for coming across condescending. It's just that people right next to the border between Saarland and Pfalz are very aware of their local identity and there is a strong rivalry. Calling a Zweibrücker a "Saarländer" (or, by extension, suggesting Zweibrücken is in Saarland) can come across very offensive to the locals, much like calling their neighbors from right across the border "Pfälzer". It's akin to calling a Scotsman an Englishman, you want to avoid it even if he is from Gretna Green.

Older generations do my parents and their friends use it quite often. A families friend owns a pub called "Salut" as well. Some of my friend greet each other with "salut" as well, but they kind of drop the "ü-sound" so it sounds more like "sale"

That must have been hilarious, the Luxembourg Army occupying part of Germany.

@@girlgirl4548 considering that plenty of Luxembourg soldiers were also German-born - yes indeed.

How many soldiers occupied these towns? Five? Ten?😂

Not so loud @@maximilianbeyer5642. Given the current state of the Bundeswehr, it is doubtful we could fend off the invasion if Luxembourg decided to attack.

@@arthur_p_dent That shows that you don’t know anything. We could easily demolish Luxembourg. We just need to build a couple hundred trebuchets/catapults to throw our stuff at them...

It’s like a climbing garden.. you can walk in the tree tops with safetyropes and nets

@@bassaddict8984 I think you got me wrong. I know what it means. I AM German after all. Just wanted to point out, that I found Tim's comment very funny.

I like to visit the Brenner Pass and see all the international trains going through.

That's the Thing. The broken and twisted German History is full of crazy and bonkers stuff. So stuff like this gets easily overlooked.

@PlatinMovie Oder der deutschen Geschichte auf RU-vid

'Embarrassing'? Try living in Perfidious Albion...

I'm living there and i didn't know anything😂

Bescht Gréiss un déi letzeboier Noperen 😉

ech wunnen och zu Lëtzebuerg! Hien muss e Video bei eis maachen