Divided loyalties: Sovereignty, politics and public service in the Rhineland under French occupation, 1792-1801

• Published in: European review of history = Revue européene d'histoire Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 151 - 168
• Main Author: Rowe, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Group 01.10.1998; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Administrative organization; Collaboration; France; Germany; History; International conflicts; Military; Military occupations; Politics; Public services; Revolution; Sovereignty; War; France; Germany-pre-1945
• ISSN: 1350-7486; 1469-8293
• DOI: 10.1080/13507489808568207

In April 1792 the French Legislative Assembly declared war on the Habsburg Emperor Francis II. Within three years the forces of the Republic conquered the German-speaking region to the west of the Rhine. Native public officials in the occupied areas faced the dilemma of whether or not to 'collaborate' with the invader. They confronted incompatible demands on their loyalties from the exiled Rhenish governments, the French, and the Rhineland's one-and-a-half million inhabitants. The continuation of the revolutionary wars, and failure to reach an international settlement, placed public officials in the occupied areas in a state of limbo. Lacking any legal framework as a point of reference for their actions, and buffeted by the changing fortunes of war abroad and ideological conflict at home, Rhenish communities and the local officials who became their representatives were instead forced to rely on their own resources and strengths. Public officials in particular lived with the possibility of a return of the old regime and the threat of future investigation into their actions under occupation. These fears were only removed with the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801 and subsequent legal annexation of the left bank of the Rhine to the French Republic. Later attempts at assimilating the 'New Frenchmen' into the fabric of the Napoleonic state were nevertheless obstructed by continuing ties that bound former public officials to the German powers across the Rhine. The sovereign state's demand for an exclusive monopoly on the loyalty of all its subjects conflicted fundamentally with the Rhenish tradition of employment in the civil and military services of the major German dynasties and other European powers.