New Viewings #38

About a photo convolute depicting French colonial soldiers during the „Occupation of the Rhineland“, 1918 to 1930.

Sometime ago an album was offered to me with photos of French colonial soldiers during the occupation of the Rhineland. These photos were taken by at least 3 different photo studios in Mainz (French: „Mayence“).

They must have been been collected in the 1920ies by a German who wrote a book (which is part of the convolute; „Kampf um den Rhein – 12 Jahre Not und Gefahr“ Mainz, 1930, published by Druck und Verlag der Mainzer Verlagsanstald und Druckerei A. -G.). The name of the author is unclear yet some of the photos are used in the book. Though working with war photography for more than 20 years I have never seen such material before.

1918, in the wake of World War One and the treaty of Versailles French, American, Belgian and British forces occupied large parts of German territory between the French and Belgian frontier and the Rhine. Born out of a conflict – World War One – it created more conflict as well as contradicting interpretations. The Allied justification for the „Rheinlandbesetzung“ was to ensure the punctual payments of the hughe reparation payments which the treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany. Yet there was an ongoing suspicion by many Germans that France and to some degree also Belgium would try to transform the occupied territories into independent political unities under the auspices of France, in order to prevent Germany from ever again becoming a threat.