Bakker-Schut Plan
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The Bakker-Schut Plan was proposed by the Netherlands after the end of World War II. It entailed giving the Netherlands huge monetary reparations from Germany and included the annexation of part of Germany, in its most ambitious form even including the cities of Cologne, Aachen, Münster and Osnabrück, that would have enlarged the country by 30 to 50 percent. The local population had to be either deported, or, when still speaking the original Low German dialects, dutchified. The name of the plan is derived from the commission member charged with working out the details. The plan was largely dropped after U.S. dismissal of it. Many Germans living in the Netherlands were however declared 'enemy subjects' and put into a concentration camp in an operation called Black Tulip. A total of 3,691 Germans were ultimately deported. The U.S. responded by expelling several thousand Dutch subjects living in the Allied occupation zones.
[edit] Implementation
The large scale annexation was in 1947 rejected by the Allied High Commission, on the grounds that Germany already contained 14,000,000 refugees from the annexations in the east, and that the remaining territory could not handle more refugees.
The London conference of April, 23 1949 did however permit some less far-reaching border modifications.
On April 23, 1949, at 12 o'clock, Dutch troops occupied an area corresponding to a much reduced version of plan "c".
Most of this territory was returned to Germany on August 1, 1963.
[edit] External links
- Interview with Perry Laukhuff, secretary of mission with U.S. Political Adviser for Germany, Berlin, 1945-49 Describes how amongst other nations the Netherlands tried to grab German territory in 1949
- 'Eisch Duitschen grond!' Comprehensive overview, in Dutch.
