Visit to Saarland the 10th state of Germany. Its capital is Saarbrucken and this video captures some of its history. Saarland is in the southwest corner of Germany just to the East of Luxembourg and the North of the Lorraine region of France. Saarland is a smaller state with big history as it was once part of France, then part of Prussia and then governed by the League of Nations and then Nazi Germany, it became and independent state and finally the 10th state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The French influence is evident as many of the museum exhibits and tourist sites are describe in both German and French whereas other parts of Germany these descriptions would be in German and English.
Saarland has an industrial history similar to some of the rust belt cities of the US. Saarland was rich in coal and had a major iron works where the Iron Ore was mined in the Lorraine region of France.
Roman rule ended in the 5th century, when the Franks conquered the territory. For the next 1,300 years the region shared the history of the Kingdom of the Franks, the Carolingian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. The region of the Saarland was divided into several small territories, some of which were ruled by sovereigns of adjoining regions. The armies of the French Revolution terminated the independence of the states in the region of the Saarland. After 1792 they conquered the region and made it part of the French Republic.
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the region was divided again. Most of it became part of the Prussian Rhine Province. Another part in the east, corresponding to the present Saarpfalz district, was allocated to the Kingdom of Bavaria.
On 31 July 1870, the French Emperor Napoleon III ordered an invasion across the River Saar to seize Saarbrücken. The first shots of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 were fired on the heights of Spichern during the Battle of Spicheren, south of Saarbrücken.
Saarbrücken Castle is a Baroque château in Saarbrücken. A document from 1065 mentions that Duke Frederick of Lower Lorraine received the castle as a fief from the King. Later, Emperor Henry IV gave the castle to Frederick's brother, Count Adalbero III of Luxembourg, who was Bishop of Metz.