Bakker-Schut Plan

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.

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. At 12 o'clock of the very same day, Dutch troops occupied an area of 69 km², the largest parts of which were Elten (near Emmerich am Rhein) and Selfkant. At that time, these areas were inhabited by a total of almost 10,000 people. The parcels transfered were named as follows:

# Boertanger
# Denekamp
# Losser
# Rekken
# Ramsbeek
# Dinxperlo
# Elten
# Millingen
# Beek
# Reichswald
# Hommersum
# Siebengewald
# Arcen
# Sittard
# Waubach
# River Worm
# Kerkrade
# Vaals

Minor alterations to theis border were made in June 10, 1963.

The territory was returnedFact|date=September 2008 to Germany on August 1, 1963, except one small hill near Wyler village, called Duivelsberg/Wylerberg which was annexed by Netherlands.Fact|date=September 2008

ee also

*Morgenthau Plan
*Monnet Plan
*Marshall Plan

External links

* [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/laukhuff.htm 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
* [http://geschiedenis.vpro.nl/programmas/2899536/afleveringen/3606801/ 'Eisch Duitschen grond!'] Comprehensive overview, in Dutch.
* [http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS031.pdf International Boundary Study No. 31 – April 6, 1964] Germany – Netherlands Boundary. The Geographer Office of the Geographer Bureau of Intelligence and Research ( [http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/maps/bs31.html MAP] })