The Antwerp Question
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The Antwerp Question The significance of the port city of Antwerp for Germany during the First World War Christoph Schmidt-Supprian Doctor of Philosophy Submitted to the Department of Modern History Trinity College Dublin 2006 2 Declaration This thesis is entirely my own work and has not been submitted for degree in this or any other university. Christoph Schmidt-Supprian Statement I agree that the Library may lend or copy this thesis upon request. Christoph Schmidt-Supprian 3 Summary This thesis investigates the German relationship to the Belgian port city of Antwerp in the light of both the German war aims debate and the German occupation of Belgium during the First World War. It scrutinises the discourse of the so-called Antwerp Question as well as the German presence in the occupied city itself, highlighting the dynamic between the German perception of Antwerp and the actual German activities there. Using diverse and often little known archival and published primary sources, the thesis intends to contribute to both the long-established historiography on the German war aims and to the more recent research on the occupied territories. The dual approach is reflected in the structural organisation of the thesis, whereby Part A deals with the German discourse on Antwerp and Part B with the occupation. A ‘prologue’ and an ‘epilogue’ provide essential reference points, which highlight the origins, specificities and consequences of the wartime discussions and events. The prologue argues that before the outbreak of war in August 1914, there had been no plans in Germany to conquer Antwerp or otherwise take control of it. Even the German contingency war plans all but ignored Antwerp and its great fortress. Nevertheless, the increasingly important trading and shipping links provided the raw material for expansionist aspirations once the established political framework was toppled by war. Further, nationalist sentiments were increasingly promoted within the so-called German Colony in Antwerp, inadvertently preparing the ground for its split into pro-German and pro-Belgian factions during the war. Part A begins with chapter 2 presenting the siege and conquest of Antwerp in early October 1914. Though technically a mere strategic expediency after the German defeat at the battle of the Marne, this conquest drew the Germans’ attention to Antwerp. The subsequent chapters present different aspects of the debate about the Antwerp Question that ensued. Chapter 3 details the official plans for the future of Antwerp proposed by a number of key personalities, particularly within the imperial navy and the Bavarian government. The special case of the Hanseatic city-states of Hamburg and Bremen is analysed in Chapter 4 4. Chapter 5 looks at the contributions from the academic economic experts, while chapter 6 analyses the popular perception of Antwerp in Germany. These chapters lead to the conclusion that in the complex German engagement with the Antwerp Question the expansionist arguments dominated, even in the face of opposing economic interests. This had the effect of inflating the worth of Antwerp as a German war aim. Due to its geographic position and its economic and historic role as a world port, Antwerp came to stand metonymically for the consolidation and enhancement of the German economic and naval position on the global stage. Part B starts with a description in chapter 7 of the Antwerp variant of the German occupation regime in Belgium. Chapter 8 investigates the value that Antwerp had for the German war effort in military and economic terms, while chapter 9 looks at the local implementation of the Flamenpolitik (Flemish policy) – the most important cultural ‘war effort’ in Belgium. Chapter 10 focuses on the fate of the German Colony, examining to what extent it developed into a vanguard of German expansionism in the city. Chapter 11, finally, gauges the extent to which the Germans made concrete steps to cement their foothold in Antwerp during the war. Again, these chapters present a complex picture. The German occupation regime in Antwerp had a strong civilian, and often relatively ‘mild’, character. It tended to resist the radical version of Flamenpolitik and its military and economic exploitation of Antwerp stopped short at full destruction of the infrastructure. Nevertheless, the German enthusiasm for Antwerp as war aim described in Part A also resulted in – and was partly fuelled by – expansionist developments in the occupied city. Aided by the pro-German faction of the German Colony, the German programme of ‘economic penetration’, notably, was most successful in Antwerp. Dealing with the end and the aftermath of the war, the epilogue shows two important consequences for the Antwerp-German relationship. Firstly, the pre- war German Colony was destroyed for good. Secondly, German trade and shipping, by contrast, made a gradual comeback despite many obstacles in the first few years after the war. 5 Acknowledgements During the course of researching and writing this thesis, I have received invaluable help from a whole host of people: family, friends, colleagues, senior academics, librarians and archivists. I would like to thank them all for their support. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Alan Kramer, for providing encouragement, ideas and a critical eye every step of the way. I would also like to thank: Professor Sophie de Schaepdrijver for her insightful comments on some of my ‘work in progress’, Dr. Alheide Schmidt- Supprian for her unceasing support and proof reading skills, Margaret Brady for ironing out many of my English language mistakes, and Antoine Giacometti for improving the presentation of my maps. I would like to thank Reinhard Schmidt- Supprian for teaching me Dutch, and Dr. Benoît Majerus for welcoming me in Brussels and introducing me to the Belgian world of historical research. Among the countless librarians and archivists who have made my research possible, I would like to particularly thank the staff of the Hoover Institution in Stanford University, whose enthusiasm in retrieving rare items was truly inspiring. Chapter 5 of this thesis, finally, is based on my contribution to the international conference on Belgium and the First World War in January 2003, the proceedings of which were published in August 2005. 6 Table of Contents Introduction 9 (a) General (b) Historiographical Review (c) Sources 1. Prologue: Antwerp in German-Belgian relations before 1914 20 (a) Antwerp’s economic significance (b) The German Colony (c) Diplomacy, war plans and the fortress of Antwerp (d) Results Part A: The German wartime debates about the future of Antwerp 2. The Conquest of Antwerp, 9 October 1914 38 (a) Before the siege (August-September 1914) (b) The siege and conquest (c) Consequences (d) Results 3. Antwerp as German war aim 49 (a) General (b) Campaigning for a ‘German Antwerp’ – The German Navy (c) Campaigning for a ‘German Antwerp’ – Bavaria (d) Decisions in the Government-General (e) Results 4. The Hanseatic city-states and the prospect of a ‘German Antwerp’ 64 (a) A Hanseatic administration in occupied Antwerp (b) Re-assessing the port competition of Antwerp (c) Bremen and the future of Antwerp (d) Hamburg and the future of Antwerp (e) Decision time in spring 1918? (f) Results 5. Academic economists and the economic conundrum of Antwerp 101 (a) General spectrum of opinion (b) Champion for a ‘Belgian Antwerp’? Kurt Wiedenfeld (c) Wiedenfeld’s nemesis: Hermann Schumacher (d) Effects of the Wiedenfeld-Schumacher debate (e) Results 6. The perception of Antwerp in the German public sphere 116 (a) German wartime publications on Antwerp (b) The special relationship between Antwerp and Germany (c) Antwerp as object in the war (d) Results Part B: Preparations for a ‘German Antwerp’ during the occupation? 7. Characteristics of the German occupation regime in Antwerp 147 (a) The Government-General (b) The institutions for the province and city of Antwerp (c) The local relationship with the Belgians (d) Results 8. Occupied Antwerp and the German war effort 169 (a) The military significance of the fortress and the port of Antwerp 7 (b) The economic exploitation (1): requisitions in the port (c) The economic exploitation (2): shipping and transport (d) Economic exploitation (3): agriculture, industry and finance (e) Results 9. Flamenpolitik in Antwerp 218 (a) General features of Flamenpolitik (b) Implementation of Flamenpolitik in Antwerp (c) German-Flemish contacts in Antwerp (d) Moderation in Antwerp? – The Flemish Belgians (e) Moderation in Antwerp? – The Germans (f) Results 10. The German Colony between occupier and occupied 252 (a) Expulsions, August-September 1914 (b) Exile in Germany (c) Return to the occupied city (d) The Colony and German war culture (e) The Colony as nucleus of a ‘German Antwerp’? (f) Results 11. The German programme of ‘economic penetration’ in Antwerp 285 (a) Commercial enterprises (b) Economic penetration (c) Results 12. Epilogue: the end of the war and its aftermath 294 (a) The retreat from Antwerp (b) The Antwerp occupation personnel in post-war Germany (c) The destruction of the German Colony (d) Towards a normalisation of Antwerp-German trade relations? (e) Results Conclusions 317 Bibliography 328 1. Archives 328 2. Newspapers 336 3. Published Sources 336 4. Works published before 1945 337 5. Works published after 1945 343 8 Tables 1. Preliminary inventory of goods found in Antwerp port 175 2. Exports from the Government-General to the Netherlands in Belgian Francs, 1917 190 3. Collection of Antwerp port statistics for 1915-1918 198 4. Relative distribution of shipping volume (tonnage) by country 200 5. Distribution of number of ships and their average size (tonnage) by country 201 6. Distribution of employment rates of 228 businesses (including 31 diamond factories) in Antwerp city 205 7. Exports and imports of diamonds to the Netherlands in Belgian Francs 212 8. Value of German-Belgian stock-exchange transactions in Antwerp and Brussels, in German Marks 215 9.