A border post in Ortenberg
2023 marks the 100th anniversary of a border running through here in the station curve.
A little over four years after the end of the First World War, French and Belgian military units occupied the Ruhr area as Germany had not been able to pay the reparations payments set by the victorious Allied powers in the “London Ultimatum” in 1921. Among other things, coal production was placed under strict control in order to claim it as the stipulated reparations.
This "occupation of the Ruhr (Ruhr Occupation) " and the subsequent resistance movement known as the "Ruhrkampf" have found their way into the history books. What has remained more or less unnoticed and almost forgotten throughout Germany is the fact that the French-occupied "bridgehead Kehl" was extended to other communities in the Ortenau and, on April 20, 1923, also to parts of Ortenberg, almost at the same time as the occupation of the Ruhr area. For the first time since around 1800 Ortenberg was occupied by foreign troops. The occupation lasted from April 20, 1923 to August 18, 1924.
The “border” between the occupied and unoccupied territory ran through Ortenberg for 16 months. French soldiers patrolled the strategically important station curve in front of a blue, white and red-painted sentry box. A turnpike illuminated at night and two machine guns positioned there prevented uncontrolled passage.
The soldiers were billeted in the station restaurant across the road. This is also where the command post was located. This "border post" was thus the southernmost point of the Allied-occupied areas in Germany.
In the spirit of international understanding, the community of Ortenberg and its French partner community of Stotzheim, which have been linked in friendship since 1965, look back on this episode of shared history. The project is supported by the Franco-German Citizens' Fund, the Gertrud von Ortenberg Citizens' Foundation and the Ortenberg Museum and History Association.
The interruption of the Rhine Valley Railway between Renchen and Niederschopfheim as well as of the Black Forest Railway between Ortenberg and Offenburg as a consequence of the occupation caused great difficulties for rail travelers. On one of his trips to the Black
Forest, Ernest Hemingway, who later won the Nobel Prize in Literature, was also affected.
Coming from the north, he could only change back to the train again in Ortenberg: “I drove from Offenburg to Ortenberg, where there was a train, in a truck. ....", he noted in his article "The 'Battle' of Offenburg" for the Toronto Daily Star.