SS State of Burgundy


The SS state of Burgundy or Order-State of Burgundy was a proposed state, which the leadership of Nazi Germany, especially the SS, hoped to create in certain areas of Western Europe during World War II.

History

The name "Burgundy" itself is a vague term, geographically speaking. A wide number of different countries and regions throughout history have been referred to by this name or controlled by a Burgundy-based state.
The most outspoken proponent of re-creating a German-controlled Burgundian state was Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. According to Himmler, Burgundy, which he called "an ancient economic and cultural centre", had been "reduced to nothing more than a French appendage, known only for its wine production". This plan entailed the transformation of Burgundy into a model-state nominally located outside of the Greater German Reich, but nevertheless ruled by a National Socialist government, and which would also have its own army, laws, and postal services. It was supposed to encompass French Switzerland, Picardy with Amiens, the Champagne district with Reims and Troyes, the Franche-Comté with Dijon, Chalons, and Nevers, Hainaut and Luxembourg. It was also to have a connection to both the Mediterranean Sea as well as the English Channel. The capital and administrative seat was tentatively proposed as either Dijon or Nancy as its capital. Its official language was to become German, but would initially be also French.
Whether these were merely the dreams of Himmler personally or, as he so claimed, enjoyed Hitler’s full support is inconclusive from the historical record. Hitler's own objective towards France was to eliminate it permanently as a strategic threat to German security. The 1940 campaign in Western Europe was in fact carried out entirely so that its western flank could be secured before Germany would commit its armies to conquering Lebensraum in the Soviet Union. With this in mind, extensive plans were made so that France could be reduced to a minor state and a permanent German vassal kept firmly in the state of dependence that she had found herself in after the 1940 armistice and which it would thus have no further reason to fear.
At Hitler’s request a plan was produced after the fall of France in 1940 that would provide for the outright annexation into Germany of a large strip of Eastern France by reducing it to its late medieval borders with the Holy Roman Empire. This memo, produced by the Reich Interior Ministry forms the basis for the so-called northeast line which separated the 'forbidden zone' of German occupied France from the rest of the areas under military control. It proposed the deportation of its French inhabitants and the settlement of a million German peasants. He considered these areas, as well as Wallonia to be "in reality German" and should therefore be re-integrated.
In 1942 Hitler did mention that the former area of the Kingdom of Burgundy, which France "had taken from Germany in her weakest moment" would also have to be annexed to Nazi Germany "after" the incorporation of the forbidden zone, but to which areas he referred by this statement remains unclear.

Brittany

There were also proposals for an independent Breton state. Hitler himself mentioned this intention on at least one occasion to his military leaders, but ultimately seemed to have taken little interest in the project.