Remilitarisation of the Rhineland

Three battalions across the river

German Wehrmacht units entered the demilitarized zone on 7 March 1936, with three battalions crossing to the west bank of the Rhine, where crowds welcomed them.

The zone was a precisely defined treaty area — the west bank plus a 50-kilometre strip east of the river — rather than everywhere loosely called the Rhineland. Versailles Articles 42 and 43 had created it, and Locarno subsequently guaranteed the arrangement.

The initial entry met no armed resistance.

Hitler tells the Reichstag sovereignty is restored

Hitler addressed the Reichstag the same day, denounced the Locarno arrangement and declared that Germany had restored full sovereignty in the demilitarized zone.

He justified the move as a response to the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance while simultaneously offering negotiations, including a new nonaggression arrangement.

The counting problem, and the response

Troop totals differ because sources count different places and times: three battalions on the west bank on 7 March, roughly 30,000 troops across the wider treaty zone, and a U.S. military attaché’s estimate of 40,000–45,000 — about three divisions — present by 9 March.

Britain and France condemned the action. France moved troops toward its border but did not enter the zone, and neither power intervened militarily; within days the initial entry expanded into a much larger occupation.

The much-quoted remark that the Germans would have withdrawn ‘with our tails between our legs’ is described by the USHMM as reported speech, not a record made on 7 March, and historians dispute what the German withdrawal orders actually required.