German Girls, American Boys: The American occupation of the German Rhineland 1918-1923
One of the first policies established by the U.S. Third Army when it began the occupation of the German Rhineland in December 1918 was the “Anti-Fraternization” rule. For American soldiers, this rule made it a crime to speak to any German, male or female, except on official business.
One of the first policies established by the U.S. Third Army when it began the occupation of the German Rhineland in December 1918 was the “Anti-Fraternization” rule. For American soldiers, this rule made it a crime to speak to any German, male or female, except on official business. Unfortunately for the rule-enforcers, the vast majority of the 250,000 soldiers and Marines in the Third Army were billeted in private German homes. Of course, the young soldiers often found the German girls very attractive and the German girls were equally impressed by the Americans. Still, the penalties for breaking the Anti-Frat rule were severe; a soldier could be removed from his unit and punished while the girl would be evicted from the American zone and sent to unoccupied Germany to fend for herself.
Yet the attractions were often strong and many illicit romances took place. With so many German girls falling in love with the Americans, a song was written with the following verse and was popular in the U.S. Zone:
Wo steht denn das geschriben,
Du sollst nur Deutsche Lieben?
Man liebt doch auch America.
Where does one find it written,
that one must love the Germans only?
One can love America also.
When General Henry T. Allen assumed command in July 1919, he not only presided over the name change from the “U.S. Third Army” to the “American Forces in Germany” (AFG), he published an order in an attempt to control the growing number of German-American relationships:
“No person in the American military service is permitted to marry without the authority of the Commanding General, American Forces in Germany. Orders heretofore issued prohibiting German civil officials from performing marriages between members of the American Army and nationals of any country are continued in force.”
General Allen was determined to limit the number of marriages despite the fact he himself was married and living with his wife and family in Coblenz. His son was a cavalry officer in Coblenz and his son-in-law, Frank Andrews, commanded the Third Army Aviation Detachment. Allen wrote “Another factor — and not the least important — was that in the large majority of cases marriage lowers the efficiency of the enlisted man… The larger the proportion of married soldiers in a military organization, the lower its efficiency.”
But the genie was already out of the bottle. When the ban on fraternization was lifted in September 1919, many soldiers came forward requesting permission to marry. While on the surface these seemed like fairly simple request, the AFG had to take into account a number of factors. For example, a shortage of suitable housing for married soldiers would remain a problem throughout the occupation. Another issue was that, while a soldier remained responsible for supporting his family during service in the occupation and on the trip back to the United States, the Army was ultimately responsible for transporting the soldier’s new family to the next duty station upon completion of occupation duty.
Some soldiers also failed to appreciate the fact that while their military pay in the AFG allowed for a comfortable lifestyle, but back in America the same pay would not easily support a family. As a result, some of the newlyweds soon found themselves at or below the poverty level upon arriving at their next duty assignments.
Even with the rapidly downsizing of the AFG, some problems got worse before they got better. Transport ships to the States had limited berthing spaces for wives and children, so each ship had to be carefully manifested to make the most of the few available “family” cabins. During one period, the number of wives and children requiring passage to the States was so great that an entire vessel was dedicated just to the shipping of “dependents”. During the period from 1919-21, along with rotating soldiers whose tour was completed, the U.S. Army was responsible for providing passage back to America of 782 dependent wives and their 267 children. More than 90 percent of these ladies were German, with the remainder being of French, British, or other European nationalities.
Finally, in January 1923, the AFG, having been reduced to only 1,000 soldiers, furled its flag and returned to the United States with its mission complete. The American flag wouldn’t fly in the AFG’s occupation zone again until 1945. Ironically, the young American officer who would led his troops in the capture of the Remagen Bridge was born in Germany, the child of an AFG soldier and his German wife.
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Alexander F. Barnes was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and grew up in an Air Force family. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1974 and then joined the Army National Guard in 1977, retiring as a Virginia Army National Guard chief warrant officer in 2004. He retired as a US Army Civilian at Fort Lee in July 2015. Barnes has a master’s degree in Anthropology and has authored 7 military history books His most recent World War One books have told the story of immigrants in the US Army and the close linkage of the Doughboys and baseball. He currently serves as the Command Historian for the Virginia National Guard.
