The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/B
"Hitler Rules Western Europe" Part Two: "More Territorial Adjustments"

With Germany in control of much of western Europe,* Hitler made border adjustments: the small Eupen-Malmedy region, ceded by Germany to Belgium after World War One, and with a substantial German percentage of the population, again became a part of Germany. Alsace-Lorraine (in French terminology, the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Moselle), the centuries' long contested region along the Franco-German border, was annexed to Germany. It had last been ceded to France at the end of World War One. Luxembourg at first was simply occupied, and it wasn't annexed to Germany until 1942. Luxembourg had been a German state in the Old German Empire (Holy Roman Empire) and also later belonged to the German Confederation. It later became an independent entity in the late 1830s, as a "personal possession" of the king of the Netherlands, who was simultaneously "Grand Duke of Luxembourg;" however, it kept close economic ties with Germany by maintaining its membership in the German Customs Union ("Zollverein") until the end of World War One.

* Prior to the German offensive in western Europe, the Germans invaded both Denmark and Norway. There was little fighting in Denmark, which kept a "certain degree" of self government under the German occupying forces, and in fact, the Danish king remained in Denmark. German occupation policy in Denmark took a much stricter position from 1943 until the end of the war. There was no territorial adjustment with Denmark, although the German minority in North Schleswig wanted the area annexed to Germany. There was serious fighting in Norway, with the Allies also sending an expeditionary force, but in the end, the German military prevailed, and Norway fell under German occupation.

WORD HISTORY:
Set-There are two words in English with this spelling, so first I'll deal with the one that is related to "sit," which was covered in the previous article ("set," the noun, will be in the next article, as its history is totally different). Like its close relative "sit," it goes back to Indo European "sed," meaning "to sit." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "satjanan," which was the causative form of Old Germanic "sitjanan," the ancestor of "sit." "Causative" means just that, something that "causes or brings about an action," and "satjanan" meant "to place something, to fix something in place, make firm, to make or cause to sit." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "settan," with the same basic meanings. While primarily a verb, it can also be an adjective, "a set pattern," with the notion of a "fixed pattern," for instance. Later in English it became "setten," before the modern spelling. This is another common word in the other German languages, except Frisian: German has "setzen" (originally "sezzen"), and where English uses "Let's sit down," German uses "Setzen wir uns," literally, "Set ourselves," with the notion of "cause" obviously present. Low German Saxon has "setten," Dutch has "zetten," Icelandic has "setja," Swedish has "sätta," Danish has "sætte," and Norwegian has "sette."