The history of the Freestate Bottleneck
It
sounds like a made up story or joke today, but 80 years ago the unique
Freestate Bottleneck had acctually been realitiy. Developped during the
disorders and hard times after World War I and existed from January 10th
1919 till February 25th , 1923.
How did this
happend?
The provinces on the
west side of the Rhine river had been occupied by the Allied Troops. To
have a military presence on the east side of the Rhine river the forces
decided to create at Cologne, Koblenz and Mainz semicircular beachheads
with a radius of 30 km.
The beachheads of
Mainz, the French side and Koblenz, the American side almost touched at
Laufenselden. The circles didn´t overlap, so there was a free space
between the two territorys remained unoccupied. It had the form of a
bottleneck. The tiny Freestate Bottleneck was born.
Cut off from the
rest of Germany wich played his part in history as the
“Weimarer Republik”.
The mayor of Lorch
managed and organized the Freestate. He also
inaugurated the Freestates very own money, being a rarity today and very
popular for collectors and fans of the Freestate.
The supply of the
8000 inhabitants, living in the towns Lorch and Kaub and the townships
Lorchhausen, Sauerthal, Ransel, Wollmerschied, Welterod, Zorn, Strüth and
Egenrod was very difficult. There were no connections possible to the
unoccupied part of Germany neither on the streets, nor in the air or on
the water. All goods and mail transport was well organized by smugglers
using secret trails.
The traintraffic
completly succumbed, no train was allowed to stop in the freestate. Exept
for one praiseworthy time: A freight train transporting coals the French
had been looting in the Rhur area was put down at the trainstation in Rüdesheim.
This freight train was capured by a stout-hearted engine driver 
and
leaded to the freestate Bottleneck, where the very welcomed and needed
heating material was shared between the citizens.
In the mists of the
night the smuggeling over the rhine river prospered, which though was
disturbed and policed from the left side of the river with strong
searchlights by the French.
Some fearless
Freestate boys felt the need to drop their pants at the Lorch waterside
and let the French spotlight their naked backsides.
The occupied parts
of the rhine area smuggled wine on trails trought the woods under favour
of night with ox-barrows into the save Freestate to keep the French hands
off it.
Among others more
than 38000 liters of the vintage 1921 produced by the Prussian Academy and
Research Insitute of 
Geisenheim
were brought to Kaub with horse-barrows and storaged in winecellar of
Peter Bahles.
The storage in the
cellares of Kaub and Lorch supported the vinifaction of the wine in such a
great way, that even today these vintages obtain best prices at auctions.
February 25th
, 1923 the Freestate was occupied by the French aganist all agreements of
“Versailles” November 16th , 1924 they was forced to strike
off and release the Freestate Bottleneck.