Eupen

The fact that Eupen came to Belgium after WWI is in itself a remarkable story. For Malmedy, there was some logic because there was a significant French-speaking population living there, which already aligned linguistically with Wallonia. But Eupen was only German-speaking. The cause is explained by Philip Dröge in his book Moresnet: The zinc company Vielle Montagne was said to have been behind this. The company was already active in that region on Belgian territory to extract zinc, but it had also set its sights on the German zinc mines just across the border around Eupen. And that annexation would suit them very well. And so it happened. However, the arguments concerning ores could not of course be put on the table. Therefore, they sought arguments in the domain of language. "Because the German dialect in the region around Eupen vaguely resembles the accent of some Flemish-speaking areas nearby: 'Le patois Mosan' or 'Maas plat'. The argument was that the people of Eupen were actually a sort of half-Flemings. Or how one can spin arguments until one becomes dizzy...

Dromos