or Saargebiet
State (pop., 2002 est.: 1,066,470), southwestern Germany.
It has an area of 992 sq mi (2,569 sq km). The capital, Saarbrücken , lies along the Saar River . The region was contested by France and Germany from the 17th century until 1815, when France ceded most of it to Prussia by the Treaty of Paris . When Alsace-Lorraine was added to the German Empire in 1871, the Saar ceased to be a boundary state and developed rapidly as a coal-mining and industrial area, producing iron and steel. French military forces occupied it after World War II, but it was restored to West Germany and became a state in 1957.