The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the Saarland[1] was founded in the spring of 1950 in the Saar Protectorate, which existed from 1947 to 1956, a region of Western Germany that was occupied in 1945 by France.

After World War II, the Saarland was not allowed to become part of the Federal Republic of Germany after its founding in May 1949.

Having a recorded history of over 500 years of coal mining, the Saarland did donate a miner's safety lamp[4][5] in which the flame of the torch relay of the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki could be carried safely aboard airplanes.

The subsequent Saar Treaty of October 1956 allowed the Saarland to rejoin Germany effective as of 1 January 1957.

Therese Zenz[12] (born 15 October 1932 in Merzig), a local champion, finished 9th in the canoe race at the 1952 Olympics, held on the open Baltic Sea, a new experience for the 19-year-old athlete from a landlocked country.