Eupen is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège, 15 km from the German border (Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the nature reservation "Hohes Venn" (Ardennes). On 1 January 2006 Eupen had a total population of 18,248 (8,892 males and 9,356 females). The total area is 103.74 km² which gives a population density of 175.90 inhabitants per km². After the end of the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles placed Eupen and the neighboring municipality of Malmedy from 1920 to 1925 under Belgian administration, in the form of the Gouvernement Eupen-Malmedy under General Herman Baltia. The region was eventually subject to a plebiscite to determine whether the region would be permanently separated from Germany and annexed to Belgium. However, the vote was not secret, since the ballots required the name and postal address of each voter. Fearing expulsion if they voted for Germany, the populations of Eupen and Malmedy voted to join Belgium. Eupen is the seat of the Council of the German speaking community in Belgium and the official language in Eupen is German, although Dutch was widely spoken in Eupen in the 18th century. There is also a small University College in Eupen, the Autonome Hochschule in der deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft, offering bachelor degrees in Education and Nursing.