ALSACE-LORRAINE.

In 843, in Verdun, the grandsons of Charlemagne (king of the Franks, 768–814; and emperor of the West, 800–814) divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts. The western and eastern portions later became France and Germany, respectively, while between them, spreading from the North Sea to Italy, was the kingdom of Lotharingia, which soon fell apart. Alsace and Lorraine, a portion of Lotharingia, remained in Germanic hands until the seventeenth century, when Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715) was able to reunite a major portion of Alsace with the kingdom of France. Southern Alsace, notably the region of Mulhouse, was annexed only during the Revolution. This reunification allowed France to reach its "natural border" along a section of the Rhine.

Lorraine, where the population spoke French except in the Germanophone northeast, was more disputed. From the sixteenth century, reunification was gradual and only completed during the second half of the eighteenth century. The two provinces had scarcely any ties or sympathy for each other, and were only treated as a unit after they were annexed together by the victorious Germans after the war of 1870–1871. In fact, the two provinces were not united in their entirety. Only the major part of Alsace, less the region of Belfort, and the department of Moselle in the north of Lorraine, were involved in the annexation.

While the region's legislative deputies solemnly protested this "odious abuse of power," Alsace-Lorraine came to embody in some measure the achievement of German unity that was symbolized by the proclamation of the king of Prussia, William I (r. 1861–1888), as emperor of Germany at Versailles, on 18 January 1871. To reinforce the symbolism, Alsace-Lorraine became a Reichsland (territory of the empire) and common property of all the German states. For the French, reconquest of Alsace-Lorraine was the principal theme of revanchism (from the French word for revenge). But gradually, apart from nationalist groups such as La Ligue des Patriotes (Patriots' League) in the 1880s and the monarchist Action Française (French Action) at the beginning of the twentieth century, French public opinion did not favor a war to regain the lost provinces. However, the Alsace-Lorraine controversy prevented reconciliation between France and Germany and was a cause of discord in Europe.

The 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt stipulated that French inhabitants of the annexed territories would have the right, until 31 October 1872 to repatriate to France. Out of a population of 1.6 million, about 150,000 decided to exercise this right, among them a significant number of the political, cultural, economic, and military elites, especially in Alsace. Those who decided to stay did not necessarily accept annexation, and public opinion tended toward protest and dissatisfaction. At first the Reichsland was directly under the authority of Berlin through the Statthalter (representative) in Strasbourg. Despite strict rules—the German language was obligatory, for example, while French was prohibited—the Reichsland benefited from a conciliatory policy on the part of German authorities. But confronted with persistent protests, the regime became far more rigid. After 1890 discord lessened as many Germans now settled in the two provinces. Unity with Germany had improved the region's prosperity and the young generation had never known anything except a German government. Rather than revert to France, many inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine pressed for greater autonomy within the German Empire, and in 1911 obtained a new constitution. The population of Moselle clearly did not want to be the object of a confrontation between France and Germany; nevertheless, the climate was often tense in Alsace, as demonstrated in Saverne in 1913, when, after a young German lieutenant insulted Alsatian recruits, serious incidents took place between the civilian population and the German troops. The Alsatian Museum of Doctor Bücher in Strasbourg and the drawings of the artists Hansi (Jean-Jacques Waltz; 1873–1951) and Henri Zislin (1875–1958) are the best demonstrations of continued attachment to France and of a rejection of Germanization.

The outbreak of war in 1914 was in no way a consequence of the Alsace-Lorraine question, but once the battle was joined, reconquest of the two provinces became France's war aim par excellence. French troops' brief occupation of Mulhouse in August 1914 provoked an outburst of enthusiasm there. However, 250,000 soldiers of Alsace-Lorraine did fight in the German army, and for most of the next four years the "war map" was so favorable to Germany that it gave no thought to returning Alsace-Lorraine, which made a compromise for peace almost impossible. On the other hand, the United Kingdom only belatedly considered this restitution a priority. At the time of the armistice talks, France demanded the return of Alsace-Lorraine without waiting for a conclusion of the peace process. The French president Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934), prime minister Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929), and generals Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929) and Philippe Pétain (1856–1951) were welcomed in the liberated Alsace-Lorraine amid great enthusiasm, and the German "immigrants" were now expelled. Nonetheless, although secular French law was not imposed—especially in Alsace where religion, both Catholic and Protestant, had particular importance—the relationship with the interior authorities, who scarcely recognized the Alsatian "exception," soon grew strained. An "autonomist" movement grew up until the 1930s, when it became pro-Nazi and lost its influence.

Victorious in 1940, Nazi Germany immediately annexed the former Alsace-Lorraine and named Robert Heinrich Wagner gauleiter (leader of a regional branch of the Nazi party) of Alsace and Joseph Bürckel gauleiter of Lorraine. From August 1942, the region's young men were drafted into the German army, giving birth after the war to the denomination of the "malgré nous"—the 130,000 young men of Alsace-Lorraine who later claimed to have been compelled against their will to serve in the German army, which was true for the great majority of them. Some twenty thousand never returned, especially from the Russian front, where they were killed in combat or died in prisoner-of-war camps such as the notorious Soviet camp of Tambov. In some cases prisoners were held by the Soviet authorities until years later (most were liberated by 1947, but the last of them only in 1955). The fate of some thirteen thousand remains unknown. Nazi reprisals against the French Resistance in Alsace were severe; many were sent to die in the Alsatian concentration camp of Schirmeck.

The Second World War put an end to the Alsace-Lorraine question. Lorraine was reunified, and Alsace was at last able to reconcile a deep French patriotism, expressed by a strong attachment to Gaullism, with a European calling—Strasbourg became the seat first of the Council of Europe (1948), and later of the European Parliament (1979). Although now entirely French, Alsace retains its unique character within the whole of France through its traditions, its way of life, and by the maintenance, at least in the country, of the local "dialect."

See alsoAction Française; France; Germany; World War I.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dollinger, Philippe, ed. Histoire de l'Alsace. Toulouse, France, 2001.

Le Marec, Bernard, and Gérard Le Marec. L'Alsace dans la guerre: 1939–1945. Paris, 1988.

L'Huillier, Fernand. Histoire de l'Alsace. Paris, 1974.

Mayeur, Jean-Marie. Autonomie et politique en Alsace: La constitution de 1911. Paris, 1970.

Moullec, Gaël. "De la Wehrmacht aux camps soviétiques: La tragédie des malgré nous (avis de recherches)." L'histoire 255 (June 2001).

Roth, François. La Lorraine annexée (1870–1918). Nancy, France, 1976.

——. "L'Alsace-Lorraine au début du XXe siècle." In Encyclopédie de la Grande Guerre (1914–1918): Histoire et culture, under the direction of Jean-Jacques Becker et Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau. Paris, 2004.

Spindler, Charles. L'Alsace pendant la guerre. Strasbourg, 1925.

Vogler, Bernard. Histoire politique de l'Alsace: De la Révolution à nos jours; Un panorama des passions alsaciennes. Strasbourg, 1995.

Jean-Jacques Becker