Street fighting in Alsace, January 8, 1915.
Original photoheliogravure from 1915.
Journal clipping measuring 190 x 200 mm.
Minimal signs of wear, otherwise in very good condition.
Keywords: WWI, First World War, army, military, troops, German Empire, Western Front, France, fallen, dead, death, corpses, trench warfare, infantry
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Historical information about the article itself:
Le Bonhomme (German: Diedolshausen) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in the Alsace region of France.
geography
Le Bonhomme lies approximately 15 km southwest of the town of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines and 25 km west-northwest of Colmar, at the confluence of the Bagenelles stream and the Béhine river. The Col du Bonhomme, above the village, is a significant pass across the Vosges Mountains. The village is overlooked by the ruins of Gutenbourg Castle (Judenburg).
The town is located in the canton of Lapoutroie, one of the few areas in Alsace with an original Francophone regional language. The endangered Welche (German: Welsch) or Vosgien dialect is a Gallo-Romance dialect from the Langues d'oïl group, closely related to Walloon.
Sons and daughters of the city
Wilhelm Kisch (1874-1952), German jurist, 1933-35 Vice President of the Academy for German Law
(From Wikipedia).
Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen is the name for an administrative territory of the German Empire formed from parts of the old regions of Alsace and Lorraine from 1871 to 1918.
geography
Area: 14,522 km²,
Population (1905): 1,815,000
Capital city: Strasbourg in Alsace,
Largest cities:
Strasbourg (state capital),
Kolmar (Colmar) (seat of the Higher Regional Court),
Metz
Story
Background to the founding of the Reichsland
See: Main article History of Alsace
The present-day regions of Alsace and Lorraine belonged to the East Frankish Kingdom (later the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) from the Treaty of Mersen in 870. As was common elsewhere, various imperial cities, ecclesiastical territories, and imperial estates existed here as well.
Most of what would later become the Holy Roman Empire was gradually annexed by France under Louis XIV during the second half of the 17th century as part of its policy of Reunions. Strasbourg was occupied by Louis XIV's troops in 1681. However, Alsace continued to play a special role within the French kingdom for a long time and remained culturally German. In contrast to the rest of France, there was also considerable tolerance towards Protestants, and economically, Alsace was separated from the rest of France by a customs border.
During the French Revolution, the region became fully part of the French First Republic and remained part of France throughout the First Empire, the Restoration, the July Monarchy, the Second Republic, and the Second Empire. Like the rest of France, it was divided into départements, whose borders did not coincide with the later borders of the Reichsland.
Alsace-Lorraine in the German Empire
Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the territory was reintegrated into German sovereignty, specifically the newly founded German Empire, with the Treaty of Frankfurt. The border in Alsace essentially followed the language boundary along the Vosges Mountains. Belfort, a city historically part of southern Alsace (i.e., the Sundgau) but traditionally French-speaking, located at the Burgundian Gate, remained with France. For military reasons, a portion of Lorraine, including the fortress and city of Metz and its surrounding area, was also annexed to the Empire, despite the fact that French was spoken there. The majority of Lorraine, with its capital Nancy, remained with France. As a result, approximately 200,000 native French speakers from Lorraine came under German rule, a situation that strained Franco-German relations for decades to come. As early as 1871, plans existed for a strategic railway line from Berlin via Wetzlar and Koblenz to Metz, with the aim of integrating the newly annexed territory into the military-strategic framework. The cannon railway was then built in the 1870s.
The status of "Reichsland"
Since the new empire was a federal state made up of various countries, but the newly acquired territory was not initially granted any autonomy, various possibilities for integration were discussed:
Annexation as a Prussian province
Incorporation into Bavaria (the then still Bavarian Palatinate would have been merged with Lorraine, Alsace would have become part of Baden)
Creation of a new “Reichsland” that is assigned to the Reich (i.e., not to any specific federal state) and is administered directly by the Emperor.
The "Prussian solution" in particular was initially championed very enthusiastically by various parties. In 1871, the historian Heinrich von Treitschke argued for this solution in the Reichstag with the following justification: "The task of reintegrating these alienated tribes of the German nation into our country is so great and difficult that it can only be entrusted to proven hands, and where is there a political force in the German Reich that has proven the ability to Germanize, like old, glorious Prussia?"
In the Reichstag, Bismarck advocated for the solution that Alsace-Lorraine should be transferred to the Community State, not least because he had to take the interests of the southern German states into account.
The possibility of granting Alsace-Lorraine the status of a federal state within the German Empire, with its own sovereign and constitution, was not considered, not least because Prussia was convinced that the region's population would first have to be Germanized. Therefore, the imperial territory was initially treated as occupied territory and administered directly by the Empire. Many inhabitants who felt a strong connection to France, particularly French-speaking ones—the so-called optants—left the region and moved to France, especially to Belfort, taking their assets with them.
Results of the Reichstag elections 1874–1912
The inhabitants were granted the right to vote in the German Reichstag, in which the imperial territory was represented from 1874 onwards by 15 members (out of 397). The following table shows the results of the Reichstag elections in Alsace-Lorraine from 1874 to 1912.
FVp: Progressive People's Party, formed through the merger of all left-liberal groups.
The compilation shows that the vast majority of inhabitants of the Imperial Territory were skeptical of the German Empire during the first two decades and voted for regional parties (Alsatian-Lorraine Autonomists) (EL). After Bismarck's dismissal in 1890, however, the party landscape loosened, and parties from the German Empire (SPD, Centre Party, National Liberals, Left Liberals, Conservatives) gained more and more supporters. In rural areas and in the predominantly French-speaking constituencies of Lorraine, the Autonomists remained strong, while in the cities, especially Strasbourg, they increasingly played only a subordinate role, where the Social Democrats dominated. The majority electoral system used for the German Reichstag, however, favored regional parties and disadvantaged large mass parties like the SPD.
Language question
In the Reichsland (Imperial Territory of Lorraine), 11.6% of the population spoke French as their mother tongue in 1900, 11.0% in 1905, and 10.9% in 1910. The language question was regulated by a law of March 1872: German became the official business language in principle, but in those parts of the territory with a predominantly French-speaking population, a French translation was to be appended to public announcements and decrees. A further law of 1873 permitted the use of French as the business language for the district administrations of Lorraine and the county administrations of those districts where French was wholly or partially the vernacular.
A law on education passed in 1873 stipulated that in areas where German was the vernacular, it would also be the exclusive language of instruction, while in areas with a predominantly French-speaking population, instruction was conducted exclusively in French. At this time, compulsory education was also introduced (in France, not until 1882).
Political independence
The German constitution was introduced here in 1874. From 1877 onwards, the region was granted the right to propose laws within the German Empire.
It now possessed a degree of autonomy. An advisory state committee was established. In 1879, the office of the governor was introduced, who, as head of state, represented the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine.
A state secretary in the Ministry for Alsace-Lorraine headed the government of the imperial territory. In 1884, the University of Strasbourg became an imperial university.
During this time, Alsace experienced an economic boom, with many new achievements such as social security and health insurance being introduced in line with developments in the other parts of the German Empire.
It was not until 1911 that Alsace-Lorraine was granted equal status with the other German states, receiving its own constitution, a freely elected parliament, its own red-and-white flag, and three representatives in the German Federal Council. The parliament consisted of two chambers: the first chamber comprised representatives from the chambers of commerce and agriculture, the cities and religious communities, the university, and the Higher Regional Court, while the 60 members of the second chamber were elected for five-year terms in free, equal, and secret elections. Nevertheless, problems persisted, particularly with the unwelcome Prussian administrative officials and military personnel, as demonstrated by the events surrounding the Zabern Affair.
Connection to France
After the First World War, Alsace, under Eugen Ricklin, initially declared its independence in November 1918. After about a week, French troops marched in and ended this independence. At first, some segments of the population reacted enthusiastically to the return to France. This enthusiasm waned as the French enforced their assimilation policies. Following the end of the "Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine," the inhabitants of Alsace were divided into four groups according to their ancestry: French (or Alsatians and Lorrainers before 1871), those of partial French heritage (immigrants after 1871), Germans, and foreigners. People of German descent who had immigrated after 1870 and their descendants, approximately 200,000 people, were forced to leave the region. About half of them returned to Alsace-Lorraine in the following months after US President Wilson exerted pressure on the government in Paris.
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was dissolved on October 17, 1919, and henceforth administered by a General Directorate in Paris.
aftermath
Due to the assimilation policies, discontent grew among the Alsatian population. This led to a strong autonomist movement. In the elections to the National Assembly, the Alsatian autonomists, who cooperated with the Communist Party as well as Breton and Corsican nationalists, won an absolute majority of votes in all Alsatian constituencies. Members of parliament and politicians who advocated autonomy were often sentenced to long prison terms by the French state; the leader of the Autonomist Party, Karl Roos, was executed in Nancy on February 7, 1940, on charges of espionage.
World War II – German occupation
The Wehrmacht occupied Alsace from June 19, 1940.
Under the National Socialists, Alsace-Lorraine was de facto, but not officially, incorporated into the Greater German Reich. After the victory over France, there were hopes for peace in the West, which would have been further complicated by a direct annexation of Alsace-Lorraine.
The Reich University of Strasbourg was founded in 1941.
From 1942 onwards, general military conscription also applied to the people of Alsace and Lorraine. Many of them had to perform their military service in the Wehrmacht or the Waffen-SS; however, there were also many volunteers among them.
Post-war period in France
After the Second World War, the French government pursued a policy of linguistic assimilation ("c'est chic de parler français"). As a result, the German mother tongue (Alsatian German and especially Lorraine German) fell so far behind that the majority of young people (those born after about 1970) can no longer speak it today (Source: Sondages de 2001 des DNA Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace).
Regional parliaments have existed again in Alsace and Lorraine since 1972. Autonomist-oriented parties, such as the National Forum Alsace-Lorraine or Alsace d'abord, currently receive less than 10% of the vote.
The border changes to the departments of Meurthe (later Meurthe-et-Moselle), Moselle, and Vosges, caused by the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871, as well as the separation of the Territoire de Belfort from the Haut-Rhin department, were retained by France after 1918. The subsequent departments of Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, and Moselle are identical to the districts of Upper Alsace, Lower Alsace, and Lorraine created in the Imperial Territory. The administrative division at the municipal level, introduced after 1871, was also not reversed by France, so that the current arrondissements correspond to the districts formed after 1871 (with the exception of more recent mergers such as Sélestat-Erstein).
The territory of the former imperial territory ("Alsace-Moselle") has preserved several unique features from the pre-1918 era within France. These include additional holidays (Good Friday, Assumption Day, Boxing Day), some peculiarities in the legal system, and the non-application of the French law on secularism of 1905 to existing religious communities. Priests, pastors, and rabbis are state employees as a result of the Concordat of 1801, religious instruction is provided in schools, there are state-run theological faculties at the University of Strasbourg, and state-funded denominational schools. However, the law on secularism applies to religious communities established after 1918, such as Muslims and Orthodox Christians. Railway traffic still runs on the right (while the rest of France uses the left).
Districts in the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine 1918
Lorraine district
urban district
1. Metz
Other districts
1. Bolchen
4. Diedenhofen-West
7. Saarburg 2. Château-Salins
5. Forbach
8. Sarreguemines 3. Diedenhofen-Ost
6. Metz, Land
Upper Alsace district
Circles
1. Altkirch
4. Mulhouse 2. Colmar
5. Rappoltsweiler 3. Gebweiler
6. Thann
Lower Alsace District [Edit]
urban district
1. Strasbourg
Other districts
1. First
4. Sélestat
7. Zabern 2. Hagenau
5. Strasbourg, Country 3. Molsheim
6. Weißenburg
(From Wikipedia).