The 1870 War and the Legal Annexation of Alsace and Moselle into the Reich
In 1870, while Alsace and Moselle were French territories, a war broke out between France and Prussia, along with its allies from the North German Confederation.
Within a few months, France was defeated by the German Empire, proclaimed in January 1871 at the Palace of Versailles. The Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on May 10, 1871, annexed Alsace and Moselle to the German Empire.
The three French departments became the Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen, an imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine.
While 50,000 Alsatians and Mosellans chose to retain French nationality and left their homeland, the remaining population became German nationals.
The German Empire then imposed its laws, its language, and its culture on the region.
Credit: Musée Carnavalet.
Credit: Mémorial Alsace-Moselle, NICOLE collection.
1914–1918: The First World War
During the First World War, 380,000 Alsatians and Mosellans served in the German army, while 18,000 others fled and joined the French army.
This fratricidal war was particularly painful for the populations of Alsace and Moselle.
The Return to France and the Interwar Period
After the victory of France and its allies, Alsace and Moselle once again became French. Following the armistice of November 11, 1918, and the Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28, 1919, this return to France was greeted with enthusiasm by many Alsatians and Mosellans, who were strongly attached to it. However, the French administration made a series of missteps: it granted French nationality to all, expelled certain individuals, imposed the French language, and established a legal framework that, at first, did not take into account the specific characteristics of Alsace and Moselle.
Autonomist movements emerged.
The rise of tensions in Europe, particularly Adolf Hitler’s accession to the German chancellorship on January 30, 1933, brought about, within the region, a growing fear of another war and a new annexation of Alsace and Moselle.
Credit: Mémorial Alsace-Moselle, BRISBOIS collection.
The Beginnings of the Second World War in Alsace-Moselle
Credit: Municipal Archives of Sarreguemines.
The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, triggered declarations of war by the United Kingdom and France against Germany on September 3, 1939.
The consequences were immediate in Alsace-Moselle, where the evacuation of one third of the population to southwestern France was ordered.
During the Phoney War (Drôle de guerre, September 1939 – May 1940), thousands of soldiers from all regions of France took positions in the forts of Alsace and Moselle along the Maginot Line, protecting France from a German attack.
From June 10, 1940, the French army and population were overwhelmed by war, leading to defeat and mass exodus. In just over forty days, France collapsed. The appointment of Marshal Pétain as President of the Council on June 17, 1940, paved the way for the signing of the armistice on June 22, 1940.
Credit: Departmental Archives of Bas-Rhin.
The De Facto Annexation of Alsace and Moselle into the Third Reich
This armistice agreement does not specify, in any of its clauses, the fate reserved for Alsace and Moselle.
However, Adolf Hitler decides to de facto annex the three departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle.
From the summer of 1940, Alsatians and Mosellans experience the daily reality of the Nazi totalitarian regime, which considers these territories as German lands. They are placed under the authority of the Gauleiter of Oberrhein and Westmark, to which Alsace and Moselle are henceforth attached. Gauleiter Robert Wagner and Josef Bürckel implement a policy of de-Frenchification, Germanisation and Nazification of the population and the territory: imposition of the German language everywhere, disappearance of all French symbols replaced by Nazi symbols, Germanisation of the names of public spaces, towns and villages, rewriting of the territory’s history, restructuring of civil administration, change of currency, strict control of the population, tight supervision of education and culture, control of religions and associations, indoctrination of youth, mobilisation and forced incorporation of young Alsatians and Mosellans.
Credit: Departmental Archives of Moselle.
Credit: AVES.
While the vast majority struggled to survive and others collaborated, repression, internment in the Vorbruck-Schirmeck security camp, and the introduction of collective responsibility did not prevent part of the population from engaging in resistance.
The total war pursued by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels after the defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943 further oppressed Alsatians and Mosellans, who were forced to contribute to the war effort regardless of their age.
Liberation
Credit: Municipal Archives of Colmar.
The Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, and those in Provence on August 15, 1944, heralded the liberation of Alsace-Moselle, which began on September 6, 1944, with the liberation of the Moselle village of Gorze.
Weather conditions, the orders issued by Adolf Hitler to his army, and the high density of towns and villages in these territories made the liberation of Alsace and Moselle particularly difficult.
After several months of fighting, with a population under bombs and fire, the territory of Alsace and Moselle was definitively liberated at the end of March 1945.
On May 8, 1945, the date of Nazi Germany’s capitulation, and in the context of the purge, Alsatians and Mosellans fully regained their freedom, but awaited news of those forcibly conscripted and imprisoned in Soviet camps.
Of the 130,000 Alsatians and Mosellans subjected to forced incorporation, 30,000 died or went missing and 90,000 returned home. The last forcibly conscripted person to return from one of these camps did not come back until 1955.
The Post-War Period and European Integration
From the ashes of the Second World War emerged the construction of Europe, in which Alsace and Moselle played a leading role. From the creation of the Council of Europe in 1949, followed by Robert Schuman’s declaration in 1950 establishing the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community), Europe’s history was shaped through the Cold War, the opposition between blocs and the collapse of the Soviet world in 1991.
A territory at the heart of the conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries, Alsace and Moselle today stand at the center of Europe, notably with the establishment of major European institutions in Strasbourg: the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights.
Credit: European Union – European Commission.