Old German
As Altdeutsche German are referred from other parts of the empire, after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in the 1871 Alsace-Lorraine moved. The relationship between these old Germans and the Alsatians and Lorraine people was tense for a long time. After the re-annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by France after the First World War , almost all old Germans were expelled.
Incorporation of Alsace-Lorraine into the empire
Cultural differences between old Germans and local residents
The demarcation in the area of Alsace essentially followed the language border along the main ridge of the Vosges (the main article on this is languages and dialects in Alsace ). In Lorraine, the former Free German Imperial City of Metz, including the fortress and surrounding area, was added to the German Empire , primarily for strategic reasons . The resulting Reichsland was predominantly German-speaking. Nevertheless, the inhabitants felt predominantly as Lorraine or Alsatian (not as Alsace-Lorraine, there was no such regional identity) and - regardless of their mother tongue - had a strong regional identity that also included an emotional bond with France. This Franco-German dual culture was formative for the self-image.
The immigrants from the Reich are completely different. Most of them felt that they were Germans and often did not understand why the German-speaking residents identified with France.
Civil service
After the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War , the French government asked its officials and judges to stop performing their duties. Most of the important administrative positions had to be filled. In addition, the Reich wanted to employ loyal officials.
Both of these led to a large part of the civil service of the Reichsland being newly appointed. The new civil service was largely recruited from old Germans. This was perceived as a disadvantage for the locals and further intensified the contrast.
military
The military made up a quarter of the immigrants from the empire. They concentrated on the large military bases. The conflicts with the autochthonous population also arose here from the high social status of the military, who often looked down on the (native) civilian population. The Zabern affair was a well-known example of this conflict situation.
Slow equalization
The conflicts mentioned lead to the fact that after the annexation initially only "protesters" and autonomists from the Reichsland were elected to the Reichstag . In the course of the 46 years of German rule, the differences between the " Wackes " and the "Old Germans" continued to decrease. At the end of the empire, voting behavior in the empire corresponded to that of the rest of the empire.
The expulsion of the old Germans
With Germany's defeat in World War I , Germany had to agree to the cession of Alsace-Lorraine to France in the Versailles Treaty . A policy of assimilation was pursued to secure the reclaimed areas. The first step towards this was the expulsion of “unreliable” and “Pan-Germanic” citizens, above all the old Germans.
From December 14, 1919, the inhabitants of Alsace were divided into four groups according to their descent:
- A Entirely French: residents who were born in France or Alsace-Lorraine before 1870 or whose parents / grandparents were born
- B Partly French: one of the parents or grandparents came from France or Alsace-Lorraine before 1870
- C Foreigners: Residents who themselves or their parents / grandparents came from a country allied with France or a neutral country
- D Germans: residents who themselves or their parents / grandparents came from the rest of the German Empire or from Austria-Hungary.
Class D people, the old Germans, a total of around 200,000 people, were expelled . After US President Woodrow Wilson put pressure on the government in Paris, about half of them were able to return to Alsace-Lorraine in the following months.
The instrument of these expulsions was the Commission de Triage (selection committees), which determined the Germans to be expelled.
In the years that followed, this expulsion policy was one of the reasons for the autonomist positions in Alsace politics.
literature
- Jerzy Kochanowski (Ed.): The “Volksdeutsche” in Poland, France, Hungary and Czechoslovakia: Myth and Reality, 2006, ISBN 978-3-929759-84-6 , pp. 79 ff.
- Max Hildebert Boehm , The Old German Immigrant in Alsace, 1917.
- Eugen Meyer : Das Deutschtum in Elsass-Lothringen, Edition 7 of Deutschtum und Abroad, Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1927.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sophie Charlotte Preibusch: Constitutional developments in the realm country Elsass Lorraine 1871-1918: Integration by constitutional law ?, 2006, ISBN 3-8305-2047-6 , p. 21
- ↑ Florian Stoll: Alsace-Lorraine's feeling of belonging in the German Empire (1870 / 71-1918), 2012, ISBN 978-3-656-22451-8 , p. 12, online