Apach

Apach
region	Grand Est
Department	Moselle
Arrondissement	Thionville
Canton	Bouzonville
Community association	Bouzonvillois-Trois Frontières
Coordinates	49 ° 28 ′  N , 6 ° 22 ′  E Coordinates: 49 ° 28 ′  N , 6 ° 22 ′  E
height	145-365 m
surface	3.35 km 2
Residents	1,032 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	308 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	57480
INSEE code	57026
Saint Donat Church

Apach ( Luxembourgish Opéch ) is a French commune with 1032 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Moselle department in the Grand Est region (until 2015 Lorraine ). It belongs to the Arrondissement of Thionville .

geography

The municipality of Apach is located on the Moselle in the triangle of Germany , France and Luxembourg .

The neighboring communities are Perl (Germany) in the north, the French communities Merschweiller in the east, Kirsch-lès-Sierck in the south-east, Rustroff in the south and Sierck-les-Bains in the south-west and Schengen (Luxembourg) in the north-west.

The Belmach district to the east also belongs to the municipality.

Apach is the location of a lock on the Moselle called Pierre Ricard . A relief of the pioneer of Moselle shipping (1899–1956) adorns the lock tower (see: Apach barrage ).

history

The place was first mentioned in 1196 as Aspach . In the Middle Ages it belonged to the Sierck-Meinsberg rule in the county of Lützelburg for centuries and came to France in 1661 . From 1815 to 1833 Apach was incorporated into the neighboring village of Kirsch-lès-Sierck . After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the peace of Frankfurt resulted in the newly founded German Empire . (In contrast to many other parishes in Lorraine, it kept its name.) After the German defeat in World War I , Apach, like the rest of the north-eastern part of Lorraine, came back to France through the Treaty of Versailles . Since then, French has been the only official language until 1940 the city was occupied by troops of the Nazi-ruled German Reich . Thus, Apach was in fact annexed, although it never came to a complete annexation. Apach has been French again since 1945.

Population development

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2007	2013
Residents	799	841	848	864	798	813	943	1.003

Nicknames of the inhabitants: "Di Opécher Toperten", "Die Apacher Schlawaken" (The Apacher Poles).

language

The privately spoken dialect of the Apach population belongs to the Moselle Franconian . While this dialect is still spoken "lively" in the neighboring German regions and has been expanded to become the national language in neighboring Luxembourg, in France it went through the massive displacement of all German-speaking dialects in Lorraine (after 1945 until the mid-1970s it was within the school buildings even forbade them to even speak to one another), analogous to the Alemannic dialect in Alsace , back and forth over the decades and died expressis verbis - except for the immediate border regions, here people still "get married across the border" - in the area.

For a little over ten years now, the dialects, especially among younger Lorraine people - as a basis for learning good standard German - have been gaining in importance again, primarily because of the significantly greater chances of bilingualism on the German job market.

Apach seen from the Luxembourg side of the Moselle (from Schengen )

Main street in Apach

"Eiffel Tower"

Attractions

• Saint-Donat Church, built in 1832
• Chapel Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs from 1718
• Saint-Antoine chapel in the Belmach district from the 18th century
• Apacher Eiffel Tower: The nine meter high tower (without a base) was donated by an entrepreneur in 2009. In autumn 2011 a friendship tree was planted next to the tower and a seating area was installed. The Apacher Eiffel Tower is located at the border crossing to Perl (N 153 / B 419 ), about 400 m from Schengen .

Web links

Commons : Apach  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• History of Apach (French)
• Apach on www.cc3f.fr (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ otsierck.com - Apach ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Passé-Présent, La Moselle dévoilée N ° 7 (September-Octobre-November 2012).