Union popular republicaine
The Union populaire républicaine (German: Elsässische Volkspartei ) (UPR) was the largest party in the interwar period in Alsace and the de facto successor party to the Alsace-Lorraine Center Party . The sister party in Lorraine and in the Moselle department was the Union républicaine lorraine (URL). The party was oriented towards Christian democracy and campaigned for the interests of the churches in secular France.
history
founding
The party was founded in 1919 after the demise of Alsace-Lorraine , when the Alsace region was returned to France. The Alsatian Republican People's Party (UPRNA) was the de facto successor party to the center. She acknowledged belonging to France, but represented regionalist goals, including the demand for greater powers of the provinces and administrative autonomy. She demanded the maintenance of the Concordat and denominational schools, bilingualism in schools, administrations and in court.
The People's Party had two wings from the start: the “national” wing moved away from regionalist politics and supported the assimilation policy. Leading representatives of this wing were the chairman, Joseph Pfleger , Abbé Emile Wetterlé , Abbé Nicolaus Delsor , Alfred Oberkirch and Jean de Leusse .
The "local law" wing was convinced of an "Alsatianism" that should be strengthened. The idea was that Alsace should become the link between France and Germany. Maintaining the German language was central to this function. Representatives were Xavier Haegy, Abbé Eugène Müller , Médard Brogly , Georg Gromer and Jean Keppi .
Parliamentary elections on November 16, 1919
Due to the majority vote , the anti-clerical socialists threatened to win the national assembly elections if the bourgeois parties did not run together. The Alsatian People's Party and the assimilationist and secular Parti républicain démocratique (PRD) formed a joint electoral list, the Bloc national . This received 53.2 % of the vote and all mandates in Lower Alsace and 62.1% in Upper Alsace .
The Senate election was won similarly . The People's Party had 9 MPs in the Chamber (PRD 6) and 6 senators (PRD 3). The victory of these parties, which represented the recognition of membership of France, the rejection of secularism (this had been a concession by the PRD) and the demand for special administrative and cultural rights in the election campaign, was on the French side as confirmation of the membership of Alsace-Lorraine rated as France. However, the French government had banned the Alsace-Lorraine federalist party, which was calling for an autonomous constitution for Alsace-Lorraine, as well as a plebiscite about membership of Germany or France. The actual mood of the population could therefore not be read from the election results.
Even if the UPR had taken regionalist positions in the election campaign, the elected members of the Chamber and Senate did not actively oppose government policy either on the language question or the question of regionalising the central state . They expressly acknowledged that Alsace was part of France. The UPR MPs support Raymond Poincare's policies .
Kulturkampf
The chamber elections in 1924 resulted in a victory for the left across France. The Bloc national and thus the Union populaire républicaine also lost massive votes, but was largely able to maintain the mandates in the Chamber and Senate. In parliament she was now in the opposition. The government declaration of the new head of government Édouard Herriot of June 17, 1924 was received with indignation in Alsace. Herriot declared that the principle of secularism , which regulates the relationship between church and state in France, also wanted to enforce in Alsace and Lorraine. The Concordat of 1801 should no longer apply and the denominational schools should be abolished.
On June 19, Robert Schuman presented a declaration of protest by 21 MPs from Alsace and Lorraine in the Chamber. On September 15, 1924, the General Councils of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle adopted identical declarations. Numerous people followed the calls of the Catholic Church and the bourgeois parties for mass demonstrations. In total, more than 100,000 citizens took part in demonstrations, 50,000 of them on July 20, 1924 in Strasbourg. A school strike was followed across the board. A referendum took place in March 1925. It was asked whether the “integral maintenance of the current school regime, as well as the respect for religious freedoms and institutions” would be supported. This demand is supported by 181,612 in the Bas-Rhin department, 191,703 in Haut-Rhin and 198,329 in Moselle.
Herriot was unable to assert his demands. The Council of State decided on January 24, 1925 that the Napoleonic Concordat of the 18th Germinal An X ( French Revolutionary Calendar ) (April 8th 1802 according to our calendar) would remain in force. Due to the economic problems, the Herriot government overthrew on April 10, 1925; the Kulturkampf had been won by the bourgeois forces in Alsace and Lorraine. This conflict ensured that none of the following governments tried to enforce the French system of laïcité in Alsace-Lorraine and that regulations of the Napoleonic Concordat are still in force today, such as religious instruction in public schools or the payment of clergy from state funds, in part denominational schools also exist.
Another story
After the so-called “ Colmar plot process ” (the four convicts were pardoned after two months), the cross-party alliance “Popular Front” was created, which campaigned for the rights of the German-speaking majority of Alsatians and whose representatives in Colmar and Strasbourg (here the former Social Democrat and Communist Charles Hueber ) were elected mayor. Due to the sympathy of the Autonomist State Party with the NSDAP , the alliance broke up in 1933 when the UPR left.
With the beginning of the Second World War , some UPR politicians were interned (see Die Nanziger ). In 1946 she went to the Christian Democratic Mouvement républicain populaire .
Election results
| Election year | Mandates |
| 1919 | 9 |
| 1924 | 8th |
| 1928 | 7th |
| 1932 | 9 |
| 1936 | 9 |
| Election year | Mandates |
| 1920 | 6th |
| 1927 | 6th |
| 1929 | 1 |
| 1935 | 5 |
Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin regional councils
| Election year | Mandates |
| 1919 | 34 |
| 1922 | 32 |
| 1925 | 31 |
| 1928 | 18th |
| 1931 | 20th |
| 1934 | 25th |
| 1937 | 28 |
Personalities
Party leader
| image | Chairman | Term of office |
 |
Joseph Pfleger | August 4, 1919 to June 11, 1922 |
 |
Thomas Seltz | November 23, 1922 to October 21, 1928 |
 |
Eugène Müller | November 25, 1928 to 1940 |
MPs
Chamber of Deputies
| MP | 1919 | 1924 | 1928 | 1932 | 1936 |
| Michel Walter | Bas-Rhin | Bas-Rhin | Haguenau | Haguenau | Haguenau |
| Eugène Müller | Bas-Rhin | Bas-Rhin | - | - | - |
| Alfred Oberkirch | Bas-Rhin | Bas-Rhin | Selestat | X | X |
| Jean de Leusse | Bas-Rhin | - | - | - | - |
| Joseph Pfleger | Haut-Rhin | Haut-Rhin | Ribeauvillé | - | - |
| Médard Brogly | Haut-Rhin | - | Mulhouse campagne | Mulhouse campagne | - |
| Camille Bilger | Haut-Rhin | MR | Guebwiller | Guebwiller | - |
| Emile Wetterlé | Haut-Rhin | - | - | - | - |
| Thomas Seltz | Bas-Rhin | Bas-Rhin | First stone | First stone | First stone |
| Joseph Brom | - | Haut-Rhin | Thann | Thann | |
| Joseph Silbermann | - | Haut-Rhin | |||
| Henri Meck | - | - | Molsheim | Molsheim | Molsheim |
| Joseph Weydmann | - | - | Wissembourg | - | - |
| Charles Elsaesser | - | - | - | Wissembourg | Wissembourg |
| Marcel Sturmel | - | - | - | Altkirch | Altkirch |
| Joseph Rossé | - | - | - | Colmar | Colmar |
| Joseph Gullung | - | - | - | - | Guebwiller |
| Édouard Fuchs | - | - | - | - | Mulhouse campagne |
| Charles Hartmann | - | - | - | - | Thann |
1928: Marcel Sturmel was elected in a by-election in Altkirch in January 1929
senate
| MP | 1920 | 1927 | 1935 |
| Émile Taufflieb | Bas-Rhin | - | - |
| Lazare hamlet | Bas-Rhin | Bas-Rhin | - |
| Nicolas Delsor | Bas-Rhin | - | - |
| Joseph Bourgeois | Haut-Rhin | Haut-Rhin | - |
| Sébastien Gegauff | Haut-Rhin | Haut-Rhin | - |
| Eugène Müller | - | Bas-Rhin | Bas-Rhin |
| Jean de Leusse | - | Bas-Rhin | - |
| Paul Helmer | - | Haut-Rhin | - |
| Joseph Sigrist | - | - | Bas-Rhin |
| Hubert d'Andlau | - | - | Bas-Rhin |
| Médard Brogly | - | - | Haut-Rhin |
| Joseph Brom | - | - | Haut-Rhin |
Paul Helmer was elected in the second ballot in 1920 with the support of the UPR.
literature
- Christian Baechler: Le parti catholique alsacien 1890–1939 du Reichsland à la république jacobine, 1982, ISBN 2-7080-0516-2
- Karl-Heinz Rothenberger: The Alsace-Lorraine home and autonomy movement between the two world wars, 2nd edition, 1976, ISBN 3-261-01485-7
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl-Heinz Rothenberger: The Alsace-Lorraine homeland and autonomy movement between the two world wars. Lang, Frankfurt am Main and Bern 1975, ISBN 3-261-01485-7 (also dissertation, University of Mainz), p. 61 f.
- ^ Christian Baechler: Le parti catholique alsacien 1890-1939 du Reichsland à la république jacobine, p. 716
- ^ Christian Baechler: Le parti catholique alsacien 1890-1939 du Reichsland à la république jacobine, pp. 717–718