History of Alsace
Presented in Chronological Order
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Prehistory - Celtic Alsace - Alsace Romaine - Germanic Alsace - Alsace in the Saint Worsens - Alsace of Staufen - the Time of Alsaces - French Alsace - the Revolution and the Empire - the Constitutional monarchy - IIe République and Second Empire - annexed Alsace - French Alsace
Click one of the links above for French version.
-8000 to -5000: Mesolithic era.
-5000 to -3500: Old Neolithic era.
-3500 to -2500: Average Neolithic era.
-2500 to -1800: Final Neolithic era.
-1800 to -1500: Old bronze. Torque of Donasberg.
Towards -1500: Invasion of Alsace by Proto Celts.
-1500 to -1200: Bronze average. Incineration in forest of Haguenau.
-1200 to -750: Final bronze. Muds of Ensisheim.
- 800 with - 600: The Celts are established definitively in Alsace.
-750 to -480: Hallstattien.
-480 to -50: Tène.
- 72: German Triboques settle in the North of Alsace. Arrival of Arioviste, Triboque head of the great Germanic federation of Suèves.
- 63: Suèves d' Arioviste bring a military aid to the Séquanes Celts who offer n the other hand to Arioviste and his Suèves their territories in High-Alsace.
Alsace is now completely occupied by Germanic people.
-58: Defeat of Arioviste by César.
- 58: With the defeat of Arioviste by César, the first Latin domination of Alsace for nearly four centuries starts.
-43: Foundation of August by Planeus.
-10: Construction of the castella Drusiana along the Rhine.
10: IIème Legion Auguste In Strasbourg.
14: Rising of the legions of Germanie with death of Auguste, alleviated by Germanieus. The left bank of the Rhine is called from now on Germanie Supérieure, itself divided into two: Germanie first and Germanie second.
74: Construction of a direct way between Argentorate and Rhétie.
80: VIIème Legion Auguste In Argentorate.
From 88: Construction of the Files.
297: The Romans impose the Latin language but the people remain apart from the official language.
Between 306 and 315: Rebuilding of the fortified town of Strasbourg, construction of the fortress of Saverne.
Between 300 and 350: Almost complete disappearance of Latin in Alsace.
213: Alamans appear for the first time on the Hand.
230 - 233: They cross first once the Rhine and come to Alsace.
352: Alamans settle in Alsace and in the North-East of Gaule.
350: The emperor of the East Constancy II offers Alsace to Alamans.
For the second time, the German ones are confirmed rightful owners of Alsace.
355: Invasion by the Francs of the north-western part of Gaule and Germanie lower.
357: Victoire of Julien on Alamans close to Strasbourg.
375: Alamans, with the Francs, come to end from the Roman imperialism. Alsace is then in the center of their surface of expansion and bears the name of Alémanie. It is the language alémane which is essential on the very whole population.
The Alsatian dialect is thus a heritage of Alamans and will be preserved, until our days, in its various alternatives going of Palatinat in Switzerland.
377: Gratien beats Alamans close to Horbourg.
406: Alamans settle.
409: Organization of the strengthened network of Strasbourg.
451: Invasion of Attila, last destruction of Argentorate, Alamans complete the occupation of Alsace.
496: Victoire de Clovis on Alamans with Tolbiac. The Francs settle in Alsace Bossue. Alémanie, with Alsace in its center, passes then under the dependence of the Mérovingiens Francs.
Medium of VIème century: Arbogast saint, bishop of Strasbourg.
Beginning of VIIème century: Appearance of the name of Alsace.
Between 640-740: Birth of the duchy of Alsace. Alsace will be then a political entity and will enjoy a statute close to independence for more than one century.
Between 670-693: Adalrie duke of Alsace, founder of the abbey of Sainte-Odile.
Towards 800: Cutting of Alsace in dioceses by Saint Boniface and Pépin the Brief.
These modifications will remain in force during nearly 1000 years, until the Legal settlement.
842 (February 14): Oath of Strasbourg per Louis the Germanic one and Charles the Bald person against their Lothaire brother.
843: The Treaty of Verdun put an end to the war between the 3 grandsons of Charlemagne who share the Empire. Alsace belongs from now on to the Empire of Lothaire.
870: Treaty of Meersen. Lotharingie disappears and is divided in two territories: Francie Western and Francie Eastern whose Alsace will form part during nearly eight centuries.
917, 926: Invasion of Magyars.
925: Alsace attached to the kingdom of Germanie.
110-1028: Werner de Habsbourg, bishop of Strasbourg, manufacturer of the Romance cathedral.
1048-1054: Pontificate of Leon IX (Bruno d' Eguisheim)
1075-1122: Quarrel of the Nominations.
1082-1100: Otton de Hohenstaufen, bishop of Strasbourg.
1105-1147: Frederic the One-eyed one, duke of Alsace and Souabe.
1123: Foundation of the Cistercian abbey of Lucelle.
About 1125: Habsbourg acquire the title of landgrave of High-Alsace.
About 1130-1150: Drafting of the first municipal statute of Strasbourg.
1164: Privilege of Frederic Barberousse for the town of Haguenau.
1205: Philippe de Souabe grants his protection to the town of Strasbourg.
About 1214: Second municipal statute of Strasbourg.
1217-1237: Woelfelin, representative of Frederic II in Alsace strengthens several cities with stone enclosures.
1223: Foundation of the convents of franciscains of Haguenau and Strasbourg.
1224: Foundation of the convent from Dominican in Strasbourg.
The time of Hohenstaufen marks the first golden age of Alsace and brings to the area most of its cultural inheritance (cathedrals, ramparts...). The arrival with the head of the empire, in 1273, of Rudolf von Habsburg puts an end to the reign of the dynasty of Hohenstaufen.
1254-1273: With the Great Interregnum, the Alsatian territory starts to be dislocated and will be parcelled out in many seigniories.
1262 (March 8): Battle of Obershausbergen. The militia of Strasbourg demolish the troops of the bishop and put thus fine at its capacity. Strasbourg reaches the free statute of city thus
Alsace and more particularly the free city of Strasbourg thus had three centuries in advance on the French institutions which until 1789 remained marked by feudality.
1268: Execution of Conradin, last member of Hohenstaufen.
1273: Election of the Empire of Rodolphe de Habsbourg. It creates large Bailliage de Haguenau to manage the imperial fields, to take care of the rights and the goods of the Empire in Alsace.
1279 (February 3): Beginning of the construction of the castles of Hohlandsberg by Siegfried de Gundolsheim with the authorization of Holand' S Burg.
1331-1360: Revolution in the cities which put an end to the domination patriciat and ensure the municipal capacity the corporations.
1334: First charter of oath (Schwoerbrief) in Strasbourg.
1347: Décapole (Mulhouse, Colmar, Munster, Turckheim, Kaysersberg, Sélestat, Obernai, Rosheim, Haguenau and Wissembourg). This alliance aims at: to ensure public peace, to found a military collaboration and policy enters the 10 cities, to settle the monetary and legal questions and to protect themselves from the foreign incursions.
1349: The Black Death in Alsace. Massacre Jews.
About 1350: Colmar, Haguenau and Sélestat give the capacity to the craftsmen.
1354: Acceptance by Charles IV of the league of the imperial cities (Décapole).
1358: The noble ones are expelled of Colmar.
1365-1375: Invasion of the " English " and the lorry drivers.
1388: Construction of the bridge from the Rhine in Strasbourg.
About 1400: The cities of Décapole gain their sovereignty, strike their currency, sign treaties, decide wars and are represented directly with the Diet of empire by Haguenau or Colmar.
1415: Council of Constancy which launches the interdict on the town of Strasbourg.
1419-1422: War enters the town of Strasbourg and the nobility of Low-Alsace.
1434: Invention of printing works by Gutenberg.
1439: Beginning of the invasions of the Armagnacs and flayers in Alsace. Completion of the cathedral of Strasbourg by Jean Hultz. Beginning of the Latin school of Sélestat. Gutenberg In Strasbourg.
1445:
Expulsion
of noble of Mulhouse and Basle.
1460: J. Mentelin prints the Bible.
1469-1474: Possessions of Habsbourg engaged with the duke of Burgundy.
1478: Geiler de Kaysersberg appointed preacher in Strasbourg.
1493: First conspiracy of Bundschuh.
1494: S. Brant publishes Narrenschift
1510-1515: Mathias Grünenwald carries out the retable of Issenheim.
1515:
Mulhouse
leaves the décapole to join the confederated Swiss ones which has a more
significant military power.
1520: Beginning of Protestantism in Alsace.
1524: The first mass in German language is celebrated in the cathedral of Strasbourg. Appearance of the German Kirchenlied psalm .
1525 (April-May): War of the Bundschuh " Peasants ". In all, nearly 40 000 peasants were killed at the time of Bundschuh.
1528: First meeting of the States of Alsace.
1529: Abolition of the catholic worship in Strasbourg and Mulhouse.
1538: Foundation from the high school in Strasbourg.
1539-1541: Calvin In Strasbourg. It will direct a French parish to Strasbourg. Created even a French school and will print the first books in French language.
Alsace was then ground of a religious and linguistic tolerance.
1617: The college of Molsheim becomes university. First jubilee of the Reform.
1618-1648: Thirty Year old war, result of religious conflicts and strong political oppositions. German civil war in the beginning, it will gradually become a European war with the intervention of other peripheral powers. Click here for more details and maps concerning the Thirty Years War.
1621 (November): Ernst von Mansfeld besieges Lauterbourg and soon all the cities of Décapole.
1621 (August 14): Inauguration of the Protestant university of Strasbourg.
1622: The Friedrich emperor drives out von Mansfeld of Alsace.
1624: Ferdinand II expels the Protestants of Haguenau and Colmar (1628).
1625: The archduke Léopold Guillaume de Habsbourg bishop of Strasbourg.
1629: Edict of restoration promulgated by the emperor.
1632 (June 7th): Faced with alliance between Strasbourg and Gustave-Adolphe, king of Sweden, the Swedes enter Alsace to propagate the Protestantism.
1634: First French activities(occupations) in Alsace. Defeat of the Swedes to Nordlingen. France enters then the Protestant alliance and "inherits" all the Alsatian territories conquered by the Swedes.
1635 (May 19th): Louis XIII declares the war to Habsbourg with the alliance of the Protestant army.
During the War of 30 years, Alsace will lose more than 60 % of his inhabitants and its houses.
1635 (October 27th): Saint Germain's treaty between king of France and duke Bernard of Saxony-Weimar.
1648 (October 24th): Treaties of Westphalia which mark the end of the insults.
At the conclusion of this treaty, Alamans of Alsace was going to be reduced to the submission and delivered for several centuries to a policy of force and violence while their brothers of Switzerland(Swiss) were solemnly recognized independent. The Republic free of Strasbourg keeps(guards) its status and the city free of Mulhouse is not evoked in this treaty.
French Alsace
1649 (April 26th): The count of Harcourt is named big royal bailli of the prefecture of Haguenau and governor of High Alsace. He) will work secretly to make of Alsace an independent principality, but he) will fail.
1655: Arrived in Alsace of the bursar Colbert (of Croissy).
1658 (autumn): Official Inauguration of the sovereign council of Alsace to Ensisheim.
1662: Léopold Guillaume, prince-bishop of Strasbourg died, replaced by François Egon de Fürstenberg.
1662 (January 10th): The duke of Mazarin will make accept of force to the representatives of the Décapole an oath of allegiance to king.
1662 (April): Colmar and Sélestat make cancel the coercive oath of January 10th.
1672 - 1678: War of Holland. Louis XIV destroys the bridge on the Rhine on October 14th, 1672 to cut the communications with the Empire. But the bridge is reconstructed in 1674.
1673 (autumn): First journey of Louis XIV in Alsace, reduction of Décapole in the obedience of king of France.
1675 (January 5th): Victoire de Turenne to Turckheim.
1677 (January): The city of Haguenau is ravaged by the French troops and the population is hunted (chased away). Only convents and churches of the city remain.
The ancient(former) capital of Hohenstaufen is now totally annulled. The French army destroyed some more of Alsatian cities and numerous castles.
1679 (February 5th): Treaty of Nimègue which signs the peace between the Germanic Empire and France. Alsace belongs now in France except the Republic free of Strasbourg, the cities of Décapole and the Helvetian Republic of Mulhouse. Jacques de La Grange, bursar of Alsace.
1679 (September): The cities of Décapole give up and take oath of obedience to king of France.
1680 (March 22nd): The Court of King makes a ruling by which all the territories of Alsace are declared property of king. From now on, Alsace will not play more than a role of shield for France.
1681 (September 30th): Reunion from Strasbourg to France.
1682: Death of François Egon de Furstenberg; his brother, Guillaume Egon, bishop of Strasbourg.
1684 (August 15th): The Empire signs the armistice of Ratisbonne / Regensburg which consolidates Louis XIV as ruler of the Alsatian territories for a duration of 20 years.
1697 (October 31st): The emperor is so-so resolved in the meeting of Alsace in FRANCE, it is the treaty of Ryswick. The Rhine border between France and the Empire.
1698: The new " sovereign council of Alsace " sit in Colmar. Besides its status of administrative capital, Colmar is now promoted judicial capital of Alsace.
1700: Pelletier de La Houssaye bursar (treasurer) of Alsace.
1702: Transfer in Strasbourg of the episcopal university of Molsheim.
1704: Death of bishop Guillaume Egon de Furstenberg, Armand Gaston de Rohan-Soubise succeeds him.
1716: André Silbermann ends the church organs of the cathedral of Strasbourg.
1718: Reconstruction of the civil hospital of Strasbourg.
1728: Beginning of the construction of the castle of Rohan by R. de Cotte.
1739: Johann Jacob Stambaugh leaves Kutzenhausen bound for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in America.
1740: Frédéric II in Strasbourg.
1744: "Pandours" (foot soldiers) in Alsace. Louis XV in Strasbourg.
1746: First factories of Indian in Mulhouse.
1753: Voltaire in Strasbourg.
1768: Jean-Frédéric Oberlin, minister of the Banns of the Cliff.
1770: Goethe and Marie-Antoinette in Strasbourg.
1777: Session of the first provincial assembly of Alsace.
1789: Editorial staff of registers of grievances and elections in the general states.
1789 (July 20th): Beginning of the city hall of Strasbourg.
1789 (end of July - August): Great fear in Alsace (Saint-Amarin, Masevaux, Guebwiller, Sundgau, Vineyard, Forest, Outre-Forêt).
1789 (September 19th): Under the pressure of the representative Reubell, decrees in favour of the sacrifice of the privileges of Alsace are promulgated by king.
1789 (December 30th): The name "Alsace" disappears and the province of Alsace stops existing. She(it) will be replaced by both departments of the Height-Rhine and the Bottom-Rhine.
1790 (January 14th): The constituent National Assembly decides on the translation of all its decrees in the different minority languages but the revolutionaries oppose to it pleading that the revolutionary language is French and that from now on everything has to be made in this language.
1790 (February 5th): Election of F. de Dietrich in the city hall of Strasbourg.
1790 (June 12-16th): Holiday of the Union from the Rhine to Strasbourg.
1790 (October 30th): The customs borders of Alsace are moved by Vosges in the Rhine, what obliges Alsace to give up its commercial links with the other alémaniques regions and with Germany.
1790 (end of December): Beginning of the sales of ecclesiastical possessions.
1791: Election of the constitutional bishops.
1791 (September 30th): The Alsatian Jews, become citizens of full exercise.
1792 (April 25th): France declares the war in the Prussia and in Austria and thus in whole Europe. The year I of the Republic also marks the beginning of the Terror.
Alsace is anxious because it appears that it is again going to be in the first lines of the war.
1793 (September-December): The Austrian troops seize Wissembourg and Haguenau and arrive at some kilometres from Strasbourg. By entering Alsace of the North, the Austrian troops are applauded. On December 27th, 1793, the Austrian army, forced to curl up in front of the French troops, takes with her between 40 000 and 50 000 Alsatians. It is the " Big Flight ". Inhabitants between Wissembourg and Haguenau preferred exile rather than having to undergo the French yoke and the revolutionary terror.
1793 (October): Saint-Just and Lebas representatives in mission.
1794 (April 12th): The Directory of the Bottom-Rhine, at instigation of Saint-Just and Lebas, orders that French is the official language.
1793-1794: The Jacobins think of deportation to Gallicize (to make or become French in character) Alsace.
The Alsatian farmers prefer to take refuge with the German countries rather than to be allowed transplant in France.
1793 (December 29th): Saint-Just and Lebas orders that in every municipality or canton is created a free school of French language. It is clarified that the financing of these establishments will be made on capital resulting from the loan on the rich.
The Alsatians are thus condemned to finance the eradication of their language.
1795 (October 25th): Little success with the French school (in the Bottom-Rhine, only 29 persons were capable of teaching in French and in the Height-Rhine, there were not more than about forty), we authorize again, but as average auxiliary(aid), the use at the school of the idiom of the country it is - in German.
For the first time, an overall and accurate policy had been to elaborate to gallicize the Alsatians and break definitively their cultural and linguistic inheritance which hindered the French language in its claim in the dominion and in the exclusivisme. The Terror urged thousands of Alsatians to emigrate in a panic. They will be 2 700 emigrated for the Height-Rhine and 21 000 for the Bottom-Rhine which became the first French department by the number of emigrated. The Jacobins left behind them Alsace materially, economically and morally on it's knees: crammed prisons, undone economy, people traumatized by the terrorism Jacobin, destruction, churches and plundered public buildings.... The ditch separating Alsace of France through the differences of the mentalities, the languages, the traditions, the social orders, the economic orientations always remained so deep and had hardly filled at the conclusion of the Revolution, on the contrary even!
1795 (October 26th): Directory
1798 (January 28th): Reunion from Mulhouse to France.
1800 (February): Integration of the Mont-Terrible (Terrible Mountain) in the department of the Height-Rhine. (Delemont and Porrentruy)
1801: Rehabilitation of emigrated Alsatians by Napoleon. Return of 30,000 of them.
1801 (July 16th): Concordat (in papal history, an agreement between the papal see and a secular power for the settlement and regulation of ecclesiastical affairs) or a Public Act of Agreement.
1802: Saurine becomes the first certified bishop of Alsace.
1808: Organization of the Jewish cult and the measure against the " Jewish wear ".
1810-1814: Lezay-Marnésia, prefect of the Bottom-Rhine.
1810: The first normal school of France is created in Strasbourg.
1811 (January 10th): Inauguration of the Academy of Strasbourg.
1812: Installation of the first steam engine in a factory of Dornach
1813 (December 3rd): The invasion.
1818 (in November 11th): The end of the foreign occupation.
1820: French is the recognized as the official language of the secondary education and the university.
1825-1826: Foundation of the " industrial society " in Mulhouse.
1839: The canal of the Rhone in the Rhine arrives in Strasbourg, the railway appears with the line Mulhouse-Thann.
1849-1850: Alsace votes "for republic".
1850: Foundation of the Review of Alsace.
1851: Massive approval of the takeover of state.
1852: The rail Paris-Strasbourg is finished. 1853: the canal from the Marne to the Rhine is ended.
1853: The canal from the Marne to the Rhine is ended.
1867: The education of the history and the geography of France becomes compulsory.
1869: Mulhouse votes "democratic".
1870: First big labor strike of the history of Alsace in Mulhouse.
1870 (May): Approval of the liberal Empire.
1870 (July 19th): France declares war with Prussia.
1870 (August 14th) : The Germans established a general government of Alsace to organize the administration.
1870-1871: Seats of Strasbourg and Belfort occupy Alsace.
1871 (January 18th): Proclamation of the German Empire to the palace of Versailles. The Germans occupy now 25 departments in France.
1871 (January 28th): Armistice.
1871 (February 8th): Election of a French National Assembly under the German occupation.
1871 (February 17th): The protest of Bordeaux.
1871 (February 26th): France gives up Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire.
1871 (April 11th): The German language becomes school language of all Alsace except for regions with French-speaking majority of valleys from Vosge.
1871 (April 14th): The school is compulsory in Alsace-Lorraine for the boys and the girls.
1871 (May 10th): With the Treaty of Frankfort, Alsace and the Moselle become property of the German Empire and are called from now on "Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen". This treaty also suggests the Alsatians choose their nationality with the obligation, for those who decide to be French, to emigrate before September 30th, 1872.
In Alsace, only 12, 5 % of the population chooses the option to be French and approximately 50,000 persons will have emigrated on September 30th, 1782.
1871 (December 30th): The German law of December 30th, 1871 and the " paragraph of the dictatorship ".
1872 (October 1st): The term of the options.
1874 (January 1st): Introduction of the Constitution of the German Empire in Alsace-Lorraine.
1874 (February 1st): Frst elections in Reichstag for the appointment of 15 representatives.
1874 (February 18th): The protest of Alsatian representatives in Reichstag.
1875 (April 5th): Auguste Schneegans the first separatist party Alsatian-of Lorraine, "die Autonomistische Partei".
1879 (July 4th): Creation of one regional administration and of a representation.
With the annexation of Alsace in the Germanic Empire an Alsatian national consciousness develops . This period of Reichsland in Landtag was one of splendors that Alsace never knew, a period of generalized progress. It represented a revival of Alsace's political, economic and cultural areas.
1884-1887: Creation of the assurances of health and accident insurance.
1888: Introduction of the German code of work and the occupations which are authorized unions.
1889: Regulations for incapacity and old age.
These measures as well as the granting of maternity leaves, the compulsory Sunday's rest, the reduced working week give Alsace an advance of more than 40 years over France which will know the equivalent only in 1936.
1890: Creation of a municipal school of the Decorative arts in Strasbourg.
1892: Inauguration of the new port(bearing) of Strasbourg.
1893: Bebel representative S.P.D of Strasbourg.
1893: Created the Gustave Stosskopf Alsatian theater.
1898: "Der Herr Maire", of Gustave Stosskopf.
1902 (June 18th): Abrogation (repel, annul) of the paragraph of the dictatorship.
1911: Constitutional Law for Reichsland.
1911 (May 31st): The emperor promulgates (announces) a law establishing a new status for Alsace.
1913: The beginning of Jungkreuzfahrer ( Young Crusaders), youth movement in contact with their German homologues, Quickborn. The abbot Arnold, the founder of the movement, teaches them forgotten Volkslied which these young people sang during endless excursions in the Val de Villé.
While criss-crossing lowlands, valleys and villages of Heimet and while promoting with the inhabitants the old wealth of the popular musical heritage, the young people implanted themselves in the country and it's people!
1913 (November-December): The incident of Saverne.
1914: The exchanges in the industrial domain between Alsace and France become less important than with Belgium or Switzerland.
1914 (June 28th): Murder of Austrian prince-heir to Sarajevo.
1914 (July 31st): Reichsland is declared in state of war danger. The liberties are then abolished, the compulsory military censorship and the civil administration is assigned to the military authorities.
1914 (August 1st): General mobilization in all Reichsland.
220,000 Alsatians are enlisted in the German army. Between 1914 and 1918, there will be 250,000 to fight for Reich.
1914 (August 3rd): Germany declares the war in France.
1914-1918: The state of siege.
1918 (October 14th) : The attempt of Alsatian autonomy (self-rule).
1918 (October 25th): Alsace-Lorraine becomes the 25th State of the Germanic confederacy.
The demands of the Alsatians were heard but regrettably too late because the status of Alsace is again going to change at the conclusion of the first World War.
November 11th, 1918: the armistice marks the end of the first and last sovereign Alsatian constitutional government. The social Republic of Alsace-Lorraine is officially proclaimed.
1918 (November 9-21st): The "revolution of Strasbourg".
1918 (November 21st): Arrival of the French troops to Strasbourg.
This arrival marks the end of the revolutionary movement and the Republic free of Alsace-Lorraine.
1918 (November): The entry of the Frenchmen to the Alsatian cities
1918 (November 15th): A decree of the General Service of Alsace-Lorraine delegates two prefects to steer (illegally) the civil administration in Alsace.
This decree is perfectly illegitimate because it comes in violation of the article 5 of the Agreement of armistice of November 11th, 1918 which foresees the preservation of the local administration in Alsace. So a simple French decree terminates an organic law as major as a Constitution.
November,1918 - September, 1920: The ethnic purge " in the French " will lead to the exile, outside Alsace naturally, and in pitiful conditions 112,000 Alt-Deutsche and Alsatians of heritage considered to be undesirable.
The Alsatians are classified from now on in 4 categories on blood criteria and with uneven rights as they are bearers of the one or the other card. The Alsatians are done in the following way:
- ID card A: with three-colored bands(strips) for the Alsatians-inhabitants of Lorraine among whom the parents and the grandparents were born in Alsace-Lorraine or for the inhabitants from whom the parents were born in France. They are reinstated by rights.
- ID card B: with two blue bands(strips) for the Alsatians-inhabitants of Lorraine among whom the father or the mother are of foreign origin, non-French, not Alsatian-Lorraine dialect.
- ID card C: with two red bands(strips) for the Alsatians-inhabitants of Lorraine among whom the father and the mother are native of allied countries of France or remained neutral during the conflict.
- ID card D: without band(strip) for the descendants of Germans, Austrians, Hungarian or the others peoples of the central Empires. Their children, even born in Alsace-Lorraine, receive the card D.
1919 (April): Foundation of the U.P.R. ( Republican Popular Union).
1919 (June 28th): The treaty of Versailles.
1919 (August 7th): The general Maud' huy cancels an official ban which forbids to the inhabitants of Lorraine to express itself in dialect or in German in public or in streets after 22 hours.
1920: The central committee(commission) for the navigation from the Rhine to Strasbourg
1920 (January 10th): Coming into force of the treaty of Versailles.
1920 (March 16th): The Senate of the United States rejected definitively the treaty of Versailles.
1920 (April): 40,000 civil servants Alsatians lead a general strike for the protection of their vested interests and the recognition of a special regional status.
1921 (June): Adoption by the Assembly of a law foreseeing the creation of a local frame of which have to be a part the civil servants named(appointed) in Alsace according to the ancient(former) jurisdiction, the equivalence of the titles and the diplomas, the respect for the ranks and a fair classification in the salary scale of the French administration, the preservation of the retired vested interests and the protection against the arbitrary power by the restoration of the disciplinary rooms(chambers).
1923: Foundation of the separatist newspaper of the Heimatbund.
1924 (May 11th): General election. Édouard Herriot becomes a president of council of State.
1924 (June 17th): In his statement(declaration) of investiture, Herriot announces that he plans to abolish the "privileges" of Alsace-Lorraine that is, among others, the Concordat and the regional administration.
A gigantic wave of protest was raised by Alsace-Lorraine following this declaration because it was against the commitments of France to maintain the specific rights. It was the point of departure of an important separatist movement which dominated all the political life of Alsace of 1924 in 1936/39.
1925 (March 24th): the representative Charles Hueber rises for the first time to the stand of the Chamber of representatives and pronounced all the second part of his speech in Alsatian!
During these two mandates, Charles Hueber always began his interventions in Alsatian dialect.
1926 (May 24th): Creation of Heimatbund (league of defense of the native country), common political structure of coordination and fight for the partisans of the Alsatian identity. Heimatbund demanded for Alsace, but always within the framework of France, a legislative and administrative autonomy with a parliament elected in the universal suffrage enjoying the right of budget and an executive having its seat in Strasbourg.
Through this league, for the first time, people openly called for the union of all the Alsatians-inhabitants of Lorraine and invited them to lead together, by disregarding their political beliefs and all which divided them, the fight for the rights of the national minority Alsatian-of Lorraine.
1926 (August 22nd): Bloody Sunday of Colmar. The communists appeal to demonstration for all those who condemn the arbitrary acts of the authorities towards the signers of the Heimatbund. During their arrival to Colmar, the communists and the separatists are welcomed by patriots' commando groups which scold them and rape them under the indifferent glance of polices.
1927: The beginning of the construction of the Maginot line.
1927 (September 12th): Foundation of the Central committee of the National minorities of France grouping together all the separatist groups of the ethnic minorities of France.
1928 (April 22nd and 29th): General election.
1928 (May 1st): Lawsuit of the plot of Colmar according to which the autonomo-separatist movement become more and more influential, constitutes a threat for the national security. At the conclusion of this lawsuit, Thrashed, Ricklin, Schall and Fashauer are condemned for plot to one year in prison and five years of ban form places which the government will want to determine.
This inequitable condemnation started numerous demonstrations of violence in the streets and only positive point left in it's wake was Alsatian solidarity and a boost in the fight for the autonomy. In the face of the dimension of the reaction of disapproval of the Alsatians to the condemnation, the government was finally forced to take measures of reassurance to try to return the situation to the normal in Alsace. July 17th, Thrashed, Fashauer and Schall was pardoned by the president of the Republic and the doctor Ricklin was freed(released) on July 23rd.
1928 (November 3rd): Split of Volkspartei and creation of the A.P.N.A. (National Popular Action )!
1928 (November 9th): Karl Roos, president of Landespartei takes refuge in Switzerland, surrenders to the French authorities following a meeting held the day before in Strasbourg.
1929 (June10 to 22nd): Lawsuit of Karl Roos in Besancon to avoid the hostile reactions following the lawsuit of Colmar. Karl Roos was finally settled.
1931 (December 24th): Pierre Laval pardons all the condemned persons of Colmar.
1933: Hitler in the power in Austria.
1935 (January 13th) : After a referendum, the Saar returns to Germany, what weakens considerably the agriculture of the North of Alsace with it's sea-green natural economic back-country.
1936: Popular action.
1938 (June 17): A decree comes to strengthen the repressive device against the separatist movements by allowing the accusation of infringement on the outside security of the State all those over whom a presumption of espionage glided. " A law of the suspects " which allowed again the institution in the country of a real police terror. On another side, the censorship made it possible to muzzle any opposition, either of the elected officials, or of the press.
1939 (September 1): France proclaims the general mobilization.
1939 (September 2): Beginning of the evacuation of the Alsatians towards the Southwest. This one is done under deplorable conditions: travel of at least 8 days in the train in cattle cars with only single mattress, a fine layer of straw, forbidden to take along more than 30 kilos of personal belongings per person, the animals of any size must remain in Alsace and the doors of the houses must remain open. On their arrival in Southwest, the Alsatians are considered as Germans, are placed for the majority in cattle sheds, without water, neither heating, nor electricity. During this time, the French soldiers plunder and ransack the abandoned houses and steal all the valuable articles.
1939 (September 3): France declares the war in Germany.
1939 (September): Evacuation of Strasbourg and the border municipalities of Lauterbourg to Saint Louis.
1940 (June 19th): The Germans take Strasbourg. But this time, the Germans are not responsible for the destruction of the Alsatian infrastructures. The French army will blow up a maximum of bridges, phone exchanges, power plants, railroads, boxes of points, crossroads and factories in all the country.
The assessment of the useless destruction is impressive. On the whole, the French troops, while being withdrawn, blew up 405 road bridges, 109 railroad bridges, 81 locks (including 52 out of 101 on the only the Rhine channel), the transmitting stations and 1071 km. of the railroad network which is completely out of use. Remain to enter all the many manufacturing units (refineries, mills) the harbor installations, the power stations, the destroyed stations or many houses, dynamited by too strong amounts of explosives or set fire to. It remains to understand the dimension of this free devastation, because it did not influence at all the exit of the fights.
1940 (June-November 1944): National-socialist occupation.
1942 ( August): Annexation of 130,000 young Alsatians in the German army. Left 40,000 it their life there.
1944 (November-March, 1945): The war in Alsace.
1945 (March): Liberation of Alsace. Constitution of the M.R.P. in Alsace.
1947 (April): Foundation of the R.P.F. by the General de Gaulle in Strasbourg.
1949 (10 August): Opening of the first session of the council of Europe in the lecture hall of the University of Strasbourg.
1963: The oil refineries of Strasbourg.
1969: From this date, festivals and twinnings with the "friends" of the Southwest are organized in the Alsatian municipalities in order to remember " good old time " of the evacuation where so many deep friendships were formed!
This massive deportation of men and women torn away from their country, this human drama which was lived as a real tear by hundreds of thousand Alsatians, is presented today as a gigantic summer festival to help in the bringing together of the people!
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