Part 2

In 1799, there was the menace of another war, and the inhabitants were most zealous in strengthening the fortresses. An official of the Lower Rhine wrote in his report on the subject of the Alsatians: "They will, like the Rhine, always be the impregnable bulwark of the Republic" (G. Weil).

The assimilation of France and Alsace was made complete during the Revolution. Fustel de Coulanges well summed up this truth when he wrote in 1870: "Do you know what has made Alsace French? It is not Louis XIV., but it is our revolution of 1789. From that moment Alsace has followed our fortunes; she has lived our life; she thinks as we think; she feels as we feel; our glories and our faults, our joys and our sorrows."

The wars of the Empire gave to the Alsatians a chance to display their military aptitude which they rendered the more generously to the service of the country, as promotion was given to each according to his merits; each soldier carried in his knapsack the baton of a Maréchal de France!

The generals of Alsace and of Lorraine who distinguished themselves in the army of the Republic and with Napoleon are numerous. Among the best known are Kléber, Kellermann, Rapp, Lefévre, Ney, Mouton, Lasalle, Shérer, Westermann, and Schramm. The names of twenty-eight Alsatian generals are engraved upon the Arc de Triomphe at Paris.

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Many able Alsatians devoted themselves to the administration of the German countries that were at that time under the French Government. Their knowledge of German helped them in their task. After the disasters in Russia and in Leipzig, in 1813, the Alsatians showed exemplary devotion in their preparations for defence and sacrifices for the army.

In his _Mémoires_, Ségur says on this subject: "There were no better, braver, more generous Frenchmen in all France." Never, during all these trying days, did they remember that their forebears had been subjects of the Holy Empire.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, after the fall of Napoleon, the pan-Germans made a campaign for the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in launching the slogan: _Der Rhein, Deutschlands Strom nicht Deutschlands Grenze_ (The Rhine is a German river and not Germany's boundary). This found no echo in Alsace, which forced from the poet, Rückert, the heartfelt cry of indignation which fell from the lips of the German soldiers, who were obliged to evacuate Alsace: "And thou Alsace! Degermanized race, thou too dost jeer at us, oh, deepest infamy!"

The Alsatian poet, Ehrenfried Stoeber, whom the Germans readily invoked on account of his dialect, said that if his harp was German his sword was French. Referring to the Revolution he said: "If we speak of the wars of the Revolution in which we fought for our independence and the protection of the indefeasible rights of man, it is because we are proud of our fervent ardour and enthusiasm."

Under the restored kingdom of the Bourbons, orderly citizens knew how to command respect in their new country without sacrificing in the least their democratic and republican ideals. A prefect of the Upper Rhine registered in his report of 1818: "All are submissive, but none are royalist." De Serre, an elector of the Department wrote: "Ultra-royalism is not the spirit which actuates my constituents."

The prefect, Puymaigre, candidly complains in 1821 of the advanced ideas of the citizens: "They give faith," said he, "with a most deplorable credulity, to all the most dangerous political systems."

The same year, after his tour in Alsace, General Foy expressed himself as follows: "If all that is good and generous in the hearts of the inhabitants of ancient France ever becomes enfeebled, they must journey over the Vosges and come to Alsace to renew their patriotism and energy."

The monarchy of July marks a period of uninterrupted prosperity for Alsace. The return of the tri-colour was hailed with joy. The democratic idea grew and was represented chiefly by the _Courrier du Bas-Rhin_ which influenced public opinion. After 1815, the reactionary persecutions abated against the Germans who were liberal minded and they received an hospitable welcome to Alsace. With their innate absence of tact, many of them tried to convince their hosts that Alsace was still a German province, and in this way they forfeited all sympathy.

The Alsatians desire there should be no misunderstanding as to the nature of the sympathy shown to unjustly persecuted refugees, and the international courtesy practised by them even towards the Germans. In 1842, when the German delegates to the Scientific Congress of France were received at Strasbourg, the mouthpiece of the Alsatians spoke of the sympathies of his countrymen for Germany; but to avoid any mistake he added: "But if we gaze toward her, it is not with the eyes of a child torn from the paternal home, but rather, if you will permit the comparison, with the affectionate look with which the young wife greets once more her mother's house, happy under the new roof which shelters her, and with the name of her husband which she bears with pride."

Alsace has never wavered from this fidelity to France. In 1848 the second Republic was accepted with satisfaction. Under Louis Philippe the country had enjoyed great material prosperity, but the middle classes were restless because the government took no measures to reform the electorate in the democratic sense. At this time great fêtes were held to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the union of Alsace and France. The mayor of Strasbourg said on this occasion: "It is without doubt no longer necessary to make a solemn and public profession of undying devotion to France. She does not doubt us, she has faith in Alsace; but if Germany still lulls herself with futile illusions, if she still finds in the persistence of the German language a sign of irresistible sympathy and attraction toward her, she is mistaken. Alsace is just as much French as Brittany, Flanders, and the country of the Basques, and she will so remain."

The affection of France kept pace always with the profession of democratic and republican ideals. When the prince-president came to Strasbourg in 1850, he was received in all the villages of Alsace with shouts of _Vive la République!_ The municipal council of Strasbourg had refused to give any funds for his reception. At Strasbourg and at Mulhouse the National Guard was dismissed by the government. The Colonel of the Strasbourg Legion said in his farewell address: "It is true that at times you express with great vigour republican sentiments, but this is with you an original sin, and I fear me that the remedy applied will not be effectual in its correction."

During the Second Empire, Alsace was a hotbed of republican resistance, particularly in the Upper Rhine. However, at this time, the country again enjoyed a great prosperity. The military career continued to attract the Alsatians. The great advantages assured to the reinlisted soldiers induced many of them to enter the army as volunteers. The wars in Algeria under Louis Philippe had already shown, among the combatants, a great number of Alsatians. The intellectual culture of the provinces turned towards France and made great progress. Erckmann and Chatrian expressed marvellously well the aspirations and democratic ideals of the people in magnifying the rôles of the Alsatians and the Lorrainers in the heroic period of the Revolution and the First Empire.

The peoples of Alsace and Lorraine were, like those of the rest of France, divided into political parties, and one often saw disagreements, generally legal, with the ideas of the respective governments. But no one ever evinced the slightest regret at no longer belonging to the Holy Empire, or the least desire to re-enter the bosom of Germany. When the War of 1870 broke out, Alsace and Lorraine were very French, and during that war the people of both provinces bravely and patriotically did their duty to France. The people were thus badly prepared for a change of nationality, and far from looking on their new Teuton compatriots as brothers, they cordially detested the Germans who during the war had conducted themselves to the limit of savagery. The forced community of life with the Germans soon showed an irreconcilable opposition between the native and the immigrant population.

Alsace-Lorraine could live whole centuries with the Germans without becoming germanized, whereas two centuries of life in common with France, freely consented to, had proved sufficient to make them Frenchmen. This spontaneous fusion could never have been possible if Alsace-Lorraine and France had not always had the same ideals of civilization. The Alsatian and the Lorrainer leaned always toward French culture, and from the moment they were politically separated from the Holy Empire they had nothing more in common with German _Kultur_.

The Alsatian-Lorrainer, who from the point of view of character greatly resembles the free citizen of America, is a very practical man. He willingly makes use of all the opportunities in life to improve his economic condition, but joined to these qualities is a deeply rooted idealism which will make any sacrifice to secure his independence, and to assure for him the dignity of freedom. He has brilliant military qualities, but he will never be a militarist. He will fight bravely for the defence of a just cause about which he is enthusiastic, because it means the fulfilment of a sacred duty. But he will never be willing to remain under the dominion of a power like that of Prussia and be forced to carry arms for causes that he detests and disdains. The Alsatian-Lorrainer has no affection for dynasty, he is absolutely wanting in respect for the hierarchy; he has a feeling for order and equality before the law, he is loyal and respectful to authority but exempt from all servitude. The German, on the contrary, with his class feeling, abasing himself, as it were, in platitudes before his superiors, hard and arrogant toward his inferiors, in admiration before the _Angestammtes Herrscherhaus_ (traditional dynasty), accustomed to march under the lash, without any idealism, finding in the distribution of the booty of war a compensation for all humiliations,--such a man does not understand that the Alsatian-Lorrainer does not rejoice to find himself belonging to a nation of the elect, a nation that has the most formidable war machine to crush, from time to time according to its whim, any growth of material prosperity effected by free competition in the economic struggle.

Alsace-Lorraine is impervious to those ideas. Against her will, she was torn from France and she wishes to return. It is this which makes clear her history from 1871 to this day.

THE PROTEST

As soon as it was a question of the necessity of giving up a part of the territory, all the deputies of the threatened departments signed a declaration, February 17, 1871, which, among other passages, contained the following: "Alsace and Lorraine do not wish to be alienated. Associated for more than two centuries with France, both in good and bad fortune, these two provinces, exposed without intermission to the blows of the enemy, have constantly sacrificed themselves for the greatness of the nation; they have sealed with their blood the insoluble compact which binds them to France. Made doubtful by the claims of the enemy, they assert, through all the obstacles and all the dangers under the yoke even of the invader, their unshaken fidelity. Unanimously the citizens in their homes, the soldiers who rallied beneath the flag, those who voted and those who fought, all signified to Germany and to the world the immutable will of Alsace and of Lorraine to remain French."

March 1, 1871, the same deputies signed a new protest which they deposited at the bureau of the National Assembly in which we find the following announcement: "We declare once more null and void a pact which disposes of us without our consent. The claim to our rights always remains open to each and to all in the form and the measure that our conscience dictates to us."

When the Alsatians were permitted by Germany to send deputies to the Reichstag, the fifteen who were elected protested on their side against annexation February 18, 1874. We find in their declaration the following passage: "In choosing us all, just as we are, our electors before everything else wish to affirm their sympathy with France and their right to govern themselves." These solemn declarations have never been revoked by any equivalent or contrary statement. Not even during the actual war and reign of terror established in the annexed provinces has the German Government succeeded in forcing from the representatives of Alsace-Lorraine a statement expressing the desire to remain German. The attempt to make such a manifestation by the votes of the council-generals, of whom the suspected members had previously been deported to Germany, saying that the economic interest of Alsace-Lorraine necessitated the maintenance of the _status quo_, only served to demonstrate the insecurity of the political situation of the German Empire in Alsace-Lorraine. What lamentable drivel in comparison to the dignified and generous language of the magnificent protests of Bordeaux. It accords well with the philosophy of German diction which the Baron de Bulach, Secretary of State, jeeringly dared recommend to his compatriots as a line of conduct: "_Wess Brod ich ess des Lied ich sing_" (Whose bread I eat, his song I sing).

Nothing, moreover, would be less exact than to think that the Alsatians lived on the Germans or that their material well-being depended in any way on the economic life of the German Empire, or that the prosperity of the country was in all, or even in great part, to be credited to the Germans.

It is not within the scope of our essay to present a study of the economic situation of the country, which, if she has been prosperous in some directions, has often been hindered by the predominance given to rival interests of other German countries. The project of constructing a canal from Ludwigshafen to Strasbourg was abandoned because contrary to the interests of the town of Mannheim. The canalling of the Sarre and of the Moselle was basely sacrificed to the interests of the Prussian industries of la Ruhr, which looked with an enemy's eye on any progress in the industry of Lorraine.

The prohibition of American plants for the replacing of the destroyed vines, in execution of the law concerning the fight against the blight of the vine, was dictated by a sentiment of protection for the German vine-culture against the vine-culture of Alsace-Lorraine. Often also, the administration took arbitrary measure against certain trades and industries to injure their interests for the profit of their competitors, or for some determined political end. The illegal prohibition made to the French Insurance companies of Assurances to continue business in Alsace-Lorraine, by which a blow was given to a number of agents in their enterprises, and the threat made to the Alsatian Society of Mechanical Construction of Grafenstaden to countermand the orders from Prussia if the Society refused to dismiss a director suspected of French sympathy, are convincing proofs of the antagonism of the government. We mention the flagrant injustice with which the German interests were always advanced to the detriment of Alsace-Lorraine in the distribution of contracts for public works. But, if Alsace-Lorraine in general could prosper economically, notwithstanding a detestable policy, hated by its population, in what way, we ask ourselves, could that prosperity be compromised by the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France? Above all, as France is a Republic, a form of government which was welcomed with joy by the people September 4, 1870, and which answers in the best manner to their time-honoured worldly aspirations. The loss of the market which Alsace-Lorraine has made for herself in Germany will find a rapid offset in the reopening of its business relations with France.

Certain great industries, such as the iron mines of Lorraine and those of potash in Alsace, would certainly increase. But that is not at all the question. We have to do with a great moral issue for transcending the material considerations which the German thinks so important and which in his mind are all-conclusive. Evidence of this is the following quotation from the _Gazette de Voss_ published July, 1917: "The act of yielding Alsace would involve giving up valuable beds of potash and this would be disastrous to German agriculture of which it is an absolutely necessary ingredient." One sees by this kind of reasoning the nature of the affection of Germany for Alsace-Lorraine.

ALSACE-LORRAINE UNDER GERMAN RULE

1871

It would take volumes to describe in detail the martyrdom of Alsace-Lorraine under the domination of Germany. I can enumerate only a few of the acts and methods that have characterized German rule. The impartial reader will easily conclude that Alsatians are not made to live with Germans and that the return of their province to the mother country of France is the only possible solution of the Alsatian question with justice and equity.

Alsace-Lorraine was given to the German Empire unconditionally. The new master could do with the country just as he pleased. If he has not divided it between the members of the Confederation it is because it was difficult to agree on the division of the spoils, and because also Bismarck wished to make a "glacis" which would cement the union of the Germans by continually showing them the danger that threatened in the west. The only thing the Germans did not think of in deciding the fate of Alsace-Lorraine was the interest of the Alsatians themselves. Bismarck did not hesitate to acknowledge this and stated in the Reichstag to the first deputies who protested: "It is not for your interest that we have conquered you, but for the interest of the Empire." And the official paper of Strasbourg, the _Strassburger Post_, after forty years of German domination, also summarizes the attitude of the German Empire towards the Alsatians in this odious phrase: _Oderint dum metuant_ (Let them hate, so long as they fear). The German Empire, which is composed of twenty-five confederated States, made of the annexed territory a "Reichsland," that is to say, an undivided joint property. This new political entity received the name of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine). German scholars are still arguing today over the legal aspect of this decision. It is certain, as against the German states which possess equal rights, that Alsace-Lorraine is arbitrarily ruled by the Empire without any inherent right. Alsace-Lorraine was always treated as a State when it was a question of meeting certain obligations (contributions, military service, assessments for the expenses of the Empire). The honour was even paid of trusting them with the receipt of custom-house dues for the account of the Empire on their territory. This brought upon the province an unwarranted outlay of more than a million marks a year, representing the excess of the customs above the amount refunded to the Provinces. Alsace-Lorraine possessed only those "rights" which the Empire grudgingly conceded. Whereas Louis XV. accorded to the provinces united to France the enjoyment of their ancient privileges, the German Empire began by treating the Alsatians less liberally than its German subjects. In Germany each state has the constitution it wishes for itself, but Alsace-Lorraine has a constitution imposed upon it by the Empire, and this can be suspended or suppressed at the Imperial will.

The different constitutions that have been granted in the course of forty-two years (the latest went into effect in 1912) to the Reichsland, which had been ruled by a dictatorship as a legal constitution, were alike in this, that the legislative and the executive powers were left completely in the hands of the Kaiser and the King of Prussia. The Kaiser exercises the power of the state (_Staatsgewalt_) for the account of the Empire. There is a Parliament (_Landtag_) made up of two Chambers to which the second is given universal suffrage, and the first (of which I had the honour of being a member, elected by the town of Colmar) composed in a way to assure a majority to the Kaiser, who has the right to name as many members as the number of those elected and those holding by right. As there are members not named for life, and as among those who are so by right and by choice there are always a large number who are not independent, the Kaiser can never be in the minority in the Senate. But if by any chance such a thing should happen, it could have no importance because the Kaiser is himself the chief factor in legislation. In order that a law for Alsace-Lorraine may come into force, it must have the consent of the two Chambers and of the Emperor. Under these conditions it is Prussia that rules, and I know that no attempt to pass a law in Alsace-Lorraine can be made without first obtaining a favourable opinion from the Ministry of Prussia. In order never to be thwarted by the passive resistance of the Second Chamber, our constitution, which the Germans characterize as democratic, provides that if Parliament refuses to vote the budget, the government has the right to incur expenditure based on the figures of the preceding budget. The Germans have wished to emphasize as a great concession to the claims of Alsace-Lorraine the fact that in the last constitution given to Reichsland they have been given a voice in the _Bundesrat_ (Federal Council). This _Bundesrat_ is composed of the representatives of the Chief of the States of the Empire. It is this council that with the consent of the Reichstag, which is the representative of the German people, gave universal suffrage and that makes the laws for the Empire. Now, owing to the importance of territory and number of inhabitants, Alsace-Lorraine ought to hold sixth rank among the States of the Empire. She has been given three votes in the Council. But, as it is the _Staatshalter_ (Vice-King) of Alsace-Lorraine who gives the instructions as to how those three votes will be cast, and as the Vice-King is an office-holder subject to recall by the Emperor who is the King of Prussia, there is no danger that those votes will ever operate against Prussia. This dependence on Prussia of the votes of Alsace-Lorraine has been disingenuously marked by a special provision inserted on this occasion in the constitution of the Empire, in which it is said that every time a favourable majority vote for Prussia cannot be polled in the _Bundesrat_ except with the help of the Alsatian vote, those votes will not be counted. Up to this day Alsace-Lorraine has never ceased to be governed by a legislation outside of the common right. Today even, an act is pending in Berlin which provides exceptional measures for the suppression of journals printed in French.

All the efforts of the Germans, the special legislation for Alsace-Lorraine, the activities of the functionaries, chiefly Germans brought from the four corners of the Empire, even the administration of justice, have had the tendency to exterminate and replace by the _Deutschtum_ (German culture) the spirit and the sentiments of the French people.