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WESTERN EUROPE

ALSACE

Important dates : 58 BC: The Roman army fights the Germans at the battle of Alsace. 496: Victory of the Frankish king Clovis over the Alemanni. 842: Oath of Strasbourg 843: Lotharingia gets Alsace at the Treaty of Verdun that divides the Frankish empire 870: Alsace is annexed by East Francia at the Treaty of Meerssen. 868: Otfrid of Weissenburg finishes the writing of the Evangelienbuch, very first German poem. 962: Foundation of the Holy Roman Empire. 1440: Gutenberg invents printing in Strasbourg. 1648: End of the Thirty Years’ War with the Peace of Westphalia. All the Hapsburg’s Alsatian territories are annexed by France. 1681: Strasbourg is also annexed by France. 1871: Alsace and a part of Lorraine are annexed by the new German empire at the Treaty of Frankfurt. 1919: The Treaty of Versailles brings Alsace back to France. 1939-1945: Alsace is once again annexed by Germany during WWII. 1945: Alsace becomes eventually French. 2016: Creation of the Grand Est region that gathers together Alsace, Champagne-Ardennes and Lorraine.

The official flag of Alsace presents the emblems of the two departments: the white strip of the Bas-Rhin and the Hapsburg’s golden crowns of the Haut-Rhin on a red background, an important colour in the region.

The historical flag of Alsace named “Rot un Wiss”, composed of two horizontal red and white strips, is used since the XIXth century. These two colours represents the region. It was especially used to oppose Prussia’s Kulturkampf that was about unifying the German culture. Because of an assimilation issue, France did not want to keep it as an official flag.

Even though it is not official, there is an Alsatian anthem, « Das Elsässische Fahnenlied », also called « Rot un Wiss », composed by the Alsatian poet Emile Woerth in 1911 for the proclamation of the Constitution of Alsace-Lorraine, when it was still a part of the German empire.

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TABLES OF CONTENT _What is Alsace ? _What for a History, Alsace! _Some people to know _Political organisation of Alsace _Discover Alsace _Discover Alsace staying at home

What is Alsace ? Alsace (Alsatian: ’s Elsàss) is a historical French region today united with Champagne-Ardennes and Lorraine in the Grand Est since 2016. It is located in the North-east of the country between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine. Germany and Switzerland constitute its Northern, Eastern and Southern borders and the historical French regions of Franche-Comté and Lorraine are in the West. The Alsatian territory spreads on the two departments of Bas-Rhin (67) and Haut-Rhin (68) over 8,280.2 km² (around 3,000 square miles). There were in Alsace 1.88 million inhabitants on the 1st of January 2016 (INSEE, 2019) for about 228 people per km². The population is pretty stable, it has grown by 0.36% since 2011. The biggest Alsatian cities in population:

City of Alsace

Strasbourg Mulhouse Colmar Haguenau Schiltigheim Illkirch-

Graffenstaden

Population in 2017

281,512 111,892 71,781 35,406 31,993 27,334

Source: l’Alsace.fr (2017)

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Map credit: a french hetalian

The location of Alsace at the meeting point of the Latin and German worlds brings a thriving setting and makes it one of the driving force of French economy. The great fields of activity are the automobile industry, agriculture, electronic devices, pharmacy and vine-growing. The proximity with Germany and Switzerland brings also a lot of workers looking for a job in a foreign country. Several European institutions are located in Strasbourg such as the European Parliament. The architectural and cultural heritage attracts many tourists who enjoy the substantial local gastronomy and the Wine Route. The Grand Ballon is the highest peak of the Vosges Mountains (1,424 m / 4,672 ft.) and is located in the Haut-Rhin. The official language of Alsace is French, the national language, even though the Alsatian dialect is still widespread. The currency is the Euro (€), currency of the French Republic. Alsace has appeared after the division of an old mountain that allowed the Rhine to flow toward the North. That is why the region is surrounded by these two mountains: in the east by the Black Forest in Germany and in the West by the Vosges. Alsace matches the left bank of the Rhine. There are three climates in the region: a mountainous climate in the Vosges, another one softer in the Alsace bossue – a strip in the North-West that goes through the plateau of Lorraine – as well as in the Belfort Gap in the South. A dryer climate eventually lies in the plains.

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Map credit: a french hetalian

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What for a History, Alsace ! The presence of people has been attested in Alsace since 600,000 years BC thanks to ancient tools that testify of their activities. More recent traces indicate Voegtlingshoffen (80,000 BC) and Achenheim (70,000 BC) as places where humans did live. Archaeology has shown they still used to live off hunting and picking twelve thousand years ago, before setting to agriculture around 5,300 BC. During the second millennial before our era, the “Grave Mound” civilisation – thus named because of their sepulchres – spread between Middle Rhine and the Paris Basin ; the current city of Haguenau was a centre of major importance. The Celts arrive in the region in the VIIth century BC and set up an important trade with the Etruscans and the Greeks. Different peoples used to share the territory such as the Mediomatrici in Lower-Alsace and the Sequani in Upper-Alsace and Franche-Comté. During a war between the Aedui, another Celtic people that used to live in Burgundy, the Sequani call on the Suebi, a group of Germanic tribes led by Ariovistus. However the latter decides then to settle in Alsace on the other side of the Rhine. The Celts try to defend their territory during the battle of Admagetobriga around 60 BC but they are defeated.

Two years later, Julius Caesar, a Roman proconsul in position in the South of Gaul, decides to attack Ariovistus. The battle of Alsace, whose exact location still divides the historians but should be around Mulhouse in Haut-Rhin, allows the Roman army to settle as well in the region. They let Germanic peoples come on the left bank and build between 16 and 12 BC numerous military small forts, especially Argentoratum, original name of Strasbourg. The emperor Augustus includes the territory in the province of Germania Superior, with Mainz as a capital. The peaceful period of Pax Romana that keeps the Germans away during almost two centuries is marked by an economy largely dominated by the army’s needs. Argentoratum is a hub for the trade with the other provinces and products like oil amphora, fish sauce or wine travel from the Iberian Peninsula and are sold in the future Alsatian capital. Around 260 the Germans bring the border back to the Rhine. The Alemanni, a new enemy looking for crossing the river, multiply the incursions and after a long Roman resistance and a hard defeat in Hausbergen in 357, they end up piercing their defences in 406-407 ; the Alsatian territory falls into their clutches. Then the Huns come, ferocious warriors from Asia that destroy everything on their way and leave only ruins and desolation. Many years later, twenty years after the deposition of the last emperor of the Western empire, the Alemanni are beaten in Tolbiac – next to the current city of Cologne – by the Frankish king Clovis. The victorious people impose its domination all over the region, bringing peace at the end of this saeculum horribilis of barbaric invasions. In the Merovingian kings’ world, Franks and Alemanni live willy-nilly together on the Alsatian territory. Christianity came with the Romans and spreads again after a short return of paganism and the Frankish authority settles more and more. Names like “Alsaciones” and “Alsacius” appear in the VIIth century, coming both from Celtic languages to designate the Vosges mountains and from Alemannic languages to characterise the “Ill’s land” and thus give an identity to what is nowadays known as Alsace, then a duchy. The most famous Alsatian Duke is Adalrich, father of Saint Odile. The legend of this young woman born blind, that her father wanted to see dead and

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who miraculously recovers the sight, made her the patron saint that protects the region. This time is characterised by an abundance of monasteries that flourish on the territory: Saint-Amarin (627), Weissenburg (631), Munster (634), Haslach (660), Ebersmunster (667), Surbourg (670) and of course Hohenburg where Odile is abbess until she passes away in 720. Some abbeys thrive so much they accede to the rank of independent principalities such as Murbach or Weissenburg. It is by the way in the latter that the Evangelienbuch, first literary book in German, is written by the monk Otfrid in 868. The wealthy region cannot elude the conflicts and Charlemagne’s grandsons argue about their legacy and the sharing of the Frankish empire ; for instance with the Oath of Strasbourg pronounced on the 14th of February 842, first known text that was written in both Romance and Germanic languages, in other words what would later become Modern French and Modern German. The Treaty of Verdun cuts the territory in 843 in three distinct entities, then the Treaty of Meerssen in 870 brings new changes again. Eventually Alsace falls into East Francia’s lap and the duchy has broken into two counties, Nordgau and Sundgau, themselves attached to the Duchy of Swabia, current Baden-Württemberg. Yet a new invasion occurs: the Hungarians coming from the East overrun the Frankish territory and devastate Alsace several times until their defeat in 955 near Augsburg in Bavaria.

After the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire in 962, the bishops get more and more powerful and their influence is of major importance until the battle of Hausbergen in 1262. During that year, the people of Strasbourg are in an open conflict with their bishop, Walter of Geroldseck, and the armed battle ends up with the independence of the city that becomes a free imperial city, an urban republic that only depends on the emperor. It is about that time as well that the Swabian dynasty of the Hohenstaufen, which owns several castles in Alsace, gets the throne of the empire (1138-1250). This important family of the South-West of Germany distinguishes itself with some famous emperors such as Frederick I Barbarossa or Frederick II and makes the region thrive especially with Romanesque art. Alsace attracts then a lot of artists from a French, German or Lombardic origin. To quote Jean-Louis Schlienger, ‘‘Alsace was at that time largely open to the world and did not fear to boast of a certain universality, thanks to its lord-emperors.’’ (L’Alsace au fil des siècles et des lieux, 2016). It is with the cathedral Notre-Dame de Strasbourg that Gothic art makes its entry, a bit lately, on the Alsatian territory. Strasbourg is by the way not the only city directly linked to the emperor. Feudality has divided the region into numerous fiefdoms that constantly fight against each other and ten other cities gather together between 1354 and 1679 in a league under the name of “Dekapolis” or “Zehnstädtebund”: Colmar, Haguenau, Kaysersberg, Mulhouse (later replaced by Landau), Munster, Obernai, Sélestat, Rosheim, Turckheim and Weissenburg. They depend on a bailiff sent by the emperor that used to dwell in Haguenau. Wine trade allows them to keep their financial independence; the Alsatian wine-growing region is then the most southern and most famous one of the Germanic world. After the dynasty of the Hohenstaufen and the long interregnum that affects the empire from 1250 to 1273, another Alsatian family gets to the imperial throne, a lineage that marks History during several centuries with its settlement in Austria, the Hapsburg. In the XVth century, cities get more and more powerful. Some of them even cast the nobility away like in Colmar. Gutenberg, born in Mainz, arrives in Strasbourg in 1434 and invents there some years later printing, a revolutionary process that allow to

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reproduce any text for almost no cost. From then, the region and particularly the free imperial city becomeeven more important cultural centres. The fall of Constantinople and the discovery of America bring afterwards the world into the Renaissance and Humanism. People question themselves about religion, about the place of mankind in the universe, people rediscover ancient texts and this vast literary and scientific movement uses the Rhine to grow. Therefore Alsace is in the middle of the phenomenon and a small town called Sélestat between Strasbourg and Colmar becomes the regional centre. Praised by Erasmus, the city distinguishes itself with its famous Latin school and the great Humanist philosopher Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547). The Protestant Reform affects the region as well, where numerous voices rise against a corrupted clergy that loses itself into splendour. It is pretty well greeted in Alsace where it conquers the Dekapolis’ cities and step by step all the region except the southern territories that belong to the Hapsburg. Strasbourg, led by Martin Bucer (1481-1551), goes Lutheran while peasants revolt everywhere against the ecclesiastic order in place; the German Peasants’ War come in Alsace and the intervention of the Duke of Lorraine was necessary to calm down the situation. The religious conflicts that devastate Europe make the region one of the theatres of the wars between Catholics and Protestants. Between 1618 and 1648, the Holy Roman Empire is ravaged by the Thirty Years’ War, a deadly war where the great European powers confront each other. Alsace is devastated, especially by the Swedish king’s army and this whets the appetite of the neighbouring country, the kingdom of France. The Peace of Westphalia signed in 1648 offers the Hapsburg’s lands to France. The multiplicity of principalities and free cities allows Louis XIV to split up the empire from the Alsatian territories with the Treaty of Nijmegen (1679) and the annexion of Strasbourg (1681). The military engineer Vauban builds a network of strongholds, such as Neuf-Brisbach, and peace comes back after the tumult of wars. French spirit has nonetheless some difficulties to settle in Alsace, in a region that shares neither its language nor its religion. In 1701, the king of France manages after a long negotiation to impose the prince of Rohan as the new bishop of Strasbourg. Public figure of Paris, refined and sociable, this representative of the central power builds a huge episcopal palace, a true Alsatian Versailles, in Saverne, a small town next to the border with Lorraine. He builds in Strasbourg another one where the king dwells when he visits the Alsatian capital. The bishopric stays in the Rohan’s hands during decades and their name is besides associated with the famous story of the necklace of the queen Marie-Antoinette. The French Revolution of 1789 is an upheaval in Alsace like everywhere in the kingdom. Privileges are abolished, the cathedral of Strasbourg is covered with an enormous Phrygian cap and Rouget de Lisle composes in this city La Marseillaise, the national anthem. The Industrial Revolution accompanies the political changes of the country and a lot of industries and factories develop in the region, especially around Mulhouse in the south. A working class grows in these lands where rural exodus has piled up tons of people, forced to work fifteen hours per day for tiny wages. Cotton has become the white gold of Southern Alsace and the demand grows more and more. The marking event of the end of the XIXth century is the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The French defeat, besides the creation of the German empire, has for consequence the transfer of Alsace and a part of Lorraine to the conqueror, ratified by the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871). The region becomes the Reichsland Elsaβ-Lothringen,

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a province integrated to the II. Reich. The German authorities give their best to regermanise Alsace and they undertake a lot of constructions and public works especially in Strasbourg where they build new quarters such as the Neustadt, or in the Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg, restored on the order of the emperor William II. WWI and the German defeat bring Alsace back in France. The reacclimatisation is difficult for the Alsatians that have lived apart for about half a century. The situation gets so complicated that a special legislation is set up for the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle in Lorraine; the law is there different, for instance priests and ministers are civil servants and get their wages from the state and religion is still taught at school. However an autonomist movement develops and the tensions are palpable at a time when nationalisms are particularly extreme. After the German invasion, Alsace is annexed again. Every mark of the French identity is occulted with local ordinances, propaganda, public burnings, murders and deportations. The region becomes a stake for the French Resistance, as reflected in the Oath of Kufra pronounced by Marshal Leclerc in 1941 in Libya: “Swear not to lay down arms until our colours, our beautiful colours, fly over Strasbourg Cathedral. ». He personally enters the city in November 1944 and Strasbourg becomes definitely French after 1945. Then comes peace and the European Construction that makes out of Strasbourg one of the capitals of Europe and Alsace a region in the heart of the new European space.

Some people to know

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Statue of Liberty (original title: Liberty Enlightning the World)

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi / Gustave Eiffel (1874-1886) Statue in copper, piedestal in pink granit

92.9 m high Liberty Island, New York City (UNITED-STATES OF AMERICA)

Photograph credit: AussieActive

ARP Hans Peter Wilhelm aka ARP Jean (1886-1966) Artist born in Strasbourg with a German father and an Alsatian mother, he cofounds the dada movement during WWI and gets then closer to surrealism. Husband of the Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber, he is interested in writing texts and poems but also in arts like painting and sculpting.

BARTHOLDI Frédéric Auguste (1834-1904) Sculptor born in Colmar, he is particularly known to be the artist who designed the Statue of Liberty (1874-1886) in the name of the friendship between France and the United-States and that takes today centre stage in New York. Bartholdi has also realised numerous other pieces of art such as the statue of Champollion (1875) conserved in the College of France in Paris or the famous Lion of Belfort (1880) that commemorates the resistance of the city against the Prussian army in 1870.

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“On the 20th September at noon Marshal St-Arnaud gave the signal to commence the attack, the 2nd division, commanded by Gen. Bosquet, traversed the Alma and carried the extreme left of the Russians under the protection of the allied fleets, in the mean while the English army upon their extreme right; the 1st and 3rd divisions commended by Marshal rushed upon the centre, through the gardens, scaling perpendicular chiffs and were received by a most galling fire from 180 cannons. Lieutenant Lepoitevin met a glorious death while in the act of planting the banner of France upon the heights! At half past four they were completely routed and the day of the Alma is another glorious page to be added to our military annals.”

Battle of the Alma Gustave Doré (1856)

Print 46.3 x 69.2 cm

Bibliothèque nationale Française Source : gallica.bnf.fr / BnF

DORE Gustave (1832-1883) Born in Strasbourg, this great French artist produces his first caricatures at the age of five. He realises during his career numerous illustrations of Dante’s work. Gustave Doré has also made some lithography ; marked by the Crimean War (1853-1856), he gets famous with his print of The Battle of the Alma. Friend with Gustave Courbet and Théophile Gautier, he is invited in the 1860 years at Napoléon’s court and stands alongside Alexandre Dumas senior and Jacques Offenbach. The artist gets also closer to other names of the cultural life of that time such as Franz Liszt, Gioacchino Rossini, Camille Saint-Saëns and Richard Wagner. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he enlists as a national guard and is traumatised by the annexation of Alsace, his homeland, by the newly formed German empire. Gustave Doré is also a sculptor with masterpieces like La Madone à l’Enfant (1880) as much as a great violinist that plays a lot in polite society.

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GENSFLEISCH Johannes, aka GUTENBERG (around 1400-1468) Son of a goldsmith born in Mainz, he is worldwide known to be the inventor of printing. His nickname comes from the sign of his father’s shop : Zu Guten Bergen (To the Good Mountain). He was at first instructed to take over the familial company but he is eventually forced to leave the city in 1428 because of tensions between corporations and the power in place. He arrives in Strasbourg in 1434 and tries to find his place in this new city. In deepest secrecy, he invents a new technique, typography, that allow from 1440 the reproduction of books at lower prices, since the typefaces are mobile and reusable. This revolutionary invention brings down the prices of the books and allows the access to culture to more and more people. Printing is one of the factors that lead mankind from the Middle-Ages to the Renaissance. Back in Mainz in 1448, Gutenberg improves his creation. The archbishop of the city honours him in 1465 and even greets him in his palace where the inventor dwells until his death.

HAEBERLIN Marc (1954- ) Son of the great French chef Paul HAEBERLIN (1923-2008), he leads the Auberge de l’Ill in Illhaeusern located north of Colmar. Three Michelin stars from 1967 to 2019, the establishment is a true Alsatian institution founded at the end of the XIXth century. The headchef Marc has studied at the Catering College Alexandre Dumas of Strasbourg and has been trained with great names of French gastronomy : Paul Bocuse, René Lasserre, Gaston Lenôtre and the Troisgros brothers. He received the Legion of Honour in 2007.

HERME Pierre (1961- ) Pastry chef born in Colmar, he is descended from a family of pastry chefs and expresses very early his interest for the profession. Trained in Paris by Gaston Lenôtre, Fauchon and Ladurée, he sets up his own business in 1997. Pierre Hermé quickly exports his sign in Japan, then in America, Asia and Middle-East. Elected “Best Pastry Chef in the world” in 2016 by the Academy of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, he is worldwide known for his macaroons, a classic of French pastry he brought to a global standing. With about fifty outlets in twelve different countries, he is also pastry chef at the Royal Monceau Palace in Paris and owns a chocolate factory in Wittenheim in Alsace.

KELLERMANN François Christophe (1735-1820) Born in Strasbourg in a family of the lower nobility from Saxony, this great military man of the Napoleonian empire, distinguished in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), is the victor of the Battle of Valmy (20th September 1792). Won over to the ideals of the French Revolution, he vanquishes the Austro-Prussian troops on the eve of the abolition of monarchy in France. Napoléon, worried about winning the favours of this national hero, appoints him Marshal and senator of Colmar in 1804, then Duke of Valmy the following year. After the fall of the empire, Kellerman comes down nonetheless for the destitution of the Emperor of the French, disgusted by all the blood shed during the numerous wars of the regime. Louis XVIII greets him after the Bourbon Restoration and even names him Peer of France and Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Louis.

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KLEBER Jean-Baptiste (1753-1800) Architect then military man born in Strasbourg, Kléber earns his stripes in Munich before enlisting in the revolutionary army. He distinguishes himself at the Siege of Mainz in July 1792.Gifted to take the advantage of his rivals’ failures, he becomes General in 1793 and takes part in the different victories of the Revolution. Napoléon Bonaparte greets him with pleasure even though he distrusts that ambitious man. On his side in the Orient in 1798, Kléber is at the head of the Armée d’Orient and captures Cairo with a troop of janissaries, before being killed by a Syrian student. A statue and a square pay tribute to him in his hometown. Au Crocodile, a famous gourmet restaurant in Strasbourg, is called that way because of Kléber’s hunting trophy, a three-meter long stuffed crocodile hung at the ceiling of the restaurant. His aide-de-camp the captain Ackermann brought him from Egypt before opening an inn at 10, rue de l’Outre, next to the square paying tribute to his former master.

LIEBENZELLER Reimbold (XIIIth century) Knight from Strasbourg, he takes part in the Battle of Hausbergen (1262) that opposes the people of the city and the new bishop recently elected Walther of Géroldseck. On the 8th March 1262, the knight starts an offensive and the enemy, self-confident, sends only a limited quantity of soldiers. Liebenzeller is for his part caught up by numerous infantrymen and bowmen and the army of the bishop is massacred. The knight is cheered up for his bravery and becomes a hero of the independence of Strasbourg, newly free imperial city. A statue pays him tribute on the Place des Tripiers in Strasbourg, with the words he left: “Combattez aujourd’hui avec courage et sans peur pour l’honneur de notre cité pour perpétuer notre liberté et celle

de nos enfants et de nos descendants.” (Fight today with courage and without fear for the honour of our city in order to perpetuate our freedom and the freedom of our children and descendents).

Saint Odile of Alsace (around 660-720) Daughter of the Duke of Alsace Etichon (also called Adalric), she is rejected by her father because she is blind. Her mother Béreswinde sends her for her safety in the monastery of Baume-les-Dames in Franche-Comté. She is baptised at the age of 12 by the bishop of Regensburg and recovers miraculously her eyesight. The young woman wishes then to go back with her family however her father wants her to get married and refuses she dedicates her life to religion. Their argument ends up with the death of her younger brother Hugh and the father eventually accepts her daughter’s fate. He offers her a castle in Hohenburg, where she founds a convent, first monastery for women in Alsace. Numerous needy and sick people come from all Europe to get healed with the water of the monastery’s source and multiple miracles happen. Odile has been since the 10th June 1946 the patroness saint of Alsace.

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SCHWEITZER Albert (1875-1965) Great Alsatian whose influence reached the governing heads of the world. Born in Kaysersberg in a cultured family, he grows up in Gunsbach where his father had been transferred. Very scholar, he owns three doctorates and cumulates the professions of philosopher, doctor, theologist and musician. In 1896 he takes an important decision : live for himself until his thirty years, after what he will dedicate his entire life only to the others. This idea comes true when he goes to Lambaréné (Gabon) to build a hospital in 1924. Albert Schweitzer estimates that the Europeans have a debt toward Africa because of colonialism. Through numerous books and conferences, he develops and shares his idea of a “Respect for Life” no matter of its human, animal or vegetal condition and defends an ecological point of view very innovative for the time ; he receives the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Schweitzer undertakes additionally some intense epistolary relations with Joséphine Baker, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, John Fitzgerald Kennedy or even René Coty, President of the IVth French Republic from 1954 to 1959. At the end of his life, he had made fourteen return trips between Alsace and Africa, where his association Albert Schweitzer maintains still nowadays the hospital that he created in Gabon and he financed with the sales of his books and private funds. Emblematic personality of Alsace, Albert Schweitzer embodies his native region with his ideals of transcendence of the divisions and identity overtaking since he was able to use his two-faced Franco-German culture to spread a message of peace and opening toward the others. Several museums pay tribute to him like in Kaysersberg and Gunsbach, visited by numerous French, German and Swiss tourists but also from Scandinavia where Schweitzer is sometimes more famous than in France.

UNGERER Jean-Thomas aka UNGERER Tomi (1931-2019) Born in a middle-class and protestant family in Strasbourg, he grows up in an Alsace occupied by Germany during WWII and it is then forbidden to speak Alsatian in post-war France, experiences that have marked him during his whole life for they questioned his identity. He travels a lot in France and Europe, until Norway and Yugoslavia then goes to the United-States with a drafting diploma. Ungerer is the author of numerous books for children such as The three Robbers (1961), he observes and denounces the problems of his society like racial segregation and the war in Vietnam. Settled in Ireland in Cork, he conserves his Alsatian identity and realises the Janus Fountain in Strasbourg in 1988 to celebrate the two millennials of the city. A museum pays him tribute in the Alsatian capital.

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Political organisation of Alsace The French Republic has been composed of 13 regions since the 1st of January 2016, themselves divided into 101 departments: 95 in metropolitan France, 2 in Corsica and 5 overseas. Alsace is no longer an administrative region today, it is a part of Grand Est with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine and the administrative centre is Strasbourg in the department of Bas-Rhin (67).

French regions were created in the 1950 years even though they only became regional authorities in the 1980 years; the first regional elections took place in 1986. Each region is administrated by a regional council elected every 6 years with a proportional representation and led by a president who has an executive function. He is seconded by an economic, social and environmental non-elected council with consultative attributions. Its members represent companies, syndicates, associations et personalities from the region, designated for a renewable six-year term. The regions have skills concentrated on the development and the sustainable layout of the territory, professional training and the management of high schools and transport outside urban areas.

The deparments have various skills in the sectors of solidarity and territorial

cohesion (child welfare service, social assistance for disabled people, for older people, etc.), education (management of middle schools), layout and transport (rural equipment, management of water and departmental roads) as much as culture (creation and management of libraries, museums, archive and heritage protection services). The departments are managed by prefects designated by the President on Prime Minister’s proposals.

The Alsatian territory is divided into 850 municipalities. People elect every

six years the members of the city council – called the conseillers municipaux – which then elects the mayor who chairs the council. They are responsible for every matter about their towns about urbanism (Plan Local d’Urbanisme or PLU), dwellings, management of preschools and primary schools as much as culture, heritage, tourism and sports. Today, municipalities often gather together into intermunicipalities and cooperate together for a common management of the territory.

French Parliament greets in the Assemblée Nationale, its lower chamber, 577

deputies elected in the 577 constituencies of the country, missioned to debate, to propose and to vote laws and to control the government. Alsace has fifteen deputies in other words 2.6% of the assembly. Nine represent the Bas-Rhin (three for Strasbourg) and six represent the Haut-Rhin.

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Map of the French constituencies in Alsace

Map credit: http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/

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Discover Alsace Link to The Alsatian gastronomy Link to Wine in Alsace Link to Typical drinks from Alsace (besides wine) Link to Alsatian feasts and traditions Where to go Strasbourg, capital of Alsace and Europe Colmar, capital of the wines Mulhouse, at Switzerland’s doors Sélestat, the Alsatian humanism Saverne, the Rohan’s palace The Alsatian cities, big and small, all have a peculiar charm. Rosheim, the city of the roses, has one of the most beautiful Romance church in the region. It knew how to keep its architectural heritage, especially the outside enclosure from the Middle-Ages. In Colmar there is the Unterlinden Museum where is conserved the famous Isenheim Altarpiece by Mathias Grünewald (1512-1516) or La Vierge au Buisson de roses by Martin Schongauer (1473), another retable conserved in the Couvent des Dominicains. Sélestat, an important place of the Alsatian humanism, has in its library the collection of the famous humanist Beatus Rhenanus, classified as a “Memory of the World” in the UNESCO in 2011. Erstein, just aside, is for its part famous for its great Merovingian necropolis, discovered at the end of the XXth century. Alsace has been able to conserve most of its historical heritage especially numerous fortified castles, restored or not : Ferette, Fleckenstein, Lichtenberg, Haut-Koenigsbourg or Hohlandsbourg for instance. The Fort de Mutzig and the Memorial of Natzwiller-Struthof testify of the conflicts that have marked the XXth century. Mont Sainte-Odile is for its part a place dear to Alsace, Odile being the patroness saint of the region and her story very popular. A wall with a mysterious pagan origin surrounds the mountain, adding to the legend. The Alsatian Wine Route is also a wonderful adventure to undertake, with its 51 Grands Crus, from Thann to Marlenheim. The region counts a lot of museums as well, like the Ecomusée next to Mulhouse that presents the Alsatian arts and traditions in a great open-air museum, the Lalique museum around glass and crystal or the Oberlin museum dedicated to the awakening of children. Lastly, the Montagne des Singes and the Volerie des Aigles are an amazing experience for the animal lovers and the Royal Palace ravishes children and grown-up with its musical shows in Kirrwiller.

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Discover Alsace staying at home Books and comics Note: Books dealing with Alsace are called alsatiques.

• ABEL, F., DAMM, C., (2012) La bataille de Hausbergen. Strasbourg : Editions du Signe.

• BISCHOFF, G., (2001) Histoires d’Alsace. Strasbourg : La Nuée Bleue.

• GIRARD-LAGORCE, S., (2011) Alsace. Cuisine de nos régions. Evreux : Editions Atlas.

• HAUG, H., (1962) Histoire de l’Art de l’Alsace. Paris : Editions Arthaud.

• MULLER, C., (2006) Le Siècle des Rohan. Une dynastie de cardinaux en Alsace au XVIIIe siècle. Strasbourg : La Nuée Bleue.

• SCHLIENGER, J.-L. (2016) L’Alsace au fil des siècles et des lieux. Strasbourg : Editions du Belvédère.

Movies and reports

• CLAUDEL, P., (2011) Tous les soleils. Comedy shot in Strasbourg dealing with a father teaching baroque music

and his fifteen-year old daughter in her teenage angst.

• GOURY, A., (2014) Echappées belles : Alsace. France Télévisions – Bo Travail !.

• GOURY, A., (2017) Echappées belles : Bienvenue en Alsace. France Télévisions – Bp Travail !.

• LEGUEN, I., (2017) 100 lieux à voir : Alsace, Bas-Rhin. Morgane

• ROBLIN, E., (2018) Des Racines et des Ailes « Un hive en Alsace ». Eclectic Production

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Paintings and illustrations

Battle of Hausbergen

Emile Schweitzer Illustration from Strasbourg historique et pittoresque depuis son origine jusqu’en

1870 (Adolphe Seyboth, 1894) Strasbourg : Imprimerie alsacienne.

Le vainqueur de la danse du coq (1871)

Gustave Brion (1824-1877) Oil on canvas

Musée des Beaux-Arts in Mulhouse Photograph credit: Ji-Elle

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La cathédrale et les toits de Strasbourg (1932)

Lucien Blumer (1871-1947) Oil on canvas (81x65cm)

Private collection Photograph credit: Neustadt Gallerie

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Sources :

• Assemblée Nationale (2019) Bas-Rhin : carte des circonscriptions. Paris : assemble-nationale.fr [online]. Available from : http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/recherche-localisee/carte/Bas-Rhin [Accessed 14th February 2020] (French)

• Assemblée Nationale (2019) Haut-Rhin : carte des circonscriptions. Paris : assemble-nationale.fr [online]. Available from : http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/recherche-localisee/carte/Haut-Rhin [Accessed 14th February 2020] (French)

• BISCHOFF, G., GERSHEIM, F., PETRY, F., VOGLER, B., ZUMSTEEG, C., (1993) L’Alsace une Histoire. Strasbourg : Oberlin.

• COT, B., (2006) « L’Alsace ne pouvait avoir qu’un climat original ». Paris : L’Express [online]. Available from : https://www.lexpress.fr/region/laquo-l-alsace-ne-pouvait-avoir-qu-un-climat-original-raquo_479038.html [Accessed 13th January 2020] (French)

• Fondation Arp (no date) On my Way. Clamart : Fondation Arp [online]. Available from : http://www.fondationarp.org/on-my-way.html [Accessed 13th

January 2020.] (French)

• Fondation Napoléon (2020) Kléber, Jean-Baptiste (1753-1800), général. Paris : napoleon.org [online]. Available from : https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/biographies/kleber-jean-baptiste-1753-1800-general/ [Accessed 26th January 2020] (French)

• INSEE (2019) Comparateur de territoire, Département du Bas-Rhin (67). Montrouge : Insee.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1405599?geo=DEP-67 [Accessed 15th January 2020] (French)

• INSEE (2019) Comparateur de territoire, Département du Haut-Rhin (68). Montrouge : Insee.fr [online]. Available from : http://insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1405599?geo=DEP-68 [Accessed 15th January 2020] (French)

• INSEE (2019) Comparateur de territoire, Département du Territoire de Belfort (90). Montrouge : Insee.fr [online]. Available from : http://insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1405599?geo=DEP-90 [Accessed 15th January 2020] (French)

• KAENEL, P., MARIOT, P., (2014) Gustave Doré, l’imaginaire au pouvoir. Paris : Bibliothèque nationale de France, Musée d’Orsay [online]. Available from : http://expositions.bnf.fr/orsay-gustavedore/index.htm [Accessed le 25th January 2020] (French)

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• L’Alsace (2017) Alsace : la carte du recensement. Strasbourg : l’Alsace.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.lalsace.fr/actualite/2017/12/27/alsace-la-carte-du-recensement [Accessed 12th January 2020] (French)

• Larousse (2020) Johannes Gensfleisch, dit Gutenberg. Paris : larousse.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Johannes_Gensfleisch_dit_Gutenberg/122808 [Accessed 26th January 2020] (French)

• Mont Saint Odile (no date) Une histoire. Ottrott : mont-sainte-odile.com [online]. Available from : http://www.mont-sainte-odile.com/une-histoire [Accessed 26th January 2020] (French)

• Musée de la ville de Strasbourg (2019) Biographie de Tomi Ungerer. Strasbourg : musées.strasbourg.eu [online]. Available from : https://www.musees.strasbourg.eu/biographie-tomi-ungerer [Accessed 22nd

March 2020] (French)

• Paroisse de Tous les Saints à Strasbourg (2019) Sainte Odile – patronne d’Alsace. Strasbourg : ruhram.eu [online]. Available from : http://ruhram.eu/fr/strasbourg/St_Odile.html [Accessed 26th January 2020] (French)

• Pokaa (2020) Chevalier Liebenzeller : le héros de l’indépendance de Strasbourg a enfin sa statue. Strasbourg : pokaa.fr [online]. Available from : https://pokaa.fr/2020/01/19/le-chevalier-liebenzeller-le-heros-de-lindependance-de-strasbourg-a-enfin-sa-statue/ [Accessed 26th January 2020] (French)

• Régions et départements français (2019) Liste des Départements et Régions en France en 2020. Roubaix : regions-et-departements.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.regions-et-departements.fr/ [Accessed 10th February 2020] (French)

• SARL Auberge de l’Ill (2020) Nos portraits de famille. Illhaeusern : auberge-de-l-ill.com [online]. Available from : https://www.auberge-de-l-ill.com/fr/esprit-de-famille/haeberlin.html [Accessed 15th January 2020] (French)

• SCHLIENGER, J.-L. (2016) L’Alsace au fil des siècles et des lieux. Strasbourg : Editions du Belvédère.

• SCHOTT, C., (no date) Cartes de la région Alsace (67 Bas-Rhin, 68 Haut-Rhin). Alsace : Entomologie en Alsace [online]. Available from : http://claude.schott.free.fr/cartes_alsace/liste_cartes.html [Accessed 13th

January 2020] (French)

• Strasbourg-Montagne Verte (2019) Hymne et drapeau alsacien. Strasbourg : strasbourg-montagneverte.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.strasbourg-montagneverte.fr/pages/strasbourg-alsace/l-alsace/hymne-et-drapeau-alsacien.html [Accessed 23rd February 2020] (French)

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• TIMMERMANS, D., (no date) François-Étienne-Christophe KELLERMANN. Belgique : napoleon-monuments.eu [online]. Available from : http://napoleon-monuments.eu/Napoleon1er/Kellermann.htm [Accessed 25th January 2020] (French)

• TISSOT, J., (2020) Frédéric Auguste BARTHOLDI. Montbrison : janinetissot.fdaf.org [online]. Available from : http://www.janinetissot.fdaf.org/jt_bartholdi.htm [Accessed 15th January 2020] (French)

• Vie publique (2016) Qu’est-ce qu’un conseil régional ?. Paris : vie-publique.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.vie-publique.fr/fiches/19627-definition-du-conseil-regional [Accessed 10th February 2020] (French)

• Vie publique (2018) Qu’est-ce qu’une commune ?. Paris : vie-publique.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.vie-publique.fr/fiches/19613-les-competences-des-communes [Accessed 14th February 2020] (French)

• Vie publique (2018) Qu’est-ce que la région ?. Paris : vie-publique.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.vie-publique.fr/fiches/19625-les-competences-des-regions [Accessed 10th February 2020] (French)

• Vie publique (2018) Quel est le rôle du conseil économique, social et environnemental régional ?. Paris : vie-publique.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.vie-publique.fr/fiches/19629-le-conseil-economique-social-et-environnemental-regional-ceser [Accessed 10th February 2020] (French)

• Vie publique (2018) Quelles sont les compétences exercées par les departements ?. Paris : vie-publique.fr [online]. Available from : https://www.vie-publique.fr/fiches/19620-les-competences-des-departements-loi-notre-loi-maptam [Accessed 14th February 2020] (French)

• Visites privées (2017) Docteur Schweitzer – Visites privées. YouTube : Visites privées [online]. Available from : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAPTJEzP9HM [Accessed 25th January 2020] (French)