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German
Genealogy: ELSASS / ALSACE
HISTORY
Contents:
Upper Elsass
History:
Always closely tied to the Rhine
River which forms its eastern
boundary, Alsace
has found itself a border region for most of its history. It was first
conquered by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC and remained a part of the
Roman province of
Prima Germania for
the next six centuries.
The region was conquered by the Alemanni, a Germanic tribe, in the 5th
century AD and then by Clovis
and the Franks in 496. Under his Merovingian successors the inhabitants were
Christianized.
In the ninth century, this region became part of the heartland of the
re-constituted Roman (more accurately "Carolingian") Empire of
Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse). When Charlemagne's grandsons divided his Empire
at the Treaty of Verdun of 843, the region was in the middle of Lorraine (Lotharingia),
part of a narrow middle strip granted to Lothar with German- and
French-speaking kingdoms to either side. Buffeted on both sides, the new
kingdom did not last long and the region that was to become Alsace
eventually was absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire as part of the duchy of Swabia in the
Treaty of Meersen in 870. At about this time the entire region began to
fragment into a number of secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a situation
which prevailed until the 17th century.
One of the most powerful secular families of Swabia
was that of the Staufen or Hohenstaufen. In 1152, this family placed its
leading member on the German throne as Friedrich I Barbarossa. Frederick was instrumental in recovery of the
monarchy from its dissipation following the Investiture Contest. Part of the
reason was his policy of building up imperial lands in support of the monarchy
and in 1212, Alsace
was organized for the first time as we know it today to be one of them. Frederick set up Alsace
as a province (procuratio to use the term which had been adapted from
the Romans) to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil
servants. The idea was that such men would be more tractable and less likely to
alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. The province had a
single provincial court (Landgericht) and a central administration with
its seat at Hagenau.
During his reign, Emperor Friedrich II designated the bishop of Strassburg to
administrate the Alsace,
but the authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolf of Habsburg, who
received his rights from Friedrich's son Konrad IV. Strassburg
(Strass=street and burg=fortification), which had been an episcopal see since
the 4th century, began to grow to become the most populous and
commercially-important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle with
the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city. A
stop on the Paris-Vienna-Orient trade route, as well as a port on the Rhine
route linking southern Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands, England and
Scandinavia, it became the political and economic center of the region. Cities
such as Colmar
and Hagenau also began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of
autonomy within the "Decapole" or "Dekapolis", a federation
of 10 free towns.
Around this time, German central power declined following years of imperial
adventures in Italian lands, which ceded hegemony in Europe to France, which had
long since centralized power. Now France
began an aggressive policy of expanding westward, first to the Rhône and Meuse Rivers,
and when those borders were reached, aiming for the Rhine.
In 1299, they even proposed a marriage alliance between Philip of France's
sister and Albrecht of Austria's son, with Alsace to be the dowry; however, the deal
never came off. In 1307, the town of Belfort
was first chartered by the counts of Montbéliard.
During the next century, France
was to be militarily shattered by the Hundred Years War with England which
prevented for a time any further tendencies in this direction. After the
conclusion of the war, France
was again free to pursue its desire to reach the Rhine and in 1444 an French
army appeared in Lorraine and Alsace. There it took up
winter quarters, demanded the submission of Metz
and Strassburg and launched an attack on Basel.
In 1469, following the Treaty of St. Omer, Upper Alsace was sold for money
by Duke Sigismund of Habsburg to Charles of Burgundy who also ruled over of Netherlands and Burgundy. Although Charles was the nominal
landlord, taxes were paid to the German Emperor. The Emperor was able to wreak
this tax and a dynastic marriage to his advantage to gain back full control of
Upper Alsace (apart from the free towns, but including Belfort) in 1477 when it became part of the
particular demesne of the Habsburg family, who were also hereditary rulers of
the Empire. A little later, 1515, the town of Mulhouse joined the Swiss confederation in
1515 where it was to remain until 1798.
By the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, Strasbourg was a prosperous community, and
its inhabitants accepted Protestantism at an early date (1523). The reformer
Martin Bucer was a prominent Protestant reformer in the region. His efforts
were countered by the Roman Catholic Habsburgs who tried to eradicate heresy in
Upper Alsace. As a result, Alsace was transformed into a mosaic of
Catholic and Protestant territories.
This situation prevailed until 1639 when most of Alsace
was conquered by France to prevent it falling into the hands of the Spanish
Habsburgs who wanted a clear road to their valuable and rebellious possessions
in the Netherlands.
This occurred in the greater context of the Thirty Years War. So, in 1646, beset
by enemies and to gain a free hand in Hungary,
the Habsburgs sold their Sundgau
territory (mostly in Upper Alsace) to France, which had occupied it, for
the sum of 1.2 million thalers. Thus, when the hostilities finally ceased in
1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, most of Alsace
went to France
with some towns remaining independent. The treaty stipulations regarding Alsace were extremely byzantine and confusing; it is
thought that this was purposely so that neither the French king or the German
Emperor could gain tight control, but that one would play off the other,
thereby assuring Alsace
some measure of autonomy. Supporters of this theory point out that the treaty
stipulations were authored by Imperial plenipotentiary Isaac Volmar, the former
chancellor of Alsace.
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) had been one of the worst periods in the
history of Alsace.
It caused large numbers of the population (mainly in the countryside) to die or
to flee away, because the land was successively invaded and devastated by many
armies (Imperials, Swedes, French, etc.). After 1648 and until the mid-18th
century, numerous immigrants arrived from Switzerland,
Germany, Austria, Lorraine,
Savoy and
other areas. Between 1671-1711 Anabaptist refugees came from Switzerland, notably from Bern. Strassburg became a main center of the
early Anabaptist movement.
France
consolidated her hold with the 1679 Treaty of Nimwegen which brought the towns
under her control. In 1681, she occupied Strassburg in an unprovoked action.
These territorial changes were reinforced at the 1691 Peace of Rijkswik
(Ryswick) which ended the War of the Palatinate (also known as the War of the
Grand Alliance or War of the League of Augsburg), although the Holy Roman
Empire did not accept and sign the document until 1697. Thus was Alsace drawn into the orbit of France.
The year 1789 brought the French revolution and with it the first division
of Alsace
into the départements of Haut- and Bas-Rhin. Many of the residents of
the Sundgau
made "pilgrimages" to places like Mariastein, near Basel,
in Switzerland,
for baptisms and weddings.
During the last decade of the 18th century, many Alsatians were in
opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the invading forces of Austria and Prussia who sought to crush the
nascent revolutionary republic. When the French Revolutionary Army of the Rhine was victorious, tens of thousands fled east before
it. When they were later permitted to return (in some cases not until 1799), it
was often to find that their lands and homes had been confiscated. These
straitened conditions led to emigration by hundreds of families to newly-vacant
lands in the Russian Empire in 1803/4 and again in 1808. A poignant retelling
of this tale based on what he had himself witnessed can be found in Goethe's Hermann
und Dorothea.
In response to the restoration of Napoleon, in 1814 and 1815, Alsace was occupied by
foreign forces, including over 280,000 soldiers and 90,000 horses in Bas-Rhin
alone. This had grave effects on trade and the economy of the region since
former overland trade routes were switched to newly-opened Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports.
At the same time, the population was growing rapidly, from 800,000 in 1814
to 914,000 in 1830 and 1,067,000 in 1846. The combination of factors meant
hunger, housing shortages and a lack of work for young people. Thus, it is not
surprising that people fled, not only to Russia, but also to take advantage
of a new opportunity offered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Empire had
recently conquered lands in the East from the Turkish
Empire and offered generous terms for colonists in order to consolidate
their hold on the lands. Many Alsatians also began to sail for America, where
after 1807 slave importation had been banned and new workers were needed for
the cotton fields.
Many American and Russian recruiters worked for shipowners and made grandiose,
fictitious promises to the restless Alsatians. Once they agreed and
surreptitiously left Alsace,
they often found themselves forced into indentured servitude. This was so
abused in fact that in 1818 the Louisiana
general assembly enacted legislation protecting the rights of such immigrants,
which sometimes led to new tactics such as shipowners demanding exorbitant
passage fees. Even so, tens of thousands of settlers emigrated to Russia and the United States between 1817 and
1839. The Panic of 1825 can be cited as another spur to emigration.
In the 1840's, enterprising Alsatian Henri Castro contracted with the Republic of Texas, to bring in Alsatian settlers in
exchange for large land grants. Thus, starting in 1842, many left for
Castroville and other Texan communities, Castro proving to be only second to
Stephen Austin in numbers of settlers attracted.
Alsace-Lorraine
In 1871, as a concession after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1), France gave up Alsace,
except for the Belfort territory, along with the
Moselle portion of Lorraine, to the new
unified Germany and the
history of Alsace
becomes that of the Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen or Alsace-Lorraine. The
Vallee de la Bruche which had been part of the Department of the Vosges was annexed to Alsace-Lorraine in 1872. Its
population in 1890 was 77% Catholic, 21% Protestant, 2% Jewish with 678
Mennonites in Lower Alsace and 1,012 in Upper Alsace.
In 1898 Mennonite congregations were in Birkenhof bei Altkirch (130 souls),
Colmar-Wolfganzen (151), Markirch-Weilertal (32), Pfastatt (250), Pulversheim
(35), Hang (139), An dem Salm (60). This period of Germanization continued
until World War I (1914-1918), at the conclusion of which, Alsace returned to French control.
A similar transfer occurred during the World War II conflict (1939-45) at
the end of which the region was again ceded to France. Still today, however, two
German language newspapers are published here. There is even still spoken here
and there a German dialect Alsacien (Elsässisch), but it is vanishing.
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note: listings in [brackets] indicate libraries holding
the work.
- English:
- Barraclough, Geoffrey,
The Origins of Modern Germany
(1966, New York,
Putnam)
- Brasseaux, Carl A.,
"Foreign French", Nineteenth-century French immigration
into Louisiana, 1990-92, Lafayette, Louisiana, Center for
Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana; vol. 1:
1820-1839; vol. 2: 1840-48.
- Burgert, Annette
Kunselman, Eighteenth Century Emigrants from the Northern Alsace to
America, 1992, Camden, Maine, Picton Press, publication of the
Pennsylvania German Society, vol. 26.
- Castro, Lorenzo, Immigration
from Alsace and Lorraine:
A Brief Sketch of Castro's Colony in Western Texas 1871, San Antonio.
- Chevalier, Tracy, The
Virgin Blue, Penguin Books (historical novel of an American woman
tracing her roots in 16th-century France).
- Hyman, Paula E., The
Emancipation of the Jews of Alsace,
1991, New Haven, Yale University Press.
- Luebke, Frederick C.,
"Alsatians", Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic
Groups, 1980, Cambridge, Harvard
University Press, Stephan Thernstrom editor, pp. 29-31.
- Putnam, Ruth, Alsace
and Lorraine from Caesar to Kaiser: 58
B.C.-1871 A.D., 1915, New York
and London:
G.P Putnam's and Sons. Reprinted 1971, Freeport, NY,
Books for Libraries.
- The Thirty Years
War, Geoffrey Parker (ed.), 1984, 1991, New
York and London:
Routledge.
- French:
- Baechler, Christian, Le
Parti catholique alsacien 1890-1939, Paris, 1981
- Boehler, Jean-Michel,
Dominique Lerch and Jean Vogt, Histoire de l'Alsace Rurale, Strasbourg, Istra,
1983
- Bonnaud-Delamare,
Roger, L'immigration helvétique dans les principautés de Murbach et
de Lure après la Guerre de Trente Ans (1649-1715) [26 libraries in
the US, two in Canada; nine in Europe]
- Castellot, Andre and
Alain Decaux, Histoire de la France et des Francais au jour le jour
de 1814 a 1902, Paris, 1980
- Cerf, Colonel A., La
guerre aux frontieres du Jura, Paris, 1931
- Conrad, Glenn R.,
"L'immigration alsacienne en Louisiane, 1753-59", Revue
d'histoire d'Amérique française, 28 (March 1975): pp. 565-577.
- Dollinger, Philippe, L'Alsace
de 1900 a nos jours, Toulouse,
1979
- Fouché, Nicole,
"Un épisode du peuplement du Texas:
Henri Castro et les émigrants alsaciens 1842-1856", Revue
d'Alsace, vol. 114, fasc. 592 (1988), p. 93-112
- Hoffet, Frédéric, Psychanalyse
de l'Alsace, 1951, Colmar,
Alsatia
- Igersheim, Francois,
"L'occupation allemande en Alsace
et en Lorraine"
in L'Alsace en 1870 - 1871, pp.249-367
- Klein, B.,
"L'emigration en Hongrie a la fin du XVIIIe siecle" Annuaire
de l'Association d'Histoire et d'Archeologie-Musee Regional de l'Alsace
Bossue, no. 8 (1994) [Contact: M. Jacques Wolff, 11 Grand'rue,
67260 Sarre-Union, France]
- Laybourn, Norman, L'émigration
des Alsaciens et des Lorrains du XVIIIe au XXe siècle, 1986, Strasbourg,
Association des Publications près les Universités de Strasbourg. [26
libraries in the US,
one in Canada; two in Japan, four in Europe]
- Schaedelin, F.
"Les émigrés suisses dans le Haut-Rhin", Revue d'Alsace,
1935. [16 US
libraries]
- Schoell, Franck-Louis,
"Colonies alsaciennes dans la prairie américaine (Illinois
et Iowa)",
Revue de Paris, 1 January 1922.
- Stintzi, Paul, L'immigration
suisse dans le Sundgau après la Guerre de Trente Ans, 1952, Strasbourg, Le Roux,
series: L'Alsace et la Suisse à travers les siècles.
- Stintzi, Paul,
"L'immigration suisse dans la vallée supérieure de la Thur" in Annuaire
de la Société d'Histoire des Régions de Thann-Guebwiller, 1953-4.
[Harvard]
- Valloton, Benjamin,
"Alsaciens et Lorrains aux Etats-Unis d'Amérique", L'Alsace
française, no. 21, 21 May 1927, pp. 401-422.
- Vogler, Bernard, Histoire
culturelle de l'Alsace, 1994, Strasbourg, La Nuée Bleue,
- Vogler, Bernard, Histoire
des Chrétiens d'Alsace, 1994, Desclée
- Wahl, Alfred, L'option
et l'emigration des Alsaciens-Lorrains (1871-1872), Paris, 1972
- Wahl, Alfred, L'option
des Alsaciens-Lorrains en 1871 - 72, Le cas de Bischwiller,
Saisons d'Alsace 1972, p. 465, etc.
- Encyclopédie de
l'Alsace, 1982-86, Strasbourg,
Editions Publitotal, 12 volumes. [three libraries in Europe; University
of Arizona; Harvard; Western Michigan University; University of Michigan;
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Cornell; University of Wisconsin,
Madison]
- Le Haut-Rhin /
Dictionnaire des Communes, Oberlé R., and L. Sittler (eds.), 3
vol. 1980-82.
- Histoire de
l'Alsace, Philippe Dollinger (ed.), 1991, Toulouse, Privat, (1st ed. 1970).
- Nouveau
Dictionnaire de Biographie Alsacienne [New Alsatian Biographical
Dictionary], 1982-, Strasbourg,
Federation des Sociétés d'Histoire et d'Archéologie d'Alsace. [19 US libraries; four in Europe]
- Saisons d'Alsace,
1948-, contains articles on history, archaeology, art, literature,
gastronomy, etc. Issue no. 115 (printemps 1992) is called "Nos
cousins d'Amérique" and includes 37 short pieces dealing with the
relationship between Alsace and the US, one
entitled "Sur la trace des cousins alsaciens".
- German: siehe deutsche
Seite
Other Literature
- French:
- Bisch, Yves, Les
Pontonniers de l'Instruction, Berentzwiller, 1987 Centenaire de la
S.I.M., Mulhouse, 1926
- Elchinger, Mgr.
Leon-Arthur, L'ame de l'Alsace et son avenir, Strasbourg,
1992 Encyclopedie de l'Alsace, Strasbourg, 1986
- Engel, Alfred, Documents
officiels concernant le 4 Bataillon de la Mobile du Haut-Rhin, Mulhouse, 1909
- Faller, L., Le
service des incendies et du sauvetage en Alsace-Lorraine,
Ribeauville, 1893
- Fouche, "Nos
cousins d'Amerique" in Saisons d'Alsace N 115, 1992
- Gueslin, Andre, Le
Credit Mutuel, Strasbourg, 1982 Paris, Strasbourg,
1876/1878
- Hanauer, Abbe Charles,
Etudes economiques sur l'Alsace contemporaine,
- Herberich, Geneviene
and Freddy Raphael, "Les ex-votos et le pelerinage de
Thierenbach" in Revue des Sciences Sociales de la France de
l'Est, 1980
- Husser, Philippe, Un
instituteur alsacien, Strasbourg,
1989
- Igersheim, Francois, L'Alsace
des Notables, 1870-1914, Strasbourg,
1981
- Igersheim, Francois,
"La politique scolaire allemande en Alsace-Lorraine" in Recherches
germaniques, N 5/1975, Strasbourg
- Kahan-Rabeck,
Marie-Madeleine, L'Alsace economique et sociale sous Louis Philipe,
Paris,
1939
- Leuilliot, Paul,
"Les elections alsaciennes en 1869" in R.A. 1961
pp. 67-101
- L'Huillier, Francois, L'Alsace
en 1870 - 71, Strasbourg,
1971
- L'Huillier, Francois,
"L'Alsace dans le Reichsland" in Histoire de l'Alsace
de Phillipe Dollinger, Toulouse,
1970
- Mayeur, Jean-Marie, Autonomie
et politique en Alsace, La constitution
de 1911, Paris,
1970
- Monnerville, Gaston, Dictionnaire
des parlementaires francais de 1889 a 1940, Paris, 1968
- Muller, Claude, Dieu
est catholique et alsacien, Strasbourg,
1986
- Muller, Rene,
"Henri Zislin" in Saisons d'Alsace, 1966
- Oberdoerfer, Prof.
Auguste, L'etat de la musique en Alsace
de 1840 a 1913, Strasbourg,
1914
- Oberle, Roland, L'Alsace
au temps du Reichsland, Mulhouse,
1990
- Redslob, Robert,
"La bourgeoisie alsacienne sous le regime allemand" in La
bourgeoisie alsacienne, Strasbourg, Paris, 1954
- Sittler, Lucien, L'Alsace
Terre d'Histoire, Colmar, 1972
- Weydmann, Joseph,
"L'evolution de la legislation sociale en Alsace-Lorraine de 1870 a
1918" in L'Alsace contemporaine, Strasbourg,
Paris,
1950
- Durand de Nancy, Nouveau
guide pratique des maires et adjoints, Paris, 1868
- L'ecole dans
l'Alsace-Lorraine sous l'administration allemande, Fribourg
(Suiss), 1874
- Livre d'Or des
proscrits d'Alsace, Montreuil-sous-Bois, 1932,
- German: siehe deutsche
Seite
Additional bibliography is available at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Benoit_Specklin/Paul.Reichsl.html
by Benoît Specklin.
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