ALSACELORRAINE

Alsace-Lorraine: translation

France's eastern provinces, ceded to the new German Empire in 1871 after France's collapse in the Franco-Prussian War, then restored to France via the 1918 Armistice.* During 1871-1914 France's desire forre-vancherested upon a passion to regain these "lost territories." Although Ger-mans were pained by their forfeiture, few were surprised when President Wilson's Fourteen Points stipulated that "the wrong done to France by Prussia* in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine" must be corrected. Allied agreement on this issue was so strong that the Armistice agreement (Article 2) required Germany to abandon the provinces. When the Germans held National Assem-bly* elections on 19 January 1919, the French prohibited voting in Alsace and Lorraine.

Speculation had existed on the outcome of a plebiscite in the provinces if one were allowed in 1919.Although Germany's plea for a plebiscite was rejected - France underscored the lack of precedent from 1871—there is little reason to believe that the provinces would have voted against reunion with France. Until 1911 the provinces were designateddas Reichsland; as such, Germany treated them more as foreign colonies than as integral to the Reich. Although their status was blurred in 1911 by an administrative change, they were never des-ignated states (Lander) by the Constitution.* Such discrimination stemmed largely from economic lobbies that, fearing textile and other commercial inter-ests in Alsace-Lorraine, sabotaged efforts at full-fledged integration. The pop-ulations of both Alsace and Lorraine, resenting German annexation in 1871, were disdainful of their treatment in succeeding years. According to Erich Eyck*, there was little evidence of distress in the provinces over reunion with France (an Alsatian autonomy movement was an annoyance to France). Nev-ertheless, the issue was not shelved until Gustav Stresemann* signed the Lo-carno Treaties,* thereby giving formal recognition to Germany's western borders.