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Alsace-Lorraine
This territory, also known as the Reichsland, was a prize seized from France after the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. It was a Reich’s Province until it became a quasi-state in 1911. It never was a real state of the German Empire. The head administrator was appointed by the Kaiser and was called the Reichsstatthalter. The capital was Strassburg i.E. the 24th largest city in the empire, multicultural and bilingual. Catholics outnumbered Protestants 1.5 million vs. 400000. The old French regime had given the Catholic clergy significant power. Total population in 1914 was approximately 1,900,000. The province was split into three sections: upper Alsace (which was the most southern), lower Alsace that was the more northern, and Lorraine, which included the fortress city of Metz. Lorraine was the most French culturally of the areas and French was the primary language. However, the majority of the population spoke some German or an Alsatian dialect of German. Historically and realistically there was no Alsace-Lorraine prior to the Franco-Prussian War. The first myth we must expose is that there was no such thing as an Alsace-Lorrainer. There was Alsace, and there was Lorraine, who became joined together for political expediency. The populations were not homogeneous. Alsace often held sway over Lorraine due to the immigration of German middle classes into Alsace.
There were problems with this area from a constitutional perspective. The peace treaty of 1871 ceded the German Empire all of France’s rights to title and territory of Alsace-Lorraine. However the imperial constitution made no provision for the disposition and administration of such a territory. The imperial constitution assumed that between the individual territories with their people and the imperial power a state power was interposed. Alsace-Lorraine was originally no state. The solution was to make the Kaiser the head of state for Alsace-Lorraine. Alsace-Lorraine was not made a province of Prussian rather it was imperial territory. The Stathalter or imperial deputy was appointed by the Kaiser and was the personal representative of the Kaiser. The powers of the Stathalter were attached to the person not to the office. Prior to statehood, there was an emasculated territorial committee in place of a parliament. They were 15 representatives in the Reichstag, but zero in the Bundesrat.
There was much outcry and confusion about citizenship immediately after unification, and the movement of Alsace-Lorraine from French control to Imperial German control. The residents of Alsace-Lorraine were given the option to maintain French citizenship, but they had to declare their intent to move as well as physically move to French territory by 1 October 1872. Those who did not leave were automatically granted Imperial German citizenship. There was a group of 100,000 called the optants, who had declared their intent to leave but for various reasons did not. This group fell through the cracks and therefore there were 100,000 individuals who had no citizenship. Many minors emigrated back to France to avoid service in the Imperial German military. 45 percent of the French Foreign Legion between 1882 and 1908 were from Alsace-Lorraine originally. It is estimated that in the first 15 years of German rule that 156,000 individuals left the Reichsland for France. As French citizens migrated out Imperial German citizens from many states moved in. The purpose of much of the migration of Imperial German citizens was to take jobs as civil servants for the empire serving in Alsace-Lorraine. By 1910, 12 percent of the population was Germans who had immigrated into the Reichsland. This was more prominent in the larger cities where between 30 and 41 percent of the population was immigrant Germans.
In American terms, this was Indian country. There was an eternal dilemma facing the Germans; whether to govern Alsace-Lorraine as a conquered for national security purposes or to integrate Alsace-Lorraine into the Imperial German Empire .The Germans who thought originally that Alsatians would welcome them as long-lost German brothers found many parts of the population to be pretty much anti-German. The Germans developed a derogatory slang word that was commonly used when referring to Alsace-Lorraine individuals. Many aristocratic authorities, and especially the military really considered all people from Alsace-Lorraine to be highly untrustworthy and called them Wackes. Draft evasion was a telling metric. In 1872 20,000 draftees failed to appear of the 32,000 called. By 1879 this had dropped to 25 percent and by 1904 to 8 percent. It is impossible to apply one homogeneous view of resistance to service in the Prussian military. Much of it was economic, much of it was religious, there was an urban/rural divide, and a native/German immigrant divide, and some people embraced Germany. Many Imperial Germans came to view the Alsatians and those from Lorraine as disloyal Germans. Another myth is that the German government used a repressive program of coercion to impose their will on the people from Alsace-Lorraine. In fact there was a huge amount of vacillation and the Empire never decided whether coercion or conciliation with the right tool. There was a reasonable chance of German success and integration of the province into the German Empire until the Zabern affair of 1913 -- 1914.
In May 1911, the rules were changed for Alsace-Lorraine and it moved closer to statehood. There was a constitution, but it was not a state. This is another one of the many myths repeated by many historians. Alsace Lorraine was never a real state. The Landtag for Alsace-Lorraine was to consist of two houses. In the upper house of 36 members one half were appointed by the Kaiser. Others were members by virtue of holding certain offices. The lower house had 60 members elected by secret ballot based on universal suffrage. Laws were made by these two chambers and the Kaiser had an absolute veto. Alsace-Lorraine was represented in the Bundesrat by three votes but they would not be counted if they provided a majority for Prussia; and the territory elected 15 members to the Reichstag but these were not allowed to vote on issues concerning the Reichsland.
Soldiers from the Reichsland
The soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine were generally considered as unreliable by their military superiors. Those who were considered a significant problem were transferred to the Eastern front against the Russians and away from the French. This increased the sense among the soldiers that the Reich had rejected them intended to increase unreliability. Large-scale transfers to the Eastern front were disastrous to unit morale as loyal troops from Alsace-Lorraine considered themselves humiliated. By the same token, desertion was very rare within the Imperial German forces with a rate of only one per 10,000 soldiers. As a comparison up to July 1917, the desertion rate for soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine was 80 per 10,000.
Recruiting which was controlled by the Army Corps and generally followed regional regimental assignments. Generally the Army did not trust residents of Alsace-Lorraine nor the indigenous Polish population within the German borders. Therefore, recruiting exceptions for many organizations were widespread. Soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine were frequently found in units stationed on the Eastern front during World War I but were also present in XIV, XV, XVI, and XXI corps areas. Specifically XXI, and XV, recruited heavily in Westphalia and the Rhineland. The Polish population was scattered throughout V and VI Corps districts. Because of laboring in the mines, the Polish population was also found in VII and VIII Corps districts.
In the provinces that were not ethnically German, there was a resistance to wanting to be enlisted -- especially in the bourgeois. The residents of Alsace-Lorraine were culturally used to the French system where one could "buy" a replacement. This was not allowed under the German system. What will come as a complete surprise, however, is that Alsace stood first among all German provinces in the ratio of draft eligible men who were found fit and passed the test with 66.7 percent. Lorraine was fourth with 58.9 percent and was exceeded only by East and West Prussia.
Zabern
Another event along the same line that tested the German Imperial system and made it incredibly clear that Alsace-Lorraine was a second-class part of imperial territory was Zabern 1913. Zabern was a garrison town of 9000, mostly Catholics, in lower Alsace that had housed the mostly Lutheran 99th Infantry Regiment since 1890. The major protagonist was Freiherr, Lieut. von Forstner who had been educated at the upper Prussian cadet school. While he retained airs of aristocratic privilege, the townspeople thought of him as a buffoon. He was known to have made disparaging remarks about his recruits from Alsace-Lorraine, the local population which he referred to as Wackes, and the French Foreign Legion. The claim is that during his instruction hour he had offered his recruits 10 marks instead of three months in prison, should they stab a rowdy Wacke. This incident was published in the paper, and soon mobs threatened the Lieut. The commander of the 99th Infantry Regiment and the burgomaster got involved unsuccessfully and the fire brigade was ordered to drive off the crowd with hoses. This was done neither enthusiastically, nor successfully. A company of soldiers from the garrison arrived on the scene and arrested those who refused to leave.
The Lieut. was reprimanded, but on the very next day he and several other officers had an alcohol induced altercation with some local youths, and one of the officers, a Lieut. Schad called out the guard with fixed bayonets. This situation continued to simmer until 29 November when the same Lieut. Forstner went shopping for chocolates with four armed soldiers. Some of the locals made fun of the Lieut. and the same Lieut. Schad started arresting locals. The regimental commander, Col. von Reuter deployed 60 men ordered them to load rifles and barked commands with drums beating.
The key issues revolved around the rights of the locals versus the rights of the army. Did the army have the right to act as police in arresting citizens and quelling unrest? Who had the right to discipline members of the Army? Could the local authorities and local courts have jurisdiction? Could the Kaiser and the army maintain their personal authority in this matter? As it turned out, the Army whitewashed the incident and the constitutional question was sidestepped. The residents of the Reichsland learned without question that their constitution had little value. While the completion of this incident was legally interrupted by the war, it certainly showed a lot of exposed nerves.
As this was Imperial land the bureaucracy fell under the Reich. therefore the helmets of the Beamte and police used an Imperial wappen. Often advertisements, you will see this called in a error East Asian. Officially known as the wappen for the Reichesmilitärgericht.
This territory, also known as the Reichsland, was a prize seized from France after the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. It was a Reich’s Province until it became a quasi-state in 1911. It never was a real state of the German Empire. The head administrator was appointed by the Kaiser and was called the Reichsstatthalter. The capital was Strassburg i.E. the 24th largest city in the empire, multicultural and bilingual. Catholics outnumbered Protestants 1.5 million vs. 400000. The old French regime had given the Catholic clergy significant power. Total population in 1914 was approximately 1,900,000. The province was split into three sections: upper Alsace (which was the most southern), lower Alsace that was the more northern, and Lorraine, which included the fortress city of Metz. Lorraine was the most French culturally of the areas and French was the primary language. However, the majority of the population spoke some German or an Alsatian dialect of German. Historically and realistically there was no Alsace-Lorraine prior to the Franco-Prussian War. The first myth we must expose is that there was no such thing as an Alsace-Lorrainer. There was Alsace, and there was Lorraine, who became joined together for political expediency. The populations were not homogeneous. Alsace often held sway over Lorraine due to the immigration of German middle classes into Alsace.
There were problems with this area from a constitutional perspective. The peace treaty of 1871 ceded the German Empire all of France’s rights to title and territory of Alsace-Lorraine. However the imperial constitution made no provision for the disposition and administration of such a territory. The imperial constitution assumed that between the individual territories with their people and the imperial power a state power was interposed. Alsace-Lorraine was originally no state. The solution was to make the Kaiser the head of state for Alsace-Lorraine. Alsace-Lorraine was not made a province of Prussian rather it was imperial territory. The Stathalter or imperial deputy was appointed by the Kaiser and was the personal representative of the Kaiser. The powers of the Stathalter were attached to the person not to the office. Prior to statehood, there was an emasculated territorial committee in place of a parliament. They were 15 representatives in the Reichstag, but zero in the Bundesrat.
There was much outcry and confusion about citizenship immediately after unification, and the movement of Alsace-Lorraine from French control to Imperial German control. The residents of Alsace-Lorraine were given the option to maintain French citizenship, but they had to declare their intent to move as well as physically move to French territory by 1 October 1872. Those who did not leave were automatically granted Imperial German citizenship. There was a group of 100,000 called the optants, who had declared their intent to leave but for various reasons did not. This group fell through the cracks and therefore there were 100,000 individuals who had no citizenship. Many minors emigrated back to France to avoid service in the Imperial German military. 45 percent of the French Foreign Legion between 1882 and 1908 were from Alsace-Lorraine originally. It is estimated that in the first 15 years of German rule that 156,000 individuals left the Reichsland for France. As French citizens migrated out Imperial German citizens from many states moved in. The purpose of much of the migration of Imperial German citizens was to take jobs as civil servants for the empire serving in Alsace-Lorraine. By 1910, 12 percent of the population was Germans who had immigrated into the Reichsland. This was more prominent in the larger cities where between 30 and 41 percent of the population was immigrant Germans.
In American terms, this was Indian country. There was an eternal dilemma facing the Germans; whether to govern Alsace-Lorraine as a conquered for national security purposes or to integrate Alsace-Lorraine into the Imperial German Empire .The Germans who thought originally that Alsatians would welcome them as long-lost German brothers found many parts of the population to be pretty much anti-German. The Germans developed a derogatory slang word that was commonly used when referring to Alsace-Lorraine individuals. Many aristocratic authorities, and especially the military really considered all people from Alsace-Lorraine to be highly untrustworthy and called them Wackes. Draft evasion was a telling metric. In 1872 20,000 draftees failed to appear of the 32,000 called. By 1879 this had dropped to 25 percent and by 1904 to 8 percent. It is impossible to apply one homogeneous view of resistance to service in the Prussian military. Much of it was economic, much of it was religious, there was an urban/rural divide, and a native/German immigrant divide, and some people embraced Germany. Many Imperial Germans came to view the Alsatians and those from Lorraine as disloyal Germans. Another myth is that the German government used a repressive program of coercion to impose their will on the people from Alsace-Lorraine. In fact there was a huge amount of vacillation and the Empire never decided whether coercion or conciliation with the right tool. There was a reasonable chance of German success and integration of the province into the German Empire until the Zabern affair of 1913 -- 1914.
In May 1911, the rules were changed for Alsace-Lorraine and it moved closer to statehood. There was a constitution, but it was not a state. This is another one of the many myths repeated by many historians. Alsace Lorraine was never a real state. The Landtag for Alsace-Lorraine was to consist of two houses. In the upper house of 36 members one half were appointed by the Kaiser. Others were members by virtue of holding certain offices. The lower house had 60 members elected by secret ballot based on universal suffrage. Laws were made by these two chambers and the Kaiser had an absolute veto. Alsace-Lorraine was represented in the Bundesrat by three votes but they would not be counted if they provided a majority for Prussia; and the territory elected 15 members to the Reichstag but these were not allowed to vote on issues concerning the Reichsland.
Soldiers from the Reichsland
The soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine were generally considered as unreliable by their military superiors. Those who were considered a significant problem were transferred to the Eastern front against the Russians and away from the French. This increased the sense among the soldiers that the Reich had rejected them intended to increase unreliability. Large-scale transfers to the Eastern front were disastrous to unit morale as loyal troops from Alsace-Lorraine considered themselves humiliated. By the same token, desertion was very rare within the Imperial German forces with a rate of only one per 10,000 soldiers. As a comparison up to July 1917, the desertion rate for soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine was 80 per 10,000.
Recruiting which was controlled by the Army Corps and generally followed regional regimental assignments. Generally the Army did not trust residents of Alsace-Lorraine nor the indigenous Polish population within the German borders. Therefore, recruiting exceptions for many organizations were widespread. Soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine were frequently found in units stationed on the Eastern front during World War I but were also present in XIV, XV, XVI, and XXI corps areas. Specifically XXI, and XV, recruited heavily in Westphalia and the Rhineland. The Polish population was scattered throughout V and VI Corps districts. Because of laboring in the mines, the Polish population was also found in VII and VIII Corps districts.
In the provinces that were not ethnically German, there was a resistance to wanting to be enlisted -- especially in the bourgeois. The residents of Alsace-Lorraine were culturally used to the French system where one could "buy" a replacement. This was not allowed under the German system. What will come as a complete surprise, however, is that Alsace stood first among all German provinces in the ratio of draft eligible men who were found fit and passed the test with 66.7 percent. Lorraine was fourth with 58.9 percent and was exceeded only by East and West Prussia.
Zabern
Another event along the same line that tested the German Imperial system and made it incredibly clear that Alsace-Lorraine was a second-class part of imperial territory was Zabern 1913. Zabern was a garrison town of 9000, mostly Catholics, in lower Alsace that had housed the mostly Lutheran 99th Infantry Regiment since 1890. The major protagonist was Freiherr, Lieut. von Forstner who had been educated at the upper Prussian cadet school. While he retained airs of aristocratic privilege, the townspeople thought of him as a buffoon. He was known to have made disparaging remarks about his recruits from Alsace-Lorraine, the local population which he referred to as Wackes, and the French Foreign Legion. The claim is that during his instruction hour he had offered his recruits 10 marks instead of three months in prison, should they stab a rowdy Wacke. This incident was published in the paper, and soon mobs threatened the Lieut. The commander of the 99th Infantry Regiment and the burgomaster got involved unsuccessfully and the fire brigade was ordered to drive off the crowd with hoses. This was done neither enthusiastically, nor successfully. A company of soldiers from the garrison arrived on the scene and arrested those who refused to leave.
The Lieut. was reprimanded, but on the very next day he and several other officers had an alcohol induced altercation with some local youths, and one of the officers, a Lieut. Schad called out the guard with fixed bayonets. This situation continued to simmer until 29 November when the same Lieut. Forstner went shopping for chocolates with four armed soldiers. Some of the locals made fun of the Lieut. and the same Lieut. Schad started arresting locals. The regimental commander, Col. von Reuter deployed 60 men ordered them to load rifles and barked commands with drums beating.
The key issues revolved around the rights of the locals versus the rights of the army. Did the army have the right to act as police in arresting citizens and quelling unrest? Who had the right to discipline members of the Army? Could the local authorities and local courts have jurisdiction? Could the Kaiser and the army maintain their personal authority in this matter? As it turned out, the Army whitewashed the incident and the constitutional question was sidestepped. The residents of the Reichsland learned without question that their constitution had little value. While the completion of this incident was legally interrupted by the war, it certainly showed a lot of exposed nerves.
As this was Imperial land the bureaucracy fell under the Reich. therefore the helmets of the Beamte and police used an Imperial wappen. Often advertisements, you will see this called in a error East Asian. Officially known as the wappen for the Reichesmilitärgericht.
