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Alsace

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Template:Infobox French Région Alsace (French: Alsace; Alsatian/German: Elsass or Elsaß) is one of 26 french régions, located on the eastern border of France, on the west bank of the Upper Rhine, adjacent to Germany and Switzerland.

Alsace was part of the Holy Roman Empire and is still inhabited by people speaking a dialect of Upper German. In the course of the 17th century, Alsace was gradually put under French sovereignty and made one of the provinces of France. Its capital and largest city is Strasbourg. Alsace is frequently referred in conjunction with Lorraine, because these two regions (as Alsace-Lorraine) have been contested frequently in history, following a division among the successors of Charlemagne in the 9th century.

Geography

Lac Blanc

Alsace has an area of 8280 km², making it the smallest région of metropolitan France. It is almost four times longer than it is wide, corresponding to a plain between the Rhine in the east and the Vosges mountains in the west.

It includes the départements of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin. It borders Germany on the north and the east, Switzerland and Franche-Comté on the south, and Lorraine on the west.

It contains many forests, primarily in the Vosges and in Bas-Rhin (Haguenau Forest). Several valleys are also found in the région. Its highest point is the ballon de Guebwiller in Haut-Rhin, which reaches a height of 1426 m.

Alsace has a semi-continental climate with cold and dry winters and hot summers. There is little precipitation because the Vosges protect it from the west. The city of Colmar has a sunny microclimate; it is the second driest city in France, with an annual precipitation of just 550 mm, making it ideal for vin d'Alsace (Alsatian wine).

History

File:Alsace-paysan.png
Traditional Alsatian rural life

In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, but by 1500 B.C. Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. By 58 B.C., the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture. To protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day.

With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Alamanni. The Alamanni were agricultural people, and their language formed the basis of the modern-day Alsatian dialect. The Franks drove the Alamanni out of Alsace during the 5th century, and Alsace then became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm was, following the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, formally dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun in which the grandsons of Charlemagne – formally known as the founder of the Frankish realm – divided the realm into three parts. The Benelux states, Alsace and Lorraine formed the new Frankish Middle realm which was ruled by the youngest grandson Lothar. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts. The part known as Lorraine was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared between Lothar's brothers Carl the Bald (ruler of the West Frankish realm) and Ludwig the German (ruler of the East Frankish realm). Lorraine was annexed later by the Holy Roman Empire.

In time, Alsace became part of the Holy Roman Empire as western part of the duchy of Swabia and was later under the administration of the Austrian House of Habsburg. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under the Hohenstaufen Emperors, but this prosperity was terminated in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death. These hardships were blamed on Jews, leading to the pogroms of 1336 and 1339. An additional natural disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356, one of Europe's worst.

La Petite France, Strasbourg

During the Renaissance, prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration, until the Thirty Years' War devastated large parts of southern Germany. Most of Alsace was ceded to France at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which marked its start, along with Lorraine, as a contested territory between France and Germany (French-German enmity).

The City of Strasbourg was annexed by France during the reign of Louis XIV of France, in a time when Habsburg and other Germans were fighting off the Turks, at the Battle of Vienna. Since 500, the area had been predominantly populated by Germanic speaking people and they resisted efforts to have the French language and customs imposed upon them.

Both Alsace and Lorraine, as "Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen" (Alsace-Lorraine) became part of the new German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, causing an estimated 50,000 people (of a total population of about a million and a half) to emigrate to France. Alsace remained a part of Germany until the end of World War I, when Germany ceded it under the Treaty of Versailles. However, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the region was self-ruling by legal status, as its constitution had stated it was bound to the sole authority of the Kaiser and not to the German State.

Correspondingly, the regional government of Alsace-Lorraine declared independence as Republic of Alsace-Lorraine, but could not fight off the French who took it over a week later. France tolerated no plebiscite, as granted by the League of Nations to some eastern German territories at this time.

An Alsacien woman in tradition wear.

After World War I, the establishment of German identity in Alsace was reversed, as Germans who had settled in Alsace since 1871 were expelled. Policies forbidding the use of German and requiring that of French were introduced. Curiously, the region was not considered to be subject to some changes in French law from 1871 to 1919, such as the Law of Separation of the Church and the State.

The region was effectively annexed by Germany in 1940 during World War II and reincorporated into the Greater German Reich. Alsace was merged with Baden, and Lorraine with the Saarland. The annexation, while putting a halt to the anti-German discrimination, subjected the region to the Nazi dictatorship, which was loathed by most of the people. The German government never negotiated or declared a formal annexation, however, in order to preserve the possibility of an agreement with the West. France regained control of the war-torn area in 1944 and resumed its policy of promoting the French language with uncompromising vigour. For instance, from 1945 to 1984 the use of German in newspapers was restricted to a maximum of 25%.

In more recent years, as nationalistic emotions have receded, cultural freedom has gradually been restored. Thus for instance, several citizens' initiatives promoting the teaching of German in some form in local kindergartens and schools have been tolerated by the Paris government.

Politics

Alsace is one of the most conservative régions of France. It is one of just two régions in metropolitan France where the right won the 2004 regional elections and thus controls the conseil régional. The president of the conseil régional is Adrien Zeller, a member of the Union for a Popular Movement. In the past Alsace along with Lorraine very much were the subject of political discussion after their annexation by the German Empire. Restoring the provinces to France became a national goal and led to revanchism.

File:Lossofalsacelorraine.jpg
The Loss of Alsace-Lorraine



Economy

According to INSEE, Alsace had a gross domestic product of 44.3 billion euros in 2002. With a GDP per capita of €24,804, it was the second-place région of France, losing only to Île-de-France. 68% of its jobs are in the services; 25% are in industry, making Alsace one of France's most industrialized régions.

Alsace is a region of varied economic activity, including:

Demographics

Alsace's population increased to 1,734,145 in 1999. It has regularly increased over time, except in wartime, by both natural growth and migration. This growth has even accelerated at the end of the 20th century. INSEE estimates that its population will grow 12.9% to 19.5% between 1999 and 2030.

With a density of 209/km², Alsace is the third most densely populated région in metropolitan France.

Transport

The road network

Most major car journeys are made on the A35 motorway (with intermittent areas of dual carriageways), which links Saint-Louis on the Swiss border to Lauterbourg on the German border.

The A4 toll-road (towards Paris) begins 20 km northwest of Strasbourg and the A36 toll-road towards Lyon, begins 10 km west from Mulhouse.

Spaghetti-junctions (built in the 1970s and 1980s) are prominent in the comprehensive system of motorways in Alsace, especially in the outlying ares of Strasbourg and Mulhouse. These cause a major buildup of traffic and are the main sources of pollution in the towns, notably in Strasbourg where the motorway traffic of the A35 was 170,000 per day in 2002. Urban crossings on the A36 near Mulhouse also cause regular disturbances and a lack of communication between driver and road conditions can be seen in the absence of message boards and speed cameras.

At present, plans are being considered for building a new dual carriageway west of Strasbourg, which would reduce the buildup of traffic in that area by picking up north- and southbound vehicles and getting rid of the buildup outside of Strasbourg. The line plans to link up the interchange of Hoerdt to the north of Strasbourg, with Innenheim in the southwest. The opening is envisaged at the end of 2011, with an average usage of 41,000 vehicles a day. Estimates of the French Works Commissioner however, raised some doubts over the interest of such a project, since it would pick up only about 10% of the traffic of the A35 at Strasbourg.

To add to the buildup of traffic, the neighbouring German state of Baden-Württemberg plans to impose a tax on heavy-goods vehicles using their roads. Thus, HGVs travelling from north Germany to Switzerland or southern Alsace would most probably bypass the A5 on the Alsace-Baden-Württemberg border and use the untolled, French A35 instead.

The train network

Place de l'Homme de Fer Train Station

TER Alsace is the regional rail network serving Alsace région, France. Its network is articulated around the city of Strasbourg.

Because the Vosges are surmountable only by the Col de Saverne, it has been suggested that Alsace needs to open up and get closer to France in terms of its rail links. Different plans are due to be implemented:

  • the TGV Est (Paris - Strasbourg); (ongoing, to be brought into service by 2007);
  • the TGV Rhine-Rhône or a Dijon-Mulhouse line (to start in construction in 2006, with anticipated completion in 2011);
  • an interconnection with the German InterCity Express, as far as Kehl and/or Ottmarsheim;
  • a tram-train system in Mulhouse (in the stage of realization), then Strasbourg (2011).

However, the abandoned Maurice-Lemaire tunnel towards Saint-Dié-des-Vosges was rebuilt as a toll-road.

The river network

The River Network

Port traffic of Alsace exceeds 15 million tonnes, of which about three quarters is centred on Strasbourg, which is the second busiest French fluvial harbour. The enlargement plan of the Rhine-Rhône channel, intended to link up the Mediterranean Sea and Central Europe (Rhine, Danube, North Sea and Baltic Sea) was abandoned in 1998 for reasons of expense and land erosion, notably in the Doubs valley.

Air traffic

There are two international airports in Alsace:

Religion

The Cathedral of Mulhouse


Most of the Alsatian population are Roman Catholics, but there is a significant Protestant community, not in the last place due to German influence. Unlike the rest of the country, the Alsace-Moselle region continues to follow the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801, under which public subsidies are granted to Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist churches, and to Jewish synagogues, and public education in those faiths is offered. This discrepancy with the rest of the country is due to the fact that the region was administered by Imperial Germany at the time of the 1905 law separating the French church and state. Controversy erupts periodically on the appropriateness of this legal disposition, as well as on the exclusion of other religions from this arrangement.

Culture

Historically part of the Holy Roman Empire, the region has passed between French and German control numerous times, resulting in a rich cultural blend.

Language

In the beginning of the 21st century, the language most spoken in Alsace is standard French.

The traditional language of the region is Alsatian, an Alemannic dialect of Upper German. Alsatian is closest to Swiss German. Some Frankish dialects of West Middle German are also spoken in the extreme north of Alsace. Neither Alsatian nor the Frankish dialects have any form of official status, as is customary for regional languages in France, although both are now recognized as languages of France and can be chosen as subject in French high schools.

A few valleys in the west of Alsace, at the border with Lorraine, were always outside of the Germanic languages area, and dialects of Lorraine French were spoken there ever since the Middle Ages.

Since 1945, the influence of standard French has been ever increasing in Alsace, and today Alsace is largely a French-speaking area. More often assumed to be a bilingual area (French/Alsatian), Alsace is actually evolving fast toward a situation of total French unilingualism. People above 70 still speak Alsatian at home, but the younger generations use French even at home, and the vast majority of people below 30 do not understand Alsatian anymore. This situation has provoked a sort of desire to preserve the traditional Alsatian language, which is perceived as in danger in front of French, a situation paralleled in other regions of France with regional languages such as Brittany or Occitania. Alsatian is now taught in French high schools, but the overwhelming presence of French media make the survival of Alsatian uncertain among younger generations.

The linguistic situation of Alsace can be summed up like this: the region is fast evolving toward a situation where standard French is the only language used at home and at work, whereas an increasing number of people have a good knowledge of standard German as a foreign language learnt in school.

Cuisine

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cuisine of Alsace.
Flammekueche

Alsatian cuisine, strongly influenced by the Germanic culinary traditions, is marked by the use of pork in various forms. Traditional dishes include baeckeoffe, tartes flambées (flammekueche), choucroute, and fleischnackas. The south of Alsace, also called Sundgau, is characterized by carpe frite.

The festivities of the year's end involve the production of a great variety of biscuits and small cakes called brédalas as well as pain d'épice (gingerbread), which are given to children starting on Saint Nicholas Day.

Riesling Grapes

A wine-producing region, Alsace wines are primarily white. Its wines, which have a strong Germanic influence, are called vins d'Alsace. It produces some of the world's most noted dry rieslings and is the only région in France to produce mostly varietal wines identified by the names of the grapes used (wine from Burgundy is also mainly varietal, but not normally identified as such), typically from grapes also used in Germany.

Alsace is also the main beer-producing région of France, thanks primarily to breweries in and near Strasbourg. These include those of Kronenbourg, Fischer, Heineken, Météor, and Kanterbräu. Hops are grown in Kochersberg and in northern Alsace. Schnapps is also traditionally made in Alsace, but it is in decline because home distillers are becoming less common and the consumption of traditional, strong, alcoholic beverages is decreasing.

Alsatian food is synonymous with conviviality, the dishes are substantial and served in generous portions and it has one of the richest regional kitchens. The gastronomic symbol of the region is undoubtedly Sauerkraut!

The word "Sauerkraut" in Alsatian has the form "Sûrkrût ", and means "sour cabbage"

To make it, the cabbage is finely shredded, layered with salt and juniper and left to ferment in wooden barrels. Sauerkraut can be served with poultry, pork, sausage or even fish.

Traditionally it is served with pork, Strasbourg sausage or frankfurters, bacon, smoked pork or smoked Morteau or Montbéliard sausages or a selection of pork products. Served alongside are often roasted or steamed potatoes or dumplings.

Additionally, Alsace is known for its fruit juices and mineral waters.

Architecture


The traditional habitat of the Alsatian lowland is constituted of houses constructed with walls in half-timbering and cob and roofing in flat tiles. This type of construction can be seen in other areas of France, but their particular abundance in Alsace is owed to several reasons:

  1. The proximity to the Vosges where the wood can be found.
  2. Due to seismic risk, wood was more adapted than stone because it was more flexible, and resisted better.
  3. During periods of war and bubonic plague, villages were often burned down, so to prevent the collapse of the upper floors, stone ground floors were built and the upper floors built in half-timberings to prevent the spread of fire.

However, half-timbering was found to increase the risk of fire, which is why from the 19th century, it began to be rendered. In recent times, villagers started to paint the rendering white in accordance with Beaux-Arts movements. To discourage this, regional authorities gave financial grants to the inhabitants to paint the rendering in various colours, in order to return to the original style and many inhabitants accepted (more for financial reasons than by firm belief).

Symbolism

The stork is a main feature of Alsace and was the subject of many legends told to children. The bird practically disappeared around 1970, but repopulation efforts are ongoing. They are mostly found on roofs of houses, churches and other public buildings in Alsace.

Tourism

Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg
A fortification of the Maginot Line


Administration

See the main article: Alsace Regional Council

Notable Alsatians

Bartholdi



See also: List of Alsatians and Lorrainians

Cities

See also

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