Department of Lorraine

District of Lorraine
Bezirk Lothringen Template:De icon
Présidence de Lorraine Template:Language icon
District of Lorraine Bezirk Lothringen Template:De icon; Présidence de Lorraine Template:Language icon
District of Alsace-Lorraine
1871–1918/1920
	Coat of arms
	; Lorraine district with its subdistricts in different colours (1890)
Capital	Metz
Area
• 1900	6,223 km2 (2,403 sq mi)
• 1910	6,228 km2 (2,405 sq mi)
Population
• 1900	564,829
• 1910	655,211
Government
• Type	regional administration
Bezirkspräsident
• 1871–1872	G.H. von Donnersmarck
• 1872–1873	Botho zu Eulenburg
• 1875–1876	Robert von Puttkamer
Präsident des Bezirkstags (speaker of parl.)
• 1874–1881	Auguste-François Adam
• 1881–1911	Eduard Jaunez
• 1911–1918	Georges Ditsch
Legislature	Bezirkstag (parliament)
Historical era	19th and 20th century
• seized to Germany	19 May 1871
• seized to France ; Versailles Tr. (effective)	; 10 January 1920 1918/1920
Political subdivisions	8 rural districts (as of 1901); 1 urban district (Metz)
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Moselle (old)
	Meurthe Department
Moselle (department)
Today part of	France

Bezirk Lothringen (Template:Lang-fr;^[1] i.e. Department of Lorraine), also called German Lorraine (deutsches Lothringen), was the name for a Department ("Bezirk") in the western part of Alsace-Lorraine when it was part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.

History

The District of Lorraine was unlike Prussian government regions no simple governorate but a corporation of self-rule of the pertaining rural and urbans subdistricts and cantons, similar to regions in the then neighbouring Bavaria (Palatinate). Thus the district parliaments delegated deputies to the General Council (parliament), the Bezirkstag von Lothringen (Template:Lang-fr). The capital of the District of Lorraine was Metz.

Territorial composition

The department comprised the districts ("Kreise") of :

Metz, independent city (Stadtkreis)
"Kreis Bolchen", seated in Bolchen (Boulay)
"Kreis Château-Salins", seated in Château-Salins
"Kreis Diedenhofen-Ost", seated in Thionville
"Kreis Diedenhofen-West", seated in Thionville
"Kreis Forbach", seated in Forbach
"Kreis Metz-Land", seated in Metz
"Kreis Saarburg",^[2] seated in Sarrebourg
"Kreis Saargemünd", seated in Sarreguemines

The district of Lorraine corresponds exactly to the current département of Moselle. After the outbreak of the Second World War and the defeat of France in 1940, the département of Moselle, renamed CdZ-Gebiet Lothringen, was added to the Gau Westmark on 30 November 1940.^[3]

District Presidents

(Template:Lang-de/Template:Lang-fr)

1871-1872 : Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, as préfet/Präfekt
1872-1873 : Botho zu Eulenburg, as department president
1873-1874 : Adolf von Arnim-Boitzenburg
1875-1876 : Robert von Puttkamer
1877-1880 : Friedrich Albrecht Karl Johann von Reitzenstein
1881-1882 : Adalbert von Flottwell
1883-1900 : Hans von Hammerstein-Loxten
1901-1912 : Johann Friedrich Alexander von Zeppelin-Aschhausen
1913-1918 : Karl von Gemmingen-Hornberg

References

^ German was the official language and its promotion was furthered, but bearing the strong proportion of French-speaking Lorrainese in mind several bilingual publications appeared especially referring to the area of their settlement in the west and south of the Department or referring to department-wide events and organisations. In official bilingual publications the Bezirk Lothringen is translated as Département de la Lorraine. Cf. the title of the department's legal gazette: Amtsblatt für den Bezirk Lothringen / Recueil officiel des actes administratifs du Département de la Lorraine.
^ Not to be confused with the former Rhenish Kreis Saarburg, seated in Saarburg in the Rhineland.
^ Jacques Lorraine (Edmond Huntzbuchler): Les Allemands en France. Origines, Bretagne, Zone interdite Est, Bourgogne, Alsace et Lorraine, Alger-Oran: editions du Désert, 1945, pp. 121–124.

Biography

Amtsblatt für den Bezirk Lothringen / Recueil officiel des actes administratifs du Département de la Lorraine (departmental legal gazette; appeared December 1870 to 1918)
Ernst Bruck, Das Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht von Elsaß-Lothringen: 3 vols., Straßburg im Elsass: Trübner, 1908–1910.
Stefan Fisch, „Das Elsaß im deutschen Kaiserreich (1870/71–1918)“, in: Das Elsass: Historische Landschaft im Wandel der Zeit, Michael Erbe (ed.), Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2003, pp. 123–146. ISBN 3-17-015771-X.
Georg Lang, Der Regierungs-Bezirk Lothringen: statistisch-topographisches Handbuch, Verwaltung-Schematismus und Adressbuch, Metz: Lang, 1874
Verhandlungen des Bezirkstages von Lothringen / Procès-verbaux des délibérations du Conseil Général de la Lorraine, Metz (proceedings of the departmental parliament sessions, appeared from 1874 to 1918)

External links

"Bezirk Lothringen" on territorial.de

49°02′N 6°39′E / 49.033°N 6.650°E / 49.033; 6.650

[1] German was the official language and its promotion was furthered, but bearing the strong proportion of French-speaking Lorrainese in mind several bilingual publications appeared especially referring to the area of their settlement in the west and south of the Department or referring to department-wide events and organisations. In official bilingual publications the Bezirk Lothringen is translated as Département de la Lorraine. Cf. the title of the department's legal gazette: Amtsblatt für den Bezirk Lothringen / Recueil officiel des actes administratifs du Département de la Lorraine.

[2] Not to be confused with the former Rhenish Kreis Saarburg, seated in Saarburg in the Rhineland.

[3] Jacques Lorraine (Edmond Huntzbuchler): Les Allemands en France. Origines, Bretagne, Zone interdite Est, Bourgogne, Alsace et Lorraine, Alger-Oran: editions du Désert, 1945, pp. 121–124.

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