The view from the border: a comparative study of autonomism in Alsace and the Moselle, 1918–29
This article offers a comparative analysis of the origins and development of autonomism in interwar Alsace and the Moselle. Upon the liberation of the provinces in November 1918, the local populations of Alsace and the Moselle enthusiastically welcomed French troops. For President Raymond Poincare´ this enthusiasm constituted a clear ‘plebiscite’. But, in light of perceived heavy-handedness on the part of the new French rulers, this enthusiasm proved short-lived and rapidly gave way to a widespread malaise. In response to local fears for the preservation of their distinctive social, linguistic and religious traditions, Autonomist organisations emerged to oppose the loss of what they perceived to be the soul and character of Alsace and the Moselle. They rapidly became a pervasive force in local politics, cutting across ideological and class barriers and dividing parties. For the French government, autonomism represented a serious threat to national unity. For local autonomists, however, it represented an attempt to preserve local socio-economic structures and linguistic and cultural practices. The discussion here seeks to reposition autonomism within the context of local politics and to compare the distinct experiences of Alsace and the Moselle in the decade after their return to French rule.
Franco‐Alsatian Conflict and the Crisis of National Sentiment during the Phoney War*
On a sleepy Saturday evening in late April 1940, a group of fifteen refugees from a Lorraine border town gathered after supper for a game of cards in their dining hall in the village of Sommieres-du-Clain (Vienne) some 370 kilometers southwest of Paris. After an eight-month presence, the Lorrainers—part of a larger contingent of some six hundred thousand inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine evacuated from the frontier region in September 1939—were well known, if not always well integrated, in the local community. It had been a long, bitterly cold winter, and the refugees took advantage of one of the first pleasant spring evenings to open the windows that gave on the street. To underline their deep patriotic commitment, they had decorated their spartan dining hall with a large hand-painted Croix de Lorraine (symbol of resistance to Germany after 1870 and soon to become symbol of the Gaullist resistance) crowned with four small tricolor flags. While they played cards and drank a few beers, a group of young men strolled by; glancing through the window, and perhaps hearing the refugees speaking in German dialect, one exclaimed in a witty, ironic mode that underlined a profound hostility: “Maybe they are celebrating Hitler’s birthday?” True enough, it was Hitler’s birthday (April 20), and this occasion had been the object of important celebrations in Germany ever since the 1933 seizure of power, but it took quite a leap of the imagination to associate refugees from Alsace and Lorraine with the German dictator’s personality cult. Thanks to word of mouth, the rumor, embellished and magnified, soon spread like wildfire. The next day, the entire pays was in the know.
Trieste, 1830–70: From Cosmopolitanism to the Nation
The origins of modern Trieste are conventionally traced to the year 1719, when mercantalist-inspired reforms by the Habsburg monarchy declared the city a free port. By promoting the economic growth of this harbour on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, the government in Vienna sought to strengthen the empire’s power base and gain a foothold in long-distance commercial trade. During the course of the eighteenth century, the flourishing trade gave rise to a new, multiethnic society in Trieste, dedicated to commercial and financial activities, and characterized by the emergence of meritocratic forces which were unleashed by the creation of a free-trading environment.