Alsace-Lorraine : $b a study of the relations of the two provinces to France and to Germany and a presentation of the just claims of their peopleBlumenthal, Daniel
History
Alsace-Lorraine : $b a study of the relations of the two provinces to France and to Germany and a presentation of the just claims of their people
Blumenthal, Daniel
Alsace-Lorraine question
Alsace-Lorraine is bounded on the north by Bavaria, Prussia,
Luxembourg, and France; on the south by Switzerland and France, on the
east by the Grand Duchy of Baden, and on the west by France. It is
entirely made up of territory surrendered by France to Germany by the
Treaty of Frankfort. This included the following parts of France: the
Department of the Lower Rhine, the Department of the Upper Rhine with
the exception of Belfort, three quarters of the Department of Moselle,
a third of the Department of Meurthe, and two cantons of the Vosges.
The area is about 14,500 square kilometres.
POPULATION
German official statistics give on the 1st of December, 1871, a
population of 1,554,738 inhabitants. The last Census of 1910 gives
1,874,014 souls (967,625 men, 906,389 women). This population
includes about 1,500,000 Alsaces-Lorraines of French descent, who
themselves or their parents were born in Alsace-Lorraine before the
1st of May, 1871, and who, except for the Treaty of Frankfort, would
have been French. The aliens (notably the Italians, French, Swiss, and
the people of Luxembourg) make up a contingent of about 75,000. The
rest, 300,000 in all, are German immigrants since the War of 1870-71,
and their descendants, including the military and government officials
with their families.
The original French people of the ceded territories were allowed to
preserve their French nationality on condition of making an express
declaration before October 1, 1872, and to transfer, within the same
extension of time, their domicile outside of Alsace-Lorraine. From the
official German reports, there were about 160,000 options declared in
Alsace-Lorraine, of which only 50,000 were valid. The options given in
France amounted to about 380,000. The statistics of emigration and
immigration for 1871-1910 give an excess of emigration of 267,639
souls. The result of the migration of the population in August, 1914,
can thus be characterized: some hundred thousand Alsatians left the
country, the greater part of whom settled in France. The number of the
native population has remained stationary; 300,000 Germans and 75,000
foreigners must be added. The German population is almost entirely
concentrated in the cities. In Metz, the immigrants make up the
majority; in Strasbourg, they are a third of the population. In the
country, one finds in general only a few officials.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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