November 1918 insurgency in Alsace–Lorraine
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Alsace–Lorraine Council Republic | |||||||||
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| 1918 | |||||||||
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 The Council Republic of Alsace-Lorraine in Germany in 1918 | |||||||||
| Capital | Strasbourg | ||||||||
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| Government | Council Republic | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Republic proclaimed | 8 November 1918 | ||||||||
• Occupied by France | 22 November | ||||||||
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The revolution in Alsace-Lorraine refers to an insurrectionary movement inspired by communism, marked by the formation of workers’ and soldiers’ councils in several cities of Alsace-Lorraine from 8th to 22nd November 1918. The red flag was thus hoisted atop Strasbourg Cathedral. These events were a result of the end of the WWI and the German revolution of 1918–1919.
The councils dissolved themselves in the face of advancing French troops moving towards cities evacuated by the German authorities following the signing of the Armistice. The entry of General Gouraud’s 4th Army into Strasbourg on 22nd November 1918 brought an end to the uprisings in the region, which was then reattached to France. Unlike the revolutions in Bavaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in 1919, this revolutionary episode did not lead to the creation of a genuine council republic.
During its brief existence, the movement facilitated a political transition between the collapse of the German Empire and the establishment of French administration in the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Moselle.
Overview
[edit]
In the wake of the German Revolution, councils of workers and soldiers (Soldaten- und Arbeiterräte) formed in Mulhouse on November 9 and in Colmar and Strasbourg on November 10, in parallel to other such bodies set up in the general revolutionary atmosphere of the expiring Reich and in imitation of the Russian equivalent soviets. Under the Empire of 1871–1918, the territory constituting the Reichsland (or Imperial Province) of Alsace-Lorraine was administered directly by the imperial government in Berlin, and was granted some measure of autonomy in 1911. Similarly, the Kaiser was also the local sovereign of the Land, so that Kaiser Wilhelm II's abdication on November 9 involved the fall of the monarchy both at the national and at the regional level, with a consequent legal power vacuum. In this chaotic situation the Landtag proclaimed itself the supreme authority of the land with the name of Nationalrat and the Soviet of Strasbourg claimed the foundation of a Republic of Alsace-Lorraine, while the pro-bourgeoisie Majority German Social Democratic Party Reichstag representative for Colmar Jacques Peirotes announced the establishment of the French rule, asking Paris to send troops quickly.[1]
While the soviet councils disbanded themselves with the departure of the German troops between 11 and 17 November,[2] the arrival of the French Army stabilized the situation: French troops put the region under military occupation and entered Strasbourg on November 21. The Nationalrat proclaimed the return of Alsace to France on December 5, even though this process did not gain international recognition until the signature of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
The Alsace-Lorraine Soviet Republic (or Alsace-Lorraine Republic of Councils; French: République des conseils d'Alsace-Lorraine; German: Räterepublik Elsaß-Lothringen; Alsatian: D' Rotrepüblik Elsass-Lothrìnge; Moselle Franconian/Luxembourgish: D'Réitrepublik Elsass-Loutrengen) was a short-lived Soviet republic created during the German Revolution at the end of World War I in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, which had been part of Germany since 1871.
Disquiet had spread amongst Alsatian soldiers, particularly in early 1918. There was a mutiny by Alsatian troops at the Beverloo Camp on 12 May 1918.[3]
In October 1918, the Imperial German Navy, whose surface ships had largely remained in port after the Battle of Jutland (1916), was ordered to leave port to fight the British Royal Navy. However, the naval troops refused to obey: this led to a sailors' mutiny at Kiel. The mutineers took over the main military port and were quickly joined by workers and the trade unions. The revolution spread quickly across Germany, overthrowing the monarchy within a few days. At that time, about 15,000 Alsatians and Lorrainers had been incorporated into the Imperial Navy. Several of them joined the insurrection, and decided to rouse their homeland to revolt.
On 8 November, the proclamation of a Republic of Councils in Bavaria was aired in Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace. Inspired by this, thousands of demonstrators rallied on the Place Kléber, the main square in Strasbourg, to acclaim the first insurgents returning from northern Germany. A train controlled by insurgents was blocked on the Kehl bridge, and a loyal commander ordered to shoot on the train. One insurgent was killed, but his fellows took control of the city of Kehl. From Strasbourg, the revolution spread throughout Alsace and Lorraine, and similar Soviets were established in Haguenau, Mulhouse, Sélestat, Colmar, Metz, and other cities.
The insurgent seamen established the Soldiers' Council of Strasbourg, and took control of the city. A council of workers and soldiers was then established, with the leader of the brewery workers' union presiding. Red flags flew all over the city, including on the spire of the cathedral. An amnesty was declared, and freedom of the press was proclaimed. Factory workers went on strike, demanding higher wages; the Soviets (councils) raised wages by decree against the opposition of the factory owners. The Social Democratic Party leader in Strasbourg, Jacques Peirotes, then asked the French generals to send in their troops to restore order.
Eleven days later, France occupied and incorporated Alsace-Lorraine. French soldiers under the command of general Henri Gouraud entered the suburbs of Strasbourg on November 22, 1918, strikes were terminated by force, and agitators were arrested. The streets named "Rue du 22 novembre" in Strasbourg and Mulhouse commemorate the return of Alsace to France. The region lost its recently acquired autonomy and reverted to the centralised French system as the départements of Moselle and Haut and Bas-Rhin.
The Situation until 1914
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Under the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871, following the Franco-Prussian War, the territories that were ceded by France to the German Empire formed the "Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine" (in German: Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen), which was considered the common property of the twenty-five states making up the German federal state. In practice, Alsace-Lorraine was directly under the authority of the Imperial Crown and enjoyed a special status within the Empire: the territory was governed by the federal authority, represented in the region by a senior officer based in Strasbourg, initially called the Oberpräsident, later the Statthalter or "Governor".
From 1874, the German Constitution was applied to Alsace-Lorraine, whose population was represented by deputies in the Reichstag, the lower chamber of the federal parliament in Berlin. Laws concerning the Reichsland were voted on by the Bundesrat, the upper chamber. The region was divided into three districts (Lorraine, Lower Alsace, and Upper Alsace), each with its own assembly, or Bezirkstag. These three assemblies appointed the members of the regional delegation of the Reichsland in Strasbourg, the Landesausschuss, which initially had only an advisory role in 1874, but was granted legislative and financial powers under the supervision of the Bundesrat in 1877.
On 31 May 1911, the federal authorities granted a regional constitution to the Reichsland, which was from then on considered a fully-fledged German Land and given greater autonomy. The Landesausschuss was replaced by a now-elected assembly, the Landtag, or “regional parliament”, which sat in the Alsace-Lorraine Diet Palace. Despite the existence of these representative bodies, real power in Alsace-Lorraine remained in the hands of the Imperial Army, as revealed by the Saverne Affair in 1913.
The World War I in the Region
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Diplomatic tensions in Europe during the summer of 1914 prompted Emperor Wilhelm II to proclaim a “state of imminent war danger” (Kriegsgefahrzustand) on 31 July, placing German civil power under the control of the military authorities. As early as 1 August, these authorities suspended individual liberties, press freedom, and the rights of assembly and association. On the same day, as Germany entered the war, a state of siege was established across its territory, marking the beginning of a military dictatorship driven by fear of treason.
In Alsace-Lorraine, the German authorities banned French-language newspapers and implemented repressive measures: purges, arrests, and deportations. Those suspected of sympathising with France were arrested and interned in various fortresses throughout the German Empire. At the same time, over 380,000 Alsatians and Lorrainers were conscripted into the German army, including 16,000 in the navy, to fight against the Entente forces, including France. France, for its part, was driven by a desire to reclaim the “lost provinces” of Alsace-Lorraine and by a spirit of revenge against Germany dating back to 1871.
The first French offensives were launched in Upper Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine, aiming to quickly capture Mulhouse, Morhange, and Sarrebourg — all in vain. While the Battle of the Frontiers ended in German victories, the situation in the Vosges stabilised by the end of 1914. The war became bogged down in this part of the Western Front. Neither the Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf nor that of Liège brought about any major changes to the regional front, despite the thousands of casualties on both sides.
Projects of Autonomy and Neutrality
[edit]Following the setbacks suffered by the German army in France and Belgium during the summer of 1918, the political situation in Germany began to shift in the autumn. With an Entente victory appearing likely, the German government announced autonomy for Alsace-Lorraine in an attempt to retain the region within the Empire. The aim was to grant the Reichsland the status of a federated state, similar to the twenty-five other German states.
In September 1918, the staff of Army Group Albrecht von Württemberg founded the Alsatian Bund, an association intended to promote German influence in Alsace against the aspirations of francophile Alsatians hoping for reunification with France.
On 8th October 1918, the Mayor of Strasbourg, Rudolf Schwander, was summoned to Berlin and offered the post of Statthalter (Governor) of Alsace-Lorraine; he took office on 14 October. Karl Hauss, head of the Alsatian-Lorraine Centre Party parliamentary group in the Landtag, was appointed Staatssekretär (State Secretary) on 19th October and tasked with forming a regional government. By appointing both a Protestant and a Catholic, the German federal government hoped to address religious sensitivities in the region. However, this move provoked the wrath of Eugène Ricklin, nicknamed the “Lion of the Sundgau” and president of the second chamber of the Landtag. On 23rd October, Ricklin addressed the Reichstag in Berlin to oppose the autonomy project, arguing that it was merely an attempt to transform the Reichsland into a federated state that would remain part of the German Empire. In his view, the future of the region was an international matter, exceeding the bounds of Germany and needing to be decided at the forthcoming peace conference — in which he likely hoped to play a role.
The autonomy project ultimately failed due to the refusal of several Alsatian-Lorraine parties to join the government formed by Schwander and Hauss. From 1st November, the two were left to manage only day-to-day affairs. Hauss agreed to this role on the condition that he would not be obliged to act in support of keeping Alsace-Lorraine within the Empire. As the autonomy plan collapsed, the German federal government shifted its strategy to promoting neutrality for Alsace-Lorraine — that is, neither German nor French — invoking the principle of self-determination.
After initially supporting the autonomy project, the Alsatian Bund began advocating for a neutral territory. On 6th November, leaflets calling for the creation of a neutral free republic in Alsace-Lorraine were distributed in Colmar, Mulhouse, and Strasbourg. Neutralist posters were also put up in the streets of Strasbourg and Mulhouse, championing the right to self-determination.
The Revolution in November 1918
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In the autumn of 1918, despite the prospect of imminent defeat, the command of the Imperial Navy ordered an attack on the Royal Navy in one final naval battle. The announcement triggered a mutiny on 30th October 1918 aboard two German ships anchored in the port of Kiel. The arrest of the mutineers led to demonstrations by sailors demanding the release of their comrades. The workers of the city supported them, forming workers’ and soldiers’ councils, or “soviets”: on 5th November, a call for a general strike was launched. In the following days, revolutionary councils were established across the German Empire. The revolutionary wave even reached German army units stationed in occupied Allied territories: in Romania, Count Andlau-Hombourg, a nobleman from Alsace, was elected head of the Council of Alsatians-Lorrainers within General von Mackensen’s army group occupying Bucharest.
From 7th November, monarchic power collapsed across the federal states of Germany. On 9th November, the revolution reached Berlin and Emperor Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate, and the Republic of Germany was proclaimed. That same day, councils were formed in Alsace-Lorraine, driven by revolutionary sailors returning from Kiel and Wilhelmshaven: alongside soldiers’ councils (Soldatenräte), workers’ councils (Arbeiterräte) were also created, or both together as Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, sometimes in the context of revolutionary strikes, particularly in Moselle Lorraine. The German word Räte for “councils” is a literal translation of “soviets”.
In Metz, a group of sailors arrived on 8th November, having travelled by train via Osnabrück and Cologne. Since the previous evening, around fifty Bavarian soldiers had been in the barracks, displaying red cloths on their rifles following the abolition of the Bavarian monarchy. The mutineers freed imprisoned soldiers from the military jails of Metz and then marched to the town hall, which they adorned with a red flag hastily made from an Ottoman flag, its crescent and star covered with red lead paint. Local social-democratic trade unionists set up a revolutionary council led by Hans-Heinrich Voortmann, a socialist locksmith and non-commissioned officer from Strasbourg. General Arnold Lequis, the military governor of Metz, submitted to the council. The German civilian administration also collapsed: Karl von Gemmingen-Hornberg, the district president of Lorraine, saw his authority swept aside. The municipal government of Metz and Mayor Roger Forêt chose to cooperate with the revolutionary councils, jointly issuing a call for calm on 9th November. Disorder was limited to a few lootings of food shops and some officers roughed up and stripped of their insignia. Statues of members of the Hohenzollern dynasty and other monarchic emblems throughout the city were, however, left untouched by the insurgents.
Workers’ and soldiers’ councils also emerged on the same day in Forbach, Hombourg, Saint-Avold, Sarrebourg, and Sarreguemines. The insurrectional wave also reached Algrange, Hagondange, Hayange, Knutange, Montigny-lès-Metz, Petite-Rosselle, Rombas, Sarralbe, Stiring-Wendel, and Thionville.
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Proclamation of the Republic in Strasbourg
[edit]In Strasbourg, the arrival of Communist revolutionary sailors was announced by telegram on the morning of 9th November. A first group of mutineers from the Baltic Sea arrived that day via Wissembourg, while another group was temporarily delayed at the Kehl bridge. During the following night, a soldiers’ council was formed at Strasbourg train station. Another movement was also developing among military government workers, led by Johannes Rebholz, secretary of a brewers’ union. A revolutionary council was set up by Bernard Böhle, a Majority Social Democratic MP from Strasbourg, with the support of Lieutenant-Colonel von Holleben, the chief of staff of the military government.
The uprising spread to other garrisons and towns in Alsace. In Haguenau, the group of sailors from Wissembourg created a soldiers’ council on the evening of 9th November. In Colmar and Mulhouse, councils were set up the same evening or the following morning. In these cities, the local workers’ movement actively supported the sailors. On the morning of 10 November, in the various barracks of Saverne, soldiers refused to obey their officers and formed a council. The revolutionaries of Sélestat wore red armbands as a badge of recognition and set their first objective as maintaining discipline within the units. In Guebwiller, the election of the soldiers’ council was preceded by a large demonstration, led by a red flag, with local trade union leaders in attendance. Soldiers from Bergholtz, Issenheim, and Soultz also took part. The soldiers’ councils replaced the old military hierarchy. In less than two days, Alsace was covered in a network of workers' and soldiers’ councils, and the Alsatian population watched as troops returned home carrying red flags and wearing red cockades. These troops were led by ordinary soldiers, while their officers marched beside them, stripped of their ranks and unarmed. The train carried the revolution from one barracks to another throughout Alsace.
Revolutionary councils also appeared in Bischwiller, Erstein, Molsheim, Mutzig, Neuf-Brisach, Ribeauvillé, Saint-Louis, and Schiltigheim. The councils’ primary aim was to maintain order and prevent looting.
In total, the region saw the creation of thirty revolutionary councils: fifteen in Alsace, and fifteen in Moselle Lorraine.
The National Council of Alsace-Lorraine
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Within the councils, there were incontestable German nationalist positions, defended by officers and many soldiers originating from various regions of Germany, as well as by activists aligned with the Majority Social Democracy. Due to it was a part of the German proletarian socialist revolution, the uprising in Alsace-Lorraine was judged to be Germanophile or even perceived as a manoeuvre favouring the neutralist project. In Strasbourg, during the night of 9th to 10th November, the pro-bourgeois MSPD deputy and city councillor Jacques Peirotes proclaimed himself mayor, filling the post left vacant by Rudolf Schwander. His goal was to lessen the grip of the mass revolutionary forces on the city and sabotage the proletarian movements in Alsace-Lorraine to restore the dictatorship of bourgeoisie by hook or by crook, just like what the MSPD did in other parts of Germany in those days. The next morning, the municipal council unanimously confirmed him in office. To counterbalance the influence of the soldiers’ council. Laurent Meyer, president of the Woodworkers’ Union and MSPD elected to the Landtag, formed a workers’ council alongside Charles Riehl, founder of the Strasbourg Consumers’ Cooperative Society, and Gustave Schulenburg, head of the Metalworkers’ Union. As the revolutionary movement spread into the factories, workers’ councils also emerged in Colmar, Mulhouse and Schiltigheim in the days that followed.
On the morning of 10th November, Strasbourg’s town hall was occupied, while a crowd gathered on Place Kléber and the soldiers’ council convened. In front of the guard post at the Aubette, the “Republic” was proclaimed. Also present was Johannes Rebholz, newly elected head of the soldiers’ council, who declared that “the old regime has been overthrown and the people have taken the government into their own hands”, and that “from now on, power lies in the hands of the proletariats”. Rushing to the statue of General Kléber in the same square, Jacques Peirotes responded by also proclaiming a “social republic” without further clarification. As a Francophile, the new mayor of Strasbourg may have been alluding to the French Republic without naming it outright. He had already publicly expressed, on several occasions, his desire for Alsace-Lorraine to be returned to France.
By midday, Peirotes, Meyer and Rebholz issued a joint call for calm, asking the population to follow the instructions of the councils and announcing the formation of a civic guard to maintain order. In agreement with the soldiers’ council, which was meeting at the Palais de Justice, Peirotes summoned the delegates of the workers’ and soldiers’ councils to elect a thirteen-member executive committee. Among them were Charles Frey and Victor Antoni, whose goal was to keep the unrest in check. Also on the committee was the German captain Erik Reinartz, who instead sought to radicalise the movement and co-opt it towards the neutralist project. The committee was chaired by Rebholz, who acted as a moderating force among its members. The executive council prioritised freedom of speech and the release of political prisoners. The workers’ and soldiers’ councils occupied all official buildings in Strasbourg, including the ministries of Alsace-Lorraine located on today’s Place de la République, still called Kaiserplatz at the time. Official portraits of German sovereigns were taken down from the city’s various administrative and judicial buildings. At the Palais de Justice, the bust of the German Emperor was replaced by one of Karl Marx.
By the evening of 10th November, two political powers were in control of Strasbourg: the executive committee of workers’ and soldiers’ councils and the bourgeois municipal council, both meeting in permanent session. A civic guard was established, not without difficulty, under a magistrate-turned-chief of police, Jules Lévy, to counteract the armed and extremist bands loyal to Captain Reinartz.
As early as 9th November 1918, the day Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated, around ten deputies from the Landtag of Alsace-Lorraine sought to transform their regional assembly into a sovereign “National Council” to fill the institutional vacuum left by the collapse of the German monarchy. The group of elected representatives gathered in Strasbourg around deputy Auguste Labroise to decide on convening the Second Chamber of the Landtag for 12nd November—bringing forward the official session originally scheduled for the following day. This body was formed at the initiative of local notables, backed by the great majority of the population.
Parallel to the proclamation of an independent republic by the parliament of the Reichsland, a soldiers’ council also proclaimed the republic—similar to Karl Liebknecht's in Berlin. However, MSPD forces prevailed and thwarted the attempt to establish a council republic (Räterepublik).
The revolutionary events unfolding in Strasbourg hastened the process: the Landtag was thus convened on 11st November at the Palace of the Diet of Alsace-Lorraine. Inspired by the examples of national councils formed in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Bukovina following the collapse of the Dual Monarchy, the Alsatian and Lorraine deputies proclaimed themselves the “National Council of Alsace-Lorraine” (Nationalrat), led by Eugène Ricklin. Claiming to be the legitimate bearer of sovereignty, this council of notables resolved to sit in permanent session—alongside Strasbourg’s two other centres of power: the bourgeois municipal council and the workers’ and soldiers’ council—given the seriousness of the situation. The National Council was recognised beyond Alsace-Lorraine by the Council of People’s Deputies in Berlin (the official government of the Reich) and even received congratulations from Reichskanzler Friedrich Ebert. In Strasbourg, the MSPD Eugène Imbs and Laurent Meyer, members of both the commission and the Executive Committee of the workers’ and soldiers’ councils, were tasked with maintaining communication between the new body and their own organisation.
Following the resignation of Schwander and the Hauss government, an administrative commission (Verwaltungsausschuß) was established to handle day-to-day affairs. This commission instructed civil servants to remain in their posts to ensure continuity of administration during the political transition. It continued to organise supplies, oversee the return of refugees, and manage the demobilisation of Alsatian-Lorraine soldiers. It also negotiated a swift end to the railway workers’ strike. However, the notables had to contend with the workers’ and soldiers’ councils. While the MSPD led National Council initially intended to proclaim Alsace-Lorraine’s annexation to France on 13rd November, it was forced to postpone this declaration due to threats from Captain Reinartz.
The Revolutionary Radicalisation
[edit]The defeat and demobilisation of German troops in the region prompted many soldiers to converge on Strasbourg station in the hope of finding a train to cross Germany and return to their hometowns. Such a large concentration of soldiers in the city became problematic, as it strained supplies and made it difficult to maintain order. Despite various appeals from the different councils of different classes, calm was not restored. Military stores were looted, and the soldiers’ council opened fire on the looters. A poster condemned the trafficking of military goods and threatened anyone caught in the act with imprisonment and the confiscation of their property. Under pressure from Captain Reinartz and the soldiers’ councils, the revolutionary movement got radicalised. The new slogan was: “Neither German, nor French, nor neutral. Long Live the International Social Democracy.”
As president of the Executive Committee of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils, Government Socialist Johann Rebholz acted as a moderating voice in the debates among revolutionaries in Strasbourg. Already questioned on 10th November about banning the red flag, Rebholz responded: “We must deal with the existing balance of power, and everyone should be free to fly the flag of their choice.” At first, he opposed raising the red flag: “The red flag would only frighten the Alsatian population.” Nevertheless, despite the position of the MSPD, the red flag was accepted as a minimum point of agreement between factions, symbolising “the collapse of German power.” Faced with mounting concern, Peirotes declared: “If the red flag is raised on the cathedral, it’s because those who did it are stronger than us. Against that, we can do nothing.”
It was in this context that the revolutionary red flag was fastened by a daring climber to the spire of Strasbourg Cathedral at around 15 O'clock on 12rd November. At the head of the sailors from Wilhelmshaven, Wendelin Thomas declared: “That the red flag flies over the cathedral is a sign that socialist theory has ceased to be a theory and become a reality… A new era has begun, that of entering the era of humanity… The ultimate aim is the civilising mission, the brotherhood of workers.” However, the red flags were forced to be removed few days later after the entrance of French imperialist forces in Alsace-Lorraine.
The MSPD led National Council’s plan to declare Alsace-Lorraine’s attachment to France on 13rd November prompted an immediate reaction from the pro-German nationalist faction within the soldiers’ council, led by Captain Reinartz. Part of the group wanted to arrest members of the Bourgeois National Council and establish a revolutionary regime to resist the French imperialist army, which was approaching Strasbourg. Reinartz and two of his colleagues went to the Palais de la diète. Greeted by Eugène Imbs, François Hoën, and Jacques Peirotes, the representatives of the soldiers’ council declared that they could not accept the existence of a francophile dominated Bourgeois National Council. The revolutionaries claimed to have “5,000 undefeated German soldiers, armed to the teeth, equipped with machine guns and hand grenades […] If the National Council wants to avoid a bloodbath, it must remove these emblems so as not to provoke the soldiers.”The National Council yielded without submitting to the soldiers’ council’s authority: the deputies agreed to delay any declaration in favour of France and to refrain from displaying the tricolour in order to calm the situation. Following the first group of sailors who had arrived from northern German ports a few days earlier, a second contingent left Wilhelmshaven on 13rd November and reached Strasbourg the following day to influence the revolutionary movement in the city.
The End of the Revolutionary Movement
[edit]The Arrival of French Troops
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Across Alsace-Lorraine, the workers’ and soldiers’ councils dissolved themselves automatically following the withdrawal of German troops between 11st and 17th November 1918, as stipulated by the armistice agreements. The Executive Committee of the Strasbourg councils continued to sit until 20th November, the date on which the red flag was removed from the cathedral at the request of the Majority Social Democratic deputy Jacques Peirotes.
Several days passed between the signing of the armistice and the arrival of French troops in the various towns of Alsace-Lorraine. The armies of the Entente crossed the former front line and advanced through the region more rapidly than anticipated, due to fears of revolutionary contagion. French soldiers entered the towns between 16th and 22rd November 1918. In Moselle Lorraine, the advance of the troops commanded by General Émile Fayolle was slowed by the gradual retreat of the German army, and on 20th November reached the line between Völklingen, Saarbrücken and Sarreguemines. In Metz, a welcoming committee was formed around francophile figures opposed to the German authorities. The workers’ and soldiers’ council voluntarily stood down upon the arrival of the French on 15th November.
The troops were greeted triumphantly by the section of the population in favour of France, who had carefully prepared for their arrival. This popular celebration was partly spontaneous and partly orchestrated, but not universally shared—indeed, a significant portion of the population remained pro-German or favoured Alsace-Lorraine’s neutrality. On 5th December, the MSPD led National Council of Alsace-Lorraine finally voted unanimously in favour of France. Raymond Poincaré, President of the French Republic, and Georges Clemenceau, President of the Council, travelled from Paris and were received in the region from 8th to 10th December to prepare for the reintegration of the “lost provinces,” pointedly refusing, however, to meet the leaders of the National Council. It was from the balcony of Strasbourg’s town hall, before an enthusiastic crowd, that Poincaré delivered a carefully crafted phrase: “The plebiscite is done!”—thus avoiding a referendum with an uncertain outcome.
The Public Opinion in Alsace-Lorraine at the End of the War
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By the war’s end, Alsatian public opinion—worn down by the conflict and the military dictatorship imposed at the outbreak of hostilities—appeared in favour of France.
In his journal, Charles Spindler describes the joy of some of his fellow Alsatians at the distress of German immigrants. On 6th November, he notes that his sister returned from Strasbourg where she had bought tricolour ribbons and paper: “That’s all that’s being sold now, in both German shops and old Alsatian houses.” On 8th November, after writing: “Newspapers such as the Neue Zeitung and Der Elsässer proclaim Alsace’s attachment to France,” he adds: “It’s a strange feeling to read in print what until now had only been whispered among friends.”
Those who did not welcome the return of France with such enthusiasm only dared express it in private, and the population of Altdeutscher (Old German) origin remained anxiously hidden away in their homes.
Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, former governor of the Colmar district (roughly equivalent to a prefect), laments in his memoirs: “How is it […] that the French armies were welcomed as liberators when, following Germany’s collapse in the autumn of 1918, they entered Alsace-Lorraine victorious?”
The Germanophile Philippe Husser explains in his diary. On 16th October, after writing: “I leaf through the paper. The news is depressing. Germany has lost the war…”, he adds: “Most hope – some fear – that Alsace-Lorraine will soon be French.” He attributes this sentiment to the conduct of the German army in Alsace: “What is unforgivable is having treated Alsace as enemy territory. Who is to blame for the sympathy towards Germany—which was undeniable in Alsace-Lorraine at first—being turned into its opposite during the war, if not the military authorities’ lack of consideration?”
The results of this behaviour appear in lines written by Statthalter Johann von Dallwitz dated 25th February 1918: “Sympathies for France and aversion to Germans have reached a frightening depth among the petty bourgeoisie and peasant circles.” On 2rd November we read: “In the cities, joy predominates at the prospect of becoming French. Various reservations are also expressed, particularly in the countryside. Reason is not ready to rush in blindly after the impulses of the heart.”
The jubilation of Alsatians and Lorrainers favouring the arrival of France was mirrored by the dejection of Germans, who were all the more dismayed by how quickly events unfolded. Everyone tried to cope as best they could, and on 6th November, Philippe Husser writes: “Families of German origin are packing up and preparing to leave.” But moving to Stuttgart cost 3,000 marks! Others tried to pass themselves off as Alsatians or Lorrainers, only to be told that cats don’t give birth to dogs: “Imagine that my cat just gave birth in the kennel; and—believe it or not—they are kittens.” The Prussian head forest ranger of Lassaux spoke of his French ancestry. The administrator of Obernai got engaged to an Alsatian woman ten years older than himself.
In extremis, the German government tried to retain the Reichsland by granting it what had always been denied: autonomy and equality with the other German states. On 14th October, it appointed Statthalter Rudolf Schwander, assisted by Staatssekretär Karl Hauss; with one Protestant and one Catholic, they hoped to soothe religious sensitivities. But this appointment infuriated Eugène Ricklin, “the Lion of Sundgau,” who already saw himself in the role: he therefore played the anti-German card and declared the new autonomy status outdated. Naively, he believed that the future status of Alsace-Lorraine would be debated at the peace conference, where he could play his part.
The Kiel revolt broke out on 3rd November, but the movement took time to reach Alsace-Lorraine. When Strasbourg erupted on 7rd November, it was to the cries of “Vive la France!” The statue of Kléber was draped in the tricolour, and the windows of the house where the emperor’s last son resided were smashed.
At this stage, it was still civilian intrigue. On 3rd November, six Alsatians, members of the Alsatian Bund, sent a telegram to President Wilson requesting the right of peoples to self-determination be granted to Alsace-Lorraine. Meanwhile, Father Sigwalt, the priest of Rountzenheim, was campaigning for a neutral Republic of Alsace-Lorraine, but on 6th November he added a rather clumsy article in Der Elsässer, reminding readers that “A Catholic people cannot accommodate an atheist state,” which served only to alert Protestants that an independent Alsace-Lorraine risked being dominated by the rival faith.
On 10th November, with the arrival of sailors from Kiel, a “Republic of Councils” was proclaimed; there were now two governments, insofar as the Schwander–Hauss team still held nominal authority and the various workers’ and soldiers’ councils springing up across Alsace-Lorraine could be considered a unified front—even though two councils sometimes shared the same city.
To add to the confusion, Professor Wurtz had planned to convene a committee at the Sängerhaus on 11st November, bringing together prominent Alsace-Lorraine figures to seize power and proclaim independence. But the attempt failed. The Landtag, transformed into the National Council after absorbing Alsace-Lorraine deputies from the Reichstag, overthrew Schwander, replacing him—briefly—with Eugène Ricklin, before Canon Delsor took over. No one knew who governed anymore, especially once the revolution broke out and the Republic of Councils was proclaimed.
This proclamation seemed hardly serious to some Alsatians-Lorrainers. On 10th November, Spindler describes a soldier bursting into the Strasbourg hotel where he was staying and ordering officers to remove their insignia. Spindler comments: “It seemed so unserious that Mme Noth and I laughed about it.” It was a Sunday, and he observed: “Most people were peacefully attending church services, as if there were no revolution at all.” He watched the proclamation of the new government in Place Kléber and called it “a farce.” Meanwhile, children were throwing red, white, and blue streamers on the Kléber statue. Soldiers “tried to look bold, but the public didn’t take them seriously.” When he went to the train station to buy a ticket, a soldier tried to enforce an order: “The Soldiers’ Council orders you to close your counter. No more travel!” The ticket clerk, ignoring the order, kept issuing tickets with a shrug. The Alsatians, knowing that the French were already on the way, saw this revolution as a masquerade—one last stupidity to add to many others. So the soldier backed off, afraid of reprisals. Spindler returned home and wrote: “News of the revolution has already reached Boersch with more or less fanciful details: little importance is attached to it, and it is seen as a Machiavellian manoeuvre intended to evade the armistice.”
In Mulhouse, Husser describes an explosion of tricolour cockades: “Even people who otherwise appear quite serious are wearing them.” A “military council,” he notes, ordered soldiers to remove them by force if necessary; it’s unclear how successful this was. In any case, the council could not prevent protests outside the homes of unpopular individuals, “among others, teachers who became hated for denunciations,” or even physical assaults: “Apparently, Dr. Wegelin was attacked. By issuing military fitness certificates without leniency, he made fierce enemies.” The military council appeared to cooperate with the municipal council to issue calls for calm. A civilian militia was formed to maintain order, but a delegation was sent to the French camp to ask that French troops arrive as soon as possible to prevent disorder after the departure of German troops.
According to Spindler, the communist revolution of 10th November was merely a comedy aimed at keeping Alsace-Lorraine in the Reich—even if they were unaware of Hindenburg’s secret telegrams instructing all military leaders to agree with the soldiers’ councils at all costs, and, if needed, to provoke their formation. For a long time, this episode held little interest for historians. As late as 1968, Robert Heitz observed the lack of publications on the subject, while Pierri Zind, an independentist historian, focuses far less on the confused episodes involving workers’ and soldiers’ councils, preferring instead to dwell on the parliamentary manoeuvrings of the Landtag, whose failure he laments.
The Resolution of Alsace-Lorraine Question
[edit]Contrary to the hopes of the leaders of the former Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine, who had placed their trust in President Wilson’s promises, the territory would not benefit from the new right of peoples to self-determination. Instead, it was forcibly annexed to France under the Treaty of Versailles without any consultation of the population — a decision that would sow deep resentment.
Alsace, along with the Lorraine district, was ceded to France under a special legal regime. The territory was divided into three departments: • Moselle, encompassing the Lorraine territories (excluding the Vosges) that had been lost in 1871; • Haut-Rhin; • Bas-Rhin, which retained the cantons of Schirmeck and Saales, despite these having originally belonged to the Vosges before the application of the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt.
As these cantons of Schirmeck and Saales remained part of the Bas-Rhin (specifically, the arrondissement of Molsheim), the department of the Vosges remained amputated of the upper Bruche valley, lost in 1871.
The arrondissement of Belfort, which had been detached from the Haut-Rhin to remain French, was not reunited with its original department either. In 1922, it became a full department under the name Territoire de Belfort.
Elsewhere, Meurthe-et-Moselle remained unchanged, maintaining the same departmental boundaries it had had since 1871.
From a linguistic perspective, in the territories thus recovered, French replaced German in public services and schools, using a direct method of instruction which abruptly imposed French without transition. This disregard for the predominantly German-speaking population proved traumatic, even for the Lorraine Franconian and Alsatian-speaking communities who had remained francophile — all the more so given that the Germans had continued to provide French-language instruction in the non-German-speaking parts of the Reichsland, such as the Romance-speaking Moselle and the pays welche.
A sorting commission divided the Alsace-Lorraine population into four citizen categories, marked A-B-C-D on identity cards. This classification was based on ancestry and perceived degree of francophilia, with each class enjoying different levels of civic rights.
The French authorities implemented a rather harsh purge policy, under which around 200,000 Alsatians or Lorrainers deemed “German” or not sufficiently francophile were abruptly expelled, and their property confiscated. Conversely, Alsatians and Lorrainers whose families had opted for France and emigrated after the 1871 annexation returned to their native regions. Half of the expelled Germans would eventually be allowed to return at the request of the USA.
The disconnect between French soldiers and public opinion — who discovered that the Alsace-Lorraine population had been far better integrated into the Reich than the stereotypical propaganda had — along with the haste to incorporate these regions fully into the French Republic (with the exception of laïcité), the extreme policies of francisation, and the brutal expulsions, all contributed to the emergence of the “Alsace-Lorraine malaise.” This unease would manifest from early 1919 and persist right up to the eve of the WWII, notably in the high electoral support for autonomist parties during various elections.
Testimonies
[edit]Concerning the events of November 1918, here is what Robert Heitz — a contemporary witness — had to say about them half a century later, under the title “An Immense Confusion”:
"The weeks leading up to the liberation of 22rd November 1918 were marked by immense confusion — crowds on the move, processions, demonstrations, looting, brawls, gunfire, but also secret plots, endless discussions, pretence, and double-dealing: a tangled web that is difficult to unravel. All the more so because none of the main actors in the local tragicomedy that followed the great slaughter left behind a complete account of events."
And at the end of the article, he lists seven publications from which he believes something of value can still be drawn. This scarcity of information may seem surprising, but some see the “councils’ revolution” as a desperate attempt by the German authorities to retain Alsace-Lorraine within the Reich — and thus not worth talking about. But even from the most conservative perspective, this point of view is far from the truth, because the monarchist German authorities had already been destroyed by the revolution, and the only functioning German authority was the MSPD dominated government, which was the most deadly foe of the revolutionary council movement, and the movement was, eventually, defeated by the constant crack down of the Ebert’s administration across the Reich in the following two years, so it was literally impossible to imagine a Ebert's government backed council movement would ever exist.
See also
[edit]- Bavarian Soviet Republic
- Bremen Soviet Republic
- German Revolution
- Republic of Baden
- Soviet (council)
References
[edit]- ^ Fortier, Jacques (16 November 2008). "" La chute de l'Empire "". Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace (in French).
- ^ Grandhomme, Jean-Noël (November 2008). "" Le retour de l'Alsace-Lorraine "". L'Histoire (in French) (336).
- ^ Horne, John (2002). State, Society and Mobilization in Europe During the First World War. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521522663. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
Sources
[edit]- Döblin, A.: Bourgeois & soldats (Novembre 1918), novel, ISBN 2-87653-046-5. In French. Part I of a tetralogy; the whole four books are available in German, ISBN 3-423-59030-0.
- Daeninckx, D.: 11 novembre 1918: le drapeau rouge flotte sur Strasbourg., Amnistia.net, 10 November 2000. In French. URL last accessed April 6, 2006.
- Daeninckx, D.: 11 novembre 1918: le drapeau rouge flotte sur Strasbourg et l'Alsace proclame la République des soviets..., Amnistia.net, 10 November 2000. In French. URL last accessed April 6, 2006.
- Eschbach, J.: Au Coeur de la Resistance Alsacienne. Le Combat de Paul Dingler, Bentzinger, 2005. ISBN 2-84629-068-7.
- Troester, J.: 22 novembre 1918 : les Français à Strasbourg, in La Grande Guerre Magazine 38, April 2003.
External links
[edit]
- "The Short-Lived Republic of Alsace-Lorraine"[usurped], Historical article about the uprising.