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In 1918 the end of the First World War triggered the return of Alsace to France after almost fifty years of annexation into the German Empire. Enthusiastic crowds in Paris and Alsace celebrated the homecoming of the so-called lost province, but return proved far less straightforward than anticipated. The region’s German-speaking population demonstrated strong commitment to local cultures and institutions, as well as their own visions of return to France. As a result, the following two decades saw politicians, administrators, industrialists, cultural elites, and others grapple with the question of how to make Alsace French again. The answer did not prove straightforward; differences of opinion emerged both inside and outside the region, and reintegration became a fiercely contested process that remained incomplete when war broke out in 1939. The Return of Alsace to France examines this story. Drawing upon national, regional, and local archives, it follows the difficult process of Alsace’s reintegration into French society, culture, political and economic systems, and legislative and administrative institutions. It connects the microhistory of the region with the macro levels of national policy, international relations, and transnational networks, and with the cross-border flows of ideas, goods, people, and cultural products that shaped daily life in Alsace. Revealing Alsace to be a site of exchange between a range of interest groups with different visions of the region’s future, this book underlines the role of regional populations and cross-border interactions in forging the French Third Republic.

This article traces the evolution of socialism in Alsace through an analysis of socialist attitudes towards the nation and region. After Alsace’s annexation into Prussia in 1871, socialism in the province developed under the auspices of the German social democracy. This did a great deal to integrate Alsatian workers into a wider national political culture, while local militants retained the symbols and language of the French revolutionary tradition. Such flexibility eased the transition from German to French rule when the province was returned to France after the First World War. However, this flexibility also masked a range of contradictions in the socialist analysis. These contradictions meant that during the later years of annexation, during the War and the Revolution of 1918, the Alsatian socialist idea of the nation was still being shaped and contested. At the Tours Congress, the party’s militants explicitly stated their attitudes towards Alsace, France and Germany, yet the tensions resulting from their dual heritage were never satisfactorily resolved. The result was the clash of expectations, and of political cultures, which characterizes French governmental attempts to reintegrate its lost provinces. The discussion here addresses the evolution, articulation and application of Alsatian socialist attitudes towards nation and region as their province was transferred from German Reichsland to French République.

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