(Elsaß-Lothringen)
This territory, also known as the Reichslande, was a prize seized from France after the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. It was a Reich’s province until it became a quasi-state in 1911, but never an actual state of the German Empire. The Kaiser appointed the head administrator, who was called the Reichsstatthalter. The province was split into three sections: upper Alsace (which was the most southern), lower Alsace that was the more northern, and Lorraine, which included the fortress city of Metz. Lorraine was the most culturally French of the areas, and French was the primary language. The majority of the population did speak some German or an Alsatian dialect of German. Historically and realistically, there was no Alsace-Lorraine prior to the Franco-Prussian War. A common myth asserts that there was someone known as an Alsace-Lorrainer. There was Alsace, and there was Lorraine and they were joined for political expediency, but there was no Alsace-Lorrainer. The populations were not homogeneous. Alsace often held sway over Lorraine due to the immigration of German middle classes into Alsace. In 1913, the president of Stanford University noted that the region was tied to France by culture, to Prussia by government, and to Bavaria by economics.
There were problems with this area from a constitutional perspective. The peace treaty of 1871 ceded all of France’s rights to the title and territory of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire, but the imperial Constitution made no provision for the disposition and administration of such a territory. The imperial Constitution assumed that between the individual territories and the imperial power; a state power was interposed to execute many laws and functions. Alsace-Lorraine was not a state. The attempted solution was to make the Kaiser the head of state for Alsace-Lorraine and to make it an imperial territory. The Kaiser appointed the Statthalter as his personal representative. The powers of the Statthalter were attached to the person not to the office. Prior to statehood, an emasculated territorial committee existed in place of a parliament. They had 15 representatives in the Reichstag, but zero in the Bundesrat.
There was much outcry and confusion about citizenship immediately after unification, when Alsace-Lorraine moved from French control to imperial German control. The residents of Alsace-Lorraine were given the option to retain French citizenship, but they had to declare their intent and to move to French territory by 1 October 1872. Those who did not leave were automatically granted German citizenship. A group of 100,000, called the optants, had declared their intent to leave but for various reasons did not. This issue was never resolved, thus creating 100,000 individuals who had no citizenship. Many minors returned to France to avoid service in the German military. Forty-five percent of the French Foreign Legion between 1882 and 1908 originally was from Alsace-Lorraine. It is estimated that in the first 15 years of German rule, 156,000 individuals left the Reichslande for France. As French citizens moved out, imperial German citizens from numerous states moved in. Many of these German citizens took jobs as civil servants for the empire in Alsace-Lorraine. By 1910, 12% of the population was German, and had immigrated into the Reichslande. This population percentage increased in the larger cities where between 30 and 41 percent of the population were immigrant Germans.
In American terms, this area was Indian country. There was an eternal dilemma facing the Germans—should they govern Alsace-Lorraine as a conquered territory for national security purposes, or should they integrate Alsace-Lorraine into the German Empire? The Germans, who thought originally that Alsatians would welcome them as long-lost German brothers, found many parts of the population to be anti-German. Many aristocratic authorities and especially the military considered all people from Alsace-Lorraine to be highly untrustworthy and called them Wackes. Draft evasion was a telling metric. In 1872, 20,000 out of 32,000 draftees failed to appear. By 1879, the draft evasion had dropped to 25 percent and by 1904 to 10 percent. There were several reasons not to serve in the Prussian military. Much of them were economic, some religious. There was an urban–rural divide as well as a native–German immigrant divide; yet, some native inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine embraced Germany. Many Germans came to view the Alsatians and those from Lorraine as disloyal Germans.
In May 1911, the rules were changed for Alsace-Lorraine as it moved closer to statehood. There was a constitution, yet it was not a state. Many historians overlook this fact. The Landtag for Alsace-Lorraine was to consist of two houses. In the upper house the Kaiser appointed one-half of the 36 members. Others were members by virtue of holding certain offices. The lower house had 60 members elected by secret ballot based on universal suffrage. These two chambers made the laws, but the Kaiser had an absolute veto. Alsace-Lorraine was represented in the Bundesrat by three votes, but they would not be counted if they provided a majority for Prussia; the territory elected 15 members to the Reichstag,but these were not allowed to vote on issues concerning the Reichslande.
Another myth is that the German government used a repressive program of coercion to impose its will on the people from Alsace-Lorraine. In fact, the empire vacillated between coercion and conciliation and never really determined which was the right approach. There was a reasonable chance of German success in integrating the province into the German Empire until the Zabern affair of 1913-1914.
That event tested the German imperial system and made it incredibly clear that Alsace-Lorraine was a second-class part of the imperial territory. Zabern was a garrison town of 9,000 (mostly Catholic) in lower Alsace that since 1890 had housed the mostly Lutheran 2. Oberrheinisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 99. The major protagonist was 20-year old Lieutenant Günther Freiherr v. Forstner, who had been educated at the upper Prussian cadet school. While he retained airs of aristocratic privilege, the townspeople thought of him as a buffoon. He made disparaging remarks about his recruits from Alsace-Lorraine and the French Foreign Legion. He referred to the local population as Wackes. The claim was that during his instruction hour, he offered his recruits ten mark instead of three months in prison, should they stab a rowdy Wackes. The paper published this incident and soon mobs threatened Lieutenant Forstner. Both the Commander of the Infantry Regiment 99 and the burgomaster were involved unsuccessfully, and the fire brigade was ordered to drive off the crowd with hoses, which they did neither enthusiastically, nor successfully. A company of soldiers from the garrison arrived on the scene and arrested those who refused to leave.
Lieutenant Forstner was reprimanded, but on the very next day, he and several other officers had an alcohol-induced altercation with some local youths, and one of the officers, a Lieutenant Schad, called out the guard with fixed bayonets. This situation continued to simmer until 29 November when the same Lieutenant Forstner went shopping for chocolates with four armed soldiers. Some of the locals made fun of him, and the same Lieutenant Schad started arresting locals. The regimental commander, Colonel von Reuter, deployed 60 men and ordered them to load rifles and barked commands with drums beating.
Lieutenant Forstner was transferred to Infanterie-Regiment Graf Schwerin (3.Pommersches) Nr. 14, and he was killed in action on the Eastern Front in 1915. Lieutenant Schad was transferred to Füsilier-Regiment Königen (Schleswig-Holsteinisches) Nr. 86, and while he survived the war, he was not promoted beyond Oberleutnant.
The key issue revolved around the rights of the local people versus those of the army. Did the army have the right to act as police in arresting citizens and quelling unrest? Who had the right to discipline members of the army? Should the local authorities and local courts have jurisdiction? Could the Kaiser and the army maintain their personal authority in this matter? As it turned out, the army whitewashed and sidestepped the constitutional question. The residents of the Reichslande learned without question that their constitution had little value. While the war interrupted the outcome of this incident, it certainly exposed nerves. However, the Reichstag made the first vote of censure against a sitting government in German history. They condemned the behavior of the German government with a vote of 293-54. As a result of this “Zabern Affair,” many Reichstag deputies further protested by not rising when the Kaiser came to the chamber to ceremonially close the annual session.