"Hansi" - French? German? Definitely Alsatian!

[Olham 164]

 

 

The region which the French call "Alsace" and the Germans "Elsass", is an area both nations have been fighting for several times.

In a documentary I heard, that still today some people there don't like to decide wether they are French or German - but they are

proud to be "Alsaciens" or "Elsässer".

 

The landscape painter Jean Jaques Waltz lived before the Great War in the "Elsass", cause it was German then. But already his

name contains some of both - Jean Jaques are French first names; Watz is rather a German family name. His artist name "Hansi"

again is a German form of "Hans", as said to little boys.

 

Nevertheless, "Hansi's" heart felt French, and he was made a process for treason or so, but managed to escape, and to become

a French Sous-Lieutenant in the Great War. Here is his story, and some fine photographs and drawings of "Hansi":

 

http://www.greatward...si/Hansi_01.htm

 

I find he is a good example for why we should think more European in Europe, and less national.

Don't get me wrong - I love differing identities. I wouldn't like the French being like the Germans, or the British like the Italians.

I love the different ways of life, and the variety of cooking & brewing etc. But if someone says to me, he is neither French nor German

but Alsatian - that's perfectly okay for me.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2012 by Olham

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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The Alsace is a very interesting region of Europe indeed and I've been learning a great deal about it over the last year or so as I've done research for my OFF pilot's bio and background. There some good material about the area in Doerflinger's book "Stepchild Pilot". Thanks for sharing the pics Sir.

 

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[Wayfarer 5]

An interesting post Olham.

From descriptions I have read of the area, it certainly sounds like somewhere I would like to visit. I can understand why people would be deeply attached to it.

 

 

 

 

[+Gepard 11,324]

If you are in the Vogesen mountains and you look down into the towns or villages then you can easily think, that you are somewhere in Germany. The dialect of the people in the northern part of the Alsace is nearly the same as on the german side of the Rhine. But as more you come to the south of the Alsace the french infuence becomes bigger and bigger.

[Hasse Wind 46]

I can definitely sympathize with the people of Alsace-Lorraine / Elsass-Lothringen. They were unhappily caught between two powerful nations that were arch-enemies for decades. One of the nastier sides of nationalism.

[Olham 164]

Maybe they should have made another mini-state like Luxemburg of Alsace-Lorraine?

Neither French nor German - a French-German meeting place for holidays?

 

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Edited May 13, 2012 by Olham

[Hasse Wind 46]

Impossible when both great powers were determined that they should be the rightful owners of the area.

 

When WW1 began, the area was a scene for some terribly bloody battles. The French were determined to take back what they considered their land, and the Germans were just as determined to defend the land they thought was theirs. After a few months, things calmed down and Elsass became a quiet sector for the rest of the war, or at least quiet compared to the levels of activity in other sectors.

 

In OFF, you can enjoy the Sitzkrieg there among some really bad squadrons on both sides of the front.

[B52STRATO 215]

This region has a very troubled History. One of my English teachers came from Alsace, and his family was marked by several episodes of the XIXth and XXth century: a military family from father to son, exhibited a showcase at home with multiple orders and citations they could receive, at the top , side by side, a Croix de Guerre 39-45 and a Ritterkreuz, obtained by two members who fought into two opposing camps.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

During the War, there were many 'German' deserters from these formerly French regions, but they seem to have been people from Lorraine (the region around Metz next to Sarre, who originally spoke another form of Germanic dialect different from Alsatian), much more than Alsatians (many 'German' deserters on the Western Front also claimed to be Poles, unhappy about the Prussian regime). For that reason, most of Alsatians served on the Eastern theaters of operations (actually, it was the same during WW2: the most broken veterans are those who survived the Soviet POW camps and came back home as far as 1955 into a Republic who judged them as shameful veterans). I don't know if they were prohibited to serve in some branches, but I know no ace or even airman originating from Alsace-Lorraine, during both wars.

 

At the time of the Second Reich, made of more than 20 federated kingdoms, duchies, principalities or free cities, Alsace-Lorraine had an unique status of a district directly administrated by the Imperial authority, a military border. The first decades of German occupation may have been hard, and many Alsatian families emigrated to various places of France, or North Africa in the process of colonization. In my city of Le Havre, there were several industrial dynasties of Alsatian ascendency, which gave two mayors to the city. But I have read that by 1910, the new generations were on the edge of feeling much more integrated into the Reich, in spite of Hansi and older people. The main problem came when the Imperial administration wanted to completely obliterate the Alsatian dialect in favor of 'Kaiserreich' German. Their language has always been the most prominent part of the Alsatian identity: still in this 21th Century, during travels abroad, I have met many Alsatian people (over 40/50, mostly) who, between them, preferred to speak their Germanic language - while people from Lorraine seem to have completely lost their own dialect by now. After WW1, when Alsace and Lorraine became French again, some people born as German chose to keep this nationality and left their province: I have known of one Lorrain at least, officer during WW1, who stayed in the German Army and became a general for the Third Reich.

 

Alsace always had a strong symbolism in the French Republican spirit: the Marseillaise had been composed and played for the first time in Strasbourg, and in 1941, the 'Oath of Kufra' Free French General Leclerc required from his troops in Libya implied 'no pause until the Tricolore flies on top of the Cathedral of Strasbourg'. Controlling both banks of the Rhine had also been for long a strong argument into cementing the German unity and identity. It was hard for the Alsatians to feel themselves members of either one of the warlike and irreconciliable nations of France and Germany, with all of these back and forth moves. This duality can be considered in the fortified town of Phalsbourg, which had its Western gate named "France Gate", and its Eastern gate "Germany Gate"... That's why Alsatians feel themselves Alsatians above everything else, and that's why, for what I've heard, if Alsace is a fine place to visit, it's not a so fine place to immigrate!

 

These places between France and Germany have weird histories. I have read recently about the town of Saarlouis (once Sarrelouis, a French-speaking fortified enclave into German-speaking territory), which could give one of the finest French soldiers ever, Marshall Michel Ney ('The bravest of the braves', accidentally perfectly bilingual in French and Rhenan German), and one of the finest German soldiers ever, General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (the first Rommel of Africa, during WW1).

[Olham 164]

Very interesting and informative additions like always - thank you, Capitaine.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Yes, thank you. Very interesting.