A Manual of Alsace Lorraine (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Manual of Alsace Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine, as the term is used in the following chapters, is understood to cover three geographically determined areas: the Lorraine plateau, the Vosges mountains, and the plain of Alsace. The district annexed in 1871 by Germany and known as the Reichsland does not include the whole of this threefold region. Over half the Lorraine plateau and a great part of the Vosges lie outside it, and constitute a district which we may describe as French Lorraine.
The political limits of the Reichsland are definite; those of French Lorraine are not, since the province of Lorraine no longer has a political existence. But French Lorraine is very tolerably well represented by the three departments of Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle, and Vosges. Accordingly the term Alsace-Lorraine may be taken politically to cover the following territories: Alsace as annexed to Germany in 1871; the territory of Belfort, being that portion of Upper Alsace (department of Haut-Rhin) which was not annexed by Germany and may therefore be described as French Alsace; Lorraine as annexed by Germany; and the three French departments of Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle, and Vosges.
Geographically the term Alsace-Lorraine has a slightly different signification. In the first place the three departments enumerated above do not quite satisfactorily represent the extent of the Lorraine plateau in France. The western region of the Meuse department and the south of the Vosges department fall outside it; while on the other hand a part of the Vosges mountain system falls within the department of Haute-Saone, and part of the Gap of Belfort within that of Doubs. Secondly Alsace, as a political expression, includes about half the Vosges and a part of the Lorraine plateau (viz., the so-called krummes Elsass or ‘Alsatian Lorraine’, round Saarunion and Lutzelstein, Kreis Zabern), while Alsace as a geographical unit consists of the Rhine plain only.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.”