The year 1871 signified the end of French rule and the beginning of German rule over Alsace, which had until 1681 been linked to Germany through the Holy Roman Empire. Having lost the Franco-Prussian War, France had to cede the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Moselle (the territory also known as Alsace-Lorraine, or "Elsass-Lothringen" in German) to the newly created German Empire. Now under new administration and having lost its residential purpose, the Palais Rohan had to be assigned a new role. Between 1872 and 1884, until the opening of the Palais universitaire, it was used by the newly established "Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität", the Imperial German version of the University of Strasbourg, as the seat of the faculties of law, philosophy, and sciences. The palace then served as the university's library until the opening of the National and University Library in 1895. After this, the palace again became the property of the city and was adapted to receive the municipal art collections that were being built up again by director Wilhelm von Bode after their total destruction during the Siege of Strasbourg (see below, Musée des beaux-arts). The first section of the new "Kunstmuseum der Stadt Strassburg", established in 1898, was inaugurated in 1899.