Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-01-02
AIsotio and Lorraine
It is with some trenidatif

~ 10 VIII SOLIlc tIeplQaLlOu
that I challenge such a leader
in the academic field as Prof.
de Rochefort. However. his
letter defending French reten-
ton Of Alsatia and Lorraine
cannot 60 unansweredi at least
on two vital points.
Prof. de Rochefort bases part
Of his case for French hegem-
ony in Alsatia and Lorraine
con the twin premises that the
area was German only between
1871 and 1919. as a result of
the German victory over
France in the War of 1870, and
that the speech of the area Is
not really German at all but is
only mistaken" for German.
The first Of Prof. de Roche
forts arguments can easily be
refuted by reference to any
standard. nonpartisan history
Of France during the reign Of
King Louis XIV. Such a ref
erence will show that Alsatia
and Lorraine were. prior to
1880, parts of the then loosely
organized and defenseless
German Empire" The EN-
pire" however was so weak
that it could neither control its
provinces-of which Alsatia
and Lorraine, then called FL
sass and Lothringen, were part
nor could it defend its ex-
posed frontiers against we'll
organized and more warlike
neighbors. Louis XIV, who
sought to enlarge France to
wont to call her natural
want to call her natural
limits" took speedy advantage
OF the diSorganized condition
of Germany and moved in on
the undefended German from
tier areas. By 1851. French
troops we're in Strassnurg and
French dominance was well es-
tablished. Alsatia and Lorraine
remained integral parts of the
French state until the Second
French Empire of the arrogant
Napoleon III was crushed by
Prussia and the other German
states acting in concert.
The other argument of Prof.
de Rochefort, referred to
above, can be disposed of with
equal ease when one considers
the German language itself.
German. like many other
languages, is not one language
but several. While it is true
that there is a standard"
German called "Hochdeutsch"
which is everywhere under
stood, the language used over
the countryside is subject to
considerable variation from
region 10 region. Thus the
everyday Kitchen" variety
Of German spoken in Bavaria
will be found to be quite diff
ferent from that employed in
a kitchen in Thuringia. All
OF these dialects have a COM
mon source and common
grammatical attributes; how
ever. centuries Of separation
fostered by bad communica-
tons and regional hostility
have caused them to drift
apart and become, In many
cases, mutually unintelligible.
The language of German
Switzerland, the Swiss
Deutsch' referred to by Prof.
de Rochefort. as we'll as the
everyday speech of many of
the inhabitants of Alsatia
and Lorraine. are as much
dialects of a common German
speech as are the dialects of
Saxony and Frankfurt. 1t is
worth noting in this regard
that after the French victory
in 1919, the French govern
ment saw fit to offer prizes in
order to induce the inhabit-
ants of Alsatia and Lorraine
to abandon their German
speech and learn French.
If any further proof is
needed on the score Of linguis-
tics, one has only to consult
the map of Alsatia and Lor-
raine. Literally hundreds of
villages and towns bear wit
ness to the germanism of the
area. Even the most sanguine
friend of France can hardly
claim that Hagenau, Mol
3sheim and Metz are names of
French origin. Even the place
names of those localities
which the French have at
tempted to gallicize still bear
the imprint Of their German
origin. Mulhouse and Stras-
bourg are but slightly altered
from their original German
forms Of Mulhausen and
Strassburg.