Alsace-Moselle is the common name used to point to the
Alsace-LorraineAlsace-Lorraine was a territorial entity created by the German Empire in 1871 after the annexation of most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and on the east of the Vosges Mountains...
territory, the part of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
that was part of the
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
from 1871 to 1918 (and then from 1940 to 1944–1945), consisting of the
départements of
Haut-RhinHaut-Rhin is a département of France, named after the Rhine river. Its name means Upper Rhine.-Subdivisions:The department consists of the following arrondissements:*Altkirch*Colmar*Guebwiller*Mulhouse*Ribeauvillé...
and
Bas-RhinBas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine".- History :Bas-Rhin is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution....
(both of which make up
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
), and the département of
MoselleMoselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
(itself being the north-eastern part of
LorraineLorraine is one of the 26 régions of France. It is the only administrative region with two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
). While an integral part of France, it has for historical reasons different
customsA convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
and
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
s on certain issues, notably those where France adopted a standard or principle in the period 1871–1919.
Alsace-Moselle is the common name used to point to the
Alsace-LorraineAlsace-Lorraine was a territorial entity created by the German Empire in 1871 after the annexation of most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and on the east of the Vosges Mountains...
territory, the part of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
that was part of the
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
from 1871 to 1918 (and then from 1940 to 1944–1945), consisting of the
départements of
Haut-RhinHaut-Rhin is a département of France, named after the Rhine river. Its name means Upper Rhine.-Subdivisions:The department consists of the following arrondissements:*Altkirch*Colmar*Guebwiller*Mulhouse*Ribeauvillé...
and
Bas-RhinBas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine".- History :Bas-Rhin is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution....
(both of which make up
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
), and the département of
MoselleMoselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
(itself being the north-eastern part of
LorraineLorraine is one of the 26 régions of France. It is the only administrative region with two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
). While an integral part of France, it has for historical reasons different
customsA convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
and
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
s on certain issues, notably those where France adopted a standard or principle in the period 1871–1919. The region is also notable for the large number of mother-tongue
High GermanThe High German languages or the High German dialects are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish, as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighbouring portions of Belgium,...
dialect speakers (
AlsatianAlsatian is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken in most of Alsace, a region in eastern France which has passed between French and German control many times.-Linguistic family:...
, a dialect of
Upper GermanUpper German is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy.- Family tree :Upper German can be generally classified as Alemannic or Austro-Bavarian...
, in
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
; and several Frankish dialects of West Middle German in
MoselleMoselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
), although the number of native speakers has dwindled significantly since the Second World War, and
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
is now paramount in these regions. Moreover,
ProtestantismProtestantism is a branch within Christianity, containing many denominations with some differing practices and doctrines, that principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the major divisions within Christianity, together with the Roman...
remains a major part of the religious landscape in Alsace.
Religion
The most striking of the legal differences is the absence of
separation of church and stateSeparation of church and state is a political and legal doctrine that government and religious institutions are to be kept separate and independent from each other...
— even though the constitutional right of
freedom of religionFreedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
is guaranteed. Alsace-Moselle is still under the pre-1905 regime established by the
ConcordatThe Concordat of 1801 is a reflection of an agreement between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII that reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and restored some of its civil status....
, which provides for the public subsidy of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, the Lutheran Church, the Calvinist Church and the
JewishJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
religion as well as public education in those religions (parents may refuse religious education for their children). Clergy for these religions are paid by the state; Catholic bishops are named by the
President of the French RepublicThe President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
on the proposal of the
PopeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
. The public
University of StrasbourgThe University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
has courses in
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
and is famous for its courses on Protestant theology.
Those dispositions are unusual in a country where Church and State are more strictly separated than in most other countries. Controversy erupts periodically on the appropriateness of these and other extraordinary legal dispositions of Alsace-Moselle. Periodically, freethinker groups contend that this public funding of certain religions should stop. Others argue that, nowadays, the second largest religion in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
is
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
and that Islam should thus enjoy comparable status with the four official religions. Despite the controversy, the
status quoStatus quo, commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" literally "the state in which", is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
continues to persist.
Content
The
local law (fr:
droit local) in Alsace-Moselle is a legal system which preserves, in the formerly annexed and reverted territories, the provisions made by the German authorities when they are considered more favourable to the inhabitants.
Created in 1919 after the end of WWI, it includes:
- French laws applied before 1870 maintained by the German government but repealed after 1871 in France;
- German laws edicted by the German Empire
The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
between 1871 and 1918;
- specific provisions adopted by the local authorities;
- French laws edicted after 1918 applicable only in the three concerned départements.
A Commissaire de la République, whose duty was to restart the French administration, had to choose between local law and general law. These provisions were supposed to be temporary (some texts are still in German language). Two laws of June 1, 1924 made them permanent.
Some specific provisions
- political elections : the legal written propaganda may be spread in french (official language) and optionally in German since 1919 (today, most applications are still bilingual);
- the local work law (fr: Code professionnel local) :
- two more free days (Good Friday and December 26) since 1894;
- working is generally prohibited on Sundays and free days since 1900;
- a local social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
system, including:
- an additional compulsory insurance;
- the keeping of the remuneration during a short sickness absence;
- the personal bankruptcy
Personal bankruptcy is a procedure which, in certain jurisdictions, allows an individual to declare bankruptcy. In other jurisdictions, bankruptcies are reserved for corporations.- Personal bankruptcy :...
;
- a different law on associations
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
;
- the religion status (see above);
- the crafts status;
- the alcohol makers status;
- the social aid: communes
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a small gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis, things held in common.French communes are roughly...
have to provide aid to resourceless people;
- specific hunting rules, including:
- land owners are not game
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
owners, they cannot forbide hunting on their pieces of land;
- the communes
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a small gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis, things held in common.French communes are roughly...
manage the hunting rights, which are sold by auction for nine years;
- hunters are responsible for game (and hunting) damage;
- the land book (fr: livre foncier): is not hold by tax direction but by a court service;
- the communal law : the communes
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a small gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis, things held in common.French communes are roughly...
have more power;
- pharmacies: less than in other régions (i.e.: 1 for 3,500 people in Alsace-Moselle, 1 for 2,500-3,000 elsewhere);
Another difference is that in Alsace-Moselle,
trainA train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport freight or passengers from one place to another. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway....
s run on the right of the double tracks, as in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, whereas the normal rule in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
is on the left.
Since the end of the last century, some local provisions of the local law have been incorporated in the general law (e.g.: social security, personal bankruptcy, social aid).