Academic literature on the topic 'Alsace region'

This article examines the politics of wine making in Alsace in the two decades after the region returned to French rule in 1918. During these years Alsatian wine makers worked to transform their wines to meet the tastes of French drinkers, following five decades of producing wine for German consumption. As wine makers grappled with the question of how to secure the future of their industry, Alsatian wine became emblematic of the most contentious aspects of Alsace's reintegration into France. The introduction of new laws on viticulture raised the question of what was French about wine, the wine industry's woes symbolised the difficulties of Alsace's economic reintegration and wine became an emblem for often fierce wrangling over identity and belonging in the recovered region. This article traces this process and argues that while wine became a symbol of the complications of reintegration, its importance in understandings of French national culture equally allowed it to offer a solution to the problems that return to France caused for Alsace's wine industry in the interwar years. In this way, this case study of the politics of wine making in Alsace is suggestive of wine's broader power as a symbol of national belonging.

Several authors have investigated the frequency of football injuries in youth players. However, the results of these studies are inconsistent because of the different age groups investigated and the different methods applied. The aim of the present study was to compare the incidence and characteristics of football injuries in youth players of two European regions. A total of 444 youth players from the Czech Republic and the Alsace region of France and Germany were followed weekly for 1 year. In 311 players (70%), complete weekly follow-ups over the 1-year period were available. The comparison of injury data revealed no substantial differences between players from the Alsace region and the Czech Republic in injury incidence per 1000 hours of exposure, degree of injury severity, or the circumstances in which the injuries occurred. However, players from the Czech Republic spent more time in training and playing football than did players from the Alsace region, and in the Czech Republic a higher proportion of injuries was caused by foul play. With only a few exceptions, the statistics were similar in the amount of football played as well as in the incidence of injury between different age and skill levels in both European regions.

The revolutionary and legislator Bertrand Barrère in his Sur les idiomes étrangers et l'enseignement de la langue française had said, “Federalism and superstition speak Breton; emigration and hatred of the Republic speak German; the counter-revolution speaks Italian, and fanaticism speaks Basque.” For Barrère, regional languages were intertwined with religion (“superstition,” “fanaticism”) and the other antigovernment forces. And he was right, at least in part. Surveys made in the last century indicate that of those regions where a language other than French was spoken (German in Alsace-Lorraine, Flemish in the department of the Nord, Gaelic in Brittany, Basque in the Southwest, and Catalan in the Roussillon), all save the Roussillon had statistically high levels of religious practice. To explore how religious practice has been supported by linguistic culture in modern France, I have chosen the high-practice region of Alsace and the low-practice region of the Roussillon in the last half of the nineteenth century. I want to interpret the dynamics through which Alsace supported religious practice and the Roussillon did not.

Based on a qualitative analysis of 127 sociolinguistic interviews with speakers of Alemannic from 22 villages and towns along the Franco-German border at the Upper Rhine in Baden (Germany), this contribution investigates the construction of trans-border identities. The paper explores how Badeners perceive the relationship with Alsace (France) with regard to three thematic fields: 1) regional ties with Alsace, 2) language choice in communication across the border, and 3) comprehension of the Alsatian dialect. Two factors are shown to play a major role for the construction of trans-border identities. First, identities vary between regions, which can be explained by historical differences, especially with respect to political circumstances. The closer the historical relationship between the respective region and Alsace, the stronger the trans-border identity. Second, there is an influence of the geographical distance to the border. The closer a village is located to the border (the Rhine), the stronger the (self- and other-)ascription of linguistic and regional ties to Alsace. Furthermore, analysis reveals a correlation between the perception of regional ties to Alsace and language choice in trans-border communication: Persons who construct a shared regional cohesiveness across the border tend to use the Alemannic dialect when interacting with Alsatians, whereas persons who do not perceive such a cohesiveness mainly use Standard German or French.

Abstract This article explores the introduction of family policy in Alsace following the Great War and the efforts of local pronatalist leaders to create a new moral order in the region. While French goals of promoting population growth have been well documented at the national level, relatively little attention has been accorded to the unique way in which the demographic question developed outside Paris. The interwar period in France was marked by shifting boundaries and population movements across borders, both of which shaped French pronatalism. Because such developments factored into understandings of both French identity and concerns about population growth, French demographic policy cannot be fully understood without considering how these questions developed in regions such as Alsace. As this article shows, the introduction of a pronatalist family policy and moral crusade intersected with concurrent efforts to minimize German influences and make the region more ‘French’.

We report the first case of ocular dirofilariasis to be diagnosed in northeast France (Alsace region), in a man who presented with a suborbital mass after a journey to Senegal. Microscopic examination of the surgical specimen identifiedDirofilaria repens.

A specialty of the French region of Alsace, Kugelhopf is a light-textured, brioche-like cake made from yeast-raised dough flavored with raisins, lemon zest, and eau-de-vie. Usually baked in special ceramic molds with a tube in the center, most Kugelhopfs are crown- or turban-shaped, with fluted sides and a dusting of confectioner's sugar on top. Kugelhopfs are also made in molds of other shapes, such as hearts, stars, fish, and lambs, for holidays and special occasions (e.g., Christmas, Easter, weddings, baptisms). In Alsace these classic cakes are consumed in rural and urban areas by people of all ages, religions, and social classes.

The aim of this Diploma´s thesis is to analyze the international wine trade and to characterize the position occupied by wine from France and more specifically by wine from the Alsace region. The author also seeks to specify the status of these wines on the Czech market. The thesis firstly focuses on the international wine trade, thus the wine history, world's wine regions, production, export, import, consumption, international organizations and characteristics of the wine sector within the EU. Then, it deals with the topics mentioned above in direct connection with France and the Alsace region. The last part of the thesis evaluates with help of surveys conducted among Czech consumers, importers and French wine exporters the status of French and Alsatian wines on the Czech market.

Reflexion epistemologique et methodologique sur un ensemble de travaux de geographie sociale, economique et politique consacres a l'alsace, a partir d'un point de vue culturel et historiciste en geographie. La these est une tentative d'appreciation de la validite d'une demarche interpretative en geographie, visant a l'edification d'une geographie comprehensive dans le cadre de l'analyse regionale
Epistemological and methodological thoughts about a group of geoeconomic, geosocial and geopolitic works devoted to alsace, based on a cultural and historicist point of view on geography. The thesis is also an examination of transdisciplinary approaches of regional space by the means of interpretative thought processes with the aim of producting a comprehensive geography, in the scope of the geographical regional analysis

The aim of this study is to investigate the process of accent levelling in the Regional French of Alsace and its relationship with the social variables of age, gender, social class, urban or rural origin of speakers and feelings of regional attachment. Accent levelling, which can be defined as the process of speakers abandoning local phonological forms in favour of supralocal variants, has been the focus of much recent sociolinguistic research on British English, French and other languages. Since knowledge of Alsatian (a Germanic language spoken in Alsace) is decreasing, it is possible that the resulting lack of interference between Alsatian and French is leading to levelling of the traditional accent features of Alsatian Regional French. In order to provide data for this research project, sociolinguistic interviews were conducted and written questionnaires used in Strasbourg and in the village of Helsheim (a fictional name used for reasons of confidentiality) with 56 informants. The data obtained were then subjected to quantitative analysis with regard to the linguistic variables of aspirate h (which can be realised as a supralocal zero variant or as a regional [h] variant) and the devoicing of canonically voiced plosives and fricatives (for example, sage pronounced [saʃ]). The results of the data analysis revealed that the regional variants of both linguistic variables are used more frequently by older than younger, working class than middle class, rural than urban speakers and that level of regional attachment correlates with use of the linguistic variables, as predicted in the research hypotheses. However, the relationship between levelling and gender proved to be more unexpected, with no clear pattern emerging for the (h) variable and a complex one involving the acquisition of supralocal patterns of sociolinguistic variation as well as the supralocal phonological variant in the case of consonant devoicing.

Rappel en introduction de l'heritage medieval en alsace en ce qui c concerne la charite et l'assistance hospitaliere. Puis etude de l'apport lutherien en qui concerne les mentalites et la politique d'assistance a strasbourg au seizieme siecle. Analyse de la politique monarchique francaise de repression du vagabondage et d'assistance hospitaliere en alsace de la fin du dix septieme siecle a 1789. Les hopitaux militaires sont inclus dans l'etude. Etude precise de la criminalite populaire alsacienne de 1767 a 1787. Analyse des facteurs de l'appauvrissement des milieux populaires en alsace au dix huitieme siecle. Etude des reactions des autorites centrales, locales, des eglises, des societes de pensee et des particuliers face a cette situation. Mise en relief de la distinction faite par les contemporains entre les vagabonds non domicilies a reprimer et les pauvres honteux a assister. Prise de conscience progressive par les philanthropes que le probleme social de la pauvrete doit etre resolu par des solutions economiques. Etude precise des resultats de l'enquete du comite de mendicite de l'assemblee constituante en basse-alsace. Bilan de la crise du systeme d'assistance traditionnel submerge par la vague de pauperisation
The introduction summarizes the medieval heritage in alsace relative to charity and hospital care. There follows: -an examination of luther's contribution to the evolution of attitudes and welfare policy in sixteenth century strasbourg. -an analysis of the french monarchical policies of hospital care and of suppression of vagrancy in alsace from the end of the seventeenth century till 1789. Military hospitals are included. -a detailed study of popular criminality in alsace between 1767 and 1787. -an analysis of the factors governing the impoverishment: of the alsatian lower classes in the eighteenth century. A study of the reactions of local and central government, of the church, of groups of thinkers and of individuals to the situation. -ocus on the distinction which was drawn at the time between vagrants having no fixed address, who were to be suppressed and the uncomplaining poor in need of assistance. -philanthropists' gradual realization that the problem of poverty could only be solved by economic measures. A detailed study of the results of an enquiry carried out by the mendicant commitee of the constituante assembly in low alsace. -the consequences of the crisis in traditional welfare systems brought about by the flood of pauperism

Le processus d'innovation au sein d'une firme est influencé par les facteurs internes de la firme ainsi que par des facteurs externes, ces derniers résultant de l'impact de l'environnement territorial. La question centrale du travail de thèse est d'analyser comment la région, plus précisément l'ensemble des acteurs et des activités constituant l'environnement de la firme, est perçue par les firmes qui y sont situées, et si ces perceptions sont liées aux phénomènes d'innovation. Ce sujet est analysé dans deux régions voisines, mais appartenant à des contextes nationaux différents: l'Alsace et le pays de Bade. Dans le cadre d'une première partie, les conceptions de l'innovation et de l'influence régionale sont passées en revue. En particulier, l'analyse se concentre sur les approches soulignant le lien entre innovation, territoire et proximité. A l'heure actuelle, la vision interactive du processus de l'innovation – référant notamment au chain-linked model of innovation développé par Kline et Rosenberg (1986) - est largement acceptée. D'une façon générale, l'approche par les systèmes régionaux d'innovation souligne le caractère interactif et systémique des processus d'innovation en mettant l'accent sur la dimension sociale, la proximité des acteurs ainsi que sur l'importance des flux de connaissances. Cette approche est enracinée dans les conceptions évolutionnistes et l'hypothèse de rationalité limitée (bounded rationality) des acteurs économiques qui agissent dans des contextes déterminés par incertitude. La géographie économique et l'économie régionale s'attachent à explorer les liens entre territoire et développement. L'innovation joue un rôle crucial pour les régions qui réussissent à s'établir et à prospérer dans un contexte de compétition globale. Les districts industriels et les milieux innovateurs ont valeur d'exemple. Tandis que les districts mettent en avant la production spécialisée et flexible et des co-opérations verticales souvent dans les secteurs artisanaux, les milieux se concentrent sur l'analyse des processus "d'apprentissage interactif" (interactive learning), et des conditions préalables à l'innovation. L'approche par les "régions apprenantes" (learning regions) place les processus d'apprentissage et de créativité ainsi qu'une atmosphère favorable à la création et à la diffusion d'idées au centre de la réflexion. Finalement, l'hypothèse de "retombées de connaissances" (spillover) à proximité des lieux de génération de connaissance semble se confirmer notamment dans les phases initiales de création technologique et dans les industries fortement basées sur la science. L'approche par les perceptions ajoute une dimension subjective et individuelle à l'analyse de l'innovation et des territoires. D'un point de vue psychologique, la perception peut être définie comme une réaction suivant un stimulus provenant de l'environnement. L'exploitation des informations extérieures génère une représentation subjective de l'environnement. Les contributions sociologiques partent de l'hypothèse que chaque individu "construit" sa réalité, qui résulte de processus cognitifs fondés sur les perceptions. Important sont des relations avec l'environnement. Dans cette logique, le milieu ou l'environnement ne peut pas exercer une influence directe sur les processus internes d'un système – un individu ou une firme - mais stimuler (trigger) l'évolution des composants du système. La géographie de la perception souligne les aspects cognitifs et les interactions entre l'individu et le contexte social (qui forme le cadre mental du processus de perception) dans le contexte territorial. L'analyse empirique s'efforce de retracer l'évolution des perceptions de l'environnement régional à l'égard de l'innovation par les dirigeants d'entreprise et des responsables en charge de la recherche et développement. L'analyse a pour objectif de déterminer l'existence de structures de perceptions par les firmes dans des contextes régionaux différents. En outre, le travail analyse les liens potentiels entre perceptions et comportements innovateurs des firmes. A l'issue d'une présentation des profils socio-économiques des deux régions, les caractéristiques d'innovation des acteurs régionaux, ainsi que des cadres nationaux, des perceptions régionales (de la main d'œuvre locale, de la recherche et la technologie et du climat d'innovation) sont analysées et comparées aux caractéristiques d'innovation des firmes observées. A cette fin, une enquête portant sur 93 firmes innovatrices a été effectuée. Cet échantillon contient des entreprises manufacturières et des entreprises du tertiaire supérieur (knowledge-intensive business services) situées dans les deux régions analysées. Les firmes en question ont été interrogées à deux reprises: en 1995/96 et en 2004/05, ce qui permet de retracer leur évolution. Le travail empirique – fondé sur des analyses descriptives et sur une l'analyse multi variables de type categorical principal components analysis – révèle que les firmes alsaciennes et badoises poursuivent des activités d'innovation distinctes. D'où la conclusion que les processus d'innovation observés revêtent caractère territorial spécifique. Les structures d'innovation apparaissent comme relativement stables entre 1995/96 et 2004/05. En revanche, les perceptions semblent évoluer: les conditions régionales dans lesquelles se déroulent les processus d'innovation sont perçues par les firmes innovatrices avec davantage de netteté à l'heure actuelle que dix ans auparavant. En général, l'intégration des perceptions permet d'obtenir une vision plus complète des activités d'innovation internes de la firme et de leurs relations avec les acteurs, institutions et organisations de soutien à l'innovation
Firms' innovation processes are assumed to be influenced by firm-internal and external factors, the latter resulting from the impact of the spatial environment of the innovating firm. At the centre of this thesis is the question how the region, more precisely the sum of actors and activities determining the environment of a firm, is perceived by the firms located there, and if those perceptions are related to firms' innovation processes. These topics are analysed in two neighbouring regions belonging to different national contexts: Alsace and Baden. The thesis starts with theoretical reflections referring to innovation and the region, with a special focus on the relationship between innovation, proximity and space. Nowadays, innovation is understood as interactive process, referring for instance to the chain-linked-model of innovation of Kline and Rosenberg (1986). The regional innovation system approach emphasises the interactive and systemic character of innovation. It focuses on the social dimension of innovation involving diverse actors, on proximity relations, the importance of knowledge generation, exchange and use. The innovation system approach is rooted in evolutionary economics and the assumption of bounded rationality of economic agents who act under conditions determined by uncertainty. Economic geography and regional economics aim at exploring the relationship between space and development. In the general framework of globalisation, innovation is of high importance for regions in order to compete and to prosper. Industrial districts and innovative milieus for instance focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, their interrelations and their embeddedness in the territorial context in order to explain the success of local production regimes. While the industrial districts concept emphasises flexible and specialised production modes and vertical integration of firms mainly in handcraft branches, the innovative milieu approach focuses on informal networks, interactive learning processes in innovation-supporting local settings. At the centre of the learning regions approach are creativity, learning and favourable framework conditions for the creation and diffusion of ideas and knowledge. Finally, the hypothesis of knowledge spillover from places of knowledge generation to actors located in close proximity seems to be particularly pertinent in science-based industries, as well as in initial phases of technology creation. The perception perspective adds a subjective and individual dimension to the analysis of firm innovation and the regional environment. Perception can be broadly defined as a reaction following a stimulus from the environment. The information of the external world transferred by the stimulus and the exploitation of this information are the base for a subjective representation of the environment. Psychological perception research focuses on these transfer processes between external environments' characteristics and the subjective representations of individuals. Sociologist approaches are based on the assumption that individuals "construct" their reality, a process that is based on perceptions and cognitive processes. Individuals and firms are considered as systems that interact with their environment. The latter, however, cannot directly influence system-internal processes, but rather "trigger" the evolution of the system elements. Perception geography finally focuses on the spatial behaviour of persons, based on their perceptions of the environment, thus assumes interactions between the individual and the social context - which shapes the mental framework of perception processes - in the territorial context. The analysis aims at investigating innovation-related perceptions that firm managers and persons responsible for research and development have of their environment. The analysis seeks to answer the question if there are region-specific patterns of firms' perceptions, and if perception and firms' innovation behaviours are associated. After a presentation of the socio-economic profiles of the surveyed regions, the innovation characteristics of regional actors and the respective national contexts, regional perceptions with respect to the available workforce, research and technology and the innovation climate, as well as innovation characteristics of the sample firms are analysed. The analysis is based on a survey of 93 innovating firms - manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises and knowledge-intensive business service firms - in the surveyed regions of Alsace and Baden. The sample firms have been analysed in 1995/96 and in 2004/05, which enables to retrace their innovation and perception characteristics in time. The empirical analysis – based on descriptive analyses, supplemented by a multivariate categorical principal components analysis – shows that the Alsatian and the Baden sample firms generally differ in their innovation models. This points at region-specific innovation characteristics. The sample firms' innovation patterns seem to be relatively stable between 1995/96 and 2004/05. Firms' perceptions concerning their regional environment, on the other hand, seem to have a rather evolutive character: There is a tendency among the sample firm representatives towards more decisive assessments concerning the selected characteristics of the regional environment nowadays than about ten years ago. Generally, the integration of the perception perspective enables to get a more complete picture of firm-internal innovation-related activities and their relationships with external innovation supporting actors, institutions, and organisations

Alors que depuis le début de la décentralisation les ressources des Régions avaient considérablement augmenté, elles se heurtent depuis quelques années (2008-2010) à une situation de contrainte budgétaire. La réforme dite de la taxe professionnelle de 2010 ralentit le dynamisme des recettes fiscales régionales et supprime la quasi-totalité du pouvoir de taux des élus régionaux. Les dotations de l’État, après avoir été gelées en valeur, se réduisent à travers les « pactes » successifs (de stabilité, de responsabilité et de croissance) introduits par différents gouvernements. En parallèle, les transferts de compétences du début des années 2000 (transport ferroviaire et acte 2 de la décentralisation) engendrent des charges croissantes qui rigidifient les budgets des Régions. Nous cherchons, dans ce travail de recherche, à comprendre les causes de ces transformations et à tenter de qualifier les changements qui affectent les ressources des Régions. Nous tentons de déterminer si l’on assiste à une financiarisation grandissante des politiques régionales ou si, au contraire, des capacités politiques demeurent pour les élus régionaux. En nous appuyant sur une analyse comparative entre trois Régions (Limousin, Alsace et Nord-Pas-de-Calais), et en observant les recompositions qui se produisent au sein des institutions régionales, nous proposons de saisir la manière dont le couple politique-finance évolue dans une situation de contrainte financière inédite
For some years (2008-2010), territorial authorities have been facing a drastic decrease in their resources. The local business tax reform in 2010 has slowed down the dynamism of tax revenues. The regional political representatives no longer have the ability to determine the tax rate. The funds allocated by the State, after having first experienced a freeze in their value, are now reduced as a consequence of successive « stability », « responsibility » and "growth" pacts introduced by different governments. In parallel, the transfers of competences at the beginning of the 2000’s (rail transport and the second act of decentralization) are causing increasingly rigid financial charges for the Regions. Our research aims to understand the causes of these transformations and to qualify the changes that are impacting regional resources. It seeks to determine if there is a growing financialisation of regional politics or if, on the contrary, there is still some local political control despite budgetary constraint. Through a comparative analysis of three Regions (Limousin, Alsace and Nord-Pas-de-Calais), and based on the observation of the reorganization that is happening within regional institutions, our thesis envisages to understand how the political / financial duo evolves in a framework of unprecedented budget constraint

In 1918 the end of the First World War triggered the return of Alsace to France after almost fifty years of annexation into the German Empire. Enthusiastic crowds in Paris and Alsace celebrated the homecoming of the so-called lost province, but return proved far less straightforward than anticipated. The region’s German-speaking population demonstrated strong commitment to local cultures and institutions, as well as their own visions of return to France. As a result, the following two decades saw politicians, administrators, industrialists, cultural elites, and others grapple with the question of how to make Alsace French again. The answer did not prove straightforward; differences of opinion emerged both inside and outside the region, and reintegration became a fiercely contested process that remained incomplete when war broke out in 1939. The Return of Alsace to France examines this story. Drawing upon national, regional, and local archives, it follows the difficult process of Alsace’s reintegration into French society, culture, political and economic systems, and legislative and administrative institutions. It connects the microhistory of the region with the macro levels of national policy, international relations, and transnational networks, and with the cross-border flows of ideas, goods, people, and cultural products that shaped daily life in Alsace. Revealing Alsace to be a site of exchange between a range of interest groups with different visions of the region’s future, this book underlines the role of regional populations and cross-border interactions in forging the French Third Republic.

The end of the First World War triggered the return of Alsace to France, and celebrations in Paris and Alsace marked the region’s ‘homecoming’. Yet return proved trickier than expected, as voices inside and outside the region grappled with the question of how to undo almost fifty years of German rule, and how to make the region French again. These problems proved particularly acute in the areas of citizenship, administration, and laws, which raised the questions of who and what are French? This chapter traces the debates over these areas of life. It suggests that discussions were characterized by mutual misunderstandings and misperceptions, with opinion divided at both the centre and periphery and shaped by forces inside and outside France’s national borders. The result was a multi-cornered struggle, and this chapter suggests that integration must be understood as an ongoing and contested process.

This chapter discusses the remaking of the Alsatian landscape after 1918, and considers the establishment of the new boundary line, the redesign of the region’s towns, and the fixing of its commemorative landscape. This was achieved through practical measures, and through debates about what the landscape represented. These discussions involved voices from across Alsace, France, and further afield, and they saw some of the most overt and explicit articulations of the two ideas of the borderland that shaped debates about the return of Alsace to France; that on the one hand Alsace represented France’s limits, and on the other that Alsace was the heart of a cross-border, transnational community. These two ideas coexisted, but were not articulated simultaneously. And the tension between the two understandings lies at the heart of Alsace’s return to France.

This conclusion evaluates the nature of Italy’s military occupation of France during World War II. It compares the occupation of Menton with the German occupations in Alsace-Lorraine and the Italian invasion of the French Riviera in November 1942 with the German occupation of the region from September 1943 to August 1944, and then contrasts it with the Italian occupations in the Balkans. It shows that the Italian occupation of the strip of land including Menton in the summer of 1940 bore some similarities with Germany’s occupation of Alsace-Lorraine. It also highlights the differences between the German and Italian occupation policies both in terms of breadth and enforcement. Finally, it argues that the worst enemy of Italian Army commanders in southeastern France was the low morale of their troops, stemming from the growing sense that the tide of war had irremediably turned against the Axis side by the fall of 1942.

The introduction offers a brief overview of Alsace’s return to France, situates the study within the literature on nations, nationalisms, and borders, and introduces the major arguments and the approach of the book. It outlines the multiple dimensions of the return of Alsace to France (laws, administration, society, politics, economics, culture, and the landscape), and suggests that these discrete aspects of daily life were shaped by the border. Indeed, the remarkable element in the story of Alsace’s return to France, the introduction suggests, is that in spite of the change of national regime and the shifts in Franco–German relations, the border was always a point of contact. This contact was not always positive, but it nonetheless played a crucial role in Alsace’s return to France, and as a result contributed to the formation of the French nation.

A crucial forum for many of the debates about reintegration was politics. Equally, political life in interwar Alsace was dominated by questions posed by return. This chapter charts developments in regional politics as this focus upon the single issue of reintegration triggered the emergence of the autonomist political movement, and generated some unorthodox alliances between mainstream parties. Questions of Alsace squeezed normal political debate and became more important than differences between left and right, yet the focus upon the local that this engendered interacted with cross-border connections, as people, ideas, and political tracts crossed the border. The chapter considers these multiple impulses. It discusses parties that contested the region’s elections, analyses the issues that drove political debate, and traces the evolution of opinion in Alsace, as the population grappled with the dynamics of return and their place in Europe.

The Swiss (or Swabian) War had its origins beyond Swabia itself, in conflicts between Austrian Tirol and the Rhaetian Leagues; Emperor Maximilian’s plans to invade Italy, however, drew in the Swabian League, which in early 1499 mustered troops to defend its own region from attack or plunder. Imperial troops were sent from the Netherlands, with the result that three separate theatres of war developed: in Vorarlberg, on the Hochrhein, and on the Upper Rhine/Alsace. A series of skirmishes quickly brought hostilities to an end in a ‘war’ which was essentially accidental and avoidable. Much of the fighting consisted of raiding and plundering. By the Treaty of Basel (October 1499) the status quo ante enshrined in the Perpetual Accord was restored; the city of Basel, however, was admitted as a full member to the Confederation.

Wine regions constantly question their visibility on the internet to fully be able to embrace the 3.0 digitalization. Recent controversy of the geographic domain name “.vin” and “.wine” has raised awareness of the need to be proactive in Internet naming. The objective of the chapter is to understand how wine regions could develop a digital territory strategy to increase their competitive advantage by using specific geographic domain name. The chapter provides an overview of origin, role, and functioning of stakeholders involved in the internet naming industry. The specific case of Alsace wine region has been investigated with a specific focus on the digital wine territory strategy based on the development of the “wine.alsace.”

The Paleolithic site of Mutzig, discovered by chance in 1992 (Sainty 1992), has been the focus of several excavations since 2009. Located in Alsace (Bas-Rhin, France), it is presently one of only a handful of sites reliably attributed to the Middle Paleolithic in this area, thus providing rare evidence for a zone still relatively unknown for Early Prehistoric remains. The excellent preservation of the remains and the long stratigraphic sequence, with 6 to 8 in situ archaeological levels, make Mutzig a potential reference site for environmental and behavioral analyses for the Middle Paleolithic of the region. At least four archaeological levels contain burnt elements, and one level features a hearth structure. Taken together, the archaeological material, which is abundant in each of the different layers, forms an assemblage of more than 3000 faunal remains and more than 1500 lithic artifacts. Analyses of this site provide valuable insights into the environment and Neandertal ways of life in Alsace. We provide here only general results, with more detailed descriptions of the lithic and faunal remains presented in Diemer (this volume) and Sévêque (this volume). The faunal remains recovered from the human occupations in Levels 5 and 7 reflect the same relatively cold steppe-like environmental context and include reindeer, woolly mammoth, steppe horse, steppe bison and woolly rhinoceros. Small vertebrates also indicate a cold climate, though not related to the Pleniglacial. Confirmed isotopic data, from oxygen and carbon isotope measurements of horse and mammoth teeth, indicate temperatures lower than those of today and an open environment. Levels 9 and 10, however, tend to reveal a more temperate climate. The available OSL and ESR/U-series dates place the Mutzig occupations within the Early Weichselian Glacial (MIS 5, ca. 90,000 BP), an attribution which biometric analyses and the large and small fauna record tend to corroborate (Koehler et al. 2016a).

As a region bordering the Russian Empire, East Prussia was (apart from Alsace-Lorraine) the only part of the German Empire to be directly affected by the military operations of the First World War. The refugee crisis in 1914 found everyone totally unprepared. In August 1914 two distinct waves of forced migration took place: in the first, the population fled westwards before returning to their homes in 1916. The second wave concerned Germans who were seized by Russian occupying forces and forcibly settled in the Russian interior. Their repatriation was complicated by the Russian revolution and the ensuing civil war. This chapter discusses the experiences of these two groups, attempts to assist them and how population displacement was represented by contemporaries.

In this chapter, Asaad Alsaleh discusses the problematic and double-sided role of the public intellectual Buthaina Shabaan in the Syrian revolution. Shabaan was a writer, professor, and advocate of the Syrian regime who spurred the populace to embrace the possibility of democratic reform. However, this feminist intellectual accepted—even embraced—the political control employed by the Assad authoritarian one-party regime, which used her as a representative of its supposed progressive and women’s liberation agendas.

In April 1947, a mass grave containing the bodies of 11 Alsatians executed by the Offenburg Gestapo in December 1944 was uncovered in Rammersweier. In the following days, the bodies were exhumed, placed in coffins and, after a two day vigil by local residents, solemnly and publically reburied after a two confessional service in the presence of school children and a wide cross-section of local and state authorities. A roadside memorial was constructed for the victims in 1948. The bodies of the murdered Alsatians played a central symbolic role throughout the process of exhumation, commemoration, and response to the later vandalism of the erected monument in their name. This chapter argues that the meticulous attention to the remembrance activities surrounding the reburial and memorialisation of the Alsatians and the intensity of the vandalism investigation demonstrates that Badenese officials were convinced that their responses contained a symbolic resonance beyond giving eleven more victims of Nazi terror a proper burial. In effect, contemporary Badenese authorities and their Alsatian counterparts came to view the dead bodies as representative of the larger crimes of the Nazi regime, particularly those perpetrated against the population of Alsace.