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The world wars
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A storm hovered in the horizon: the First World War began in August of 1914. Strasbourg suffered the aftermaths of the war as did the other French and German cities, however with less rigour. The mayor Schwander had constituted a stock of provisions and was able to maintain fair prices. The city would go on as such until the Armistice in November 1918. A "red" revolution exploded and developped from the 8th through the 20th of November. Soldiers and workers proclaimed the "Republic" on the 10th of November. Red flags and civic guards made their appearances. Confusion was at its height. The French Fourth division of the army, comanded by Gouraud, entered Strasbourg and restablished order on the 22nd of November 1918. War was over. However for the families of the 3,000 killed, the wounds were once again profound.
The end of the "Reischland" episode was celebrated with general jubilation. Strasbourg did not know that what was waiting for them twenty years down the road would be worse. With the return to France, the latent disquiet did not diminish. It was tripled: economically because France was on its knees, financially because the mark was revalued, and socio-politically due to the changes in regime.
Politically, the city went left. In Paris, the President of the Council, Edouard Herriot announced the rapid assimilation of Alsace which would have as consequence the suppression of the Napoléonic Concordat. Strasbourg would strongly protest and Herriot had no choice but to renounce the alignment of Strasbourg with Paris. The People's Party rose in Strasbourg, unlike in other French cities. Socialists and communists could not get along. The first wished a rapid assimilation with France and the latter preferred autonomy. The strikes of 1936, which paralyzed France were not followed massively in Strasbourg.
In Germany, the Nazis were launched. Almost all the political parties of Strasbourg condemned them. The associations for autonomy broke up as well as the communist party which dissolved with the German-Soviet pact. Strasbourg was headed for war.
As early as the 1st of September 1939, Strasbourg was evacuated. The Strasbourgeois had to leave their homes and belongings, and see the splitting up of their families... The Strasbourgeois were welcomed in Dordogne (90,000 refugees) and in the Indre (30,000 refugees). On the 19th of June 1940, Hitler's flag floated over the Cathedral. The Gauleiter (City ruler) Robert Wagner was ordered to conform Alsace to the Reich within one decade. This pure and hard Nazi was resolved to put to the letter the Führer's orders: to make Strasbourg a genuine capital of the "Gau Oberrhein" in order to make the surrounding countrysides of Bade and Alsace understand. In October of 1940, most of the Strasbourgeois were resigned to return. France had lost the war.
Measures to "re-Germanize" were rapidly put into place in the following ways: streets were rebaptised, the French language was forbidden but the germanic dialect was tolerated, wearing of the béret was forbidden... The "Reicharbeitsdienst" demanded a labour force of young men before their enlistment into the army.
The Nazi repression developped and manifested itself in the creation of two Nazi camps: the sinister extermination camp of Struthof and the concentration camp of Schirmeck. In August of 1942, the enlistment of 21 age groups to the army was decreed. This decree took the life of 3,500 young Strasbourgeois. The city would suffer several bloody bombings. The American aviation destroyed part of the center of the city in August and September of 1944. The Germans, having returned to the other side of the Rhine in November, shot their shells from Oberkirch. On the 21st of November 1944, Leclerc received authorization from the Americans to attempt to take Strasbourg. After bypassing Saverne on the 22nd of November, the General swore not to give up until he saw "our colors floating over the Cathedral of Strasbourg". He sent ahead the Rouvillois brigade via the Place Haguenau and the other sections via Neudorf. The French flag and the Cross of Lorraine were hoisted up on the Cathedral the very next day on the 23rd of November. However, the Germans did not return definitively to the other side of the Rhine until the 22nd of January 1945. The nightmare was over, except for those who had lost loved ones or those who had been suspected of collaborating with the Nazis. The city would need time to heal its wounds. A battered Strasbourg had to learn to live again.
The deported and the resistors desired heavy punishment for the Nazi collaborateurs. The courts pronounced over 4,000 different condemnations of which there would be 30 death sentences. The war took with it the regional political parties. In Alsace, the "People's Republican Party", adherants of the national republican party called the M.R.P., would surface as a new political force. It promoted Christianity, particularly Catholicism, with an affirmed social fiber, and promoted a strong desire to defend the particularlism of Alsace in its language, culture and religion.
The M.R.P. was dominated by Pierre Pflimlin, mayor from 1959, minister several times over and President of the Council of France in 1958. In the areas of economic growth, Strasbourg would become one of the most dynamic poles of France, the country that would have the highest rate of growth in Europe.
In 1949, in London, ten states voted for the treaty to institute the "Council of Europe". Strasbourg was unanomously elected to be the seat of this Council. The history of Argentorate, Argentoratum, Strateburgo, StraBurg and Strasbourg continues on for another 2,000 years...
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