The region of German Lorraine (German : Deutsch-Lothringen or Deutschlothringen) was the German-speaking part of Lorraine, now in France, that existed for centuries until into the 20th century. Following its annexation by France in the 18th century, it became part of the German Empire following the Franco-Prussian War and ceased to exist permanently following Nazi Germany's surrender. The name is also used more specifically to refer to Bezirk Lothringen , the part of Lorraine that belonged to the German Empire from 1871 to 1918 and to Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1945.
The Germanic-Romance (German-French) language boundary in Lorraine roughly followed the line from Sarrebourg (Saarburg) to Hayange (Hayingen) until well into the 20th century. A detailed map of the boundary is given in the article on the Lorraine Franconian dialect. The Lorraine region northeast of this linguistic boundary in the present-day départements of Moselle and Bas-Rhin (the Alsace bossue) and in the present-day federal state of Saarland was called German Lorraine (Deutsch-Lothringen). Nancy, the historic capital of Lorraine, and Metz, the present capital of the region of Lorraine, both lie on the French side of the boundary. There are clues to the historic boundary in the names of settlements like Audun-le-Tiche (Deutsch-Oth or German Audun) and Audun-le-Roman (Welsch-Oth or Romance Audun) or the names of the two headstreams of the Nied, the Nied Allemande (Deutsche Nied or German Nied) and the Nied Française (Französische Nied or French Nied), which lie on either side of the language boundary and merge almost exactly on the line itself.
The linguistic boundary was also reflected early on in the administration of the region. In the 13th century, the Duchy of Lorraine was divided into three bailiwicks (administrative and juridical districts. German: Ballei, French: Bailliage): the Bailiwick of Nancy (Bailliage de Nancy), the Bailiwick of Vosges (Bailliage des Vosges) and the German Bailiwick (Bailliage d'Allemagne); the last-named periodically had its administrative seat in the town of Wallerfangen in present-day Saarland. The Duchy of Lorraine went to France in 1766. In 1790, during the time of the French Revolution, the old administrative structures were radically changed. The request by German Lorraine members of parliament to establish a German Lorraine département did not gain majority support in the French National Assembly. [1] So in 1790, German Lorraine was incorporated into the newly created départements of Moselle and Meurthe. Other German-speaking parts of historic Lorraine lay in the département of Forêts formed in 1795 and the Département de la Sarre created in 1798. In the Second Treaty of Paris in 1815 the largest part of German Lorraine remained with France. From then on the name referred to this region.
After the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, part of Lorraine was annexed by the newly founded German Empire and, together with Alsace formed the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen) until 1918. The newly formed Bezirk Lothringen, which was created from parts of the former French départements of Meurthe and Moselle, covered not just the majority of historical German Lorraine but also the French-speaking regions west of the Franco-German language boundary around Metz and Château-Salins. Bezirk Lothringen, with Metz as its capital, remained unchanged in its territorial composition after the return of the region to France in 1919 and formed the present département of Moselle. During the German occupation of 1940–1944 it became the CdZ-Gebiet Lothringen ("Territory of the Chief of Civil Administration of Lorraine").
Moselle is the most populous department in Lorraine, in the northeast of France, and is named after the river Moselle, a tributary of the Rhine, which flows through the western part of the department. It had a population of 1,046,543 in 2019. Inhabitants of the department are known as Mosellans.
Meurthe-et-Moselle is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.
The Treaty of Frankfurt was a peace treaty signed in Frankfurt on 10 May 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War.
Alsace–Lorraine is a historical region and a former territory of the German Empire, located in modern day France. It was established in 1871 by the German Empire after it had retrieved the region from France in the Franco-Prussian War with the Treaty of Frankfurt and forced France to pay an indemnity of five billion francs. Anger in the French Third Republic about the loss of the territory was one of the contributing factors that led to World War I. Alsace–Lorraine was reoccupied by France in 1920 as part of the Treaty of Versailles and Germany's defeat in the war, although it was annexed by France in 1918.
The Vosges are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and low mountain range of around 8,000 km2 (3,100 sq mi) in area. It runs in a north-northeast direction from the Burgundian Gate to the Börrstadt Basin, and forms the western boundary of the Upper Rhine Plain.
Lorrain is a language spoken by now a minority of people in Lorraine in France, small parts of Alsace and in Gaume in Belgium. It is a langue d'oïl.
Meurthe is a former department of France created in 1790. Its prefecture (capital) was Nancy. It ceased to exist following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany in 1871.
The Meurthe is a river in north-eastern France, right tributary to the river Moselle. It is 161 km (100 mi) long. Its source is in the Vosges mountains, near the Col de la Schlucht in the Vosges département, from where it flows in an overall north-westerly direction. Its name gave rise to the naming of the present French département Meurthe-et-Moselle and the former département Meurthe.
Lorraine is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of Lotharingia, which in turn was named after either Emperor Lothair I or King Lothair II. Lorraine later was ruled as the Duchy of Lorraine before the Kingdom of France annexed it in 1766.
Sarrebourg is a commune of northeastern France.
Unterelsaß was the northern part of the historical region Alsace or Elsass, inhabited originally by locals speaking Alemannic German. From 1871 to 1918, Bezirk Unterelsaß was the name for the central district (Bezirk) of the imperial territory of Elsaß-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) in the German Empire.
The various toponyms in the historical region of Lorraine are often known by very different names depending on the language in which they are expressed. This article provides an understanding of the linguistic and historical origin of this diversity and lists a number of correspondences for communes and lesser localities in the four departments of the former region: Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Moselle, and Vosges.
SaarLorLux or Saar-Lor-Lux, a portmanteau of Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg, is a euroregion of five regional authorities located in four European states. The term has also been applied to cooperations of several of these authorities or of their subdivisions, administrations, organisations, clubs and people. Member regions represent different political structures: the sovereign state of Luxembourg; Belgium's Walloon region, comprising the French and German speaking parts of Belgium; Lorraine, a region of France; the French départements Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle; and the German federated states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate.
Danne-et-Quatre-Vents is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
Chicourt is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
Dannelbourg is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
Bezirk Lothringen, also called German Lorraine, was a government region ("Bezirk") in the western part of Alsace-Lorraine when it was part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.
The Civil Administration Area of Lorraine was an administrative division of the Gau Westmark from 1940 to 1945.
Grand Est is an administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine, as a result of territorial reform which had been passed by the French Parliament in 2014.