Lorraine Franconian
Lorraine Franconian (Lorraine Franconian: ''Plàtt'' or ''lottrìnger Plàtt''; french: francique lorrain or ''platt lorrain''; german: Lothringisch) is an ambiguous designation for dialects of West Central German (german: Westmitteldeutsch) ...
Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A ...
administrative region
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
of
Grand Est
Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten;
Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administr ...
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
and Bavarian soldiers until the French government ordered him to surrender after the ceasefire in 1871. The town became part of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
after that date until the end of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, when it was given back to France. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
Bitche is located near the German border on the small river Horn, at the foot of the northern slope of the
Vosges
The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) 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 singl ...
between
Haguenau
Haguenau (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or ; and historically in English: ''Hagenaw'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Bas-Rhin Département in France, department of France, of which it is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture.
...
and
Sarreguemines
Sarreguemines (; German: ''Saargemünd'' , Lorraine Franconian: ''Saargemìnn'') is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France.
It is the seat of an arrondissement and a canton. As of ...
.
History
The town of Bitche, which was formed from the villages of Rohr and Kaltenhausen in the 17th century, derives its name from the old stronghold (mentioned in 1172 as ''Bytis Castrum'') standing on a rock some above the town. This had long given its name to the countship of Bitsch, which was originally in the possession of the dukes of Lorraine. In 1297 it passed by marriage to Eberhard I of Zweibrücken-Bitsch, whose line became extinct in 1569, when the countship reverted to Lorraine. It passed with that duchy to France in 1766.
After 1766 the town rapidly increased in population. The citadel, which had been constructed by Vauban on the site of the old castle after the capture of Bitche by the French in 1624, had been destroyed when it was restored to Lorraine in 1698. This was restored and strengthened in 1740 into a fortress that proved impregnable up until the 20th century. The attack upon it by the Prussians in 1793 was repulsed.
During the Napoleonic Wars, 1804–14, the citadel at Bitche became a major prisoner of war camp housing British and allied soldiers and sailors. It was also used in this context as a penal camp, housing repeated escapers and recalcitrant prisoners.
In 1815 during Napoleon's
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoratio ...
, Brigadier-General Creutzer was the commandant. Bitche was besieged by General Zollern's Fourth Infantry Division of the Austrian IV Corps, but Creutzer refused to surrender until the general armistice.
Although Bitche was hotly contested by the Germans after the
Battle of Wörth
The Battle of Wörth, also known as the Battle of Reichshoffen or as the Battle of Frœschwiller, refers to the second battle of Wörth, which took place on 6 August 1870 in the opening stages of the Franco-Prussian War (the first Battle of ...
during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, it held out until the war's end. A large part of the fortification is built into the red sandstone rock, and was rendered bomb-proof; a supply of water was secured to the garrison by a deep well in the interior. Commander of the fortress of Bitche was Louis-Casimir Teyssier. After the war, it was given to the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
as part of Alsace-Lorraine. It was given back to France in 1918.
The town is near the
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the Minister of the Armed Forces (France), French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by French Third Republic, F ...
, into which the citadel was integrated. Alsace-Lorraine returned to Germany after the French Campaign in the summer of 1940 and remained under German occupation. The training ground at Bitche was utilized by the German Army to form new divisions, for example the 65th Infantry Division formed at Bitche in July 1942. Bitche was liberated in December 1944 by Allied troops but was relinquished in the withdrawal forced by the German counteroffensive. In March 1945 the
U.S. 100th Infantry Division
The 100th Training Division (Leader Development) (formerly the 100th Infantry Division) is a division of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Knox, Kentucky. It currently serves as a major training command of the United States Army Rese ...
broke through the Maginot Line in the Bitche area and liberated the town for good. The attack was a part of Operation Undertone.
After 1945, Bitche became one of the busiest military camps where all parts of the French army manoeuvered. Infantry and cavalry also went to Bitche for experimenting with new weapons during the Cold War. Special training took place against potential bacteriological attacks from the "EAST" side.
Until 1997, military service was compulsory in France. Millions of young soldiers had a few days of training in Bitche.
On March 19, 2021, the official page of Bitche on Facebook was removed without explanation. After the incident was reported by media, Facebook restored the page and apologized to the town.
Population
International relations
Bitche has been twinned with
Lebach
Lebach is a town in the district of Saarlouis, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately northeast of Saarlouis, and north of Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saar ...
,
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, a ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
since 1979.
The town of Bitche was mentioned in BBC comedy panel game '' QI'', in episode 9 of season 3 (or series "C", as the show refers to the series by letters of the
alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
).
Bill Bailey
Mark Robert Bailey (born 13 January 1965), known professionally as Bill Bailey, is an English musician, comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Manny in the sitcom '' Black Books'' and his appearances on the panel shows '' Never Mind th ...
commented on the comical nature of seeing a sign "You are now leaving Bitche".
In 2021 the town's
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
page was removed and reinstated.
Gallery
File:Hôtel de Ville de Bitche-9659.jpg, The city hall in Bitche
File:Looking down a street in Bitche France.JPG, Looking down a street in Bitche
File:Bitche France from the Citadel.JPG, Overlooking Bitche from the Citadel
File:Bitche Citadel Drawbridge.jpg, Bitche Citadel Drawbridge
File:Bitche Citadel Chapel.jpg, Garrison Chapel at the top of Bitche Citadel