The Alsace-Lorraine Regional Party () was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the Imperial Province of Alsace-Lorraine,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in the early 1900s. The party was founded in March 1903.Grasser, Jean-Paul. Une Histoire de l'Alsace. .l. J.-P. Gisserot, 1998. p. 88 It was the first Catholic political organization in Alsace-Lorraine. Léon Vonderscheer, a lawyer by profession, was the president of the party, while Hauss was the party secretary.Eccard, Frédéric.
L'Alsace sous la domination allemande
'. 1919. pp. 197-198 The party was founded in reaction to the advances of the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

in Alsace-Lorraine. However, following the formation of the regional party (''Landespartei''), different liberal factions regrouped to form a political party of their own to confront the ''Landespartei''. The party won seven out of eleven Alsace-Lorraine seats in the 1903 election in the Reichstag. In Kolmar, Preiss of the ''Landespartei'' was elected, defeating the People's Party leader Blumentahl. Blumentahl did however also contest the

Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

constituency, where he defeated the ''Landespartei'' candidate Hauss (the party secretary). In

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...

, the party was supported by the newspaper ''Elsäßer Kurier'' whilst in

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin () is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lower altitude among the two French Rhine departments: it is downstream of the Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine) de ...

it was supported by ''Unterländer-Kurier''. In December 1905 Léon Vonderscheer joined the Reichstag group of the Centre Party, being the first Alsatian Catholic politician to do so. In 1906 the party merged into the Centre Party, becoming its branch in Alsace-Lorraine. The party did however retain a degree of independence towards the all-German Centre Party. For example, their Reichstag deputies did not join the Centre Party faction ''en bloc''.Mayeur Jean-Marie. Baechler (Christian) -
Le parti catholique alsacien, 1890-1939, Du Reichsland à la République jacobine.
', ''Revue française de science politique'', 1984, vol. 34, n° 3, pp. 495-498.

References

Christian political parties in Germany Catholic political parties Political parties established in 1903 Political parties disestablished in 1906 1903 establishments in Germany 1906 disestablishments in Germany Alsace–Lorraine {{Germany-party-stub