The region of German Lorraine (german: Deutsch-Lothringen or ''Deutschlothringen'') was the German-speaking part of

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

, now in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, that existed for centuries until into the 20th century. The name is also used more specifically in to refer to ''

Bezirk Lothringen Bezirk Lothringen (today's french: link=no, Présidence de la Lorraine, at the time translated into french: link=no, Département de la Lorraine i.e. Department of Lorraine), also called German Lorraine (''Deutsch Lothringen''), was a governmen ...

'', that part of Lorraine that belonged to the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.

Former German-speaking Lorraine

The Germanic-Romance (German-French) language boundary in Lorraine roughly followed the line from

Sarrebourg Sarrebourg (; also , ; Lorraine Franconian: ; older la, Pons Saravi) is a commune of northeastern France. In 1895 a Mithraeum was discovered at Sarrebourg at the mouth of the pass leading from the Vosges Mountains. Geography Sarrebourg is ...

(Saarburg) to

Hayange Hayange (; german: Hayingen; Lorraine Franconian: ''Héngen''/''Haiéngen'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Outlying villages include Marspich and Saint-Nicolas-en-Forêt, Konacker and Ranguevaux. H ...

(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 Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

(the

Alsace bossue The Alsace bossue ( Alemannic and Frankish: ''S'Gromme/S'Krumme Elsass'', German: ''das krumme Elsass/ Krummes Elsass''), is a territory of Bas-Rhin in Alsace, which includes the three former cantons of Sarre-Union, Drulingen and La Petite-Pierre ...

) and in the present-day federal state of

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, and ...

was called German Lorraine (''Deutsch-Lothringen''). Nancy, the historic capital of Lorraine, and

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

, 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 Audun-le-Tiche (; ; ) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Location and rail links Audun-le-Tiche is located adjacent to Esch-sur-Alzette, on the border with Luxembourg, and close to the borders of German ...

(''Deutsch-Oth'' or German Audun) and

Audun-le-Roman Audun-le-Roman (; Lorrain: ''Audeu''; german: Welsch-Oth) is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in northeastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department The following is a list of the 591 commun ...

(''Welsch-Oth'' or Romance Audun) or the names of the two headstreams of the

Nied The Nied (; ) is a river in Lorraine, France, and Saarland, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Saar. It is formed where two streams converge: the ''Nied allemande'' ("German Nied") and the ''Nied française'' ("French Nied"), which join in ...

, 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 The Duchy of Lorraine (french: Lorraine ; german: Lothringen ), originally Upper Lorraine, was a duchy now included in the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France. Its capital was Nancy. It was founded in 959 following th ...

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 Wallerfangen is a municipality of Saarlouis district, Saarland, Germany. Located west of Saarlouis and along the French border, it is the seat of the villages of Ittersdorf, Ihn, Leidingen, St. Barbara, Kerlingen, Gisingen, Rammelfangen, Oberlim ...

in present-day Saarland. The Duchy of Lorraine went to France in 1766. In 1790, during the time of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, 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.Jean-Louis Masson: ''Histoire administrative de la Lorraine: des provinces aux départements et à la région'', Fernand Lanore / Sorlot, Collection: Reflets de l'Histoire (1982), transcript of the petition on p. 193
Online
/ref> 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 Forêts was a department of the French First Republic, and later the First French Empire, in present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Its name, meaning 'forests', comes from the Ardennes forests. It was formed on 24 October 1795, after th ...

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.

Bezirk Lothringen as part of the German Reich 1871-1918

250 px, Historical development of the language border in Lorraine (red Line actual border; yellow line border around the year 1500) After the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, part of Lorraine was annexed by the newly founded German Empire and, together with

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

formed the

Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

(''Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen'') until 1918. The newly formed

, 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 The Civil Administration Area of Lorraine (CdZ=Chef der Zivilverwaltung) () was an administrative division of the Gau Westmark from 1940 to 1945. History After the outbreak of the Second World War and the defeat of France in 1940, the ''départe ...

("Territory of the Chief of Civil Administration of Lorraine").

References

External links

Petition about bilingual teaching in primary schools, French and German, Strasbourg, 1869, pdf, 4.2 MB

Project Deuframat: German-French material for the teaching of history and geography
{{Lorraine topics Lorraine-German people Central German languages Geography of Grand Est History of Lorraine