A little history

“The Alsatian family”, or simply Alsace, is a former province of France ceded to Germany in 1871, but given back to France in 1919, after the German defeat in the First World War of 1914-1918.

France then launches a veritable anticlerical and anti-Germanophile crusade. A swarm of inspectors, professors and other “-ors” descends upon the French province and, what it cannot transform in the landscape, it tries to transform in Alsatian culture, and in the language in particular.

Let us recall that Alsatians are a rather particular kind of German: they speak German, French and a dialect of their own; they have a German tradition and history, a Germanic bearing and a Franco-Germanic culture.

The French were therefore seeking to “solve” the Alsatian problem. To that end they launch this anti-German crusade and, the effect producing the cause (self-fulfilling prophecy), this attack on Alsatian identity brings about the resurrection, with more vigour than ever, of Alsatian autonomism and Germanophilia. At the first legislative elections, the result is a majority of autonomist representatives; besides that, movements for the defence of religion spring up. Faced with this reaction, the French government sees its suspicions confirmed: the Alsatian problem “exists”, and it must be fought without delay and with the greatest energy.

Let us make clear, if that were needed, that the only thing the Alsatians wanted was to have their traditions and customs respected — and that, needless to say, without ceasing to belong to France. The French government, however, “knows” that behind those movements there lies hidden, in ambush, the enemy (which can only be Germany).

Arrests rain down; matters even go so far, verging on tragicomedy, as to prosecute Albert Dürer, artist, presumed author of subversive engravings: this was of course A. Dürer, the German artist of the fifteenth century (1471-1528). This persistence, this more of the same, this attempted solution in the French manner, will bear fruit: over and above a moderately autonomist reaction, a few pockets of fierce Germanophiles are created which will become, over the years, members of the Nazi fifth column. These latter consequences of the French “solutions” merely corroborate the existence, the “reality” of the Alsatian problem…

During the German occupation of the Second World War, the Germans recreate the Alsatian problem. The crusade is of the opposite sign: the point is to eliminate every vestige of French culture. The reaction is an enthusiastic defence of French values and an organised resistance against the invader. Which does not fail to confirm — once again — for the Germans the reality of the Alsatian problem. The German solution is the same as that of its predecessors, with a more marked shade of cruelty. Thousands of Alsatians, considered German, are sent to the Russian front. Deserters and rebels are interned in the concentration camp of the Struthof (Natzweiler-Struthof, in Alsace itself).

Treated worse by Germany than the other regions of France, liberated Alsace will be purged once again (the purge that followed the Liberation): some 40,000 Alsatians, declared collaborators, will be shut up, in 1944, in the well-known concentration camp of the Struthof.

In less than a century, the inhabitants of this region have changed State four times. Each time, they have been asked, more or less imperatively, to change Nation as well, that is to say to give up their particularities, always regarded as foreign by the victorious nation-State.

Today, this bruised province enjoys a legal regime, a religious status and a school system of its own. It is the only French province to possess a relative autonomy… but an autonomy all the same.

What follows is the construction of a fictitious therapeutic interview. An Alsatian family consults a systemic therapist — equally imaginary, whom we shall call Otto Franz Des Champs Elysés — for a personality problem or, if you prefer, for a conflict of family loyalty or of the child’s autonomy with regard to its parents.

The consultation: reframing the history

(In a systemic consulting room, somewhere in ’46)

Alsatian family (A. F.): — Just imagine, doctor, all that mixture of sauerkraut and foie gras, of German and French, those continual changes of government, the persecutions, this cultural question of being a bit of this and a bit of that, that is to say nothing definite…

Therapist (T.): — I understand, but tell me: if I am not mistaken, you possess and you preserve a rich vernacular language — Alsatian —, one of the few vernacular languages to have survived to this day, is that not so?

A. F.: — Yes, that is true, but…

T. (interrupting courteously but firmly): — Forgive me for interrupting you: if I do not, I forget what I was about to say. Having survived so many persecutions must have forged a strong and solid personality, solid and plastic at the same time, I imagine.

A. F.: — Of course, well, in fact we had not seen it that way…

T.: — Today you would be described as resilient individuals.

A. F.: — And is that serious, doctor? (asks the husband with a worried air)

T.: — No, resilience is rather a quality, admittedly not a common one, of people who not only survive very difficult situations, but who also manage to build positive developments out of the challenge represented by the difficulties they have to face.

A. F.: — Well, fancy that, a quality! (the mother and the adolescent children answer with one voice, looking at one another).

T.: (The therapist goes on as though he had heard nothing, his eyes raised, like someone trying to recall something he has read and quoting it from memory) — In the end, you have undoubtedly engendered, as Professor Von Heinrich Blun De La Baguette puts it so well in the first volume of his History of Alsace and of the Alsatian character (1), a rich amalgam of diverse and prestigious cultures, a rare combination of Prussian rigour and talent with French finesse and genius, something like an Adenauer, a Goethe, a Molière and a Debussy: what illustrious ancestors!…

A. F.: (respectful and admiring silence from the members of the family)

T.: (Resuming, after a long studied pause) — Of course, you may tell me that all that is history, and that it perhaps seems to you a little foreign…

A. F.: — Well, that is, no… (the father manages to stammer)

T.: — Everyone knows that you possess a language of your own, regional dishes, festivals of worldwide repute; and all that maintained and achieved against all odds, by resisting and by developing a rich and solid identity. There is no doubt that successive layers of powerful generations have settled and created a fertile humus, shaping in this way a strong personality, rich in nuances…

A. F.: — Oh? (surprised)… Do you think so, professor? But then, what about our identity? In the end, what are we?

T.: — Well, I am not an expert, but I understand that you are fundamentally French — which would amply suffice —, of course a particular kind of French: French-Germans.

(After another studied pause, the therapist adds with emphasis): But above all, you are neither more nor less than Alsatians!

The therapist stands up, indicating that the interview is coming to an end, and, once on his feet, he adds:

— Well, all this needs to settle; and then you may leave feeling optimistic, but… who is to say it will last…

A. F.: — (Perplexed) What will last, professor?

T.: — (Bowing his head, in a one-down position) Please do not call me professor. I mean that I do not know whether you will be able to live without being busy satisfying “Papa” France and “Mama” Germany.

Perhaps you feel the need to protect them, to make them feel that, behind this bark of autonomism, there lies hidden an unconscious desire to belong to one of the two cultures. It is comfortable to have others always deciding for you, and to be responsible for nothing… (After a brief pause, as though he were talking to himself, the therapist concludes.) Of course, that has its drawbacks. It does not allow our potentialities to unfold.

In any case, growth is for those who have the stuff for change. Autonomy is earned. It is won.

At a later follow-up, carried out sixty years afterwards by a group of researchers led by Lic. Hans Des Champs Elysées, son of Otto, we learned that the clients had reached a high degree of development, as we said in the first part of this work (see the historical part).

Epilogue

A renowned French historian — Michelet — once said, of Alsace: “The unity of Alsace is more spiritual than physical; it is animated by a deep communal feeling, by a will so many times affirmed by its population to persevere in its being. In this, Alsace represents perhaps, more than any other province, a person.”