Alsace-Lorraine, French or German?

[TheForeigner]

I know the French fought hard and bravely to recover Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, but what about the native people of that region. The vast majority are ethnic Germans. Do they have French national consciousness and want to be part of France or do they feel German or something else and want out of France? How did they took becoming part of France again in 1918? Were they happy to be part of France again or were they unhappy and wanted autonomy or even independence or to be with Germany again?

[Böri]

German. even their votes different than people like Melki Another point which make it more Germany like this is Turkish expats in France are concentrated there

[Bosniensis]

I know the French fought hard and bravely to recover Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, but what about the native people of that region. The vast majority are ethnic Germans. Do they have French national consciousness and want to be part of France or do they feel German or something else and want out of France? How did they took becoming part of France again in 1918? Were they happy to be part of France again or were they unhappy and wanted autonomy or even independence or to be with Germany again?

It belongs neither of them, they both conquered that region in 6th century.

Ethnic Natives of that region who were slaughtered by Franks are Celts (now almost extinct or assimilated into different cultures)

France = Gaul, Gaul = Land of Celts (not Franks)

[Peterski]

If I'm not mistaken Lorraine is mostly French, only Alsace used to be German.

But they are losing their language and their German identity very fast.

German-speakers (%) among the population of Alsace by year:

1900: 95%
1946: 91%
1997: 63%
2001: 61%
2012: 43%

Percent of German-speakers in Alsace by age group as of 2012:

60+ - 74%
45-59 - 54%
30-44 - 24%
18-29 - 12%
3-17 - 3%

As of 2012, only 3% of inhabitants of Alsace aged 3-17 could speak German.

Source:

http://www.olcalsace.org/fr/observer...te-en-chiffres

[Peterski]

Frenchization of Alsatians is almost as fast as Germanization of Lutheran Poles in the 19th century.

For example in the Lutheran parish of Główczyce (Glowitz) near Słupsk (Stolp) in Pomerania, the population transformed from being 2/3 Polish-speaking to being 98% German-speaking during just 50 years:

Year 1829 (total population: 4848) - 3297 Polish-speakers (68%), 1551 German-speakers (32%)
Year 1850 (total population: 5122) - 1370 Polish-speakers (27%), 3752 German-speakers (73%)
Year 1879 (total population: 5381) - 125 Polish-speakers (2%), 5256 German-speakers (98%)

^ Now their descendants are wondering why they score so much of "North Slavic" on DNA Land.

[Dandelion]

It belongs neither of them, they both conquered that region in 6th century.

Ethnic Natives of that region who were slaughtered by Franks are Celts (now almost extinct or assimilated into different cultures)

France = Gaul, Gaul = Land of Celts (not Franks)

Except that French are most of all Celtic-descendants. The Franks never were the majority in French lands. This is why they still speak a Romance language and a quirky one at that with a Gaulish phonology. It has quite a deal of Germanic loans from Frankish, but very ancient ones from the Early Middle Ages when West-Germanic was widely different and barely recognisable from Modern Germanic languages.

Anyway, the Gallo-Romans which form most of the ancestry of most French people never went away and Caesar killed far more Gauls than Germanic Franks did.

[Bosniensis]

Except that French are most of all Celtic-descendants. The Franks never were the majority in French lands. This is why they still speak a Romance language and a quirky one at that with a Gaulish phonology. It has quite a deal of Germanic loans from Frankish, but very ancient ones from the Early Middle Ages when West-Germanic was widely different and barely recognisable from Modern Germanic languages.

Anyway, the Gallo-Romans which form most of the ancestry of most French people never went away and Caesar killed far more Gauls than Germanic Franks did.

I know that you won't like this but Romans actually haven't considered Germanic peoples (like Franks, Lombards, Saxons) as Europeans at all.
They only recognized Celts, Etrurians, Illyrians, Hellenes from Greece and Southern Italy, Dacians, Thracians and few more I can't remember right now.

So when they have lost Gaul to Clovis I, and Italy to Lombards (Liutprand) they called them "Barbarians".

[Dandelion]

I know that you won't like this but Romans actually haven't considered Germanic peoples (like Franks, Lombards, Saxons) as Europeans at all.
They only recognized Celts, Etrurians, Illyrians, Hellenes from Greece and Southern Italy, Dacians, Thracians and few more I can't remember right now.

So when they have lost Gaul to Clovis I, and Italy to Lombards (Liutprand) they called them "Barbarians".

Well, makes sense. I have no problem accepting Celts were more civilised in Ancient times. They were. Germanics were no savages neither though. They were a fairly apt agrarian society that at least knew about crop rotation techniques. No dumbasses. However, far removed from Mediterranean civilisation to be able to thrive early.

Also linguistically Italic languages and Celtic languages are believed to have evolved from the same branch breaking off from Proto-Indo-European. Germanic is another wholly separate branch and a large part of our vocabulary is even non-Indo-European. Italic, Celtic, Slavic, Baltic, etc... languages have more Indo-European words than Germanic languages.

[Bosniensis]

Well, makes sense. I have no problem accepting Celts were more civilised in Ancient times. They were. Germanics were no savages neither though. They were a fairly apt agrarian society that at least knew about crop rotation techniques. No dumbasses. However, far removed from Mediterranean civilisation to be able to thrive early.

Also linguistically Italic languages and Celtic languages are believed to have evolved from the same branch breaking off from Proto-Indo-European. Germanic is another wholly separate branch and a large part of our vocabulary is even non-Indo-European. Italic, Celtic, Slavic, Baltic, etc... languages have more Indo-European words than Germanic languages.

Well you see Germanics progressed so much that in the end they have completely destroyed Roman Empire in the West, and Turks in The East, Arabs took The Africa and ME.
Romans have been destroyed so much that certain groups actually argue about their origins.

I do admire Germanic advancement but also I do see them foreign as all of them look at me as a foreigner. I have no pity for them, neither they do have for me.

Romans today are assimilated into Turkic, Arabic cultures, it is only Greeks who resemble some of the Ancient Rome along with Southern Italy (but those are the only ones who culturally survived)

[Hadouken]

Gracile Mediterranean