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The Economic Consequences of Annexation: Alsace-Lorraine and Imperial Germany, 1871–1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Dan P. Silverman
Dan P. Silverman
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
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Extract

Germany's annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871 was a relatively simple operation; it took only a few weeks for Prussian armies to rout the French forces. But integrating this prize of war into Imperial Germany proved far more difficult than anyone had imagined. It is indeed a rather pathetic spectacle. While some of the highest civilian officials of the territorial administration sought to integrate the Reichsland into the Reich, the highest military officers sought to impose a military dictatorship; and on the sidelines, powerful German textile, tobacco, and iron and steel interests hoped to minimize competion from Alsace-Lorraine by sabotaging all government efforts at conciliation and integration. It is this latter aspect of the problem, what one might term the economic subversion of political integration, which we shall examine here.

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1971 , pp. 34 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1971

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References

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