Remmick-Hubert Web Site - Hubert & Hummel Genealogy
Last Update: 21 Nov 2011
ALSACE [ELSASS],
Rhin-Bas, France
2004
In French the area is known as Alsace. When it was in German hands it was called Elsass or Elsace. Presently it is an area whihc is on the eastern border of France next to the Rhine and across the river is Germany. The area comprises of Bas-Rhin[e] and Hut-Rhin[e]. The chief cities are Strasbourg, Comar, and Mulhouse. The history is difficult to follow at times because it has been pulled back and forth from French hands to Germans hands. In 870 in was part of the East Franksih Kingdom. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 carried it to French hands by annexations when Louis XIV was king. But not all of the area was annexed, at least not until the French Revolution. It was ceded to Germany and became part of the Lorraine in 1871. The French regained control in 1918. During the Great War [WWI], Germany occupied Alsace area. After the defeat of Germany, Alsace, once, again, became part of France and has remained so since that time.
Duchy of Lotharingia in the year 1000
History in more detail: Through the years tht followed Lotharigia was divided into three sections in the year 1000. In this map the pink of Lower Lorraine, the purple is Upper Lorraine. Frisia is in orange. These areas through the following centuries became fragmented by the French and the Holy Roman Empire. In the 12th century there was the formation of the Duchy of Limurg and the Duchy of Brabant and the rulers were titled the Dukes of Lotheir. The Lower Lorraine faded away by bites and pieces and the Upper Lorrine becme part of the Holy Roman Empire with the Habsburgs as the ruling family. The French continued to invade and occupy area of the Lorraine and finally it was ceded to he French at the end of the War of the Polish Succession in 1737 but rulled by a Polish king Due to promises made by the Polish king, at his death in 1766 the duchy was inherited by the French crown and became known as the Province of Lorraine. In 1871, the treaty following the Franco-Prussian War, the German-speaking part of the Lorraine merged with Alsace and became known as Alsace-Lorraine in the new German Empire under the von Hohenzollerns of Prussia. In the 20th century, this area was contested, again, and it changed hands another four times. Part of Alsace became French and the other part became part of Germany. During WW I all the Germans who had migrated back into Alsace between 1871 and 1919 were expelled from Alsace and became stricktly French. In 1940 the Alsace was merged with the German area known as Baden. In 1945 part of the Alsace fell under French control and remains part of France today. The French Alsace Region includes the departments of Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Franche-Comte and the Lorraine. It shared with Germany the plain of the Rhine on the west bank of the Rhine River, the forrest of Vosges and he Black Forest.
The Germans, who did not want to fall under the French, immigrated to the North America and eastward to Austria-Hungary, Poland, and into Russia from 1712 and into the the 1800s. Taking part of this migration were ancestors of the Huberts and the Remmicks who fled the French invasions, religious freedoms, lost of properties, starvation and the many political termoils in the 1700s..
See the Hubert family who migrated to Perjamosch, Banat, Austria-Hungary in the early to mid 1700s
There were about 4,000 plus French speaking Germans, who were billigual, and French who were part of the three major waves of migration to the east from 1712 to the mid 1800s.
In going over the records, it is often difficult to unravel the place names entered in Vienna and or the colonies. The German names were used for places of origin, but, those villages and cities which are presently French are in French. So places like the French town of Guebwiller would be Gebweiler in German . Haguenau in German would be Hagenau. Selestat would be Schlettstadt..... Grand Rombach would be Ross Rumbach.... Saint - Maurice would be St. Moritz..... See the discussion of German place names in wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_place_names_(Alsace) or dvvh sites. This can be a whole different journey for many of you.