音频游览 HISTORICAL CONTEXT

gen Jacques Waltz was born in difficult times. It had been three years since the regions Alsace and Moselle had belonged to France. They had been under under German occupation since the Franco-Prussian war, which ended in 1871. He found himself being under observation by the Prussian government, lead by Kaiser Wilhelm I. As a result of the Great War, the Treaty of Versailles put an end to the German occupation. All of the annexed territory was once again affiliated to France. The reestablished French government faced several issues such as bilingualism, bureaucracy and profound differences regarding the German economic system. Alsace and Moselle became once again part of the German Third Reich in July 1940. Two years later many locals found themselves being drafted for the German army. The end of the Second World War finally made the regions become part of France.