Education
How education was used by Germany and France to increase their national interests in the region of Alsace-Lorraine.
Primary schooling in Alsace-Lorraine went through a series of government-dictated policy changes between 1850 and 1940 based on the desire of the current government in power to define the nation and the national language in terms of the current political power. More and more during this time period the nation-state possessing the region of Alsace-Lorraine relied on education to build nationalism and to teach loyalty. Stephen Harp (Learning to be Loyal: primary schooling as nation building in Alsace and Lorraine. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 1998. p.115) writes that "Both geography and history emerged in western European school curricula in the second half of the nineteenth century, coinciding with the development of mass nationalism." This strategy was intelligent, because by controlling the curriculum and language of instruction, both male and female future citizens were indoctrinated into a type of curricular, forced nationalism. French schools, which only first began to be controlled by the government in the 1850s, by the 1860s had accomplished state-instituted, near total exclusion of instruction in German. When Germany acquired Alsace-Lorraine through the Treaty of Frankfurt at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, one of the first steps the newly unified government took toward boosting German nationalism in Alsace-Lorraine was to mandate that all classes be taught in German.
This tactic of deliberately structuring schooling so as to develop patriotic
citizens of the country in power was also critical because at this time
in history the loyalties of common people were generally local or religious,
rather than national. The German government based history lessons on the
many cultural links between Germany and Alsace-Lorraine, starting first
by increasing the people's "knowledge and
love of Heimat (hometown or home region) as the first step toward love
of the fatherland (Harp, Stephen. Learning to be Loyal:
primary schooling as nation building in Alsace and Lorraine. DeKalb,
Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 1998. p.16)."
Map of Bismarck's German Empire. Note Alsace-Lorraine labeled as "German France". From Abbott, John S. C. Prussia and the Franco-Prussian War. Boston: B.B. Russell. 1871, p.287.
Nationalism
through Education:
German-instituted strategies 1871-1914
1. Students taught to speak, read, and write in High German.
2. New maps made in 1871 with Alsace-Lorraine included as part of Germany. (see map above, right)
3. Selective use of history: extensive coverage of Alsace and Lorraine's history up to 30 Year's War, and post-Franco-Prussian War, but complete omission of the time period (1648-1871) during which Alsace-Lorraine belonged to France.
4. German and history classes, while central to fostering German nationalism in Alsatian and Lorrainer students, never more than 4 hours out of 30 school hours per week.
Educational Tactics Used by both France and Germany to Increase Nationalism
Compulsory attendance.
Nationally oriented curriculum: teaching specific songs, history, and geography.
Language Standards.
Nationalism through
Education: French-instituted strategies and implications.
1850-1871
1.Students taught to speak, read, and write in Standard French.
2.French education instigates tensions between church and state. 1864: Bishops in Strasbourg and Metz distance themselves from the French government because they feel that enforced teaching of French is undermining students'' religious education because they can no longer understand the German catechism.
3. Link to an example of a story written to increase French nationalism in Alsace-Lorraine after German annexation of the region.
