Crossing borders: the making of France’s eastern frontier in Alsace, 1918–1939

Abstract

Abstract This article traces the emergence of the border regime on France’s eastern frontier after 1918. Following the Treaty of Versailles, the Franco-German boundary moved to accommodate the return of the ‘lost provinces’ Alsace-Lorraine to France, and throughout the interwar years contemporaries viewed this border as one of the most strategically and symbolically important boundaries on the European continent. It was, on the one hand, France’s defensive limits, while, on the other, it was a meeting point between distinct national communities, who shared a language and culture. This border thus became a site that reflected broader fears and concerns, as worries over Alsace’s integration in the 1920s gave way to anxieties about the threat posed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. By focusing upon the border, this article reveals that the return of Alsace involved negotiation both between centre and periphery and across the frontier, and sheds light on the growing insecurities of the Third Republic in its final two decades.