I can think of only two major cities in Western Europe where, at some point in the last 150 years or so, 'ownership' of the city has changed hands in such a way that individual inhabitants have had to change their language use. Those two are Nice (which only became French instead of part of a nascent Italy in 1860) and Strasbourg. Of course, other places in Alsace have undergone the same fate as Strasbourg. There is a smaller city - Bolzano - where such a change has also occurred, although Bolzano / Bozen is now recognised as bilingual Italian / German. And of course there are many cities in Eastern Europe that have witnessed a similar fate.
But Strasbourg seems to me an interesting case - part of France until 1871, then part of Germany until 1918, reverting to France until 1940, reincorporated into Germany then until 1945, and finally resolutely part of France ever since. Someone born in Strasbourg in, say, 1865 who survived to their ninetieth year would have seen their required official language switch four times, spending 38 years living in France and 52 in Germany - possibly without ever moving house.
Unfortunately I don't know any Strasbourgers well enough (or old enough) to probe what this sort of history means to them. I suspect there are a series of different narratives used with different audiences. Many years ago I went to a son et lumière performance in Strasbourg cathedral. It was given in French, and the things that were said about Germany and the Germans in that performance could surely not have been reused in direct translation in the German language performance an hour later - perhaps I should have paid again to attend that as well.
This time I sat in a café opposite the cathedral and looked up (the wonders of having the internet in one's pocket) the short story by Alphonse Daudet entitled La Dernière Classe (The Last Class), set in 1871, where the teacher announces that today's classes will be the last held in French because tomorrow a new teacher will arrive from Berlin and all future classes will be in German. (Daudet himself was from Nîmes and mostly wrote about the south of France, but the story is a strong one with a political message).
France doesn't actually have a very good record on minority languages, officially refusing support for Breton, Basque and other languages spoken as native languages within its territory. It is ironic that Strasbourg is the seat of the Council of Europe, yet France is one of a tiny handful of European countries that has refused to sign that Council's convention on the rights of minority language speakers. French official rhetoric holds to the view that there is only one way of being French. Yet unofficially things seem to be changing. There are now some broadcasts made in Alsatian (the Germanic-based but French-inflected language traditionally spoken in the region). The regional train network has the Alsatian 'Elsass' proudly proclaimed on the carriages as well as the French version. And tourist commentaries sign off with an Alsatian greeting. The language is clearly still used - an older couple at a restaurant table next to me had an animated conversation in Alsatian.
Some years ago I gave a seminar at the University of Strasbourg and found myself in a very Germanic building, constructed during the late 1890s. The period of German dominance between 1871 and 1918 brought a whole new architectural style to a key area of the city - almost creating two separate cities. The German area, to the north-east of the old French city, feels very different with its imposing, and almost oppressive, Wilhelmine architecture in a range of public buildings and in private houses. But whilst the buildings may be heavy the culture of the period was perhaps more liberal - Albert Schweizer, the Nobel peace laureate, taught at the university during this period, and the city's main concert halls and the opera house were built under German rule.
Today the German influence in Strasbourg seems to lie largely in its tourists - vast numbers of German groups thronging the older parts of the city. Most seem to speak no French, and restaurants can keep them out by not offering German translations of their menus. But get into the main shopping streets, out into the residential areas, the parks, or suburban zones and Strasbourg reverts to being a French city. On the other hand, those Strasbourg shopkeepers and restaurateurs who do want German clientele speak better German than I have heard from any other French. A car park attendant lamented to me that he now needed to concentrate on his English - the language for the future - and had signed up for evening classes.
But Strasbourg seems to me an interesting case - part of France until 1871, then part of Germany until 1918, reverting to France until 1940, reincorporated into Germany then until 1945, and finally resolutely part of France ever since. Someone born in Strasbourg in, say, 1865 who survived to their ninetieth year would have seen their required official language switch four times, spending 38 years living in France and 52 in Germany - possibly without ever moving house.
Unfortunately I don't know any Strasbourgers well enough (or old enough) to probe what this sort of history means to them. I suspect there are a series of different narratives used with different audiences. Many years ago I went to a son et lumière performance in Strasbourg cathedral. It was given in French, and the things that were said about Germany and the Germans in that performance could surely not have been reused in direct translation in the German language performance an hour later - perhaps I should have paid again to attend that as well.
This time I sat in a café opposite the cathedral and looked up (the wonders of having the internet in one's pocket) the short story by Alphonse Daudet entitled La Dernière Classe (The Last Class), set in 1871, where the teacher announces that today's classes will be the last held in French because tomorrow a new teacher will arrive from Berlin and all future classes will be in German. (Daudet himself was from Nîmes and mostly wrote about the south of France, but the story is a strong one with a political message).
France doesn't actually have a very good record on minority languages, officially refusing support for Breton, Basque and other languages spoken as native languages within its territory. It is ironic that Strasbourg is the seat of the Council of Europe, yet France is one of a tiny handful of European countries that has refused to sign that Council's convention on the rights of minority language speakers. French official rhetoric holds to the view that there is only one way of being French. Yet unofficially things seem to be changing. There are now some broadcasts made in Alsatian (the Germanic-based but French-inflected language traditionally spoken in the region). The regional train network has the Alsatian 'Elsass' proudly proclaimed on the carriages as well as the French version. And tourist commentaries sign off with an Alsatian greeting. The language is clearly still used - an older couple at a restaurant table next to me had an animated conversation in Alsatian.
Some years ago I gave a seminar at the University of Strasbourg and found myself in a very Germanic building, constructed during the late 1890s. The period of German dominance between 1871 and 1918 brought a whole new architectural style to a key area of the city - almost creating two separate cities. The German area, to the north-east of the old French city, feels very different with its imposing, and almost oppressive, Wilhelmine architecture in a range of public buildings and in private houses. But whilst the buildings may be heavy the culture of the period was perhaps more liberal - Albert Schweizer, the Nobel peace laureate, taught at the university during this period, and the city's main concert halls and the opera house were built under German rule.
Today the German influence in Strasbourg seems to lie largely in its tourists - vast numbers of German groups thronging the older parts of the city. Most seem to speak no French, and restaurants can keep them out by not offering German translations of their menus. But get into the main shopping streets, out into the residential areas, the parks, or suburban zones and Strasbourg reverts to being a French city. On the other hand, those Strasbourg shopkeepers and restaurateurs who do want German clientele speak better German than I have heard from any other French. A car park attendant lamented to me that he now needed to concentrate on his English - the language for the future - and had signed up for evening classes.
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