| This dissertation focuses on Germany's and France's handling of former enemy veterans and war widows in the disputed borderland of Alsace from 1871 to 1953. During this period, the province changed hands in 1871, 1918, 1940, and 1945 at the conclusion of military engagements. Each transfer of sovereignty left the newly empowered state with a significant population of Alsatian veterans who fought for the opposing power in the previous conflict, as well as women whose husbands died fighting for the recently divested state. The project focuses on how these two nationally ambiguous groups attempted to reconstruct postwar lives, relationships with one another, and the newly sovereign state, not just once, but four times. Individual subject chapters include studies of postwar citizenship options, pensions, the incorporation of the Alsatian male population into the victor's army, the ex-enemy soldiers' participation in veterans' associations, and postwar memory and memorialization projects. Studying the actions of the victors and vanquished in Alsace facilitates my interrogation of the notions and practices of German and French citizenship, issues of identity, and the evolution of the welfare state. The German and French states utilized policies that combined elements of forgiveness, benevolence, and coercion to simultaneously validate their return to sovereignty in Alsace and purge the province of nationally suspect elements. The inclusive and exclusionary strategies of the newly sovereign powers highlighted and challenged their own national self-conceptions and demonstrated officials' recognition that national reintegration must occur on multiple levels beyond political and juridical changes in citizenship status. |
