The Blue Line – the Vosges frontier 1871 to 1914
The frontier separating Alsace from France before the Great War
By way of orientation, here’s an annotated “bird’s eye” map showing the Ballon d’Alsace. These cards were very popular among soldiers writing home from the Front. Most of mine are German and the place names used are those which replaced the French names during the period of occupation.
This is an extract from a larger map, unfortunately undated, showing Elsaß Lothringen.
Towns and villages were given German names. Examples, working south:
Strassburg or Straßburg is Strasbourg
Schlettstadt is Sélestat
Markirch is Ste-Marie-aux-Mines
St Pilt is St-Hippolyte
Rappoltsweiler is Ribeauvillé
Münster is Munster
Gebweiler is Guebwiller
Sulz is Soultz
Sennheim is Cernay
Mulhausen is Mulhouse
(I have a directory of German placenames and am happy to give other translations.)
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The Blue Line - the Vosges frontier 1871 to 1914 