St-Hippolyte 68 – The Blue Line – the Vosges frontier 1871 to 1914

Un Malgré-Nous – 1945: the bleak ending to ‘A Summer Excursion’

My last blog post mentioned the role played by young René Oster working in his parents’ popular auberge at le Moulin de St-Hippolyte. During the Second World War, René was forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht, captured by the Russians and died in the prison camp at Tambow.

René was a Malgré-Nous – one of a hundred thousand Alsacien men and thirty thousand men from Moselle who were conscripted against their will into the Wehrmacht or the Waffen-SS after the forcible annexation of France in 1940 and compelled to fight against their country. (In a significant difference from the annexation of 1870, Alsace and Moselle remained legally French in 1940.) Malgré-Nous means ‘in spite of ourselves’. The majority who died in prison camps died in terrible, degrading conditions and near-starvation at Tambow. The fate of the Malgré-Nous is outside the scope of this blog, but there is considerable information available online, particularly at the excellent site http://www.malgre-nous.eu/ The list of names and their fates is harrowing and desolate.

By way of acknowledgement of the life of the young man who grew up at le Moulin de St-Hippolyte, I want simply to share the memorial to the Malgré-Nous at Ribeauvillé, Haut-Rhin.

Photographs my own, 2006.

Appendix

Inscription on the memorial

En hommage aux victimes de l’incorporation de forces des Alsaciens-Mosellans dans l’armée allemande lors de la guerre de 1939-1945. Ils étaient 130000 à partir contre leur gré, au mépris de toutes les conventions internationales, évitant à leurs familles d’affreuses représailles. Afin que le souvenir de cette tragédie jamais ne s’éteigne, ce monument leur est dédié. [Memorial donated by la Fédération de Tambow Brunstatt]

Location of the memorial

Jardin de Ville, route de Guémar, Ribeauvillé, Haut-Rhin

René Oster

These are René’s details taken from Tambov-Kirsenov, Une Liste de 1136 noms – a transcription from the Fiches du Volksbund – [Fiches du Volksbund transmises par Claude Herold sur la base d’une liste de 1136 noms publiée par Régis Baty dans son livre « Informations de Russie sur les Malgré-Nous »] which is available on http://www.malgre-nous.eu/

OSTER René 1925

◾ Nachname : Oster

◾ Vorname : René Daniel Martin

◾ Dienstgrad : Grenadier

◾ Geburtsdatum : 21.03.1925

◾ Geburtsort : Saint-Hippolyte

◾ Todes-/Vermisstendatum : 16.01.1945

◾ Todes-/Vermisstenort : Kgf. in Tambow

A summer excursion – le Moulin de St-Hippolyte

It’s the turn of the century. It’s a summer Sunday in Alsace: there are hours of warm sun to enjoy and friends to meet. Where better for an excursion than St Pilter Mühle, le Moulin de St-Hippolyte? A relaxed six km walk from St-Hippolyte, within an easy stroll from the station, the popular “Brüachmuehl” is a favourite rendezvous for local villagers and the townspeople of Sélestat.

Posted 1906

The auberge of le Moulin de St-Hippolyte was run by Daniel Oster, succeeded by his son Emile Oster, his wife and their son René. It was situated in the area of small waterways which feed into the river Ill on the fertile plain at the foot of the wine growing corridor. The ancient mill buildings included stables, a barn and an auberge surrounding a courtyard where tables and chairs were always set out. Every Sunday, pleasure-seekers descended on the auberge, gathering with their friends to eat, drink and relax. The cold water of the mill channel was clear enough to swim in and some visitors from Sélestat even arrived by boat. While Madame Oster and René brought out bottles of wine and kept glasses topped up, Emile played his accordion. Some people sang, some danced and the beer flowed liberally. Madame apparently kept the happy crowds in order!

It wasn’t only a summer destination. When the waterways and pools froze, Sunday skaters enjoyed heading for le Moulin where they could revitalise themselves with Madame Oster’s vin chaud. It was a venue for all seasons.

Nor was its purpose simply pleasure. Harvesting on the ried (the plain) was tough work under the relentless summer sun. During the heyday of manual agriculture, before full mechanisation, farm labourers spent long, exhausting days harvesting an area with little natural shelter. Le Moulin provided essential refreshment, some shade and a place where horses and working cattle plagued by horseflies could shelter, rest and drink.

In the bitter winter, the lumberjacks from the Sélestat area arrived to deal with the huge trunks cut from the frozen forests. They used small horses which had exceptional endurance and transported the trunks by wagon to the station of St-Hippolyte where they were despatched up and down the Rhine valley. These workers lodged in the barn of the auberge close to the stables where their little horses rested.

The happy times at “Brüachmuehl” ended forever in 1944. After American troops liberated St-Hippolyte, the Germans defended the plain areas. Emile Oster and his wife sheltered for a few days with a friend’s parents, but, anxious about their livestock, returned to their home. American artillery bombardment entirely destroyed the Moulin de St-Hippolyte, which burned to the ground and Emile and Madame Oster perished with their property. René Oster, their only child, had been forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht and captured by the Russians. He had already died in the POW camp of Tambov.

This…

le Moulin -front – 2014

le Moulin – rear – 2014

… is what remains of that joyful era. A few stones, part of a pillar, an ancient fruit tree, some burned tiles, some bricks, all now entwined with brambles and weeds. The mill river is overgrown with weeds. If you pause silently and contemplate, you can just about imagine the pleasure of the languid brook, the cobbled courtyard, the dappled shade and the warm sunsets. The atmosphere is charged, still, apprehensive. You might not wish to linger.

Please continue to the next blog post: Un Malgré-Nous: the bleak ending

The war memorial at St-Hippolyte, Haut-Rhin (Alsace)

How to find the site

Travelling north along the RN 83 from Ribeauvillé, leave in the direction of Sélestat at junction 18. Very soon on your right you come to a ruined former hotel surrounded by trees and undergrowth. Immediately next to this is a small track which takes you to the Léonhart gravel pit. You will soon pass the memorial to Lancaster ND-781 on your left. Park near the gravel pit. Walk straight along the path (with fields on your left) and after about five minutes you will come to the site of St-Pilter Mühle, le Moulin de St-Hippolyte.

Alternatively, after you have parked, you can follow the marked trail Sentier d’interprétation Ried Paysan which shows how the landscape has been exploited and preserved, and the impact of human activity on the ecosystem. This takes under two hours at a relaxed pace and you’re sure to see wildlife.

Source:

Les Cigognes, Bulletin Communal de St-Hippolyte, number 13, 1989, the recollections of Antoine Heyberger whose parents sheltered the Osters during the battle.
Postcards and photographs my own.

Royal travels (an occasional look at the various Kaisers’ visits to Elsaß-Lothringen*)

One of the first public buildings built by the new Reichsland authority was the fine central station in Strasbourg (1883), designed by Jacobstahl, an architect from Berlin. In the departure hall, two fabulous gold-framed murals by Knackfuss celebrated the integration of Alsace and Lorraine into the Empire while reminding the traveller of a past period of unity.

One depicted the arrival of Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa in Haguenau in 1164, the year he awarded a city charter to this small town which he had fortified and where he had chosen to site his imperial residence. Haguenau (Hagenau in German) is north of Strasbourg. “Im alten Reich”

The other shows Kaiser Wilhelm I and Crown Prince Friedrich arriving in Strasbourg in 1877 to inspect fortifications. “Im neuen Reich”

(Above: Card posted April 1908. The two women in the centre welcoming him are wearing regional costumes of Alsace and Lorraine.)

The murals were an assertion of historic unity and German authority. Naturally, they were taken down when the city was restored to France and I believe they are lost. The SNCF station now includes the TGV hub.

The arrival of Kaiser Wilhelm II at a station clearly involved flags, bunting, grand motor cars and assorted worthies. Here he is making his way to a car at the station of the small wine-growing village of St-Hippolyte (St Pilt in German).

(Card posted August 1912)

The station is now derelict and rather intimidating with large barking dogs roaming the grounds. I photographed it almost exactly one hundred years later in July 2012.

The card gives no indication about where the Kaiser and his entourage were travelling to, but St-Hippolyte is very convenient for his castle, Hohkönigsburg, in French Haut-Kœnigsbourg, which overlooks St-Hippolyte and the surrounding villages and vineyards. When Kaiser Wilhelm II took ownership of Hohkönigsburg, it was in ruins after fires and failed restoration projects. The nearby town of Sélestat owned the castle but, unable to fund its reconstruction, it offered to the Kaiser in 1899.

(Before – castle ruin at the summit)

(Before – card posted 1901)

After:

The potential to restore a fabulous castle on a magnificently prominent site was irresistible and Wilhelm II embarked on an ambitious project which would signal to all that Alsace was again part of the Empire. Between 1900 and 1908 this potent political symbol was painstakingly rebuilt in the style of a fifteenth century mountain fortress. Like the station in Strasbourg, it was yet another public building powerfully reinforcing the vision of Alsace aligned within his Empire – permanently.

Today it is an immensely popular tourist attraction: vast numbers of visitors go there each year. For this reason, I have not been inside Haut-Kœnigsbourg: I consider it’s best viewed from a distance.

(Left and below, photographed from St-Hippolyte)

Wilhelm II never lived at Haut-Kœnigsbourg: I believe he never intended to. Locally it was a much criticised symbol of distrust and dislike. Even the pageant of its official opening took place in a deluge. It was not entirely finished in his reign: within five years of its completion, the storms of war were breaking across Europe.