In the border's shadow: Reimagining urban spaces in Strasbourg, 1918-39

Abstract

This article explores controversies over festivities and monument construction in interwar Strasbourg. After the return of Alsace to France in 1918, these battles became emblematic of broader debates about the region’s place in France and relationship with Germany, as different groups and individuals in Paris and Strasbourg used them to promote their views of the reintegration of Alsace into France. In these debates, the dominant understanding of Strasbourg treated the city as the limits of French territory, and a frontier with Germany. But this idea was challenged by ideas of the city as the heart of a transnational, cross border community, or a regional capital. These ideas co-existed, but were contested and were not articulated simultaneously. Through a discussion of the use of these ideas in debates over urban spaces in Strasbourg, this article traces how attitudes towards borders change over time, and vary according to the political context.