.

I'll give it a try.

I want to give voice to the Alsatian subculture, in the middle of Europe. I'm not even sure if I can speak for them (for us?), but since I am entangled with this region anyway, I can nonetheless present my version of it.

Alsatia can be found between the french and german borders, in the Rhine Valley, between the Vosges and the Black Forest. O yes: This is were Obama signed the new NATO Treaty lately. Strasbourg, remember? This region has changed nationality and official language four times in the last hundred years. Right now, it belongs to France, but, even more important, it is part of the European Union.

In comparison to other regions like Ireland, Basque or the Middle East, it is relatively peaceful here. There are no suicide bombers, no Underground Terrorist Armies (as far as I know). The problem is more of an identity problem: Who am I as an Alsatian? (No, not the Dog Race, thank you). It's a bit Neti-Neti, not this, not that. For Germans, we are French, and for French, German. In between these two identities, there seems to be something like a gap, a nowhere land. To build an identity on this gap, is a task for a lifetime.

'You are not born Alsatian, but you become it' as they say. In a positive sense being an Alsatian means being a cosmopolitan. The transcendence of national identities in the European Union certainly helps in that regard. But I don't want to conceal that this is an idealist solution: some people drift in extreme nationalist type of identities, either "VIVE LA FRANCE" or 'Back to the Reich' kind of thinking. Just watch this Patriotic Video and take a look at the Comment section. See?

Another thing is the language. After the Nazi Occupation was over, French became the new official language in schools and offices etc. Tomi Ungerer once told this anectode: A friend of his detested the german language after the War - it always reminded him of the Nazi Regime. One day his mother had a stroke, and when she regained consciousness, she could only speak in German, the language of her childhood. Every memory of how to speak french was gone from her memory. Her son can not understand her to this day.

It was also Tomi Ungerer who suggested this song as a National Anthem of Alsatia, and I always liked the subversive touch to it. It speaks from the gap, the inbetween place. You can change every RH quadrant, but you cannot change what I think about you.

This is already longer than two paragraphs, but I want to add two more texts. The first I wrote after I visited Mont St. Odile, and can be found here. The other is a poem by  André Weckmann, and is written in Elsasserditsch, the local dialect. I'll translate in english.

unserainer het drej gsichter

met aim lüjet mr links

met aim lüjet mr rachts

met aim lüjet mr en sich

wunderts ejch dàss aim schwindli wurd debii

our three faces: one looks at the left, one at the right, one at the inside. small wonder one gets dizzy at this.

unserainer het drej seele

aini fer wàchse

aini fer ziddig ware

aini fer d'arne

mit wellere hàn mer s bescht genosse

fer welli ware mer selig gsproche

our three souls: one for growth, one for maturation, one for harvest. which one is best for us? which one will be beatified?

unserainer het drej sproche

aini fer des

aini fer zall

un aini fer nix

wells esch welli un welli eschs net

war nix net besser àls zall un des

our three languages: one for this, one for that, one for nothing. which is which and which is not? would not 'nothing' be better than this or that?

unserainer streckt sich em e schrej

drejfach üsem kriz gerisse

unserainer labt trotzdem ewig

labt trotzdem glecklich

em rüsche vom dreifàltige wend

We straighten in a scream, ripped out threefold from our backs. we nevertheless live eternally, froward, fortunate, in the blowing of the triune wind.

--

>Five Star General of the Seven Armies, Archon of Atlantis<