“Wine and War in Alsace” Expedition

Our Wine and War in Alsace expedition takes us to a storybook land! Nestled along the western shore of the Rhine river, rising up to the wooded Vosges Mountains, Alsace is a land with a deep history, visible in the enchanting ruins of medieval castles up to the modern parliament buildings of the European Union. Alsace benefits from a rich combination of French and German influences, reflecting the areas central location in the heart of Europe.

The Franco-Prussian War and the Birth of Modern Germany

The last 150 years of Alsatian history, from 1870 thru today, have been particularly eventful, with three wars fought between what are now the European Union nations of France and Germany. The first, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, gave birth to the modern German nation, fusing Prussia, Bavaria, and numerous small German states united against the declaration of war by France’s Emperor, Napoleon III, the nephew of the great general/emperor. France was ill-prepared for war against a united Germanic force. Alsace (along with parts of northern Lorraine) were seized by the newly established German nation in the treaty ending that war, and spent the next half-century under German rule.

Trench Warfare in the Vosges Mountains in the First World War

After a brief period of mobility, World War I saw trench warfare become established up and down the Western Front stretching from Switzerland to the English Channel. In Alsace, then far western Germany, those defensive works literally started where the German/French front lines met the Swiss frontier, a point known as Kilometer Zero, then eventually climbed high across the Vosges mountains as the front line snaked north. The battles of Hartmannswillerkopf and Le Linge raged throughout 1915, high above the Alsatian plain in the rugged and rocky Vosges. The thickly timbered woods up and down the front were sawed down to create open lines of fire or blasted by artillery fire until they were wrecked, twisted and splintered. German defensive positions were hacked out of the stony, rocky soil, and reinforced with concrete. French troops attacking these works improvised trenches to avoid the withering German fire. Both battles were human meat grinders with little strategic impact other than the deaths of thousands of French and German soldiers. The intensity of the fighting slowed and both sides soon realized their strategic options here were quite limited. After Germany sued for peace and accepted an Armistice in November 1918, World War I finally came to a close. The German soldiers still defending Alsace were commanded back across the Rhine and French troops marched through Alsatian towns and streets as returning liberators. Alsace returned to France in the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

The Maginot Line in Alsace and the Fall of France, 1940.

Alsace rebuilt and attempted to recover during the interwar years. Scarred by the terrible bloodletting of World War I, French military planners sought to find a way to guard their nation against the potential of a rearmed Germany. Based on their experiences in the First World War, and French military experience dating back to the great fortress works of Vauban, the French opted to fortify the frontier with Germany. The French embarked on a massive national defense program, the Maginot Line, to construct a series of ultra-modern defensive works that were designed to hold a potential German invader at bay during the opening battles of a “next war”. These works were literally subterranean complexes, designed to house the front-line soldiers out of harm’s way while delivering interlocking artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire, supported by troops on the surface above. When war with a rearmed Germany under Adolf Hitler did come in September 1939, the Germans stunned the French and their British allies by striking thru the Ardennes forest of Belgium and Luxembourg in May 1940, forcing a crossing of the Meuse River at Sedan, splitting the Allied defenders reaching the coast of Le Havre, and defeating the French in a battle that lasted only six weeks.

Alsace under Nazi rule

The Germans quietly annexed Alsace after completing their victory over France in June 1940 and a rump French state was established in Vichy. Construction began, early in 1941, on a new concentration camp, Natzweiler-Struthof, near the small Alsatian village of Natzweiler. Situated high in the deeply forested Vosges mountains, the site was bitterly cold in the winter and sun-baked in the summer months. The new camp served as a detention site for resistance fighters in France and other newly occupied nations of Western Europe, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Struthof was not a “death camp” like Auschwitz or Treblinka, established for the genocide of Jews and Gypsies, but as the fortunes of war turned against the Nazis, it served as a forced labor camp featuring brutal conditions, sadistic guards, and draconian punishments for the most trivial offense. By the fall of 1944, there were about 7,000 inmates in the main camp, with another 20,000 distributed in sub-camps across Alsace, Lorraine, and the German states of Baden and Wurttemberg. From May 1941 to March 1945, between 19-20,000 inmates died in the Natzweiler-Struthof KL camp system.

Invasion, Counter-Attack, and the Liberation of Alsace

After the Allies returned to France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, two months of bloody combat ensued in Normandy. Allied material superiority, especially in air power and artillery, eventually forced a breakout and pursuit to the east to liberate Paris and all of France. A second Allied landing, on the French Mediterranean coast, eventually linked up with the main force and these American and Free French forces advancing northward eventually manned the far right of the Allied front as it approached Germany. Alsace would be the final bastion of French soil left to be liberated from Nazi rule. Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in the West, the Battle of the Bulge, included secondary attacks in northern Alsace, Operation Nordwind. This fighting included fierce tank battles around Hatten, in northern Alsace. After the Bulge and Nordwind desperation offensives were halted in their tracks, Allied forces fought to complete the liberation of Alsace. In the Battle of the Colmar Pocket, desperate fighting leveled many Alsatian villages. Finally, in February 1945, the German army was finally thrown across the Rhine River and back into Germany by U.S. and Free French soldiers. America’s most decorated soldier of World War II, Audie Murphy from Greenville, Texas, just east of Dallas, won the Congressional Medal of Honor in this fighting, single-handedly stopping a German counter-attack by firing a machine gun from the top of a burning U.S. tank destroyer.

The Culinary Fruits of Alsace

Alsace is a rich and vibrant agricultural area, world-renowned for its outstanding white wines, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. The region also features a delightful sparkling wine (hint: don’t call it Champagne!) Crémant d’Alsace, the next best selling sparkling wine in France. Alsace also has a rich tradition with beer, with breweries large and small, and distilled spirits such as Eau de Vie (Water of Life), a brandy or cognac made from the many fruits of the region. You might be surprised what can be turned into Eau de Vie!

The region is also well-known for its distinctive cheeses, foremost Munster, which has no similarity whatsoever with the American sliced orange-rind cheese that shares this name. A wide-variety of fruits, cabbage (often featured in Choucroute Garnie, quite different from jarred Sauerkraut!),

For those interested in fine-dining, Alsace features numerous Michelin guide restaurants who combine the bountiful local produce, including cabbage, seasonal fruits, pork and game. Foie gras is an Alsatian speciality made from goose and duck liver.

For the more frugal diners, Tarte flambée is a flatbread featuring regional smoked bacon, onions, and fromage blanc. As in nearby Germany, large freshly baked soft, salted pretzels, Bretzel, are sold everywhere. On warmer days, ice cream can be found in every town, for shoppers needing a cold, sweet treat. Alsatian breads and pastries, including the regional Kugelhopf specialty, are delightful. You will not go hungry!

Come join our next Wine and War in Alsace expedition to see, taste, and experience first-hand the many delights the region has to offer. The scenery is gorgeous. Alsatian food, wine, and beer are mouthwatering! The history of the region is rich, varied, deeply moving, and all explorable within short excursions from our delightful base in Colmar. There is truly something for everyone, in every season, in Alsace! Come see it with Gute Fahrt Travels!