Personifications of Alsace and Lorraine in a German postcard. Lorraine looks to France, but Alsace to Germany, a point made by the poem.
Dass Lothringia schaut nach Frankreich hinDas tritt hier deutlich zu Tage.Alsatia hat einen andren Sinn,Das macht geographische Lage!That Lorraine looks to FranceThis is clearly evident here.Alsatia has another sense,That makes geographical location!
"Here are my aims in this war. I fight firstly because there is a war and I am a soldier, secondly because this was inevitable, thirdly because I do not want to become a German, fourthly because they have arrived in our country and we must strive to make them leave or at least prevent them advancing further, and fifthly because they must pay for the destruction they have caused . . . As for Alsace Lorraine, I could not care less."
Summary by a soldier of the French 272nd Infantry Regiment on his war aims at the end of 1917, when the Allies had suffered clear defeats in Russia's departure from the war following the Bolshevik Revolution, and in Italy's defeat in the Battle of Caporetto. The French lost the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in the Franco Prussian war of 1870–71.
Paths of Glory: The French Army 1914-18 by Anthony Clayton, pp. 158–159, copyright © Anthony Clayton 2003, publisher: Cassell, publication date: 2005
1917-12-23, 1917, December, morale, Alsace Lorraine, Alsace-Lorraine, Alsace-Lorraine personified
