Heimatsammlung (Strassburg)

The title here is deliberately bilingual. Sometimes German, sometimes French, the city has usually been the cultural and commercial fulcrum of links between Germany and France, but in harder times, it could be a border town garrisoned against a hostile enemy.
I'm showing here some examples, mainly from my personal collection for Strassburg/Strasbourg, to show a timeline of the city.
I have no family links with the city, but as a schoolboy became fascinated with the idea of being a "European citizen" and the aim of the Conseil de l'Europe, encouraging Europe to work together (well, there is some debate...) while keeping regional differences. A Heimatsammlung for this city shows its varying fortunes as a hub of international exchange or as a bastion of national defence.
The cathedral, in mainly high Gothic style (illustrated here on an early postcard of c1900), was largely built from 1225, but incorporates some earlier features, e.g. the choir in romanesque form. The north tower, financed by the sale of indulgences, was completed in 1439 and made the cathedral the world's tallest extant mediaeval building. The planned matching south tower was never built, owing to due to shortages of funds, changed attitudes to church building in the Reformation, and structural problems. Thus, the unusual single tower cathedral has become an instantly recognised symbol of Alsace.

Although Strasbourg was annexed by Louis XIV of France in 1681 and defences built against the Germans, it kept many of its commercial links with other towns of the Holy Roman Empire. However, the new régime brought a break in postal connections across the Rhine. Merchants were obliged to use trade travellers to carry mail themselves to Strasbourg, where a commercial forwarder would arrange the letter to be sent on through the French mail system, for a fee or as a favour. Shown here is a letter of 1730 from Frankfurt, carried privately to Strasbourg, where the forwarder Jean Jacques de Beyer arranged for it to be mailed through the French post ("STRAS" straightline cancel of Strasbourg) to its final destination in Nancy.

The French departments were created in 1791, replacing Ancien Régime provinces, as the first administrative level below the central state. Former boundaries were changed and most departments were named after rivers or geographical features, in order to reduce old loyalties to Royalist nobility. Strasbourg became capital of Department 67, Bas Rhin (Lower Rhine) - which it still is today. Shown here is another privately carried letter, from Basel in Switzerland, put in the postal mail at "67 / STRASBOURG" and sent to Colmar, 1797.

This proclamation of 25 Nivose An 4 (15 January 1796) provides actual signatures of the seven members of the revolutionary administration of Bas-Rhin, at Strasbourg. The signatories were Camille Barbier (President), G. Michel Treiber, Louis Lentz, Louis Liechtlé, J. Chrétien Hübschmann, J. Francois André (executive commissioner of the Directoire), and Antoine Fiesse (secretary general). Examples were sent to all other departments (this one was mailed to the Dept de la Loire) so that revolutionary orders and communications from other fraternal departments could be verified as being authentic and genuine, rather than forgeries by counter-revolutionary imposters.

The Armée du Danube was formed by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan during the Revolution, with a view of conquering the Upper Danube region. Initially repulsed by the Archduke Charles, it fell back on Strasbourg. This official letter of 7 Messidor An VII (25 June 1799) comes from this time, with its HQ in Strasbourg, and relates to requisitioning lodgings for the military. Later in 1799 this Army was regrouped with the Armée du Rhin under General Masséna and beat Austrian and Russian forces at the battle of Zurich.

The Armée du Rhin was created on 14th December 1791 to defend France's eastern frontier, where the Austrians were massing along the borders of the Rhine and threatening Strasbourg. This letter (year III of the Republic) from the Director of the Military Hospital in Strasbourg complains of the excessive demands of paperwork at a time when more critical matters were on hand.

Facing imminent attack by the Austrians, on 25th April 1792, the mayor of Strasbourg, Philippe Friedrich Dietrich, asked his guest, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle to compose a martial song to help rally the troops. The result, "Chanson de Guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" (probably to a score by Viotti of Piedmont) was dedicated to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian fighting for the French. The words "Allons enfants de la Patrie / Le jour de gloire est arrivé..." were taken up by volunteers from Marseille, hence it acquired its common name "La Marseillaise" and eventually became the French national anthem.
Strasbourg did come under attack a few days later by the Austrian forces but they were repulsed at the Battle of Valmy. Did the song save the day? The majority of troops raised locally were German-speaking Alsatians, therefore their version of the song was "Auf, Brüder, auf dem Tag entgegen..." - another example of the mixed Franco-German nature of Alsace.
The centenary of the death of Rouget de Lisle was commemorated in 1936 by an issue of two French stamps.

In 1804 Napoleon was made Emperor, and consolidated his conquests and administrative rule in the areas of Europe controlled by the French armies. The virile anticlericism of the Revolution was relaxed and frontiers became more open. A letter of 1804 demonstrates the new Europe - an ecclesiastical letter in Latin from Liège (today Belgium) to the bishop of Waitzen (today Vác in Hungary) was directed through Strasbourg to reach its destination - Strasbourg had become the transit point for the new Napoleonic Europe.

Louis XVIII was restored to power with Allied support, following the defeat of Napoléon. The return to peace opened the doors again to trade and shipping across Europe. This letter of 1818 from DANZIG to Bordeaux reports on shipping and commodities and arrived through the French entry post office ALLEMAGNE PAR STRASBOURG, then via HAUTESANE (presumably Haute-Saone) and on to the firm Gaden & Klipsch, German shippers from Magdeburg who had based themselves as wine shippers on the Chartrons quay in Bordeaux in 1803. Another example of Franco-German enterprise with Strasbourg as the fulcrum.

Constructed by Vauban in 1692, and extended 1731 and 1735, the hospital was still in use for its intended purpose in 1826 when this letter was written from METZ (straightline cancel) to a M. Meynier, assistant Major at the hospital.