Moselle () is the most populous department in Lorraine, in the northeast of France, and is named after the river Moselle, a tributary of the Rhine, which flows through the western part of the department. It had a population of 1,051,309 in 2023. 302,732 people, around 45% of the department's population, were evacuated to departments in central and western France during September 1939. Of those evacuated, around 200,000 returned after the war.
The United States Army liberated Moselle from Nazi Germany in the Battle of Metz in September 1944, although combat continued in the northeastern part of the department until March 1945. Moselle was returned to French governance in 1945 with the same frontiers as in 1919.
The department was hit particularly hard during the war: the American bombardments in the spring of 1944 caused widespread collateral damage; 23% of the communes in Moselle were 50% destroyed, and 8% of the communes were more than 75% destroyed.
As a result of German aggression during the war, the French Government actively discouraged the German heritage of the region, and the local German Lorraine Franconian dialects ceased to be used in the public realm. In recent years there has been a revival of the old dialects and distinct Franco-German culture of the region with the onset of open borders between France and Germany as members of the European Union's Schengen Treaty.
Geography
Moselle is part of the current region of Grand Est and is surrounded by the French departments of Meurthe-et-Moselle and Bas-Rhin, as well as Germany (states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate) and Luxembourg in the north. Parts of Moselle belong to Parc naturel régional de Lorraine.
The following are the most important rivers:
- Moselle
- Sarre
- Seille
The department is geographically organized around the Moselle valley. The region was long considered a march between Alsace and the north, remaining relatively poor until the 19th century, and was consequently less urbanized and populous than other regions at the time.
Environment
The environment has undergone heavy industrialization linked to iron deposits in Lorraine, which have artificialized valleys and river banks. Industries have created vast land holdings in the valleys by buying land from agriculturists and profiting from water rights.
Questions of environmental degradation were politicized at the end of the 19th century. Since then, one academic has argued that a consensus has been reached in the region regarding pollution, which is seen as the price of continuing the steel industry.
Principal towns
The most populous commune is Metz, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 7 communes with more than 15,000 inhabitants:
{| class=wikitable
! Commune
! Population (2019)
|-
| Metz
| style="text-align: center;" | 122,572
|-
| Thionville
| style="text-align: center;" | 42,658
|-
| Montigny-lès-Metz
| style="text-align: center;" | 21,718
|-
| Forbach
| style="text-align: center;" | 20,493
|-
| Sarreguemines
| style="text-align: center;" | 20,143
|-
| Yutz
| style="text-align: center;" | 17,391
|-
| Hayange
| style="text-align: center;" | 15,806
|}
Economy
In the 19th century, Moselle's economy was characterized by heavy industry, especially steel and iron works. After the weakening of these industries at the end of the 20th century, the department has tried to promote new economic activities based on industry and technology, such as the Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Moselle created the "Achat-Moselle" website in the 2000s to address issues of e-commerce and in-person commerce. The site helps local businesses to create pages showcasing their services, boosting their visibility and potential activity.
Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Mosellans in French.
The population has remained relatively stable since World War II and now exceeds 1 million, located mostly in the urban area around Metz and along the river Moselle.
If the Moselle department still existed in its limits of between 1815 and 1871, its population at the 1999 French census would have been 1,089,804 inhabitants. The current Moselle department, whose limits were set in 1919, had less population, with only 1,023,447 inhabitants. This is because the industrial area of Briey and Longwy lost in 1871 is more populated than the rural areas of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg gained in 1919. The southern part of the department, especially around Saulnois, has remained more rural.
A significant minority of inhabitants of the department (fewer than 100,000) speak a German dialect known as platt lorrain or Lothringer Platt (see Lorraine Franconian and Linguistic boundary of Moselle). The German dialect is found primarily in the northeast section of the department, which borders Alsace, Luxembourg, and Germany. Four sites in Moselle were included in the Atlas Linguarum Europae, to investigate the Germanic dialects used in these areas: Arzviller, Guessling, Petit-Réderching and Rodemack.
Linguistically, Platt can be further subdivided into three varieties, going from east to west: Rhenish Franconian, Moselle Franconian, and Luxembourgish.
Politics
The president of the Departmental Council is Patrick Weiten, first elected in 2011.
Presidential elections 2nd round
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2"|Election!!Winning candidate!!Party!!%!!2nd place candidate!!Party!!%
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| 2022
| Emmanuel Macron
| LREM
| 50.46
| Marine Le Pen
| FN
| 49.54
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| 2017
| Emmanuel Macron
| LREM
| 57.66
| Marine Le Pen
| FN
| 42.34
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| 2012
| Nicolas Sarkozy
| UMP
| 53.50
| François Hollande
| PS
| 46.50
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| 2007
| Nicolas Sarkozy
| UMP
| 56.56
| Ségolène Royal
| PS
| 43.44
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| 2002
| Jacques Chirac
| RPR
| 51.30
| Lionel Jospin
| PS
| 48.70
|}
Current National Assembly Representatives
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2"|Constituency!!Member!!Party
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 1st constituency
| Belkhir Belhaddad
| Renaissance
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 2nd constituency
| Ludovic Mendes
| Renaissance
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 3rd constituency
| Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé
| The Centrists
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 4th constituency
| Fabien Di Filippo
| The Republicans
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 5th constituency
| Pascal Jenft
| National Rally
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 6th constituency
| Kevin Pfeffer
| National Rally
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 7th constituency
| Alexandre Loubet
| National Rally
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 8th constituency
| Laurent Jacobelli
| National Rally
|-
|style="background-color: " |
| Moselle's 9th constituency
| Isabelle Rauch
| Horizons
|-
|}
Culture
Eastern Moselle has preserved a number of local traditions, notably the Kirb festivals celebrated in October in rural areas, Mardi Gras parades in Sarreguemines, and the August mirabelle festival in Metz which includes a variety of cultural activities.
The Opéra-Théâtre de Metz, is the oldest active theater in France and has continuously operated from the 18th century. Metz also has a number of concert halls that offer diverse events such as comedy shows and symphony orchestras.
Thionville is home to the NEST (Nord-Est Théâtre).
Transport
Moselle is served by Metz–Nancy–Lorraine Airport. However, the airport only provides limited destinations to Algeria, Greece and Morocco. Other airports such as Luxembourg Airport, Saarbrücken Airport, Strasbourg Airport and EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg are fairly used by air travellers from the area.
Law
Moselle and Alsace to its east have their own laws in certain fields. The statutes in question date primarily from the period 1871–1919 when the area was part of the German Empire. With the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France in 1919, many in central government assumed that the recovered territories would be subject to French law.
Local resistance to a total acceptance of French law arose because some of Bismarck's reforms included strong protections for civil and social rights. After much discussion and uncertainty, Paris accepted in 1924 that pre-existing German law would apply in certain fields, notably hunting, economic life, local government relationships, health insurance, and social rights. Many of the relevant statues continue to be referred to in the original German, as they have never been formally translated.
One major difference with French law is the absence of the formal separation between church and state: several mainstream denominations of the Christian church as well as the Jewish faith benefit from state funding, despite principles applied rigorously in the rest of France.
Tourism
Over the past twenty years the Conseil départemental de la Moselle has encouraged the development of tourism in the department. The creation of more hotels, camp sites, hiking trails, bicycle paths, and other tourist services have significantly increased the number of tourists in Moselle.
The Conseil départemental de la Moselle created an "Organ Trail" to display a number of the department's 650 organs, many of which were built in the area and have historic significance. The oldest organ in the department dates is in the cathedral Saint-Étienne de Metz and dates from 1537. In the 19th century, Moselle had 17 operational organ factories, although only five exist in the present day.
Moselle has numerous chateaux, manors, and fortified manors, dating largely from the 17th and 18th centuries, many of which are partially destroyed. <gallery>
File:Cathedrale Metz Nef pano.jpg|Metz Cathedral
File:Fabert, statue de Metz.JPG|Statue of Abraham de Fabert, in Metz
File:Saint-Quirin Église et Haute Chapelle.JPG|Saint-Quirin
File:Rodemack3.JPG|Rodemack, one of the most beautiful villages of France
File:Citadelle de Bitche (14).jpg|Citadel of Bitche
File:Le site médiéval du Vieux-Hombourg.jpg|Medieval heritage site of Hombourg-Haut
</gallery>
See also
- Arrondissements of the Moselle department
- Cantons of the Moselle department
- Communes of the Moselle department
- German exonyms (Moselle)
References
Further reading
- Carrol, Alison. The Return of Alsace to France, 1918-1939 (Oxford University Press, 2018).
- Zanoun, Louisa. "Language, Regional Identity and the Failure of the Left in the Moselle Département, 1871-1936." European History Quarterly 41.2 (2011): 231–254.
- Zanoun, Louisa. "Interwar politics in a French border region: the Moselle in the period of the Popular Front, 1934-1938." (PhD Diss. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), 2009) online.
External links
- Prefecture website
- Departmental Council website
- Moselle-annuaire.fr, Moselle's Websites Directory