Colmar

(Alsatian: Colmer; German between 1871-1918 and 1940-1945: Kolmar)

Colmar is the capital of the department of Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine) in Alsace, situated in northeastern France on the Lauch River, 43 miles (69 km) southwest of Strasbourg. Although Colmar is noted for its many cultural attractions and as the trade center for Alsatian wine, it is also a manufacturing city. Its chief industry is textile milling; metalworking and food processing are important as well.

Typical of the old town are narrow, winding streets leading to attractive squares and lined with Renaissance houses (often half-timbered) or offset by courtyards containing small shops. Among the places of interest are the Church of St-Martin (13th-14th century) at the town center, the Old Custom House (1480), the Tanners' Quarter, "Little Venice" with its canals, the wooden-galleried Maison Pfister (1537), the Dominican Church with 14th-15th century stained glass, the Maison des Têtes (1609) covered with small sculptured heads, and the Unterlinden Museum with its magnificent altarpiece (about 1515) by Mathis Grünewald.

Frankish in origin, Colmar became a free Imperial city in 1226. It passed to France in the 17th century, and its history thereafter was that of Alsace. Population: 68,843 (2009 census).

Haguenau

(Alsatian: Hàwenau; German: Hagenau)

Haguenau, a commune in the Bas-Rhin department, is second in size only to Strasbourg, some 19 mi. (30 km) to the south. To the north of the town, the Forêt de Haguenau is the largest undivided forest in France.

A rapidly growing city, Haguenau's population increased (56%) from 22,644 residents in 1968 to 35,260 in 2009. Its metropolitan area has grown (49%) from 39,762 residents in 1968 to 59,092 in 2009.

Haguenau dates from the beginning of the 12th century, and owes its origin to the erection, by the dukes of Swabia, of a hunting lodge on an island in the Moder River in former Germany. The mediæval German King and Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa fortified the settlement and gave it town rights, important for further development, in 1154. On the site of the hunting lodge, he founded an imperial palace, in which were preserved the "Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire", i.e. the jewelled imperial crown, sceptre, imperial orb, and sword of Charlemagne.

Subsequently Haguenau became the seat of the Landvogt of Hagenau, the German imperial advocatus in Lower Alsace. Richard of Cornwall, King of the Romans, made it an imperial city in 1257. In the 14th century, it housed the executive council of the Décapole, a defensive and offensive association of ten German towns in Alsace against French aggression and related political instability. In the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Alsace was ceded to France, which had repeatedly invaded and looted the region before. In 1673 King Louis XIV had the fortifications as well as the remains of the king's palace razed in order to extinguish German traditions. Haguenau was recaptured by German troops in 1675, but it was taken by the French two years later, nearly being destroyed by fire set by French troops while looting.

In 1871, Haguenau was ceded to the German Empire due to the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, and made part of Alsace-Lorraine using the original name Hagenau.

The Haguenau Airport was built in 1916 by the German military to train fighter and bomber pilots to fight in World War I. It was part of the independent Republic of Alsace-Lorraine after World War I, but it was annexed by France shortly thereafter in 1919.

Mulhouse

Mulhouse town center

(Alsatian: Milhüsa or Milhüse; German: Mülhausen, i.e. house of mills)

Mulhouse is an industrial city in the department of Haut-Rhin, Alsace, in northeastern France. Located on the Ill River and the Rhône-Rhine Canal, it is 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Basel, Switzerland. Mulhouse is second only to Strasbourg among Alsace's most important industrial cities. Its economy has traditionally been based on the textile industry and, since the beginning of the 20th century, on the manufacture of potash fertilizer. France's largest potash deposits lie close to the city. Machinery, steel tubing, chemicals, armaments, and plastics are also produced there.

By the end of the 13th century Mulhouse had become an imperial free city. It allied itself with the Swiss confederation in 1515. When the Peace of Westphalia (1648) awarded Alsace to France, Mulhouse retained its independence. It joined France only in 1798, 52 years after its first muslin-printing factory had been established. The textile industry expanded rapidly in the 19th century. Mulhouse was included in the cession of Alsace to Germany in 1871. The city reverted to France in 1918, but it was held by the Germans again during World War II. Population: 112,786 (2009 census).

Wissembourg

(South Franconian: Weisseburch; German: Weißenburg, i.e. white castle)

Wissembourg is a small commune and sub-prefecture in the Bas-Rhin department, situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany, approximately 37 mi. (60 km) north of Strasbourg and 22 mi. (35 km) west of Karlsruhe. Its population is 8,090 (2009).

The Benedictine abbey around which the town has grown was founded in the 7th century, perhaps under the patronage of Dagobert I. The abbey was supported by vast territories. Of the 11th-century buildings constructed under the direction of Abbot Samuel, only the Schartenturm and some moats remain. The town was fortified in the 13th century. The abbey church of Saint-Pierre et Paul, erected in the same century under the direction of Abbot Edelin was secularized in the French Revolution and despoiled of its treasures; in 1803 it became the parish church, resulting in the largest parish church of Alsace, only exceeded in size by the cathedral of Strasbourg. At the Abbey in the late 9th century, the monk Otfried composed a gospel harmony, the first substantial work of verse in German.

In 1354, Charles IV made it one of the grouping of ten towns called the Décapole that survived annexation by France under Louis XIV in 1678 and was extinguished with the French Revolution. On 25 January 1677, a great fire destroyed many houses and the Hôtel de Ville; its replacement dates from 1741-52. Many early structures were spared: the Maison du Sel (1448), under its Alsatian pitched roof, was the first hospital of the town. There are many 15th- and 16th-century timber-frame houses, and parts of the walls and gateways of the town. The Maison de Stanislas was the retreat of Stanislas Leszczinski, ex-king of Poland, from 1719 to 1725, when the formal request arrived, 3 April 1725 asking for the hand of his daughter in marriage to Louis XV.

The first Battle of Wissembourg took place near the town in 1793. The "Lines of Wissembourg" (French: Lignes de Wissembourg; German: Weißenburger Linien) originally made by the great general Villars in 1706, were famous. They were a line of works extending to Lauterburg nine miles to the southeast. Like the fortifications of the town, only vestiges remain today, although the city wall is still intact for stretches. Austrian General von Wurmser succeeded in briefly capturing the lines in October 1793, but was defeated two months later by General Pichegru of the French Army and forced to retreat, along with the Prussians, across the Rhine River.

Wissembourg formed the setting for the Romantic novel L'ami Fritz (1869) co-written by the team of Erckmann and Chatrian, which provided the material for Mascagni's opera L'Amico Fritz.

Another Battle of Wissembourg took place on 4 August 1870. It was the first battle of the Franco-Prussian War. The Prussians were nominally commanded by the Crown Prince Frederick, but ably directed by his Chief of Staff, General Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal. The French defeat allowed the Prussian army to move into France. The Geisberg monument commemorates the battle; the town's cemetery holds large numbers of soldiers, including the stately tomb of French general Abel Douay who was killed in combat.

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