Bezirk Lothringen (today's French: Présidence de la Lorraine, at the time translated into French: Département de la Lorraine i.e. Department of Lorraine), also called German Lorraine (Deutsch Lothringen), was a government region ("Bezirk") in the western part of Alsace-Lorraine when it was part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.
Contents
History
The Department or District of Lorraine differed from other Prussian government regions, as it was not a simple governorate. As a corporation of self-rule of the pertaining rural and urban districts and cantons, it was similar to regions in the then neighbouring Bavaria (Palatinate), which had been formed after the French model départements into which that region had been divided under French annexation. Thus the district parliaments delegated deputies to the General Council (parliament), the Bezirkstag von Lothringen (French: Conseil Général de la Lorraine). The capital of the Department of Lorraine was Metz.
Territorial composition
The department comprised the districts ("Kreise") of :
Metz, independent city (Stadtkreis)
"Kreis Bolchen", seated in Bolchen (Boulay)
"Kreis Château-Salins", seated in Château-Salins
"Kreis Diedenhofen-Ost", seated in Diedenhofen (Thionville)
"Kreis Diedenhofen-West", seated in Diedenhofen (Thionville)
"Kreis Forbach", seated in Forbach
"Kreis Metz-Land", seated in Metz
"Kreis Saarburg", seated in Saarburg (Sarrebourg)
"Kreis Saargemünd", seated in Saargemünd (Sarreguemines)
The department of Lorraine corresponds exactly to the current département of Moselle. After the outbreak of the Second World War and the defeat of France in 1940, the département of Moselle, renamed CdZ-Gebiet Lothringen, was added to the Gau Westmark on 30 November 1940.
Department presidents
(German: Bezirkspräsident/today's French: Président de district)
1871-1872 : Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, as préfet/Präfekt
1872-1873 : Botho zu Eulenburg, as department president
1873-1874 : Adolf von Arnim-Boitzenburg
1875-1876 : Robert von Puttkamer
1877-1880 : Friedrich Albrecht Karl Johann von Reitzenstein
1881-1882 : Adalbert von Flottwell
1883-1900 : Hans von Hammerstein-Loxten
1901-1912 : Johann Friedrich Alexander von Zeppelin-Aschhausen
1913-1918 : Karl von Gemmingen-Hornberg