From war to reconciliation
To question borders and identities
Author : Francois Ernenwein
This might bring to mind the green flash or the blue hour filmed by Eric Rohmer, or even the Maloja snake from Olivier Assayas's Clouds of Sils Maria: there's no proof that these phenomena actually exist. But everyone believes they've seen them. And finds good reason to dream...
The famous blue line of the Vosges looks a bit like all of that. Who hasn't heard of it? But no one has described it precisely? Who knows exactly what it is made of? Except by contemplating the Vosges mountains in the light of dawn when the fir trees on the ridges light up and release, some explain, "aerosols", isoprene or sabinene.
In truth, science doesn't really help much here. Even before the expression took hold, everything was going to lead to its being ingrained in the minds of millions of French people. It would thus mark the destiny of millions of men and women for several generations.
In the "lost provinces"
On August 4, 1870, pivotal events unfolded in Alsace. The rolling hills became the scene of a crushing French defeat. From the Geisberg, a mountain overlooking Wissembourg, the French infantry was routed by Bavarian troops.
The first defeat, against a backdrop of disorganization within the French army stemming from officer negligence and logistical problems, paved the way for Sedan... Despite the heroic but ultimately futile charge of the cuirassiers at Reichshoffen, Bismarck triumphed. Alsace and Lorraine would eventually be wrested from the nation.
From 1871 onward, the "lost provinces" became a source of immense French nostalgia, a constant lesson in patriotism, widely taught in schools and reinforced by those who had fled the Germans. Approximately 125,000 people left Alsace and Lorraine, taking advantage of the option provided by the Treaty of Frankfurt. After the legal emigration period expired, many young men fled to France to avoid military service in the German army.
A horizon line
However, when Jules Ferry's will was made public on March 7, 1893, the expression took some time to catch on. "I wish to rest in the same grave as my father and my sister, facing that blue line of the Vosges mountains, from where rises to my faithful heart the touching lament of the vanquished.", had written at the end of his last will this immense figure of the Third Republic (Ferry, 1993, t. VIII, p.437).
He had already used a similar formula four years earlier at an awards ceremony at the Saint-Dié school. The aesthetic dimension (the color blue) is juxtaposed with the political undertone (the lament of a defeated France). But Jules Ferry himself never advocated an aggressive policy towards Germany. And he always preferred a grand colonial policy for France to revenge.
The press seized upon his words and thus offered contrasting interpretations. For some, Jules Ferry's blue was "national," that of the Guard of the same name, heir to the Revolution. But conversely, in La Croix of March 25, the commentary on the will was primarily an opportunity for Catholics to settle some scores (and there were some!) with the man who had ardently opposed them. "No, he should not rest in Saint-Dié. The blue line of the Vosges is too graceful, too religious a setting for his hateful figure. Sainte Odile is too close; too many priests pass by, too many bells ring, too many children pray there."
A starting point
The phrase would therefore not immediately achieve widespread popularity. It was never used in the press, however lyrical it might be, when the Tour de France climbed the Ballon d'Alsace in July 1905, nor after the assassination of Jaurès in July 1914.
But it still haunts military or patriotic speeches that criticize the Republic for not being vengeful enough. The image will gradually come to support a patriotism with contrasting forms.
In 1914, at any rate, they went to the front to settle the dispute with Germany once and for all. The blue line had ceased to be merely a horizon; it had become the starting point of a reconquest... "An enormous force is assembling without a sound, a peril that arises without fear, that is what France is today. Neither boasting nor aggression: this time that belongs to others. And that is how we deserve to be able to hope, and that is how an immortal 'all the same,' more eloquent than any other, seems to come to us from the blue line of the Vosges."
The forehead mark
Indeed, the French soldiers, in their blue Alpine Chasseurs uniforms, stormed the famous line. It still ran from Luxembourg to Switzerland, marked by stone blocks. These 4,056 granite markers, 1,10 meters high and buried 50 cm deep in the mountain, were spaced approximately 60 meters apart and bore an F (for France) and a D (Deutschland) for Germany, engraved in the stone.
After the defeat of 1871, they were paid half by the victors (from marker 1 to 2008 in the Donon massif), the following half by the vanquished.
At the beginning of the First World War, near the hamlet of Rudlin, beside a magnificent waterfall, a small train sped towards the French lines and the Blue Line, which merged at Gazon du Faing. An inclined plane served as a metaphor for this reconquest. It would take another three years to come to fruition.
The sign of annexation
The departure station is located at a place called L'Ermitage at an altitude of 717 meters, and the arrival station is at over 120 meters. The gradient is 25%. A remarkable technical feat when one considers the scale of the deforestation carried out by 400 people between August and September 1915.
This was a significant contribution to the offensive, which would result in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. All along the Blue Line and at its base, the numerous cemeteries bear witness to the violence of the fighting. Some are very dramatic, others more discreet, and sometimes more moving.
In 1940, the Blue Line reappeared, heavily guarded when Alsace-Moselle was annexed by the Third Reich. It once again marked the border. The Gauleiters imposed Nazi order around Strasbourg and Metz. It would only disappear between 1944 and 1945 after very fierce battles on its flanks (the Colmar Pocket).
The emblem of reconciliation
But it remains a symbol. This time of reconciliation. It was right next to the markers that delineate the blue line, in Dabo (Moselle), that, on July 19, 1983, François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl laid the groundwork for further progress in Franco-German relations. This meeting is now largely forgotten, overshadowed by the emotion generated by the outstretched hands at Verdun a year later.
On the foothills of the Moselle Vosges mountains, near the White Zorn River, they stroll through a clearing from the century-old Jaegerhof forest lodge, where their initial discussions took place. They talk about missiles, about compensation from Germany for the "malgré-nous"—those Alsatians and Moselle residents forcibly conscripted into the German army during World War II. They also discuss the division of the Mundat Forest, a border dispute near Wissembourg, where it all began in 1870.
