Alsace-Lorraine by Daniel Blumenthal — Read

German official statistics give on the 1st of December, 1871, a population of 1,554,738 inhabitants. The last Census of 1910 gives 1,874,014 souls (967,625 men, 906,389 women). This population includes about 1,500,000 Alsaces-Lorraines of French descent, who themselves or their parents were born in Alsace-Lorraine before the 1st of May, 1871, and who, except for the Treaty of Frankfort, would have been French. The aliens (notably the Italians, French, Swiss, and the people of Luxembourg) make up a contingent of about 75,000. The rest, 300,000 in all, are German immigrants since the War of 1870-71, and their descendants, including the military and government officials with their families.

The original French people of the ceded territories were allowed to preserve their French nationality on condition of making an express declaration before October 1, 1872, and to transfer, within the same extension of time, their domicile outside of Alsace-Lorraine. From the official German reports, there were about 160,000 options declared in Alsace-Lorraine, of which only 50,000 were valid. The options given in France amounted to about 380,000. The statistics of emigration and immigration for 1871-1910 give an excess of emigration of 267,639 souls. The result of the migration of the population in August, 1914, can thus be characterized: some hundred thousand Alsatians left the country, the greater part of whom settled in France. The number of the native population has remained stationary; 300,000 Germans and 75,000 foreigners must be added. The German population is almost entirely concentrated in the cities. In Metz, the immigrants make up the majority; in Strasbourg, they are a third of the population. In the country, one finds in general only a few officials.