Strasbourg et son Université allemande : figures du pangermanisme
In: Revue des sciences sociales de la France de l'Est, Band 20, Heft 1, S. 6-17
The Imperial University of Strasbourg and Pan-Germanism.
Marie-Noële Denis
Among the ideologies which, in the 19th century cherished the dream of European unity, none was probably more realistic, more aggressive and more efficient than Pan-Germanism. In Strasbourg, the creation of an imperial university in 1872 lay within the framework of an authoritative policy of germanization.
Directly administered by Berlin, numbering almost exclusively German professors and students, the Emperor Wilhelm University constituted a foreign body in the city. Professors and students were not integrated into the local society and formed, in the newly-built districts of the city, a colonial type enclave. In contrast, the francophile Alsatian bourgeoisie remained attached to the older parts of the city. This spatial and social split testifies to the failure of the assimilation policy and still weighs heavily even nowadays on the relationships between Strasbourg and her university.