Alsace is often connected with Lorraine, because they lie on either side of the Vosges mountains and control the important passes between France and Germany.

The important city of Strasbourg lies on the Rhine, since Roman times the border between these two powerful countries. The rest of Alsace is mostly rural, relying on timber, wine and country produce.

Schweitzer used to say the Alsatians benefitted by being between their great neighbours – they ate as much as the Germans and as well as the French. But in fact they suffered a great deal, because whenever there was a war between France and Germany, Alsace became a battlefield. And when the war was over, Alsace and Lorraine would become the property of whichever side won.

Thus, because the Franco-Prussian war had ended in victory for Germany a few years before Schweitzer’s birth, he was born a German citizen. This had serious consequences for him and his wife later. But after World War I, in which Germany was defeated, Alsace again became French.

Schweitzer himself was bi-lingual – in fact tri-lingual, since there is also an Alsatian dialect, a sort of rough mixture of German and French, with local additions.

Alsace is also a great wine-growing country, and Schweitzer used to be proud that the year of his birth, 1875, was a good vintage year.

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