Alsace-Lorraine: A special case of state-church law

Anyone who has ever taken a tour of Strasbourg Cathedral will understand why it is one of the three treasures of Alsace alongside the Humanist Library in Sélestat and the Isenheim Altarpiece in Colmar. The sunlight catches in the magical colours of the stained glass windows and spreads throughout the room between the vermilion stones of the walls, a captivating vision of the heavenly Jerusalem. These days, the cathedral is once again making a grand entrance, as Pascal Delannoy is inaugurated as the new Archbishop of Strasbourg. In addition to the beautiful backdrop, this appointment also has a special political feature: unlike in the rest of France, where the Pope can appoint bishops at will, he has to obtain the placet of the French state for the cathedrals of Strasbourg and Metz - which is actually unthinkable under French secularism. The story behind this is long, full of entanglements and great European history.

"Alsace and Lorraine have always played a special role in France," says judge Anna Imhof, who lives in Alsace, is married to a pastor there and wrote her doctoral thesis on the special features of the region's state-church law. So everything comes together for her. The reason for the region's special status lies in its history: Alsace-Lorraine was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation for a long time. Accordingly, people spoke German and felt like one of the almost infinite number of parts of the patchwork, in which people also spoke German in the most diverse variations and some of which, even the majority, were to form Germany many centuries later.

However, Alsace-Lotharingia took a different turn in history when it became part of France in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, not least as a result of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Even then, it was an exception: unlike the centre of France, which was almost exclusively Catholic, around a third of the people in Alsace and Lorraine had been Protestant since the Reformation. For a country that considered itself a Catholic country during the ancien régime, this was a foreign body. Special regulations were therefore introduced, which still exist today as "droit local" (local law). For example, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes of 1598 in 1685 in the Edict of Fontainbleau, which guaranteed religious freedom to Protestants in France, Alsace was exempt from this. "In Alsace-Lorraine, the Protestants in particular have repeatedly managed to exploit this special role and gain minority rights for themselves through very skilful politics," says Imhof. As a result, the social position of religion also developed differently than in the rest of France: while strong opposition arose there in the 17th century against the Catholic Church, which was in an authoritarian pact with absolutism, conditions were much more relaxed and balanced due to the pluralism in the French East. Anti-Catholicism and anti-clericalism simply had no basis. In the course of the French Revolution from 1789, there were again special regulations for Alsace-Lorraine, which were much gentler on the Church. For example, church property was not nationalised (with the exception of the decree of 10 December 1790) and the special rights inherited from the Holy Roman Empire were preserved. All of this was secured by Napoleon's concordat with the Vatican in 1801. In French politics, this status quo became an important marker for dealing with the eccentric on the threshold to the German lands: "Ne pas toucher aux choses de l'Alsace", just don't touch the Alsace regulations, has been a common saying since it was uttered by the then French Foreign Minister Colbert de Croissy (1629-1696) - and still is today.

Window into German biconfessionalism

The French window into German biconfessionalism was soon contested. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, which the "grande nation" lost, the newly formed German Empire annexed the region that was historically linked to it - although it had already belonged to France for more than two centuries at this point. Strasbourg and Metz became German, which can still be seen today in the cityscape of Strasbourg in particular, where some streets could have been built in Leipzig or Berlin.

For the churches in Alsace and Lorraine, belonging to Germany is particularly important today in connection with the year 1905. It was in this year that the law on the separation of church and state was passed. In the course of the 19th century, Catholic forces had become increasingly vocal in their opposition to the republic and democracy. The domestic political tensions between the restorative and republican forces culminated in the Dreyfuss Affair (1894-1905). In this context, left-wing forces won the parliamentary elections in 1902 and led to a break with the Church in 1905. The French Republic cancelled the concordat with the Vatican and completely separated state and religion under the banner of secularism. Since then, no religious community in France has been recognised by the state, it does not support them, pays them no money, and there are no official connections or contacts. All churches built before 1905 belong to the state and are merely made available to religious communities.

As Alsace-Lorraine was not part of France at the time, it did not take part in this development (just as there are still special regulations for the French overseas territories, which are also exempt from this). Instead, priests there continued to be paid by the state, in the Prussian manner. However, as in France, Alsace-Lorraine also played a special role in its time in Germany with numerous special regulations. This had an impact on the population: "Here, it was not reactionary and republican forces that faced each other, but German nationalists and a German-speaking upper class, which, however, was entirely in favour of the French spirit of liberalism. The latter was also in favour of a balance between the denominations and wanted to achieve the best for the region in terms of a common identity and objectives," says Imhof. The consequences of this soon became apparent.

A concordat as a decision

After the First World War, which Germany lost, Alsace-Lorraine returned to France in 1918. What now? Concordat or secularism? In the end (not least due to pressure from the population in Alsace-Lorraine), a political decision was made by the Council of State in 1924, which implemented the old pattern of "Ne pas toucher aux choses de l'Alsace" in an exemplary manner: the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 now applied to Alsace-Lorraine again. This remained valid even after the occupation by Germany in the Second World War and through numerous political upheavals of the 20th century.

As a result, the recognised religious communities of Catholics, Protestants and Jews have a special status. Money plays a special role in this. "My husband gets his pay cheque from the French government," says Imhof - this applies to all clergy of the aforementioned denominations. There are also other state subsidies for the churches, which makes them quite wealthy by French standards. This is because in the rest of France, no state money is allowed to flow to religious communities. If this is to happen, the parties involved have to come up with dodges. Then, for example, the funding does not go to the Catholic parish, but to the public library run by it. In Alsace-Lorraine, which no longer exists as such but whose departments Moselle (diocese of Metz) and Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin (archdiocese of Strasbourg) belong to the Grand Est region, there are no such restrictions.

Also unthinkable in the centre of France: There are denominational religious education classes at schools in the three departments and theological faculties at state universities. Otherwise, only religious subjects are taught at school and anyone who wants to study theology has to go to a private, usually church-run university. In addition, the church buildings in the three departments also belong to different levels of the church, sometimes it is the parish, sometimes the diocese. Finally, the appointment of bishops is also somewhat different: while there is no contact between the state and the church in the rest of France, the state must approve the appointment of a bishop for Metz or Strasbourg by the Pope. However, this is only a matter of general political concerns, not party politics. "The state uses its law very prudently here," says Imhof. There was only a dispute in the 1980s, when the Church insisted on more self-determination after the Second Vatican Council. "The state then quickly made it clear that everything should stay the same and then the dispute was quickly resolved." Once again, the Alsatian cause was not to be touched.

A completely different reputation

All of these regulations mean that the churches in the three departments have a completely different reputation than in the rest of France, according to Imhof: "Whenever there is a social event here, there are always religious representatives next to the mayor." They all pull together. The "droit local" is also vigorously defended locally; there are hardly any initiatives to harmonise conditions with the rest of France and when they do, they regularly come to nothing. In 2013, the Conseil constitutionnel clarified that the system is constitutional. Since then, things have been more or less quiet. However, things are not quite the same between Metz and Strasbourg as they are in Germany: there is no church tax and the charitable work that is so fundamental in Germany is also the sole responsibility of the state in Moselle, Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin.

However, as history has shown, this system is characterised by a certain stagnation. Islamic communities, for example, do not seek state recognition. "They are afraid that they will jeopardise the entire system," says Imhof. They make do with little tricks that are familiar from dealing with religion in France. So there is room for improvement in terms of sustainability. Nevertheless, the people of Alsace and Lorraine are still proud of their local specialities, which they also represent in the discussion about France as a whole, even if the rest of France makes little effort to follow suit. In the easternmost tip of France, the question of the role of religion in society will probably continue to be answered for some time to come with the centuries-old formula: "Ne pas toucher aux choses de l'Alsace!"