A special stamp for the event, a gala, ephemeral works of art and even a historical reconstruction of the siege of the city… The Territoire de Belfort will largely celebrate its centenary from this Friday 11 March. Everything stacks a century after its creation.
That Saturday (yes, yes, we checked!) of 1922, the publication of a decree had then allowed the administrator of the district, Abel Maisonobe, to become its prefect. “This officially marked the birth of the department,” explains Jean-Christophe Tombirini, deputy director of the archives of the Territoire de Belfort. “It also ended a historical ambiguity. Which had been going on for just over fifty years.
Why ? Because Belfort and 105 surrounding municipalities have long been linked to the Haut-Rhin. “We had been following the destiny of Alsace since 1324 and when the French departments were created in 1790, we were logically part of them,” continues the specialist. We lived there quietly until 1870 and the war against Prussia. »
“Important defensive position”
The French defeat and the armistice then changed everything. “Bismarck demanded the annexation of Alsace and Moselle so we should have been attached but Thiers, the head of government, refused. He wanted to keep Belfort because it was an important defensive place. Negotiations were tough but in May 1871 the Treaty of Frankfurt was signed with 105 villages and Belfort remaining French. It is the line of the watershed which separates the basin of the Rhine from the basin of the Rhône which had been chosen as the border. And a provisional administrator, not a prefect, has been appointed to manage this new set. It was only supposed to be temporary…”
Except that the anomaly therefore lasted a little over fifty years. However, the French victory in the First World War could have put an end to it. “Yes but no”, laughs Jean-Christophe Tombirini. “In order not to lose the support of Alsatians and Mosellens who had been Germans for a long time, certain laws were not imposed on them, such as that of the separation of Church and State, on associations, etc. Under these conditions, it was impossible to attach ourselves to the Haut-Rhin. »
One more (minor) difference
The birth of the Territoire de Belfort was not far away. She arrived unofficially during the vote on the budget of the finance law, in December 1921. “When we learned that a new post of prefect was going to be created. The local newspapers of the time were delighted. A few months later, it was official with the assigned number 90. Without respecting the alphabetical order which could have placed it in 83rd place, after Tarn-et-Garonne. “No, we were put after the last of the time, Yonne (89), it was simpler that way,” smiles the archivist.
Since then, the Territoire de Belfort has been a department like any other. Neither the smallest (which is Paris), nor the least populated (Lozère). The only difference: it does not have an assize court. Crimes and other serious misdeeds are judged in Vesoul, in Haute-Saône.