My Alsace - Tapa dura

'In Alsace, you can't miss Hansi's paintings of idyllic village life... In 1912 and 1919 he published two picture books on the history and identity of Alsace. The most beautiful images and words from the two books are available in German or English, as you choose. They will enable tourists to enjoy the idyll and understand the identity of Alsace.' -- Alsatiques, December 2010

Alsace is a region in the east of modern-day France which changed hands four times between France and Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. When Jean-Jacques Waltz ('Hansi') was born in 1873, it was two years since the Prussian army had marched into Alsace, and the province remained under German annexation until the end of the First World War. Hansi remembered his years at the German school in Colmar as among the worst of his life. Above all, he hated the history lessons in which the teacher forced the French pupils to learn about Prussian conquests and the defeat and humiliation of Alsace. Nothing was ever said about the glorious and happy past when Alsace was a free land, joined to the ancient region of Gaul with its Celtic races. In 1912, Hansi decided to write his own History of Alsace for children. He wanted to show them how much pride they could have in their past, and to hear the story from their own side. The first edition was published in Paris and was a great success, though as a result of its satirical gibes at all things German, Hansi was given a heavy fine and warning from the German authorities in Colmar. Soon afterwards he was given a year's prison sentence for 'insulting the German officer corps'. The present book is a hand-picked selection from Hansi's L'Histoire d'Alsace and his L'Alsace Heureuse written in 1919 to celebrate the province's return to freedom. It is full of Hansi's trademark colourful and detailed pictures of Alsatian life, as well as his critical but humorous portrayal of the occupying Germans. The text is suitable for children from about eight years old, but will equally be appreciated by adults.