Strassburg
Strassburg names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Strassburg a town and fortress of France
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town and fortress of France, in Alsace; capital of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine; on the Ill; about 2 miles W. of the Rhine, to which its glacis extends; 250 miles E. by S. of Paris, and about 370 miles S. W. of Berlin. By means of canals which unite the Ill with the Rhine, Rhone, and Marne, it is brought into communication with the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It has always been regarded as a place of strategical importance, and strong fortifications and a pentagonal citadel were erected by Vauban in 1682- 1684. Since the siege of 1870 by the Germans these have been considerably altered and strengthened, the new system of defense adopted including 14 detached forts situated from 3 to 5 miles from the center of the town. The streets in the older parts are irregular and quaint of aspect, but since the removal of part of the old fortifications the modern portions have greatly expanded. The chief building is the cathedral, a structure which presents the architectural styles of the centuries from the 11th to the 15th, in which it was built, but whose main element is Gothic. It is surmounted by towers 466 feet high, has a splendid W. façade, with statues and great rose window, fine painted glass windows, and a famous astronomical clock, made in 1547-1580. The other notable buildings are the Church of St. Thomas, the Temple-Neuf or Neukirche, the old Episcopal palace, the town hall, the new university building, opened in 1884, and the new imperial palace. palace. The old Episcopal palace contains the university and town library, numbering 600,000 volumes. There are statues to Gutenberg and General Kléber, in squares correspondingly named, besides others. Its industries are very varied, and include tanning, brewing, machine making, woolen and cotton goods, cutlery, musical instruments, artificial flowers, gloves, chemicals, and the preparation of its celebrated pâtés de foie gras. Strassburg, under the name of Argentoratum, is supposed to have been founded by the Romans, who erected it as a barrier against the incursions of the Germans, who ultimately possessed it. In the 6th century the name was changed to Strassburg, and in the beginning of the 10th century it became sul subject to the emperors of Germany. United to France in 1681, it was ceded with the territories of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in 1871. By the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Alsace and Lorraine were restored to France. Pop. about 198,000.
Strassburg UNIVERSITY OF, a university of Alsace-Lorraine
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
UNIVERSITY OF, a university of Alsace-Lorraine. The institution was first founded as a German university, in 1621, maintaining much of its German character, after Strassburg became French territory in 1681. During the French Revolution it disappeared, but was reopened in 1802 as a Protestant academy, and, in 1808, under the university reforms instituted by Napoleon the First, became part of the Uniporeo versity of France. After the Franco- Prussian War it once more became a German university and was reopened in 1872. While the Germans were in possession of Alsace-Lorraine, the imperial government expended large sums of money on the university and it soon became a center of German influence and one of the most flourishing universities. Previous to the outbreak of the World War, it had about 2,100 students and an annual budget of $400,000. Its library contains more than 600,000 volumes. As a result of the Peace Treaty of Versailles the institution again became a French university.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 with the ink barely dry on the Treaty of Versailles, and the city has changed hands once more since: Nazi Germany annexed Alsace in 1940 and Strasbourg was not recovered by France until November 1944, having suffered heavy Allied bombing in between. The spelling has settled as the French Strasbourg, and the ring of 14 detached forts that Collier's described as newly strengthened is now a museum curiosity rather than a defence; the old town, the Grande Ile, became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988, with the German-built Neustadt added in 2017. Far from being a frontier fortress, the city has been a symbol of reconciliation since the Council of Europe settled there in 1949, and it is now the seat of the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights. Population has risen from the 198,000 given to roughly 290,000 in the city; the university, French again in 1919 as Collier's notes, was split into three institutions in 1971 and reunited as the University of Strasbourg in 2009.
Written for this edition, 2026.