Already no, there were so many different peoples, cultures and languages before the arrival of the Romans that one cannot speak of Gauls without creating an awful imprecise summary. And in Alsace, the Triboque and Rauraque peoples were already German at the time. They then moved on, and made room for other Germans. The Alemanni. D’àllemànne, literally all men, a hard-working people who love beauty and are endowed with a deep spirituality. First appearing in Roman texts in 213, they were first repulsed by the Romans but persevered with their then allies, the Franks, and then conquered the Decumate Fields in 260, this is roughly between the Rhine, the Main and the source of the Danube, today’s Baden-Württemberg. Bernard Wittmann did not want them to remain left behind in regional history and transcribed everything we know about them.
Well yes, that means 512 pages! Religion, customs, social and family organization. The author wanted to put this people back in the spotlight in this illustrated book, with black and white maps so that we can clearly see the successive migrations, the epic of this little-known people and the formidable heritage they bequeathed to Alsace, starting with its language and its germanity, the love of the land and work. Another time, we will talk about why we speak Alemannic in the south of the Outre-Forêt, and Frankish in the north of this forest, there we will not have time, but Bernard explains it well in his book.
Alemannic is still spoken in the country of Baden, in Switzerland, as far as Tyrol! Bernard Wittmann’s ambition was to break the clichés and reveal the historical truth about this period unloved by French historians, which goes from the 4th to the 13th century. During these nine centuries of incredible richness, the Alsatian culture was sketched out which will end up radiating over a large part of the Holy Roman Empire of which Alsace will long be the keystone! Our ancestors the Alamans, founders of Alsace, by Bernard Wittmann is on sale at your favorite bookseller and on the website of its publisher yoran-embanner.com for €22.
The book on Yoran Embanner’s website.