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17-686: Bitche (English pronunciation: / b iː t ʃ / BEECH , French: [bitʃ] ; German and Lorraine Franconian : Bitsch ) is a commune in Moselle department , in the region of Grand Est in northeastern France. It is the Pays de Bitche 's capital city, and the seat of the Canton of Bitche and the Pays de Bitche community of communes . The town belongs to the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park and

34-576: A fortress that proved impregnable up until the 20th century. An attack upon it by the Prussians in 1793 was repulsed. During the Napoleonic Wars, 1804–1814, the citadel at Bitche became a major prisoner-of-war camp housing British and allied soldiers and sailors. It was also used in this context as a penal camp, housing repeated escapees and uncooperative prisoners. In 1815 during Napoleon's Hundred Days , Brigadier-General Charles Creutzer

51-592: Is built into the red sandstone rock, and was rendered bomb-proof; a supply of water was secured to the garrison by a deep well in the interior. The commander of the town's fortress was Louis-Casimir Teyssier . After the war, it was given to the German Empire as part of Alsace–Lorraine . It was returned to France in 1918, after the First World War . The town is near the Maginot Line , into which

68-634: Is rated four-flowers in the towns and villages in bloom competition . The town's population at the 2013 census was 5,225. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bitchois and Bitchoises . The town is known for its large citadel  [ fr ] originating from a castle built at the beginning of the 13th century. The fortress is noted for its resistance during the Franco-Prussian War . Its commander Louis-Casimir Teyssier held it for about eight months, with 3,000 men against about 20,000 Prussian and Bavarian soldiers, until

85-579: The Eastern Bloc . Until 1997, military service was compulsory in France . Millions of soldiers had a few days of training in Bitche. On 19 March 2021 the official page of Bitche on Facebook was removed without explanation. After the incident was reported by media, Facebook restored the page and apologized to the town. Bitche has been twinned with Lebach , Saarland, Germany, since 1979. The town

102-716: The Moselle Franconian dialect spoken in the valley of the river Nied (in Pays de Nied, whose largest town is Boulay-Moselle ), to distinguish it from the other two Franconian dialects spoken in Lorraine, Luxembourgish to the west and Rhine Franconian to the east. The German term Lothringisch refers to Rhine Franconian spoken in Lorraine. In 1806 there were 218,662 speakers of Lorraine Franconian in Moselle and 41,795 speakers in Meurthe . In part due to

119-597: The U.S. 100th Infantry Division broke through the Maginot Line in the area and liberated the town for good, as part of Operation Undertone . After 1945, Bitche became one of the busiest military camps where all parts of the French army manoeuvered. Infantry and cavalry also went to the town to experiment with new weapons during the Cold War . Special training took place against potential bacteriological attacks from

136-708: The French government ordered him to surrender after the 1871 ceasefire. The town became part of Germany from that date until the end of the First World War , when it was given back to France. During the Second World War it was annexed by the Third German Reich (1940–1944). Bitche is located near the German border on the small river Horn , at the foot of the northern slope of the Vosges between Haguenau and Sarreguemines . The town of Bitche, which

153-479: The ambiguity of the term, estimates of the number of Lorraine Franconian speakers in France vary widely, ranging from 30,000 to 400,000 (which would make it the third most-spoken regional language in France, after Occitan and Alsatian ). The most reliable data comes from the Enquête famille carried out by INSEE (360,000 in the 1962 census) as part of the 1999 census, but it gives a somewhat indirect picture of

170-712: The citadel was integrated. Alsace-Lorraine returned to Germany after the Battle of France in the summer of 1940 and remained under German occupation. The training ground at Bitche was utilized by the German Army to form new divisions, for example the 65th Infantry Division in July 1942. The town was liberated in December 1944 by Allied troops but was relinquished in a withdrawal forced by the German counteroffensive . In March 1945

187-399: The countship reverted to Lorraine, and passed with that duchy to France in 1766. After 1766 the town rapidly increased in population. The citadel , which had been constructed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban on the site of the old castle after the town's capture by the French in 1624, had been destroyed when it was restored to Lorraine in 1698. It was restored and strengthened in 1740 into

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204-564: The current situation (see Languages in France for discussion of this survey). About 78,000 people were reported to speak Lorraine Franconian, but fewer than 50,000 passed basic knowledge of the language on to their children. Another statistic illustrating the same point is that of all adult men who used Franconian regularly when they were 5, less than 30% use (or used) the language regularly with their own children. Louis-Casimir Teyssier Louis-Casimir Teyssier (1821 in Albi – 1916 at Albi)

221-562: The line and in 1870 he was appointed commander of the fortress of Bitche . During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 he defended the fortress with 3,000 men against about 20,000 Prussian and Bavarian soldiers until the French government ordered him to surrender after the cease fire in 1871. The German troops allowed the French troops to leave Bitche fully armed in acknowledgement of their bravery. He became commander of Marseille in May 1871 and Vicennes in 1872 as colonel. The city of Albi erected

238-515: Was a French commander . He was recruited to the 21st regiment. As a lieutenant, he was wounded in Crimea , near Sevastopol and made a prisoner. He was released in December 15, 1855. made prisoner of war there he returned to France December 15, 1855. Serving in the 98th Regiment of the Line he was again wounded at Montebello , Italy in 1859. Afterwards he commanded a battalion of the 78th regiment of

255-458: Was formed from the villages of Rohr and Kaltenhausen in the 17th century, derives its name from the old stronghold (mentioned in 1172 as Bytis Castrum ) standing on a rock some 250 feet (76 m) above the town. This had long given its name to the countship of Bitsch, which was originally in the possession of the dukes of Lorraine . In 1297 it passed by marriage to Eberhard I of Zweibrücken-Bitsch , whose line became extinct in 1569. Afterwards

272-547: Was mentioned in the BBC comedy panel game QI , in episode 9 of season 3 (or series C). Bill Bailey commented on the comical nature of seeing a sign "You are now leaving Bitche". Lorraine Franconian The term Lorraine Franconian has multiple denotations. Some scholars use it to refer to the entire group of West Central German dialects spoken in the French Lorraine region. Others use it more narrowly to refer to

289-523: Was the commandant of the town's fortress. Bitche was besieged by General Friedrich Zollern's Fourth Infantry Division of the Austrian IV Corps , but Creutzer refused to surrender until the general armistice. Although Bitche was hotly contested by the Germans after the Battle of Wörth during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, it held out until the war's end. A large part of the fortification

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