A veteran of the Battle of Verdun, Moreau-Vauthier had the idea in 1920 to memorialize World War I by installing a series of sculpted stones along the 650 km front from Nieuwpoort, Belgium through Moosch near Altkirch, and on to the Franco-Swiss border.
Altkirch |
In 1900, the Bezirkstag sent him to the Landesausschuss (Alsace-Lorraine's parliament) in Strasbourg, in place of the deseded Anton Cassal from Ferrette and, in 1903, he sat in the Reichstag in Berlin, having been elected deputy of the constituency of Thann-Altkirch.
The Fortified Sector of Altkirch (Secteur Fortifiée d'Altkirch) was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the French frontier with Germany and Switzerland in the vicinity of Basel.
When the French finally left Mulhouse, the front line was beginning to take shape and now ran roughly on a line from Pfetterhouse - Altkirch - Thann - Hartmannswillerkopf - Munster - Col du Linge- Col du Bonhomme.