Alsace-Lorraine (EEC)

"Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine" was made a German federal state in 1952. Austrian Kaiser Otto, had proposed elevating the territory to a full German federal state, as early as 1933, and proposed a descendant of Franz Ferdinand as head of a new dynasty, with a formal nomination of Georg, Prince of Hohenberg in 1951. The issue gained little momentum until Kaiser Louis-Ferdinand, as part of an overall rapproachment with France in 1951 broached the subject of creating both a new dynasty and eliminating the restrictions on French language and culture in the territory.

Previous discussions had broken down as to whether to create a "free state" with a republican government, or a new dynasty, annexation of the Reichsland to Prussia or Baden, or a ducal state, in personal union with the Kaiser, the latter two options the least popular in the German Bundesrat.

Kaiser Otto had lobbied for a permanent resolution of the Alsace-Lorriane question for decades as part of his overall initiatives for European peace and integration, and his influence, and the overall change in German foreign policy after the death of Kaiser Wilhelm III, precipitated this change. Otto had long held that European peace could never be achieved without an accomodation between Germany and France, and that the status quo in Alsace-Lorraine was a hindrance to that effort.

The Reichsland 1911 Constitution, and the 1871 federal constitution were both amended to provide complete membership and representation in the German Bundesrat, and Georg, Prince of Hohenberg, was nominated as Duke.