ONE HUNDRED years to the day after Germany declared war on France, President François Hollande and his German counterpart Joachim Gauck yesterday remembered the sacrifice of soldiers in the First World War in Alsace. Mr Hollande and Mr Gauck embraced in front of media cameras on Hartmannswillerkopf mountain in Alsace, where more than 30,000 French and German soldiers died in World War One.
The mountain, near the French-German border, became known to soldiers on both sides as “The Man-Eater”. It had been declared strategically vital by the military leaders of both countries - and control of the mountain changed hands eight times during the conflict.
The two presidents stood for a minute of silence in the crypt on the mountain, where the ashes of 12,000 unknown soldiers from both sides are buried. From the Connexion
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