<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Imperial Territory of Alsace - Lorraine (German: Reichsland Elsaß - Lothringen or Elsass - Lothringen, French: Terre d'Empire d'Alsace - Lorraine or Alsace - Moselle) was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871, after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle department of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco - Prussian War . The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east of the Vosges Mountains . The Lorraine section was in the upper Moselle valley to the north of the Vosges . </P> <P> The territory was made up of 93% of Alsace and 26% of Lorraine; the remaining portions of these regions continued to be part of France . For historical reasons, specific legal dispositions are still applied in the territory in the form of a "local law". In relation to its special legal status, since its reversion to France following World War I, the territory has been referred to administratively as Alsace - Moselle . </P>

France loses alsace & lorraine to germany date