Wolf1965
Donor
From the book "Peugeot - A Franco-German Story", La Villette Publication 2010
The founding family of the renowned Corporation stems from the small town Soschen (Socheux) in the Mömpelgard (frz. Montbelliard) district of the German federal State Elsaß-Mömpelgard.
Over the centuries the Mömpelgard region, until roughly eighty years ago majorly French-speaking, changed hands between Germany and France several times. From the fourteenth century onward, Mömpelgard was a County of the Duchy of Württemberg, today another Federal State of Germany. But over time the French conquered the region step by step, until in 1796 France annexed the last bits of the County for itself.
In catholic France the Peugeots are unusual in that they are Lutherans, among few of the movers and shakers of France to be so. This is a heritage from the time Mömpelgard was part of protestant Württemberg. Another attribute of the family is the strong attachment to their home region. Most Peugeots still live in the Franche-Comte and Mömpelgard areas. (Real life as well)
Founded in 1810, by the mid-19th century the Peugeot Corporation had several factories running in the Montbelliard area. Then the Romanic-Germanic War happened. After the war, the new border with Germany meant that one part of the factories were located in France, the other now in Germany, at least for a while since that part of land would be part of the referendum in 1888.
For Peugeot itself the problem was not that big. Being a major factor of work, the German government had given the firm rather magnanimous terms for keeping the factories open, instead of moving it.
The family was divided on what to do, in special since there was pressure from Paris to relocate the factories.
It took some time, many discussions and a lot of bad blood until a compromise was found. Moving the factories would have been really expensive, something the French government did not want to pay for, so in 1870 the situation was settled as follows.
Relocation or closing would be expensive, something Peugeot did not want to pay for by itself and since Paris despite their adamancy on this topic, did not want to pay for that either, the factories would keep running, no matter if on French or German soil. Peugoet had no wish to go bankrupt or weaken their home area just for fancy ideas concocted in Paris by the new government.
To pacify the hawks in the capital, Peugeot agreed to construct new factories further away from the border. Over the next decades, new factories were build at Rennes, Besancon and Lille, but also new ones on the German side in Mömpelgard, Colmar and Wörth.
This created rifts inside the family, deepened by the loaded question how far the company should venture into the newly emerging field of automobiles. In 1891, Armand Peugeot, the main proponent for the automobile sector and who had good connections to Gottlieb Daimler, decided to create facts. His branch of the family would take leadership of the German division of Peugeot and start producing cars there if the others were too timid to consider it.
Soon Peugeot Deutschland started producing cars, while Peugeot Francaise was lagging behind. This time correctly sensing a problem, Paris promised governmental help for the French division if they too started constructing cars.
In an era charged with nationalism, the ties between the two Peugeot branches started to loosen, especially after the Elsaß-Mömpelgard referendum of 1888, where to the shokc, surprise and against the expectations of most French, the area of Mömpelgard under German control decided to stay with Germany.
While the family never fully broke apart, the different circumstances of life in Germany and France certainly led to the two factory branches developing apart into new entities. One of the most obvious examples was the year 1913, when during the World War Peugeot Deutschland produced Panzerkampfwagen for the Kaiserliche Heer and the French Peugeot branch built Chars de blinde for the Armee francaise just 60 kilometers distant.
While both Peugeot branches still produce cars and various of their famous grinders, the list of products is different today. The French part of Peugeot became the main producer of motorbikes in France and one of the two most important ones in the Union Romanique. The German branch does not produce a single motorbike, here BMW, Zündapp and NSU are the incumbents.
German Peugeot on the other hand is quite active in household appliances, expanding from their oldest product. Both firms work for their respective countries military and are active in motor sports.
Today in the 21th century racing colours for cars are just a tradition, considering the many advertisments on the cars, but here the differences get obvious. French racing Peugeots are coated in "La Bleu de France", while the cars from Soschen are in white or silver, following German tradition.
Since the Union Romanique and the Zollverein have begun to cooperate closer in the last quarter century to cross some divides in Europe, ties between the two variants of Peugeot have become tighter again.
The founding family of the renowned Corporation stems from the small town Soschen (Socheux) in the Mömpelgard (frz. Montbelliard) district of the German federal State Elsaß-Mömpelgard.
Over the centuries the Mömpelgard region, until roughly eighty years ago majorly French-speaking, changed hands between Germany and France several times. From the fourteenth century onward, Mömpelgard was a County of the Duchy of Württemberg, today another Federal State of Germany. But over time the French conquered the region step by step, until in 1796 France annexed the last bits of the County for itself.
In catholic France the Peugeots are unusual in that they are Lutherans, among few of the movers and shakers of France to be so. This is a heritage from the time Mömpelgard was part of protestant Württemberg. Another attribute of the family is the strong attachment to their home region. Most Peugeots still live in the Franche-Comte and Mömpelgard areas. (Real life as well)
Founded in 1810, by the mid-19th century the Peugeot Corporation had several factories running in the Montbelliard area. Then the Romanic-Germanic War happened. After the war, the new border with Germany meant that one part of the factories were located in France, the other now in Germany, at least for a while since that part of land would be part of the referendum in 1888.
For Peugeot itself the problem was not that big. Being a major factor of work, the German government had given the firm rather magnanimous terms for keeping the factories open, instead of moving it.
The family was divided on what to do, in special since there was pressure from Paris to relocate the factories.
It took some time, many discussions and a lot of bad blood until a compromise was found. Moving the factories would have been really expensive, something the French government did not want to pay for, so in 1870 the situation was settled as follows.
Relocation or closing would be expensive, something Peugeot did not want to pay for by itself and since Paris despite their adamancy on this topic, did not want to pay for that either, the factories would keep running, no matter if on French or German soil. Peugoet had no wish to go bankrupt or weaken their home area just for fancy ideas concocted in Paris by the new government.
To pacify the hawks in the capital, Peugeot agreed to construct new factories further away from the border. Over the next decades, new factories were build at Rennes, Besancon and Lille, but also new ones on the German side in Mömpelgard, Colmar and Wörth.
This created rifts inside the family, deepened by the loaded question how far the company should venture into the newly emerging field of automobiles. In 1891, Armand Peugeot, the main proponent for the automobile sector and who had good connections to Gottlieb Daimler, decided to create facts. His branch of the family would take leadership of the German division of Peugeot and start producing cars there if the others were too timid to consider it.
Soon Peugeot Deutschland started producing cars, while Peugeot Francaise was lagging behind. This time correctly sensing a problem, Paris promised governmental help for the French division if they too started constructing cars.
In an era charged with nationalism, the ties between the two Peugeot branches started to loosen, especially after the Elsaß-Mömpelgard referendum of 1888, where to the shokc, surprise and against the expectations of most French, the area of Mömpelgard under German control decided to stay with Germany.
While the family never fully broke apart, the different circumstances of life in Germany and France certainly led to the two factory branches developing apart into new entities. One of the most obvious examples was the year 1913, when during the World War Peugeot Deutschland produced Panzerkampfwagen for the Kaiserliche Heer and the French Peugeot branch built Chars de blinde for the Armee francaise just 60 kilometers distant.
While both Peugeot branches still produce cars and various of their famous grinders, the list of products is different today. The French part of Peugeot became the main producer of motorbikes in France and one of the two most important ones in the Union Romanique. The German branch does not produce a single motorbike, here BMW, Zündapp and NSU are the incumbents.
German Peugeot on the other hand is quite active in household appliances, expanding from their oldest product. Both firms work for their respective countries military and are active in motor sports.
Today in the 21th century racing colours for cars are just a tradition, considering the many advertisments on the cars, but here the differences get obvious. French racing Peugeots are coated in "La Bleu de France", while the cars from Soschen are in white or silver, following German tradition.
Since the Union Romanique and the Zollverein have begun to cooperate closer in the last quarter century to cross some divides in Europe, ties between the two variants of Peugeot have become tighter again.