Art Nouveau in Strasbourg

That synthesis reflected both the position of Strasbourg as a crossroads of European cultures, and the search for a specific identity of the locals, who had been incorporated into the German Empire some 30 years prior, after two centuries of French domination.

Most of these have survived World War II and the changes of taste, and many are classified as Monuments historiques.

[1][2][3] The following Art Nouveau buildings have been classified as Monuments historiques:[4] The artists Charles Spindler, Jean-Désiré Ringel d'Illzach, Joseph Sattler, Auguste Cammissar [de], Léon Elchinger (1871-1942) [fr], Joseph Ehrismann, August Herborth [de], Anton Seder were all active in and around Strasbourg in the Art Nouveau period, and shaped many of its local traits.

These artists, as well several others who were not drawn to Art Nouveau/Jugendstil (Alfred Marzolff, Léo Schnug, Lothar von Seebach, Gustave Stoskopf...), were members of the Cercle de Saint-Léonard, a francophile circle of painters, playwrights, sculptors, and designers, established in 1897 and strongly attached to redefining and reinventing Alsatian regionalist art.

[5][6][7] François-Rupert Carabin, born in Saverne and buried in Strasbourg, did not spend the Art Nouveau years in Alsace-Lorraine; nevertheless, due to his having become the director of the École des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg after World War I, the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art owns a large and representative collection of his works in all domains.