The bishop also was the ruler of an ecclesiastical principality (prince-bishopric) in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and Early Modern period.

When the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State was enacted, doing away with public-law religious corporations, this did not apply to the Strasbourg diocese which was then within Germany.

After World War I, Alsace along with the diocese was returned to France, but the status from the concordat has been preserved as part of the Local law in Alsace-Moselle.

The diocese was elevated to Archdiocese of Strasbourg on 1 June 1988 by Pope John Paul II but not as metropolitan of an ecclesiastical province and remains exempt.

The concordat further provides for the clergy to be paid by the government and Catholic pupils in public schools can receive religious instruction according to archdiocesan guidelines.