Grand Nancy Métropole Meurthe-et-Moselle

When Germany annexed Alsace-Lorraine in 1871, between 100,000 and 130,000 French citizens fled west to Nancy, bringing capital, industrial expertise, and a fierce determination to prove French cultural superiority. By 1908, their defiance had crystallized into curving iron and glass: Nancy’s Chamber of Commerce building, where Émile Gallé’s artists inscribed ‘Agriculture, Commerce, Industrie’ in stone—not just economic pillars, but a manifesto that art and industry could merge into something Germany’s factories never would.