When I was a young student, hating my German teachers, the love for France beat in my pulses, like a ground wave" (_comme une vague de fond_).
Then after 1900 the Germans "changed greatly." They became every year richer and more arrogant; Germany from beyond the Rhine developed every year an increasing _appetit_ for the native wealth and commerce of Alsace; and the methods of government became increasingly oppressive and militarist.

By this time some 400,000 native Alsatians had in the course of years left the country, and about the same number of immigrant Germans had taken their places.

The indifference or apathy of the old population began again to yield to more active feelings.

The rise of a party definitely "Anti-Allemand," especially among the country people, made itself felt.

And finally came, in Dr.
Bucher's phrase, the period of "la haine" after the famous Saverne incident in 1912.