L. O. Reissiger - Le pays de Bade - 1953

The Country of Baden, historical and architectural index of the main towns, abbeys, and castles of the former Grand Duchy, with 126 coats of arms and 92 drawings by the author, by General L. D. Bezegher

Dedicated by the author

The work presents itself in the form of an index — a term that aptly expresses the nature of the task: not a continuous historical narration, but a systematic directory, organized alphabetically or geographically, of all notable places in the former Grand Duchy. Each entry — town, abbey, castle, monastery — is accompanied by a historical and architectural notice, tracing origins, successive owners, structural features, destructions, and the current state at the time of writing.

Louis Célestin Dominique Bézégher was born on September 6, 1901 in Bourbourg, in the Nord, and died on October 12, 1980 in Claix, in Isère. A graduate of Saint-Cyr in the 1921–1923 class known as the “du Souvenir,” he pursued a military career in the infantry and then in the gendarmerie, ending his career with the rank of general of division. His position most directly related to the work at hand is that of commander of the gendarmerie forces in Germany, a role he held in the immediate postwar years, at a time when France administered an occupation zone in the southwest of Germany — precisely in the country of Baden. It is this prolonged field presence, combined with an unusually broad intellectual and historical curiosity, that gave rise to his scholarly studies on the German-speaking lands of the Upper Rhine.

Published by the author, without place or date — around 1953 — in-4° [29.5 × 21 cm], paperback, illustrated soft cover, XXVI and 448 pages, 126 coats of arms and 92 drawings by the author, 1 fold-out map. An old water stain on the cover as well as at the bottom of the pages, with a slight warping on the last 50 pages.