ARTICLE 78.—With regard to the execution of judgments, orders and prosecutions, the following rules shall be applied:

  1. All civil and commercial judgments which shall have been given since Aug. 3, 1914, by the courts of Alsace-Lorraine between Alsace-Lorrainers, or between Alsace-Lorrainers and foreigners, or between foreigners, and which shall not have been appealed from before the 11th November, 1918, shall be regarded as final and capable of being fully executed.
  2. When the judgment has been given between Alsace-Lorrainers and Germans, or between Alsace-Lorrainers and subjects of the allies of Germany, it shall only be capable of execution after the issue of an exequatur by the corresponding new tribunal in the restored territory referred to in Article 51.
  3. All judgments given by German courts since the 3d August, 1914, against Alsace-Lorrainers for political crimes or misdemeanors shall be regarded as null and void.
  5. All sentences passed since the 11th November, 1918, by the Imperial Court of Leipzig on Appeals against the decisions of the courts of Alsace-Lorraine shall be regarded as null and void and shall be so pronounced. The papers in regard to the cases in which such sentences have been given shall be returned to the courts of Alsace-Lorraine concerned.
  6. All appeals to the Imperial Court against decisions of the courts of Alsace-Lorraine shall be suspended. In the cases referred to above, the papers shall be returned under the aforesaid conditions for transfer without delay to the French Cour de Cassation which shall be competent to decide them.
  7. All prosecutions of Alsace-Lorraine for offenses committed during the period between the 11th November, 1918, and the coming into force of the present treaty will be conducted under German law except in so far as this has been modified by decrees duly published on the spot by the French authorities.
  8. All other questions as to competence, procedure or administration of justice, shall be determined by a special convention between France and Germany.

ARTICLE 79.—The stipulations as to nationality contained in the annex hereto shall be considered as of equal force with the provisions of the present section.

All other questions concerning Alsace-Lorraine which are not regulated by the present section and the annex thereto, or by the general provisions of the present treaty, will form the subject of further conventions between France and Germany.

ANNEX

  1. As from the 11th November, 1918, the following persons are ipso facto reinstated in French nationality:
    1. First—Persons who lost French nationality by the application of the Franco-German treaty of the 10th May, 1871, and who have not since that date acquired any nationality other than German;
    2. Second—The legitimate or natural descendants of the persons referred to the immediately preceding paragraph, with the exception of those whose ascendants in the paternal line include a German who migrated into Alsace-Lorraine after the 15th July, 1870;
    3. Third—All persons born in Alsace-Lorraine of unknown parents or whose nationality is unknown.
  2. Within the period of one year from the coming into force of the present treaty, persons included in any of the following categories may claim French nationality:
    1. First—All persons not restored to French nationality under Paragraph 1, above, whose ascendants include a Frenchman or French woman who lost French nationality under the conditions referred to in the said paragraph;
    2. Second—All foreigners not nationals of a German State who acquired the status of a citizen of Alsace-Lorraine before the 3d August, 1914;
    3. Third—All Germans domiciled in Alsace-Lorraine, if they have been so domiciled since a date previous to 15th July, 1870, or if one of their ascendants was at that date domiciled in Alsace-Lorraine;
    4. Fourth—All Germans born or domiciled in Alsace-Lorraine who have served in the allied or associated armies during the present war and their descendants;
    5. Fifth—All persons born in Alsace-Lorraine before 10th May, 1871, of foreign parents, and the descendants of such persons;
    6. Sixth—The husband or wife of any person whose French nationality may have been restored under Paragraph 1 or who may have claimed and obtained French nationality in accordance with the preceding previsions.
    7. The legal representatives of a minor may exercise on behalf of that minor the right to claim French nationality; and if that right has not been exercised, the minor may claim French nationality within the year following his majority.
    8. Except in the case provided in No. 6 of the present paragraph, the French authorities reserve to themselves the right in individual cases to reject the claim to French nationality.
  3. Subject to the provisions of Paragraph 2, Germans born or domiciled in Alsace-Lorraine shall not acquire French nationality by reason of the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France, even though they may have the status of citizens of Alsace-Lorraine.
  4. They may acquire French nationality only by naturalization, on condition of having been domiciled in Alsace-Lorraine from a date previous to the 3d August, 1914, and of submitting proof of unbroken residence within the restored territory for a period of three years from the 11th November, 1918.
  5. France will be solely responsible for their diplomatic and consular protection from the date of their application for French naturalization.
  6. The French Government shall determine the procedure by which reinstatement in French nationality as of right shall be effected, and the conditions under which decisions shall be given upon claims to such nationality and applications for naturalization, as provided by the present annex.

SECTION VI.—Austria

ARTICLE 80.—Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria. Within the frontiers which may be fixed by a treaty between that State and the principal Allied and Associated Powers she agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations.

SECTION VII.—Czechoslovak State

ARTICLE 81.—Germany, in conformity with the action already taken by the Allied and Associated Powers, recognizes the complete independence of the Czechoslovak State, which will include the autonomous territory of the Ruthenians to the south of the Carpathians. Germany hereby recognizes the frontier of this State as determined by the principal Allied and Associated Powers and the other interested States.