A "
super rare
"
discovery
: probably lost by a carrier pigeon in 1910, a German military message miraculously resurfaced in 2020 in Alsace where it was found by chance, said Sunday, November 8 the curator of the museum to which it was entrusted .
Inside the capsule, a very well preserved handwritten message, written in German on a "sort of tracing paper".
SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
The message, protected in "
a small aluminum capsule
", was found by chance in September in a field of Ingersheim (Haut-Rhin) by a couple on a walk.
On the advice of relatives, the couple handed the capsule and its message to the Linge museum, located not far from the place of the find, explained to AFP Dominique Jardy, the curator of the Linge d'Orbey Memorial.
This museum is dedicated to the battle between the French and the Germans in 1915 on the Alsatian side of the Vosges mountains.
Inside the capsule, a very well preserved handwritten message, written in German on a "
kind of tracing paper
", in a writing close to Gothic and difficult to understand, explains Dominique Jardy, confirming information from the regional daily Les Latest Nouvelles from Alsace (DNA).
“
When the permanent (from the museum) called me, I said: 'P ...!'
A find like that is extremely rare,
”enthuses Dominique Jardy, who confides that“
in forty years
”he has“
never seen that
”.
According to him, the capsule probably rose to the surface over time, as is sometimes the case with grenades or shells from the two world conflicts.
Dominique Jardy called on "
a German friend
" to decipher the message: it was sent by an officer of a Prussian infantry regiment, then stationed north of Ingersheim, to a superior of the same regiment.
The text evokes German maneuvers between Bischwihr and Ingersheim, at a time when Alsace was German.
In total, four copies of the message were to be conveyed by four pigeons, one of which obviously very quickly lost after taking off the one found in 2020, estimates the curator.
A slight uncertainty remains on their date of dispatch, in particular the year, the last figure being less readable: July 16, 1910 or 1916?
1910, cut Dominique Jardy, who considers "
impossible that it is 1916
", even if verifications will be carried out.
As for the message, it will undoubtedly be exhibited at the Musée du Linge, but under certain conditions (anti-reflective glass, airtight environment ...) so that it does not deteriorate.
Its place is very found: near a mannequin camping an officer of the same regiment as the one who wrote it, 110 years ago.