Named after the French region of Alsace.
Alsace lies in north-eastern France on the upper Rhine; Strasbourg is its largest city. It became French in the 17th century, was part of the German Empire as Alsace-Lorraine from 1871, returned to France in 1919, was taken by Germany again in 1940 and has been French since 1944. After the war of 1870–71, the management of Luxembourg station and its railway passed from the French Compagnie de l'Est to the Alsace-Lorraine railways.