Sarreguemines, Moselle Département, Grand Est, France

🇫🇷 Sarreguemines is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France. It is the seat of an arrondissement and a canton.

Geography Sarreguemines, whose name is a French spelling of the name in local Lorraine-German dialect "Saargemin", meaning "confluence into the Saar", is located at the confluence of the Blies and the Saar, 79 km (49 mi) east of Metz, 107 km (66 mi) north-west of Strasbourg by rail, and at the junction of the lines to Trier and Sarrebourg. Sarreguemines station has rail connections to Strasbourg, Saarbrücken and Metz. Traditionally Sarreguemines was the head of river navigation on the Saar, its importance being a depot where boats were unloaded.

Administration Sarreguemines was, from 1985 to 2015, the seat of two cantons: • Sarreguemines, consisting of the Sarreguemines commune only. • Sarreguemines-Campagne, comprising 21 nearby communes.

Both cantons, minus the communes of Grundviller, Guebenhouse, Loupershouse and Woustviller that were added to the canton of Sarralbe, were merged into one canton of Sarreguemines on January 1, 2015.

History Sarreguemines, originally a Roman settlement, obtained civic rights early in the 13th century. In 1297 it was ceded by the count of Saarbrücken to the Duke of Lorraine, and passed with Lorraine in 1766 to France.

It was transferred to Germany in 1871, with the Treaty of Frankfurt following the Franco-Prussian War. From 1871 to 1918 it formed part of the German imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine and manufactured plush velvet, leather, faience and porcelain, and was a centre for making papier-mâché boxes, mostly used for snuffboxes. It was returned to France after World War I.

On December 21–23, 1944, the 44th Infantry Division (United States) threw back three attempts by the Germans to cross the Blies River. An aggressive defense of the Sarreguemines area was continued throughout February and most of March 1945.

Canton of Sarreguemines Since the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, the communes of the canton of Sarreguemines are:

1 Bliesbruck

2 Blies-Ébersing

3 Blies-Guersviller

4 Frauenberg

5 Grosbliederstroff

6 Hambach

7 Hundling

8 Ippling

9 Kalhausen

10 Lixing-lès-Rouhling

11 Neufgrange

12 Rémelfing

13 Rouhling

14 Sarreguemines

15 Sarreinsming

16 Wiesviller

17 Willerwald

18 Wittring

19 Wœlfling-lès-Sarreguemines

20 Zetting.