Just a few weeks into 1937 Hilde received further confirmation of Schoeck's gradual appropriation by the Nazis, when the University of Freiburg im Breisgau made a discreet approach to see if he would accept the first “Erwin von Steinbach Prize.” Recently founded by a German-American, its purpose was to honor artists from the Alemannic region who had made a particular contribution to German culture. “Alemannic” here refers to the old Germanic tribes from the geographical area that today covers southwest Germany, Luxembourg, eastern France, and northern Switzerland, and it is still used to denote the similar dialects spoken throughout the region. The prize itself was named after the mediaeval architect of Strasbourg's Cathedral. Strasbourg had long been a German town but had belonged to France for some two hundred years before being annexed by Germany after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 and had then lapsed back to France after 1918. By naming their new prize after the architect of a then “foreign” cathedral, the Nazis were effectively declaring a proprietary right to the city itself. Their aim was thus, yet again, a pan-Germanic one: to prove that the German-speaking peoples belonged to one greater culture and should be brought into the greater Reich. The very fact that Freiburg University sounded out Schoeck in private is proof enough that the prize was political in nature and that it was feared he might refuse it.