found: Wikipedia, Sept. 4, 2014(Meurthe is a former département of France created in 1790. It ceased to exist following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany in 1871. After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the northeastern part of the Meurthe département was annexed to the German Empire by the Treaty of Frankfurt. On May 18, 1871, about one-third of Meurthe, corresponding approximately to the arrondissements of Château-Salins and Sarrebourg in the northeast of the département, were annexed to the German Department of Lorraine, becoming part of the Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine. The remaining two thirds of Meurthe were merged with one fifth of the Moselle département which had escaped German annexation, and on September 7, 1871, the merger gave birth to the new Meurthe-et-Moselle département with its préfecture at Nancy.)