Room 8b

PROCLAMATION OF THE EMPIRE IN TIME OF WAR - PARIS

In the wake of the catastrophe at Sedan, the republican Jules Favre declared Emperor Napoleon III deposed on 3 September 1870. The following day, republican deputies and demonstrators led by Jules Favre and Leon Gambetta gathered before the Paris city hall and proclaimed a republic in the name of a "Government of National Defense." They were ready to make peace quickly, but only if the country's territorial integrity were guaranteed. When German troops eventually encircled the French capital on 19 September after a rapid advance, Léon Gambetta flew over enemy lines in a balloon to direct the war as part of the French government-in-exile in Tours (later in Bordeaux). Meanwhile, Jules Favre remained with most of the ministerial council in besieged Paris.

Prussian leaders long differed over the way to proceed with the siege of Paris. Concerned with concluding peace quickly, Bismarck argued for bombardment, whereas Moltke and nearly the entire General Staff were for starving the capital into capitulation. They feared that storming the city would incur too many casualties. On 16 December 1870, Baroness von Spitzemberg noted in her diary that

Roon has finally been allowed to give the order to bring in the rest of the shells stockpiled in Meaux . . ., and since the giant guns are already in place there is every expectation that a bombardment will begin before the new year. A cry of joy will resound in the army and all of Germany when the first twenty-four pounder smashes into that cocky hotbed of vice.

The bombardment commenced at the end of December and set a number of buildings on fire, including the Tuileries, the seat of Napoleon III's government. In one night alone - from 8 to 9 January 1871 - more than 2,000 shells fell on the quarters of Montrouge, Greville, Auteuil, Passy, St. Jacques, and St. Germain.

Additionally, the population of Paris was to be starved into submission by a blockade on food. In a memorandum as early as 10 October 1870, Bismarck stated that if the

threatening scarcity of food forces capitulation, the results are bound to be horrifying.... Hundreds of thousands [would] die of hunger. The French authorities must be as aware of these consequences as the German army command.... lf they insist on letting it go to that extreme, then they will also be responsible for what happens.

Famine did indeed become unbearable in the capital, which was cut off from the outside world. In mid-November 1870, even animals of the Jardin des Plantes had to be slaughtered when horse, mule, and donkey meat also became scarce. Epidemics and the severe cold in the 1870-71 winter took their toll, too.

To maintain communications with the outside world, especially with the government-in-exile in Tours and, later, Bordeaux, the part of the French government that had remained in Paris went to extraordinary measures. Balloons and carrier pigeons were especially useful for sending and receiving dispatches.

The German siege finally led Jules Favre, the foreign minister of the provisional government, to sign an armistice in Versailles after tenacious negotiations with Bismarck. One of the conditions was to have a National Assembly elected that would install a government empowered to conclude a final peace treaty. The elections gave a clear majority to the conservative camp.

The privation suffered during the siege and the futile willingness to make sacrifices culminated in the insurrection by the "Commune" of Paris, which lasted from March until May 1871. The people of Paris felt that the National Assembly in Bordeaux and the new government under Adolphe Thiers had betrayed them to the Germans and accused them of defeatism. The revolutionary situation was heightened by the tradition of the French capital (the name "Commune" was chosen because it was reminiscent of the self-rule practiced 1792), the memory of those killed in the June uprising of 1848, and, not least, the reorganization of the capital under Prefect Baron Eugene de Haussmann, which primarily affected the quarters where the workers and artisans lived.

The insurrection was triggered by several factors. From 1 through 3 March 1871, 30,000 German soldiers occupied Paris in order to enforce the peace preliminaries. According to Adolphe Thiers, "the entry of the Prussians [gave the Commune] tremendous impetus. " To make matters worse, government troops tried to disarm members of the National Guard. The situation changed dramatically when the National Guard positioned guns on the Butte Montmartre. One political goal of the Commune, in which the International Workingmen's Associations played an important role, was to dissolve the centralized administrative system and, especially, to limit the incessantly expanding bureaucracy. The other goal was to establish the principle of social equality.

After fierce fighting involving the strategically important forts of Issy and Vanves, the movement was crushed in May 1871. "Bloody Week" (semaine sanglante), which raged from 21 to 28 May 1871, erupted when government troops under Count MacMahon retook Paris. In falling back, the Communards shot several hostages, but the heaviest casualties were suffered by the rebels themselves, approximately 20,000 of whom were killed, including many women and children.

The man responsible for the tragedy was Adolphe Thiers, who in mid-February 1871 had been elected as the "head of the executive authority of the French Republic," the provisional government. "When I took over government affairs, I had two concerns to conclude peace and to subjugate Paris." From 31 August 1871 to 24 May 1873 the destiny of France was in his hands as "president." He was succeeded by MacMahon, who had distinguished himself under Napoleon III as a marshal in the Crimean War and the Wars of Italian Liberation. Because of his harsh action against the Communards, he became known as the "Hangman of the Commune."

Bismarck realized that the events of spring 1871 could not be dismissed as a mere episode and feared the threat that a revolution would pose to the civil order in Germany as well. In May 1871 August Bebel characterized the rebellion by the Commune of Paris as a "small skirmish" and was certain that the main issue in Europe was still to come. Bismarck later spoke of a "ray of light" that this speech shed on the matter and said that the state and society "found themselves in a situation of self-defense." By contrast, Karl Marx called the Communards "highfliers" and saw the catastrophe of the Commune as a tragedy of the workers' movement. The revolutionary events, particularly the ferocious persecution during Bloody Week, were deeply shocking and instilled an abiding fear of everything that looked like subversion.

Marie--Louise von Plessen and Martin Roth