Siege of Paris (1870–1871)

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Siege of Paris 1870/71
Prussian artillery during the siege of Paris
Prussian artillery during the siege of Paris
date September 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871
place Paris , France
exit German victory
Parties to the conflict

North German ConfederationNorth German Confederation North German Confederation Baden Bavaria Württemberg later : German Empire
SwimmingGrand Duchy of Baden 
Kingdom of BavariaKingdom of Bavaria 
WurttembergKingdom of Württemberg 

German EmpireThe German Imperium 

Second empireSecond empire France

Commander

North German ConfederationNorth German Confederation Wilhelm I. Helmuth von Moltke Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia Albert of Saxony
North German ConfederationNorth German Confederation

Second empireSecond empire Louis Jules Trochu Joseph Vinoy Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot
Second empireSecond empire

Troop strength
240,000 350,000
losses

12,000 [location missing]

24,000 dead and wounded,
147,000 prisoners of war,
47,000 civilian victims [no evidence]

Battles and sieges of the
Franco-German War (1870–1871)

The siege of Paris lasted from September 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871. The Second Empire went under, which led to the establishment of the Third French Republic . This battle ended the Franco-Prussian War and led to the establishment of the German Empire .

background

As early as mid-August 1870, the German 3rd Army was approaching Paris . On the orders of the Chief of Staff Moltke , this army then had to swivel northward in order to defeat the French army of Mac-Mahon , which also included Emperor Napoléon III without command . found to push against the Belgian border. King Wilhelm I , who personally led the German troops, was able to defeat this army on September 1st in the Battle of Sedan and force it to surrender on the morning of September 2nd.

In Paris, under pressure from the population, on September 4, 1870, the Empire was eliminated and the Third Republic proclaimed; General Louis Jules Trochu became the first President of the Council of Ministers of the Government of National Defense (Gouvernement de la Défense nationale). Trochu was at the same time governor general of Paris and commander in chief of the armed forces there .

The German armies of the Crown Prince of Prussia and the Crown Prince of Saxony, which had become free at Sedan, marched on towards Paris in order to end the war by quickly taking the French capital. The VI. Army Corps under General von Tümpling was already in Reims as the advance guard of the 3rd Army, and the way to Paris was clear.

General Louis Jules Trochu

General Louis Jules Trochu had been appointed military governor of Paris and head of defense of Paris by Napoleon and was confirmed in this position by the new government. The French 13th Corps (French 13 e corps d'armée ) under General Joseph Vinoy had escaped the Sedan disaster and defended the southern front of the city with its core troops between Créteil via Sceaux to Meudon . Together with the newly established 14th Corps of General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot , which secured behind the western bend of the Seine between Mont Valérien - Saint Germain , the line troops were about 90,000 men strong. In addition, 115,000 mobile guards , 14,000 marines and 130 battalions of more unreliable national guards were drawn together to protect the northern part of the city from Saint Denis via Le Bourget to Champigny . These troops together had an approximate strength of 350,000 men, of which about 5,000 were cavalry .

After the confinement, the government entrusted the previous interior and current interior and war minister Léon Gambetta , who, together with a few other ministers, formed the government's delegation in Tours and Bordeaux , respectively , with the organization of the entire national defense outside Paris against the advancing Germans Armies. Gambetta believed that the war could continue successfully, as France still had well over two million able-bodied men, considerable amounts of weapons and ammunition, and open seaports. Thus began on the Loire with the formation of the Loire army under General Aurelle ; later she was to try to relieve besieged Paris from the south.

German approach and enclosure of Paris

Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia

On September 10, the bulk of the German 3rd Army under Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia had reached the Dormans - Sézanne line . Corps crossed the Marne at Château-Thierry . On September 16, the army of the Saxon Crown Prince Albert of Saxony was at Nanteuil (46 km northeast of Paris), the 5th Cavalry Division had Beaumont (32 km north) and the 6th Cavalry Division Saint-Denis (12 km northeast ) reached; the German headquarters were moved to Meaux . The 2nd Bavarian Corps under General Jakob von Hartmann , subordinated to the 3rd Army, crossed the Seine at Corbeil-Essonnes (29 km south); the railway line between Paris and Orléans was interrupted. Crown Prince Albert of Saxony reached the northern apron of the city with the XII. Army Corps under Prince Georg von Sachsen Claye, with the Guard Corps under Prince August von Württemberg Mitry and the IV Army Corps under Gustav von Alvensleben Dammartin , the cavalry in front crossed the Oise at Pontoise .

Paris and surroundings in 1870/71

The 3rd Army deploying in the south of Paris was attacked by Vinoy's troops near Villeneuve Saint Georges on September 18th to protect the supply camp there, but they were pushed back by artillery fire from the Prussian 5th Army Corps . General Hugo von Kirchbach occupied Versailles on September 19 after the battle at Sceaux . The Bavarian II Corps , catching up at the same height, reached Longjumeau and set up on the southern front in the following days on the plateau of Bicêtre ; in the east near Villers initially occupied the VI. Corps both banks of the Seine. The approaching Württemberg field division under General Hugo von Obernitz initially secured the Marne crossings at Lagny and Gounay in the east . The army of Crown Prince Albert of Saxony closed off Paris in the north and east, and the troops of the Crown Prince of Prussia in the south and west. The dividing line between the two armies, which enclosed Paris with a total of six corps , was the Seine.

The siege

On September 19, 1870, Paris was completely enclosed and the siege began. General Moltke kept his troops out of range of the fortress artillery and drew his reserves in the Versailles area - the XI. Army Corps - approached because rear attacks by enemy forces forming on the Loire had to be expected. General Trochu had little faith in the capabilities of the National Guard, which made up half of the troops destined for city defense. Instead of forestalling the attack by the Germans, he hoped that the initiative would come from Moltke. Moltke made no move to attack Paris. Trochu changed his plan and allowed Vinoy to attempt a sortie from the southern front. Vinoy attacked Chevilly with 20,000 soldiers on September 30, but was taken by VI. 3rd Army Corps repulsed.

The Palace of Versailles served from 6 October, King William, the German General Staff and the Staff of the 3rd Army of the Crown Prince of Prussia as a new headquarters. The Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck suggested bombarding Paris with artillery in order to force a quick abandonment of the city, but was initially able to do this despite the support of Roon , the Saxon Crown Prince Albert, Stosch , the royal wing adjutant Waldersee and others. not enforce against numerous opposition: While King Wilhelm and especially the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm cited the psychological and political effects in third countries such as England against the proposal, Moltke pointed out the logistical problems: The siege park originally set up had already been set up in front of the eastern French fortresses, in addition, the rail connection was still interrupted at this point ( Toul and the blown tunnel of Nontuei-sur-Marne). The siege park to be newly established in Germany for Paris would have exacerbated the already tense supply situation and would have been lost if the siege had to be lifted because of French offensives. It was also feared that a quick French surrender would leave the fresh French troops undefeated, giving the French the opportunity to start another war soon. The French troops must first be destroyed and Paris starved. Moltke therefore advocated the later introduction of the siege equipment for the demolition of the city with the king and in the meantime organized the enclosure with insufficient funds. With the fall of Toul on September 23 and Strasbourg on September 28, a large part of the material necessary for the siege of Paris became available, and the distance to be covered by horse-drawn vehicles was reduced to around 25 km. Greater efforts to bring the siege guns and around 2,500 tons of ammunition to the positions in front of Paris were not made until the beginning of December, after King Roon had handed over the transport.

On October 7, some representatives of the republic managed to leave the besieged Paris with two balloons . Among them was Leon Gambetta, who in the following period raised new troops to carry out relief attacks on Paris.

On October 13, the II. Bavarian Corps was expelled from Châtillon . However, the French had to retreat due to Bavarian and Prussian artillery fire and a German counterattack. Between October 10 and 16, the German containment line received considerable reinforcements. The 17th Division under General Gustav von Schimmelmann , which had become free after the fall of the fortress of Toul, was inserted between the Bavarians and the V Corps at Meudon , and General von Löen's Guards and Landwehr Division, relieved from Strasbourg , moved into the front at St. Germain. General Carrey de Bellemare commanded the defense in the northern section of the city at Saint-Denis . On October 29, he attacked the Prussian guard at Le Bourget without having received an order and took the place. The 2nd Guards Division of General Rudolph von Budritzki , however, had little interest in regaining their positions in the village. Nevertheless, Crown Prince Albert ordered the place to be taken. In the battle of Le Bourget , the Prussian troops succeeded in recapturing it and taking around 1,200 French prisoners. After learning of the French surrender in Metz and the defeat at Le Bourget, the morale of the Parisian population began to decline.

Bread card for the Parisian population

The population began to suffer from the effects of the German blockade. With the aim of raising morale, Trochu launched the largest attack from Paris on November 30th, although he had little hope of a breakthrough. Nevertheless, he sent General Ducrot with 80,000 men at Champigny-sur-Marne , Créteil and Villiers-sur-Marne against the Prussians. He focused on negotiating the siege ring in the southeast of the city to break through on Fontainebleau . In addition, if the advance had been successful, all German troops south and west of Paris would have been cut off from their only rail line for supplies via Lagny. Without this railway line, the Germans would hardly have been able to continue the siege. In the Battle of Villiers , the French managed to capture and hold positions at Créteil and Champigny. On December 2, the Württemberg Division pushed Ducrot's troops back behind the defensive lines and ended this battle victorious on the following day.

During the winter months tensions began to rise in the Prussian headquarters. For Bismarck, possession of Paris was the key to breaking the power of the republican leaders of France, ending the war in a timely manner, and securing Prussia's peaceful relations with the neutral states. Helmuth von Moltke was worried about supplies because diseases like tuberculosis broke out among the besieging troops. In addition, the fighting of the Loire campaign against the newly formed French Loire Army continued . Moltke and the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army, General Leonhard von Blumenthal , were primarily concerned with an orderly siege, while the city's standalone forts slowly zernieren , but to achieve this with minimal German losses. Over time, however, the fear arose that an unnecessarily protracted war would burden the German economy too much; an ongoing siege could give hope to the French Defense Ministry that Germany could still be defeated, and also allow France to restore its army and convince neutral third countries to go to war against Prussia. After the artillery had fully deployed, the bombardment of the forts in front of Paris ( Thiers'sche Stadtbefestigung ) began on the Eastern Front ( Mont Avron in front of Fort de Rosny ) on December 27, 1870 at 7.45 a.m. at the command of Emil Körner with 76 guns, on the southern front on January 5, 1871 with 98 guns. Although the forts on the southern front had 402 guns and those of the eastern front had 191, the siege artillery managed to gradually defeat the forts so that the German outposts and some of the batteries could be pushed forward. Then the bombardment of the urban area began with 300 to 400 shells a day.

On January 19, 1871, around 90,000 men in three columns under the command of Trochus made one final attempt to break through near the Prussian headquarters west of Paris. In the Battle of Buzenval , the Crown Prince of Prussia easily repulsed the attack from the fort on Mont Valérien . Over 4,000 soldiers fell on the French side and only 600 on the German side. Trochu resigned as military governor and handed over command of the 146,000-strong garrison to General Joseph Vinoy.

Battery No. 8 “Crown Prince” with captured guns aimed at Paris.
Destruction in Saint-Cloud , west of Paris

Another attack was planned for January 20th. The French therefore only retreated as far as Fort Mont Valérien and assembled there for another attack. However, this did not take place, probably also because at this point in time the defeat of the Loire army had become known and the strategic goal of unification could no longer be achieved. From 3 p.m. on January 20th, the government discussed the situation with the 20 mayors of the arrondissement , and from noon on the 21st with the military leaders. They declared that a new failure would only lead to a new defeat and should therefore not be undertaken. On January 22nd, some battalions of the National Guard, supported by parts of the population, rose up. At the same time it became known that the flour stocks for the population did not last until February 1st, as previously calculated, but only until January 24th.

This overall situation prompted the government - with information, but without further coordination with the delegation in Bordeaux - to request a ceasefire from the Germans. Jules Favre wrote to Bismarck on the evening of January 23rd. The next day he appeared personally in Versailles in the afternoon and negotiated the terms of the armistice with Bismarck. On January 26th, the bombardment was stopped, on January 28th, 1871 the armistice was signed, which came into force for Paris the following day.

Results

The German troops won the Franco-Prussian War. On January 18, 1871, Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor in Versailles Palace . At the same time, the German Empire was founded : the four southern German states of Bavaria , Württemberg , Baden and Hesse (-Darmstadt) were united with the states of the North German Confederation under the leadership of Prussia to form the newly founded German Empire , as had already been decided in the November Treaties. On February 8, a French National Assembly was elected; this met on the 12th in Bordeaux and on the 17th elected Adolphe Thiers as the new head of government. Thiers negotiated together with the old and new Foreign Minister Favre on February 21 in Versailles on a peace treaty. The provisional peace treaty was signed there on February 26 , the final peace treaty on May 10, 1871 in Frankfurt am Main. One condition was for the victors to enter the city for a short time on March 1st, another point for the stationing of a German garrison in Paris. Bismarck renounced a longer occupation of Paris, but obtained from the French Republic the cession of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire.

Paris Commune during the siege

During the siege by the Prussian army, the resentment of the Parisian population grew visibly towards the French government, so that on March 18, 1871 an uprising broke out on the model of the French Revolution. Paris was ruled by the Paris Commune for about 3 months .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ludwig Reiners : Bismarck founds the empire. CH Beck, Munich 1957, ISBN 3-423-01574-8 , p. 444.
  2. ^ Heinz Helmert, Hansjürgen Usceck: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history. Berlin: Military Publishing House of the GDR, 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3 , p. 233.
  3. ^ Heinz Helmert, Hansjürgen Usceck: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history. Military Publishing House of the GDR , Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3 , p. 237.
  4. ^ Heinz Helmert, Hansjürgen Usceck: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history. Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3 , p. 241.
  5. ↑ Ludwig Reiners: Bismarck founds the empire. CH Beck, Munich 1957, ISBN 3-423-01574-8 , p. 444.
  6. ↑ Ludwig Reiners: Bismarck founds the empire. CH Beck, Munich 1957, ISBN 3-423-01574-8 , p. 446.
  7. ^ Wilhelm Oncken : The Age of Emperor Wilhelm. (Single edition: ISBN 978-3-8460-3638-9 ). In: W. Oncken (Ed.): General history in individual representations. Fourth main section, part six, volume 2, Grote, Berlin 1890 and more often, p. 272.
  8. ^ Hugo Kunz: The civil war in Chile. F. A. Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1892, p. 58.
  9. ^ Heinz Helmert, Hansjürgen Usceck: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history. Military Publishing House of the GDR, 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3 , p. 284.
  10. ^ Heinz Helmert, Hansjürgen Usceck: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history. Military Publishing House of the GDR, 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3 , p. 284.
  11. ^ Heinz Helmert, Hansjürgen Usceck: Prussian-German Wars from 1864 to 1871. Military history. Military Publishing House of the GDR, 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3 , p. 286.
  12. ^ Wilhelm Oncken: The Age of Emperor Wilhelm. (Single edition: ISBN 978-3-8460-3638-9 ). In: W. Oncken (Ed.): General history in individual representations. Fourth main section, part six, volume 2, Grote, Berlin 1890 and more often, pp. 277/278.
  13. ^ Wilhelm Oncken: The Age of Emperor Wilhelm. (Single edition: ISBN 978-3-8460-3638-9 ). In: W. Oncken (Ed.): General history in individual representations. Fourth main section, part six, volume 2, Grote, Berlin 1890 and more often, pp. 322–329.