The German Question, Part Fifty-Four

"Bismarck" Part 4/C "The Defeat Of France"

There are numerous sources for those interested in the actual battles during the Franco-Prussian War, but my dealings with such will be very limited.

In the war between France and the Germans, the French had a slight advantage in rifles, as their guns were of more modern design than the German guns. The Germans certainly had a big advantage in artillery, as the French artillery pieces were still muzzle-loaded, which took time, and the German guns were the new and much more rapid fire breech-loading guns. The Germans eventually also had a numerical advantage in manpower, as they were able to mobilize more than a million men (about one and a quarter million, by most sources), while the French eventually had slightly less than a million men, although their initial forces seemingly were a bit larger than what was available to the Germans. The Germans mobilized their forces far faster than thought possible by the French commanders. Further, the French thought the south German states would join the war AGAINST Prussia, as the secret alliances between Prussia and these states had indeed remained beyond French knowledge.

By early August, the French had taken the German city of Saarbrücken,* which lay just over the border. The French thought they were on their way to a march into the heart of Prussia and a quick victory, but the Prussians and the other Germans, especially Bavarians, were already converging on the area with substantial forces. The French withdrew back across the border, but German forces ended up surrounding them. Some French troops were able to flee toward the main body of the French army in the region, but the others were either killed or captured. Things would only get worse for the French. Two more German victories in the area within just days forced the French forces back, with high causalities; about 24,000 killed, wounded, and captured/missing (total for both battles), with the German forces, which were not only Prussian and Bavarian, but also from other German states, suffering more than 13,000 killed, wounded, missing/captured.

Large forces of the French army retreated to the city of Metz, which was a fortress. The Germans besieged the fortress on August 19, turning back all attempts by the French to break out. By October 27, the French forces surrendered the city, along with at least 180,000 men! It was a decisive German victory. In the meantime, French forces, with Emperor Napoleon III also present, tried to break the siege of Metz from the outside on September 1. They were trapped by German forces near the city of Sedan and defeated, with Napoleon III and his primary commander both being captured. The French suffered the loss of more than 120,000 men (most surrendered) and the Germans lost something over 9000. With Napoleon III's capture,** France again declared itself a republic, and the French leaders, after brief peace negotiations with Prussia, decided to continue the war. This brought the German armies right to Paris, where they initiated a siege.

The new government of France mobilized new armies in other parts of France. The intention was to relieve Paris with simultaneous attacks from various directions. The Germans sent relatively small forces (don't forget, they were besieging both Metz and Paris at that time) to try to disperse these new French troops before they could actually concentrate for an attack. Initially the French were successful against these German forces, but once the original French forces surrounded in Metz surrendered on October 27, the German forces that had been besieging the fortress came to the rescue. Eventually the Germans were victorious. Each German victory released those German troops to support military operations elsewhere. With food supplies low in Paris, and with little hope of any remaining French armies being able to successfully advance on the capital, the French surrendered. During surrender negotiations, Bismarck promised food would be supplied to Paris.

Next, "The Germans Unite....Sort Of-The Founding Of Modern Germany" (A Word History is below the notes)

* While Saarbrücken literally means "Saar Bridges" in modern German; the city being located on the Saar River, "supposedly" this simply evolved into that meaning, as the inhabitants prior to Germanic people were Celts, who called the area "Sarabriga," which meant something like, "large rock/boulder above flowing water," again supposedly from the cliffs above the river and wetlands below. "Some" say the second part, "briga," then was translated into Germanic as a form that is related to modern English "brook" and modern German "Bruch" (meaning "wetland, bog, swampy area"). When bridges were finally built, the pronunciation then followed suit, eventually becoming the modern form. By the way, if you didn't already notice, English "bridge" and German "Brücke" are related. The "n" at the end of the German form makes it plural, "bridges."

** Napoleon III was later released by the Germans and he, his wife and son went to England, where he died a couple of years later.

WORD HISTORY:
Folk-This goes back to Indo European "pel," one of the meanings of which was "multitude, abundance." This gave Old Germanic the offshoot "folkam," which meant both "people" and "group of warriors." This gave Old English "folc," with the more extended meaning "nation, tribe, people, military personnel." Later English adopted the "folk" spelling which has endured into modern times. English borrowed the Latin derived word "people," which then took over as the primary word, but "folk" has lasted, usually with the connotation "common people," evident in the derived adjective, "folksy." Its various forms are used throughout the Germanic languages: German, Low German and Dutch have "volk" (German spells it with a capital "V," but it is pronounced "f"), West Frisian, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have "folk," Icelandic has "fólk." Besides meaning "people," the more extensive meaning "people of a nation" is also a part of many of the Germanic languages. Americans likely best know the German form from "Volkswagen."

NOTE: The Indo European form "pel" (variant form "ple") gave Greek "plethos," meaning "multitude," and Latin "plebs" meaning "people," so you can see the relationship to the Germanic form. Both Greek and Latin are Indo European languages related to English further down the family tree.