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.

The German Question, Part Fifty-One

"Bismarck" Part Three/C "A Sad Parting"

France's Napoleon III now mediated between Austria and Prussia and between Italy and Austria. Napoleon III had long sought to keep some sort of power balance between Austria and Prussia and their role in German affairs. He was surprised by Prussia's decisive victory so early in the military conflict, as he had calculated that Austria would defeat Prussia in any war. Some Prussians wanted an out-and-out march on Vienna, even followed by an occupation of the Austrian capital, and former capital of the German Empire, but Bismarck and cooler heads in Prussia knew that such a move could well bring Napoleon III to side with Austria and declare war. This would have brought a two front war to Prussia, with only Italy as an ally, and as I noted in the previous part, the Italians had had a mixed record in their military operations against Austria up to that point. Further, many Germans, although undoubtedly more in the southern states, did not want to see Austria, their traditional leader, be humiliated by Prussia. Any such humiliation could have caused deep divides in the German public at a time when Prussia sought unity. An armistice limited the possibility of any such developments.

Bismarck did not seek territory from Austria. He also wanted to form a new Prussian-led confederation of the German states, BUT this time totally excluding Austria. So, without going into all of the negotiating ploys, here was the end result of the treaty process and other events:

First, the German Confederation was dissolved. Liechtenstein became independent (as it remains today).* Luxemburg also became independent, although it joined the Customs Union ("Zollverein"), giving it close ties to Prussia (and eventually the new German nation).** Italy received, and then annexed, the Italian populated region of Venetia (thereafter northeastern Italy) from Austria; Prussia annexed Schleswig and Holstein (then combined into one province "Schleswig-Holstein"); Prussia annexed other German states, or parts thereof; Prussia wanted Saxony, but it remained as an independent state (see next); Prussia formed the new "North German Confederation" ("Norddeutscher Bund"), which included Saxony, but which excluded (at Napoleon III's insistence) the southern German states, and Austria was committed to remain OUT OF German affairs. The Austrian Empire's very existence now came into question. The always present potential for ethnic unrest in the multi-ethnic empire led to a sharing of power with Hungary; thus the resulting 1867 compromise, known as the "Ausgleich," in German, brought about the "Austro-Hungarian Empire," or simply "Austria-Hungary" (also called the "Dual Monarchy"). The Habsburg ruler remained as King of Hungary, and foreign policy and military matters were run by the "Empire," but Hungary ran its own matters otherwise (it had its own legislative body which met in Budapest).***

The German population of the Austrian Empire still saw themselves as "Germans," but this began the process by which Austrians eventually would be seen separately, except for a minority point of view. More on that later. (A Word History is below the notes)

* The dissolution of the German Confederation resulted in Liechtenstein becoming an independent country, so we have another answer to our "German Question," and it does not include Liechtenstein, although its language and customs remain German in character.

** The economic relationship between Luxemburg and Germany remained, but, with Luxemburg as an independent country, Luxemburg was not obliged to follow German law nor foreign policy. So we have another "detachment" to help answer the "German Question."

*** Initially "Buda" and "Pest" were two separate cities, which did not formally unite into "Budapest" until 1873.

WORD HISTORY:
Waltz-This word came into English in the 1780s for a type of dance. It goes back to Indo European "wel," which carried the notion of "roll, turn, revolve." This gave Old Germanic "waltjanan," with the same basic meaning. This then gave Old High German "walzan," and eventually gave German the verb "walzen," and the noun "Walzer," the term for the energetic dance which involved what appeared as "rolling" or "revolving" as people danced. By the 1820s, the word began to also take on the added meaning in English of "move about nimbly," and eventually "to navigate sticky or delicate questions with adeptness." By the way, English once had the related verb "wyltan/wieltan," meaning, "to roll."