Thursday, May 21, 2015

PRUSSIANS HAVE THEIR VICTORY MARCH BUT GUARDS STEAL THE SHOW


PRUSSIANS PREPARE AN IMPRESSIVE PARADE, AND A GERMAN ARTIST IMAGINES PARISIANS LOOKING ON

In reality a boycott reveals guards' strength.

Prussians prepare for the march in the Tuileries gardens, photographer unknown / zoom

German Troops in Paris, 1871 (cut) by Adolf Göhder / zoom

The guards want to fight but when their wives say that will lead to a bloodbath and to losing the Republic as in '48they react in another way.  

A proclamation bordered in black states that barricades will isolate the enemy and that the Guard will act "in concert with the army" — which remains on the other side of the river.

Bells toll. Black cloths hang from windows. The streets are deserted:

  • "That night gave an impression of grandeur." 
-- Louise Michel
  • "So Moscow must have seemed to the Grand Army. Parked between the Seine, the Louvre [...] and a cordon of barricades [...] bordering faubourg Saint-Honoré, the Germans seemed caught in a trap."
-- Lissagary
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The guards' discipline recalls that of the rebels in February and  June 1848: 

"Calmly and dutifully, the guards broke everything in a café that had served the Prussians [...] and without pity or angerwhipped the unfortunate women who had slipped through the barricades in festive dress, to view the invaders."
-- Louise Michel (underlining added)

After two days and two nights camping out in the cold, 
              the Prussians leave without incident.
Claretie
The guards are in control.

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