1870-1871: The Franco-Prussian War

A Parisienne: A Parisienne's Memoirs of War (1x1)

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The siege of Paris by Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons and Wurttembergers in 1870/​71 is not as devastating as the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944. But in the five months between September 1870 and January 1871 almost two million Paris residents experience that a modern war makes little difference between civilians and soldiers. After the capitulation of Sedan, on September 2, 1870, the Emperor Napoleon III was deposed, and the Second Republic was proclaimed on September 4 by a government of national defense which Leon Gambetta formed. While France decides to continue the war, the Prussian armies and their allies march on Paris. For five months, they besieged the city, condemning the Parisians to starvation. In the episode "A Parisienne" in the series "The Franco-Prussian War 1870/​71" the 20-year-old Genevieve Breton uses her diary to report on events, the happiness and pain of love in times of war, glowing patriotism and the realization that not the enemy, but the war is the real evil.