Why Bismarck chose Versailles for the proclamation of the German Empire?

[Julie4]

[BCA6010]

100% a power move. The Franco-Prussian war was an embarrassing defeat for France, who on paper should've been able to handily beat Prussia. France being used as a centralized location for signing official treaties and proclamations in Europe is also something that dated all the way back to the days of Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire, which is something that Prussia and later Germany both claimed to be the successors of, and establishing a unified national identity was a huge goal of Bismarck. You could reasonably say that it was upholding a European tradition, sending a message to the rest of Europe, and a message to the Germans themselves all in one go.

Versailles itself is also symbolically noteworthy because it was originally a fairly modest estate (basically a hunting lodge) that no serious noble of the time would've been particularly proud of before the construction of the palace over the course of several decades. Versailles was frequently used as a location for international diplomacy throughout the entire 18th and 19th centuries, even though the most infamous example is at the end of World War 1.

[Julie4]

Prussia will have 800 thousand soldiers during the war France 265 thousand soldiers, add to that a more modern and better funded army. I don't see how France should win on paper.

For Versailles, Well, I heard the following hypothesis, the first is to say that as Versailles symbolizes French greatness, it was the perfect place to humiliate it and to take revenge for the humiliations suffered by Louis XIV and Napoleon.

[BCA6010]

At the time the war broke out, Prussia had a smaller army that wasn't well-equipped, but they had a huge number of basically reservists or a modern equivalent of the inactive ready reserves who were able to mobilize at an extremely fast rate for the time. Prussia also lacked a significant navy that ended up being inconsequential, while France was still a major power in this regard. In fact aside from having a huge, easily mobilized reserve component to rapidly bolster up and counter-attack into France, the only other advantage Prussia really had was superior artillery guns, and it's also this era in which artillery starts to really get recognized as the "King of Battle," which persists to this day. According to US officers who observed the war from the Prussian side, they had developed better tactics and strategy as well, although the reliance on conscripts and recalled soldiers had problems, though the US has been keenly aware of this fact since its own Civil War.

[Julie4]

From the beginning of the war the conservative French deputy, Mr. d'Andelarre, declared: "It is thus that a Chamber was brought to vote a terrible war, without army, without ally, without reason, without pretext. This declaration of the beginning of the war proves that of the beginning even on the paper France did not make the weight, besides even Bismarck himself said that it was a war lost in advance for France.

As for the naval superiority of France it is largely to be qualified since none of the ambitious projects of landing on the coasts of Northern Germany succeeded. Worse, even during rare naval confrontations, France did not win (nor Prussia).

[NamerOfStars]

Didn't that come at the end of the Franco-Prussian war? It'd kind of make sense to do it there, to both ensure that the world heard of it, and to show that the newly-unified Germany was an equal to any of the great powers of Europe without showing favoritism to any of its constituent parts.

Sometimes showing that you CAN kick somebody's butt keeps you from having to actually DO it; if the Americans had learned this lesson better, the War of 1812 might've been avoided. Then again, that might also have pushed us into a war with France, so...

[RyanEC]

I’m guessing for two reasons.
First because the hall of mirrors in Versailles was grander then anything in Germany, and second to further thumb the noses of the French after the Franco Prussia war.


I think this was inappropriate and caused more unnecessary strain between the French third republic and the German empire ultimately culmination in one of the main diplomatic causes of The First World War.
I think a coronation would have been more appropriate at the Brandenburg gate in Berlin.

[Anonymous]

Ah @julie4 I’d love to take you out and just talk for hours and hours.

[Julie4]

Haha thank you very much sir. But I don't think you would find me so interesting.

[Opinion Owner]

Nonsense. You’re my favorite poster on here. You’re extremely well read and you have a deep appreciation for world history.

[RyanEC]

I agree with Mr Agagagagaga.

[Julie4]

Thank you very much gentlemen for these kind messages and compliments although I don't deserve them lol.

However, I would also be happy to learn from people like you🙂

[RyanEC]

@Julie4 I think you are worldly, intellectual and well versed in history and culture.
You are more well off then most in your generation.

[andreasderjuengere]

Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam wasn't big enough for such an event.
Also: I think that it was some kind of statement to use a French venue; to humiliate Napoleon's ''greatness'' on his own ground must have been quite humorous :)

[Julie4]

Some say that he chose Versailles symbolically to show that Germany had succeeded in taking revenge on Louis XIV and Napoleon. And that nothing could symbolize more the French greatness than Versailles

[andreasderjuengere]

That could be. I have been to Versailles myself - and it's indeed one of the ''greatest'' places I've ever seen :)
But I also see some admiration for France; see: 'Sanssouci' is an imitation of Versailles palace. And from the fine arts, both countries had always been close 'friends'

[Julie4]

I always wondered why the French and the Germans hated each other so much and made war. Of course we have known the same thing with England.

[andreasderjuengere]

I think that this were mostly only the politcal leaders who played their power games.
The common citizens just repeated ''opinions'' without really meaning it, I guess.
Also: in Strassbourg area (as one example) there was -and is- a lot of amicable interaction on both sides.
By the way - Germans had been very welcome in the légion étrangère (isn't THAT funny?)

[MarkRet]

I'm just guessing, but probably to humiliate France further and proclaim the greatness of the German people.

[lightbulb27]

Way better food. Why you think they invaded in the first place? One word... saurkraut.. he'd had enough!

and there's always a woman involved...

[altaboy]

Because the Germans just finished kicking France's butt in the Franco-Prussian war. It seemed like an opportune time to unite the nation once and for all.

[Mikemyth561]

Because France always gets its ass kicked in wars and Versailles was judged simply as a pretty place by Bismarck, nothing more.

[OddBeMe]

didn't they just win the franco war? Or part of it?

[RobEurope]

Probably religious reasons. Protestantism vs catholicism.