Franco-German War 150th anniversary

OK, Joe, I've edited the OP to remove the editorializing and make it into a learning / traveling opportunity. Thanks for your input.

Strasbourg has a section of buildings built by the Germans after the Franco-Prussian war. As this style of architecture was largely destroyed in Germany during WWII, Strasbourg is one of the few places to see it. The architectural style is called Grunderzeit.

https://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/the-german-quarter-walking-tour-2910.html

That's a great little tour app, thanks!

Since it needs to be travel related, apparently, here is a "travel fact". Napoleon III went into exile in England (where he'd been exiled before), and you can visit his former residence which is now Chiselhurst Golf Club. And a bonus "fun fact", if you ring the golf club then the telephone number after the modern code begins 467, which is the numerical conversion from the original local exchange name IMP (for Imperial) chosen because the deposed emperor and his empress lived there.

A couple of suggestions of places to visit.

The first is the Niederwalddenkmal or Niederwald monument, which was erected to mark the unification of Germany after the Franco-Prussian war. It is on a hill above Rudesheim in the Rhine valley. From the memorial you look westwards into France in the distance.

The second is the town of Metz. Once in Germany, itr is now in France. The station and much of the town is built in a German, almost Wagnerian, style, reflecting the fact that it is on land that had been conquered.

In addition, you might want to study up on the Battle of Sedan and visit the lovely city and castle. You could also read Zola's La Debacle about the battle and surrounding events.

Great pointers - I see that Metz has the only museum dedicated to the War of 1870, but that even better it was the capital of Lotharingia, which is everyone's favorite forgotten European empire.

Haute Koenigsbourg, the castle above Selestat, had been destroyed by the Swedes during the 30-Years War. The locals They knew the Kaiser looved old castles, so they gifted it to him. He then paid them to restore it, creating jobs for local craftsmen. There is also a fortification west of Strasbourg, a kind of pre-Maginot line installation built by the Germans to defend their conquest. You can get pre-arranged tours.

BTW, although Bismarck was spoiling for a war to unite the German states, he was opposed to annexing any French territory as he believed, presciently, that this would result in long lasting French animosity. But the Kaiser could not resist a land grab.

IMHO I'll vote for this post being travel-related.
Seems obvious that major events related to the history of France and Germany are travel-related, and may be of interest to current travelers who are into history, even some travelers from the US. Won't be of great interest to many travelers, but it's certainly travel-related IMHO.

Historians have said that the end of the war marked the "ascendancy of Imperial Germany as the preeminent military power on the continent." That alone makes it of interest to some of us travelers, given what happened in Europe in the next 75 years: the utter devastation of World Wars 1 and 2, killing a hundred million plus world-wide, the devastation of which in turned influenced and shaped the European Union that we experience today when we travel in Europe.

And the French carried painful memories of the war: the casualties, the fact that they lost Alsace and Lorraine until the end of WW1, and the four month Siege of Paris was a painful chapter in French history. Does it affect the world we live in today? Certainly it's relevant, at least indirectly, to the development of European history.

I love all these titbits. Come on, Fred, don't leave me on tenterhooks.

Kent, to be fair, I think joe was objecting to my unedited OP in which I had some editorializing about how our dependence on English here in the USA means that we get a slanted view of Continental events because we don't get the French version first, or perhaps at all. I went a little further about my own concerns with WASP whitewashing of history and when I saw joe's comment I thought better and clipped it.

Aviro: Thanks for mentioning that, I didn't see the OP before you edited it, so now I understand the context of Joe's remarks.

Every tourist visits Berlin's symbol, the Brandenburg Gate, a significant structure throughout the 18th Century's series of Franco-German warfare. That notorious souvenir collector, Napoleon I, took the crowning statue of horses-and-chariot home to Paris in 1809. When he was beaten eight years later, the Quadriga, as it is called, was hauled back to Berlin. It continued serving as backdrop to triumphant celebrations – it's still a favourite site of military band tattoos – even though the horses' heads were knocked off in the fighting at the end of WW2. Today the 'soldiers' posing near the gate are fakes, collecting tips for photos. A tour guide told me he'd seen a couple of them getting into a van from Chippendale's, the beefcake strippers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate#19th_and_early_20th_centuries

The Brandenburger Tor in Berlin was built to honour the invasion of the Dutch Republic by the troops of Frederik William II of Prussia at the end of the 18th century. If I am informed well the Republic financed the project.

A visit to the Musée de la Grande Guerre (WWI) in Meaux the time line begins with the Franco-German War, the tentions between the two nations since that war played an important role in the cause of WWI. In short it was about hegemony in Europe between nations and the unification of Germany shifted the balance of power. The proclamation of the Second German Empire in 1871 was held in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, for the French a humiliating experience.

Visiting it 15 years ago I can’t remember there is anything to see about the war of 1870 in the castle of Sedan, but in nearby Bazeilles there is a little museum and a monument, only worth going to my opinion if this is of real interest.

If Napoleon III is of interest you can visit Château de Compiègne. As it was his autumn residence and one of the three seats of government you can see rooms in the style of that period. Architect Violet-le-Duc dit many projects for him like that notorious spire of Notre Dame, but also the one of the abbey of Le Mont-Saint-Michel and for instance the construction of Château de Pierrefonds.

Great pointers, Wil, thank you.
As this year continues to pass more 150th anniversaries will unfold that are important in the development of modern Germany and France.

Another place you can visit you can relate to the unification of Germany is Wartburg Castle just outside Eisenach. The Wartburg Festival of 1817 was organised by student fraternities, the Burschenschaft to celebrate the achievements of Luther, the 300th anniversary of the Reformation and the Battle of Leipzig of 1813 where Napoleon was defeated causing his abdication and excile to Elba. It was there that there was the first popular declaration of sentiment for a unified and independent nation state. https://www.wartburg.de/en/wartburg-castle.html

It was the aftermath of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars that had a huge impact on the course of European history in the 19th century and in the case of Germany it triggered the desire for an unified nation and made it finally possible too. The 19th century was a complicated period in European history, think a good read to place the unification in an European historical context is The Pursuit of Power by Richard J. Evans.

Oops, I was counting on my fingers in my previous post and forgot that the 1800s constitute the 19th Century.
I like the suggestion of the Musee de la grand guerre in Meaux, an easy train ride from Gare de l'est in Paris. This relatively new museum pays as much, and maybe more, attention to the common persons' experiences in WW1 as to the generals and their battle strategies.