This exhibition aims is to give a new perspective on the Franco-German War of 1870-1871, overshadowed by the two global conflicts, by offering the two countries’ points of view, whether they be immediate or retrospective, and to give this conflict larger perspectives. One starting in 1864, the beginning of the German unification wars, to 1875 with the crisis called the “War in Site” (Krieg in Sicht). The other beginning in 1813, corresponding to the German Liberation wars (Befreiungskriege), followed by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, up to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
The traces left by the war’s witnesses and participants in the arts, literature, or even urban environments are numerous, like the neighbourhood of La Défense west of Paris, the Victory Column (Siegessäule) in Berlin, or even the Straße der Pariser Kommune. They are largely addressed throughout this exhibition with a great variety of objects, paintings, sculptures, as well as an exceptional ensemble of photographs from that time. Also evoked are the major transformations born from these events, whether they be political, diplomatic, military, ideological, social, economic, or religious.
France Allemagnes(s), 1870-1871
La guerre, la Commune, les mémoires (The war, the Commune, the memories)
From April 13 through July 30, 2017
Musée de l’Armée
Hôtel des Invalides
129 rue de Grenelle
75007 Paris
France
Catalog
Published by Éditions Gallimard
35 €
