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On 1 March 1871, the National Assembly in Paris decided to put a final end to the war by accepting the German peace terms, including a symbolic, but nonetheless extremely humiliating two-day occupation of the French capital by German soldiers on 1 and 2 March. Parisians, and especially the National Guard, angry about the way in which the Germans had bombarded and starved the population of Paris, refused to accept these terms, and were keen to continue the war. There was an atmosphere of rebellion, and on 18 March the National Guard dismissed the city authorities, declaring Paris to be a free city. The members of Parliament and the government fled to Versailles, and on 28 March the Paris Commune was awarded administrative powers over the city. It was only when the Germans set free French prisoners of war, and armed them, that the French government was able to retake the capital on 2 April. First, the fortresses ringing the city were occupied, while the German troops in Paris looked on. In return for German support against the rebellion, and because there was really little choice, the French government signed the Peace Treaty of Frankfurt on 10 May. On 21 May government troops, 130, 000 strong, began the attack on Paris itself. In a single week between twenty and thirty thousand Communards and ordinary citizens were killed or summarily executed. Schuver and his father, however, were lucky not to have been involved in the bloody street fighting. The fact that father and son dared to visit the city under siege, says a good deal about their intrepid characters. |
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