Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Basic Questions
- Part Two Nationalism, Leadership, and War
- Part Three Mobilization and Warfare
- Part Four The Home Front
- Part Five The Reality of War
- Part Six The Legacy
- 28 The Influence of the German Wars of Unification on the United States
- 29 From Civil War to World Power: Perceptions and Realities, 1865-1914
- 30 The Myth of Gambetta and the “People's War” in Germany and France, 1871-1914
- 31 War Memorials: A Legacy of Total War?
- Part Seven Conclusions
- Index
30 - The Myth of Gambetta and the “People's War” in Germany and France, 1871-1914
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Basic Questions
- Part Two Nationalism, Leadership, and War
- Part Three Mobilization and Warfare
- Part Four The Home Front
- Part Five The Reality of War
- Part Six The Legacy
- 28 The Influence of the German Wars of Unification on the United States
- 29 From Civil War to World Power: Perceptions and Realities, 1865-1914
- 30 The Myth of Gambetta and the “People's War” in Germany and France, 1871-1914
- 31 War Memorials: A Legacy of Total War?
- Part Seven Conclusions
- Index
Summary
This chapter explores the question of whether and in what way French warfare after the defeat at Sedan was regarded as a step on the way to total war. The point is not so much to determine whether the people's war (Volkskrieg) organized by the French leader Leon Gambetta between September 1870 and January 1871 objectively represents a new type of war but, rather, to ask the question of whether and in what way the année terrible (terrible year) and the people s war represented a milestone in German and French memory and military theory between 1871 and 1914. In what way was Gambetta's warfare considered exemplary; how was it adopted in later war theory? Did his contemporaries already consider it a step toward the “war of the future?” The following reflections are a first step onto previously neglected research terrain. There is a dearth of research on the Gambetta myth in the Third Republic, which is somewhat astonishing considering the obvious significance of this politician in French history. Likewise, little is known of how French military history and theory were received in Wilhelmine Germany.
Military science began to explore the people's war of Gambetta's armies soon after the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Interestingly, this reflection began much sooner in Germany than in France. Colmar von der Goltz, certainly the most prolific representative of the "official" school of military history in Imperial Germany, published a study in 1877 on Leon Gambetta und seine Armeen (Leon Gambetta and his armies). The study was based on essays by the same author in the Preussischejahrbucher (Prussian yearbooks) of 1874-75.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On the Road to Total WarThe American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861–1871, pp. 641 - 656Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997