January 18, 1871 · Paris Region Theater
January 18, 1871
In the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles — the symbol of French royal glory and Louis XIV's assertion of European dominance — the German princes and generals assembled on January 18, 1871, to proclaim the German Empire. King Wilhelm I of Prussia was declared Kaiser (Emperor) of Germany. Bismarck had stage-managed the event to place the proclamation in the most symbolically humiliating location imaginable for France: the palace Louis XIV had built as the embodiment of French greatness, eleven miles from a besieged Paris. The ceremony was conducted while French civilians in Paris were dying of starvation and German shells fell on the city.
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