German States Coins Prussia Sieges Thaler 1871 Victory over France
Commemorative issue: commemorating victory in the Franco-Prussian War
Sieges Thaler. A name given to such German medallic Thaler as were struck subsequent to and commemorative of some national victory. Notable examples are the Fehrbelliner Sieges Thaler, issued after the victory of the Great Elector over the Swedes in 1675 at Fehrbellin, and the commemorative piece struck after the Franco-German war in 1870.
"Sieges Thaler" means "Victory Thaler" and it commemorates the victory of Prussia and several other German states over Napoleon III of France. This war was a primary driver to the unification of the many separate German States into the German Empire under Otto Von Bismark in 1872. German states of Bavaria, Bremen, Saxony and Wurttemburg also issued sieges thalers. This page applies only to the one from Prussia.
Obverse: Bust of Wilhelm I (22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888), Wilhelm I, King of Prussia (2 January 1861 – 9 March 1888); Wilhelm I, German Emperor (18 January 1871 – 9 March 1888)
Lettering: WILHELM KOENIG VON PREUSSEN A.
Reverse: Crowned Borussia seated upon throne, holding sword and shield
Lettering: SIEGES THALER 1871.
Edge: Inscripted.
Lettering: GOTT MIT UNS
Country: German states (Prussia).
Year: 1871.
Value: 1 Thaler.
Metal: Silver (.900).
Weight: 18.52 g.
Diameter: 33 mm.
Thickness: 2.5 mm.
Shape: Round.
Mint: A = Berlin Mint.
Gott mit uns (God with us) is a phrase commonly used on armour in the German military from the German Empire to the end of the Third Reich.
Borussia:
- the Latin name for Prussia.
- a female national personification of Prussia.
Wilhelm I
William I, or in German Wilhelm I (full name: William Frederick Louis, German: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig, 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888), of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia (2 January 1861 – 9 March 1888) and the first German Emperor (18 January 1871 – 9 March 1888), as well as the first Head of State of a united Germany. Under the leadership of William and his Minister President Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire. Despite his long support of Otto von Bismarck as Minister President, however, William held strong reservations about some of Bismarck's more reactionary policies, including his anti-Catholicism and tough handling of subordinates. Contrary to the aggressive, domineering Bismarck, William was described as polite, gentlemanly, and while a staunch conservative, more open to certain classical liberal ideas than his grandson Wilhelm II.
Wilhelm I, King of Prussia
On 2 January 1861 Frederick William died and William ascended the throne as William I of Prussia. In July a student from Leipzig tried to assassinate William, but he was only lightly injured. Like Frederick I of Prussia, William travelled to Königsberg and there crowned himself at the Schlosskirche. William chose the anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, 18 October, for this event, which was the first Prussian crowning ceremony since 1701 and the only crowning of a German king in the 19th century. William refused to comply with his brother's wish, expressed in Frederick William's last will, that he should abrogate the constitution.
William inherited a conflict between Frederick William and the liberal Landtag. He was considered a politically neutral person as he intervened less in politics than his brother. In 1862 the Landtag refused an increase in the military budget that was required to pay for the already implemented reform of the army. This involved raising the peace time army from 150,000 to 200,000 men and boost the annual number of new recruits from 40,000 to 63,000. However, the truly controversial part was the plan to keep the length of military service (raised in 1856 from two years) at three years. When his request, backed by his Minister of War Albrecht von Roon was refused, William first considered resigning, but his son, the Crown Prince, advised strongly against it. Then, on the advice of Roon, William appointed Otto von Bismarck to the office of Minister President in order to force through the proposals. According to the Prussian constitution, the Minister President was responsible solely to the king, not to the Landtag. Bismarck, a conservative Prussian Junker and loyal friend of the king, liked to see his working relationship with William as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless, it was Bismarck who effectively directed the politics, domestic as well as foreign; on several occasions he gained William's assent by threatening to resign.
During his reign William was the commander-in-chief of the Prussian forces in the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. After the latter was won by Prussia, William wanted to march on to Vienna and annex Austria but Bismarck and Crownprince Frederick talked him out of it. Bismarck wanted to end the war, so as to allow Prussia to ally with Austria if it needed to at a later date; Frederick was also appalled by the casualties and wanted a speedy end to hostilities. During a heated discussion Bismarck threatened to resign if William continued to Vienna; Bismarck got his way.
In 1867, the North German Confederation was created and William became its president. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, William was in command of all the German forces at the crucial Battle of Sedan.
Wilhelm I, German Emperor
During the Franco-Prussian War, on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles Palace, William was proclaimed German Emperor. The title "German Emperor" was carefully chosen by Bismarck after discussion until (and after) the day of the proclamation. William accepted this title grudgingly as he would have preferred "Emperor of Germany" which, however, was unacceptable to the federated monarchs, and would also have signalled a claim to lands outside his realm (Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg etc.). The title "Emperor of the Germans", as proposed in 1848, was ruled out as he considered himself chosen "by the grace of God", not by the people as in a republic. William's brother Frederick William IV had been elected Emperor of the Germans by the Frankfurt National Assembly on 28 March 1849, but then refused the crown already on 3 April 1849, purportedly saying that he would not accept "a crown from the gutter".
William also viewed his Kingship of Prussia as much more important than the title of German Emperor. He complained to his son, Crown Prince Frederick, about having to exchange "the radiant Prussian crown for this filth-crown".
By this ceremony, the North German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire ("Kaiserreich", 1871–1918). This Empire was a federal state; the emperor was head of state and president (primus inter pares – first among equals) of the federated monarchs (the kings of Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, the grand dukes of Baden, Mecklenburg, Hesse, as well as other principalities, duchies and the senates of the free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen).
In 1872 he arbitrated a boundary dispute between Great Britain and the United States, deciding in favor of the U.S. and placing the San Juan Islands of Washington State within U.S. national territory, thus ending the 12-year bloodless Pig War.
In his memoirs, Bismarck describes William as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by "female influences". This was a reference to William's wife, who had been educated by, among others Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a liberal. William, however, had long been strongly opposed to liberal ideas. Despite possessing considerable power as Kaiser, William left the task of governing mostly to his chancellor and limited himself to representation, embodying the dignity of the state and approving Bismarck's policies.
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War (German: Deutsch-Französischer Krieg, lit. German-French War, French: Guerre franco-allemande, lit. Franco-German War), often referred to in France as the War of 1870 (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871), was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification. Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck planned to provoke a French attack in order to draw the southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt — into an alliance with the North German Confederation dominated by Prussia.
Bismarck adroitly created a diplomatic crisis over the succession to the Spanish throne, then rewrote a dispatch about a meeting between King William of Prussia and the French foreign minister, to make it appear that the French had been insulted. The French press and parliament demanded a war, which the generals of Napoleon III assured him that France would win. Napoleon and his Prime Minister, Émile Ollivier, for their parts sought war to solve their problems with political disunity in France. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on the German Kingdom of Prussia and hostilities began three days later. The German coalition mobilised its troops much more quickly than the French and rapidly invaded northeastern France. The German forces were superior in numbers, had better training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railroads and artillery.
A series of swift Prussian and German victories in eastern France, culminating in the Siege of Metz and the Battle of Sedan, saw the army of the Second Empire decisively defeated (Napoleon III had been captured at Sedan on 2 September). A Government of National Defence declared the Third Republic in Paris on 4 September and continued the war and for another five months, the German forces fought and defeated new French armies in northern France. Following the Siege of Paris, the capital fell on 28 January 1871 and then a revolutionary uprising called the Paris Commune seized power in the capital and held it for two months, until it was bloodily suppressed by the regular French army at the end of May 1871.
The German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian king, Wilhelm I, uniting Germany as a nation-state. The Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871 gave Germany most of Alsace and some parts of Lorraine, which became the Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen).The German conquest of France and the unification of Germany upset the European balance of power, that had existed since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and Otto von Bismarck maintained great authority in international affairs for two decades. French determination to regain Alsace-Lorraine and fear of another Franco-German war, along with British apprehension about the balance of power, became factors in the causes of World War I.