3-039-077 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Germans in Paris: an object of great curiosity, Champs Elysées, 1871. Franco-Prussian War. 'The quarter of Paris comprising the Champs Elysées and the Place de la Concorde...was occupied by 30,000 German troops, from the Wednesday morning to the Friday morning...On the benches by the side of the road were seated some of the invaders, in groups of twos and threes, chatting and smoking their pipes, and ready to chaff any French man or woman who might be willing to converse. Soon they became centres of animated crowds; and whenever one saw forty or fifty crammed together in a circle, one might be sure that Hans or Fritz was the centre of it'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.