Sedantag (, ''Day of Sedan'') was a semi-official memorial holiday in the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

celebrated on the second day of September to commemorate the victory in the 1870 Battle of Sedan. After the outbreak of the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

a few weeks earlier, French emperor

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

and his army were taken prisoner in the fortress of Sedan by Prussian troops, a major step to eventual victory. In 1871, the now united Germans could not agree on a common ''German'' holiday. While the German Emperor and

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

were proclaimed on 18 January 1871, the Prussians themselves held the first coronation of a Prussian king on the same day in 1701 in higher esteem. The signing of the final peace Treaty of Frankfurt, several months later on 10 May 1871, was also not unequivocally welcomed. The southern states of

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

, the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...

and

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806. Geogr ...

preferred to celebrate the victories in battles to which their troops had contributed significantly, such as the Battle of Wörth, which had occurred already on 6 August 1870. While never proclaimed officially, and participation and official support for Sedantag celebrations varied over time, and working class leaders never really accepting it, Sedantag became a ''de facto'' national holiday, last celebrated in 1918. After the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

had been signed in mid 1919, on 27 August 1919 the Ministry of the Interior of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

declared that no further Sedantag celebrations should take place.

Literature

Prussian War Veteran Silver Medal Day of Sedan 1895

*Florentine Gebhart: ''Erinnerung an das Sedanfest in den 1870er Jahren''. In: ''Blätter aus dem Lebensbilderbuch''. Berlin 1930, S. 51–54 (Nachdruck in Jens Flemmin (Hrsg.): ''Quellen zur Alltagsgeschichte der Deutschen vom Mittelalter bis heute. Band 7. 1871–1914''. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1997, , pp. 61–64; außerdem frei verfügbar al
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* Thomas Rohkrämer: ''Der Militarismus der „kleinen Leute“. Die Kriegervereine im Deutschen Kaiserreich 1871–1914''. (= Beiträge zur Militärgeschichte; Bd. 29). Oldenbourg, München 1990, (zugl. Dissertation, Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, 1989) * Fritz Schellack: ''Nationalfeiertage in Deutschland 1871 bis 1945''. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1990, (zugl. Dissertation, Universität Mainz 1989) * Jakob Vogel: ''Nationen im Gleichschritt''. (= Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft; Bd. 118). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, (zugl. Dissertation, FU Berlin, 1995) *Rüdiger Wulf: ''„Hurra, heut ist ein froher Tag, des Kaisers Wiegenfest!“ Schulfeiern zum Kaisergeburtstag und zum Sedantag des Kaiserreichs''. In: Jochen Löher und Rüdiger Wulf (Hrsg.): ''„Furchtbar dräute der Erbfeind!“ Vaterländische Erziehung in den Schulen des Kaiserreichs 1871–1918''. (= Schriftenreihe des Westfälischen Schulmuseums Dortmund; Band 3). Westfälisches Schulmuseum, Dortmund 1998, pp. 57–95 * Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz, Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz: ''Vor 100 Jahren – Der Sedantag am 2. September 1899''

External links

Kapitel ''Sedanfeier''
in: Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl
''Ein ganzer Mann''
Roman, 1897
O. P.: ''Sedantag oder Nationalfest?''
kritischer Artikel in der Wochenzeitschrift ''Ethische Kultur'', 1. September 1900 {{Authority control Franco-Prussian War German Empire Public holidays in Germany Victory days September observances Former public holidays

Literature

See also

External links