The Dubious Battle of Reichshoffen

Abstract

Newspapers’ disregard for fact created fertile ground for the growth of national myth. A perhaps fictitious Parisian news report on the Battle of Reichshoffen, which took place just before the siege on the Franco-Prussian border, became one such myth. A few conflicting accounts of this early battle in the war turned into a play, a poem, and a panorama, and perhaps later led to the successful campaign of Patrice de Mac Mahon for President of the French Republic. But it is impossible to verify whether the Battle was a French victory or a defeat. This ambiguity was inherent to newspaper poetics during the siege, and while frustrating for any reader looking for truth, it shows how profitable and how ideologically productive ambiguity could be. Much like the Battle of Waterloo, the Battle of Reischshoffen grew to become a national-historical allegory due to the particularities of literature production in times of war.