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Political art: Anton von Werner painted several versions of his picture - all of them have different statements.
This version was given to Chancellor Otto von Bismarck for his birthday, it is the only one that has survived and is now in the Bismarck Museum in Friedrichsruh near Hamburg.
Photo: Otto von Bismarck Foundation Photo: Jürgen Hollweg
When Anton von Werner (1843 to 1915) arrived in Versailles on the morning of January 18, 1871, he did not know what to expect.
The Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm had ordered the painter to France three days earlier by telegram, but only told him that there was something to be experienced there that was “worthy of his brush”.
Only a few of the 1500 or so people present in the palace's state room were inaugurated - for good reason.
The German Reich, which had already been established under constitutional law on January 1, 1871, was still at war with France.
The German armed forces had moved their headquarters to Versailles in September 1870 and were now besieging nearby Paris.
The army command feared unrest, should it transpire that the proclamation of the new German emperor on French soil was imminent - especially in the Palace of Versailles.
The residence of the Sun King Louis XIV served as a museum since 1837.
It celebrated the glamorous moments of French history with imposing works of art and paintings.
The German occupiers used the fame halls as a hospital.
But on January 18, 1871, the German princes and the military cheered their new emperor here.
A humiliation for many French.
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