It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
On 13 July 1870, King Wilhelm I of Prussia, on his morning stroll in the Kurpark in Ems, was waylaid by Count Vincent Benedetti,the French ambassador to Prussia who had been instructed by his superior, Foreign Minister Agénor, the Duc de Gramont, to present the French demand that the king should guarantee that he would never again permit the candidacy of a Hohenzollern prince to the Spanish throne. The meeting was informal and took place on the promenade of the Kursaal with the king’s entourage at a discreet distance. Politely, and in a friendly manner, "with the courtesy that never failed him," the king refused to bind himself to any course of action into the indefinite future. After their exchange, "the two departed coolly."
From the meeting, the King's secretary Heinrich Abeken wrote an account, which was passed on to Otto von Bismarck in Berlin. Wilhelm described Benedetti as "very importunate." The King gave permission to Bismarck to release an account of the events.
Bismarck took it upon himself to edit the report, sharpening the language. He cut out Wilhelm’s conciliatory phrases and emphasized the real issue. The French had made certain demands under threat of war; and Wilhelm had refused them. This was no forgery; it was a clear statement of the facts. Certainly the edit of the telegram, released on the evening of the same day (13 July) to the media and foreign embassies, gave the impression both that Benedetti was rather more demanding and that the King was exceedingly abrupt. It was designed to give the French the impression that King Wilhelm I had insulted Count Benedetti; likewise, the Germans interpreted the modified dispatch as the Count insulting the King.
Bismarck had viewed the worsening relations with France with open satisfaction. If war had to come, now was as good a time as any. His editing, he assured his friends, "would have the effect of a red rag on the Gallic [French]bull." The edited telegram was to be presented henceforth as the cause of the war.
Text of the Ems Telegram
Sent by Heinrich Abeken of the Prussian Foreign Office under King Wilhelm's Instruction to Bismarck.
Abeken's message
Count Benedetti intercepted me on the promenade and ended by demanding of me, in a very importunate manner, that I should authorize him to telegraph at once that I bound myself in perpetuity never again to give my consent if the Hohenzollerns renewed their candidature. I rejected this demand somewhat sternly, as it is neither right nor possible to undertake engagements of this kind [for ever and ever]. Naturally, I told him that I had not yet received any news and, since he had been better informed via Paris and Madrid than I was, he must surely see that my government was not concerned in the matter.
[The King, on the advice of one of his ministers], decided, in view of the above-mentioned demands, not to receive Count Benedetti any more, but to have him informed, by an adjutant, that His Majesty had now received [from Leopold] confirmation of the news which Benedetti had already had from Paris and had nothing further to say to the ambassador.
His Majesty suggests to Your Excellency, that Benedetti's new demand and its rejection might well be communicated both to our ambassadors and to the Press.
Bismarck's published version
After the news of the renunciation of the Prince von Hohenzollern had been communicated to the Imperial French government by the Royal Spanish government, the French Ambassador in Ems made a further demand on His Majesty the King that he should authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His Majesty the King undertook for all time never again to give his assent should the Hohenzollerns once more take up their candidature. His Majesty the King thereupon refused to receive the Ambassador again and had the latter informed by the Adjutant of the day that His Majesty had no further communication to make to the Ambassador.
French translation
The French translation by the agency Havas altered the ambassador's demand to a question (il a exigé) and did not translate "Adjutant", which in German refers to a high-ranked aide de camp, but in French describes only a non-commissioned officer (adjudant). This was the version published by most newspapers the following day, which happened to be July 14,setting the tone, letting the French believe that the king had insulted their ambassador, before the ambassador could tell his story.
Results
France’s mistaken attitude of her own position carried matters far beyond what was necessary, and France mobilized. Following further improper translations and misinterpretations of the dispatch in the press, excited crowds in Paris demanded war, just as Bismarck had anticipated.The Ems Dispatch had also rallied German national feeling.
Originally posted by MadDuchess
The scariest to me was the Dreyfus Affair, because this is a real danger when people are not allowed to ask question or voice their opinions.
Originally posted by NickDC202
Originally posted by MadDuchess
The scariest to me was the Dreyfus Affair, because this is a real danger when people are not allowed to ask question or voice their opinions.
Richard Dreyfus had an affair?!?!? Hopefully it wasn't with Mrs Ellen Brody...
(Sorry I couldn't resist... Sometimes a act like a 12-year old fan boy; especially when it comes to actors from Jaws)
Originally posted by NateHatred
Originally posted by NickDC202
Originally posted by MadDuchess
The scariest to me was the Dreyfus Affair, because this is a real danger when people are not allowed to ask question or voice their opinions.
Richard Dreyfus had an affair?!?!? Hopefully it wasn't with Mrs Ellen Brody...
(Sorry I couldn't resist... Sometimes a act like a 12-year old fan boy; especially when it comes to actors from Jaws)
in the original jaws treatment the robert shaw character had an affair with brodys wife, and was savable, killing jaws and old memories therefore became redemption for brody, but was seen as too dark, and may have gone over the target audiences head!
the philadelphia experiment is my favorite conspiracy, no not the film.