War of 1870

In August 1870, war broke out, throwing Cavaillé-Coll's workshops into disorder. On September 2 the Prussians defeated Napoleon IIIrd's army outside SEDAN. The Emperor surrendered and was taken prisoner. On September 4 a Gouvernement de Défense Nationale was installed and signed an armistice with the Prussians who were sitting at the gates of Paris, which was in a state of siege. Mechanics, voicers and workers, in particular, Gabriel Reinburg.were mobilised to guard the ramparts. Aristide stayed alone with his young sons and daughter who were still children. Work was at a standstill, life was hard and the winter harsh. He had to resign himself to burning his lovely wood without a knot in it. On his name day, he decided to close his workshops to everyone. To avoid being the victim of unscrupulous manoeuvres, and on the advice of his well-informed friends, Hippolyte Blanc and Prosper Faugère, rather than asking for a military hospital to be set up in his workshops he asked the governor of Paris if he could billet about a hundred members of the "garde nationale mobile", due to arrive from the provinces, in his empty workshops…. They would be "easier to turn out". Beds were moved into the big workshop in the courtyard. The siege hardened and the Seine was in spate. The press talked about negotiations between Thiers and Bismarck…and about the survival of the besieged who were eating mules, dogs, cats, rats and so on. On December 29 1870, his niece, Berthe Cavaillé/Reinburg wrote these disturbing words to her "bonne maman": "That lovely day, Christmas, will be dreary. We have been blockaded for a hundred days. It is below 12o and I'm thinking about those poor wounded soldiers. We are beginning to eat black bread. We ate Aunt Reinburg's cat; it's a shame for it was such a pretty animal! We are going to have his skin tanned to have something to remember him by. - I have a piece of dog meat I'm going to mairinate and we will eat it like steak. - Mr. Simil the architect, is going out. He has just offered to get us beef fillets at 10 francs the kilo. The prices of some things are frightening; they have to be seen to be believed. Eggs are selling for 1.5 francs and pigeons cost 15 francs each. Mr. Simil has just told us this. What a fortune we have in our ten pigeons!"

On August 31, 1871, after the events of the Commune, Adolphe Thiers was elected president of the Republic and little by little the republican regime established itself in France.

Soon after the War and the Siege of Paris new workers arrived at the Manufacture avenue du Maine, including an apprentice, Charles Mutin (1861-1930). It was he who took over the Company in 1898.