Germany exulted at the news of Sedan. Berliners illuminated the Prussian capital and sang a Te Deum in the cathedral. The phrase “German Empire” reverberated in declarations from every German state to King Wilhelm I demanding Alsace-Lorraine, financial reparations, and “that which was denied us in 1815: an independent, united German Empire with secure frontiers.” Newspapers and mayoral offices from the Black Forest to the Baltic bombarded Bismarck and the Prussian king with congratulatory reminders that Alsace and Lorraine were prerequisites for “security against French ambition and as a just reward for our national victory.” No one in Germany wished to waste the splendid opportunity presented by MacMahon's defeat and Napoleon III's capture. A popular assembly in Stuttgart affirmed that Alsace and Lorraine – German until 1582 – had to be taken back to assure the land connection between north and south Germany. Few dared speak against annexation, because any who condemned the planned seizure of Alsace-Lorraine were arrested, their newspapers seized at the printer. Bismarck's liberal gadfly, Johann Jacoby, was dragged kicking off a podium while speaking the following words: “How would the [Germans] of Posen and West Prussia approve of a victorious Poland were it to demand their annexation at the point of a bayonet?” Still, as Britain's ambassador in Berlin wryly noted, “Jacoby stands against the 40 million Germans who want Alsace-Lorraine. Bismarck has made a martyr needlessly.”

For thousands of French troops, the lacerating Prussian barrages of Sedan were just the start of their miseries.