Prisoners of war are among the forgotten victims of history. Historical scholarship has so far shown little interest in them, although studies of the situation and treatment of prisoners of war could be a very interesting subject for international, interdisciplinary research projects. For the era of the German Wars of Unification, this subject has yet to be studied on either the French or the German side. After becoming aware of this general research gap while doing work on the Napoleonic era, I have begun over the last few years to search German archives for materials on the history of prisoners of war. In what follows, I present some initial, preliminary results of my research. Owing to the loss of the Prussian collections, results are based primarily on materials from the Bavarian War Archives in Munich and the Main State Archives in Stuttgart. However, these materials need to be supplemented and verified through additional research, particularly in French archives.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the problem arose-for the first time in European history - of supplying housing and provisions for large masses of prisoners. Prior to that time, this was not an issue in Europe primarily because it was customary to exchange prisoners at frequent intervals in the middle of field campaigns on the basis of cartel agreements. To my knowledge, the first international treaty that provided for the protection and humane treatment of soldiers during their imprisonment was the Friendship and Trade Treaty between Prussia and the United States of 1785.