author

Frederic Reitlinger

A Paris lawyer who found himself swept into the crises of 1870, he turned a dramatic balloon escape and diplomatic mission into a vivid firsthand memoir. He also wrote on cooperative movements and helped introduce new social and economic ideas to French readers.

1 Audiobook

A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870 being the account of a balloon escape from the siege of Paris and a political mission to London and Vienna

A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870 being the account of a balloon escape from the siege of Paris and a political mission to London and Vienna

by Frederic Reitlinger

About the author

Born in Ichenhausen in 1836 and later active in France, Frédéric Reitlinger built a career as a lawyer in Paris before stepping briefly into public affairs. Sources describe him as having gained distinction at the Paris bar under the Second Empire, and later serving Jules Favre during the upheaval of the Franco-Prussian War.

He is best remembered by many readers for A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870, an account of a balloon escape from besieged Paris and a political mission to London and Vienna. The story has endured because it combines eyewitness history with the pace of an adventure narrative.

Reitlinger also wrote about cooperative movements in Europe. Contemporary reference works credit him with helping make the German system of self-help associated with Schulze-Delitzsch better known in France, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France lists him as an author born in 1836 and deceased in Paris in 1907.