 After France's defeat by Prussia, there was a brief, bloody conflict within Paris from March to May 1871 during the Commune.Fauré escaped to Rambouillet where one of his brothers lived, and then travelled to Switzerland, where he took up a teaching post at the École Niedermeyer, which had temporarily relocated there to avoid the violence in Paris.His first pupil at the school was André Messager, who became a lifelong friend and occasional collaborator.