Vienna fell under French military occupation in November 1805. The invasion was unopposed and on this occasion brief: many Viennese seem to have viewed the French soldiers as much with bemused curiosity as with hostility. At the university Johann Wilhelm Ridler continued to deliver his lectures during these weeks. Despite awareness that his audiences now included French officers who, on account of their Alsatian provenance, understood every word, he did not hold back from including in his discourses patriotic sentiments, drawing attention to those aspects of the contemporary situation that displeased him.