![Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Alfred_Dreyfus_%281859-1935%29.jpg)
The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...
from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francophone world, and it remains one of the most notable examples of a complex
miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal procedure, criminal or civil procedure, civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they actual innocence, did not commit. Mis ...
and
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. The role played by the press and public opinion proved influential in the conflict.
The scandal began in December 1894 when Captain
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. ...
was convicted of treason. Dreyfus was a 35-year-old
Alsatian French artillery officer of
Jewish descent
''Zera Yisrael'' ( he, זרע ישראל, , meaning "Seed fIsrael") is a legal category in Halakha, Jewish law that denotes the blood descendants of Jews who, for one reason or another, are not legally of Jewish ethnicity according to religiou ...
. He was falsely convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, and was imprisoned on
Devil's Island
The penal colony of Cayenne ( French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Islands ...
in
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
, where he spent nearly five years.
In 1896, evidence came to light—primarily through an investigation made by
Georges Picquart
Marie-Georges Picquart (6 September 1854 – 19 January 1914) was a French Army officer and Minister of War. He is best known for his role in the Dreyfus affair, in which he played a key role in uncovering the real culprit.
Early career
Picqua ...
, head of counter-espionage—which identified the real culprit as a
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...
major named
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy (16 December 1847 – 21 May 1923) was an officer in the French Army from 1870 to 1898. He gained notoriety as a spy for the German Empire and the actual perpetrator of the act of treason of which C ...
. When high-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence, a military court unanimously acquitted Esterhazy after a trial lasting only two days. The Army laid additional charges against Dreyfus, based on forged documents. Subsequently,
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
's open letter ''
J'Accuse...!'' on the newspaper ''
L'Aurore
''L’Aurore'' (; ) was a literary, liberal, and socialist newspaper published in Paris, France, from 1897 to 1914. Its most famous headline was Émile Zola's '' J'Accuse...!'' leading into his article on the Dreyfus Affair.
The newspaper was ...
'' stoked a growing movement of support for Dreyfus, putting pressure on the government to reopen the case.
In 1899, Dreyfus was returned to France for another trial. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (now called "Dreyfusards"), such as
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
,
Anatole France
(; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...
,
Charles Péguy
Charles Pierre Péguy (; 7 January 1873 – 5 September 1914) was a French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism. By 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a believing b ...
,
Henri Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...
, and
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...
, and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards), such as
Édouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French antisemitic journalist, author and politician. He initiated the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper ''La Libre Parole''. ...
, the director and publisher of the antisemitic newspaper ''
La Libre Parole
''La Libre Parole'' or ''La Libre Parole illustrée'' ( French; ''Free Speech'') was a French antisemitic political newspaper founded in 1892 by journalist and polemicist Édouard Drumont.
History
Claiming to adhere to theses close to social ...
''. The new trial resulted in another conviction and a 10-year sentence, but Dreyfus was pardoned and released. In 1906, Dreyfus was
exonerate
Exoneration occurs when the conviction for a crime is reversed, either through demonstration of innocence, a flaw in the conviction, or otherwise. Attempts to exonerate convicts are particularly controversial in death penalty cases, especially wh ...
d and reinstated as a major in the French Army. He served during the whole of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, ending his service with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He died in 1935.
The affair from 1894 to 1906 divided France into pro-republican, anticlerical Dreyfusards and pro-Army, mostly Catholic "anti-Dreyfusards". It embittered French politics and encouraged radicalisation.
Summary
![Jeu de l’affaire Dreyfus et de la vérité](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Jeu_de_l%E2%80%99affaire_Dreyfus_et_de_la_v%C3%A9rit%C3%A9.jpg)
At the end of 1894,
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...
Captain
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. ...
, a graduate of the
École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
, a Jew of Alsatian origin, was accused of handing secret documents to the Imperial German military. After a closed trial, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was deported to
Devil's Island
The penal colony of Cayenne ( French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Islands ...
. At that time, the opinion of the French political class was unanimously unfavourable towards Dreyfus.
The Dreyfus family, particularly his brother
Mathieu
Mathieu is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
* André Mathieu (1929–1968), Canadian pianist and composer
* Anselme Mathieu (1828–1895), French Provençal poet
* Claude-Louis Mathieu (1783–187 ...
, remained convinced of his innocence and worked with journalist
Bernard Lazare
Bernard Lazare (14 June 1865, Nîmes – 1 September 1903, Paris) was a French literary critic, political journalist, polemicist, and anarchist. He was also among the first Dreyfusards.
Life
Lazare's initial contact with symbolists introduced h ...
to prove it. In March 1896, Colonel
Georges Picquart
Marie-Georges Picquart (6 September 1854 – 19 January 1914) was a French Army officer and Minister of War. He is best known for his role in the Dreyfus affair, in which he played a key role in uncovering the real culprit.
Early career
Picqua ...
, head of counter-espionage, found evidence that the real traitor was Major
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy (16 December 1847 – 21 May 1923) was an officer in the French Army from 1870 to 1898. He gained notoriety as a spy for the German Empire and the actual perpetrator of the act of treason of which C ...
. The
General Staff
A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
refused to reconsider its judgment and transferred Picquart to North Africa.
In July 1897, Dreyfus's family contacted the President of the Senate
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner (11 February 1833 in Mulhouse (Haut Rhin) – 19 September 1899 in Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute Garonne)) was a chemist, industrialist, a Protestant and an Alsatian politician. He was the uncle by marriage of the wife o ...
to draw attention to the tenuousness of the evidence against Dreyfus. Scheurer-Kestner reported three months later that he was convinced Dreyfus was innocent, and persuaded
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...
, a newspaper reporter and former member of the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
. In the same month,
Mathieu Dreyfus
Mathieu Dreyfus (1857–1930) was an Alsace, Alsatian Jewish industrialist and the older brother of Alfred Dreyfus, a French people, French military officer falsely convicted of treason in what became known as the Dreyfus affair. Mathieu was one ...
made a complaint about Esterhazy to the Ministry of War. In January 1898 two events raised the case to national prominence: Esterhazy was acquitted of treason charges (subsequently shaving his moustache and fleeing France), and
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
published his ''
J'accuse...!'', a Dreyfusard declaration that rallied many intellectuals to Dreyfus's cause. France became increasingly divided over the case, and the issue continued to be hotly debated until the end of the century. Antisemitic riots erupted in more than twenty French cities and there were several deaths in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
.
Despite covert attempts by the army to quash the case, the initial conviction was annulled by the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
after a thorough investigation. A new court-martial was held at
Rennes
Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...
in 1899. Dreyfus was convicted again and sentenced to ten years of hard labour, though the sentence was commuted due to extenuating circumstances. Dreyfus accepted the presidential pardon granted by President
Émile Loubet
Émile François Loubet (; 30 December 183820 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906.
Trained in law, he became mayor of Montélimar, where he was note ...
. In 1906 his innocence was officially established by an irrevocable judgement of the Supreme Court. Dreyfus was reinstated in the army with the rank of Major and participated in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He died in 1935.
The implications of this case were numerous and affected all aspects of French public life. It was regarded as a vindication of the Third Republic (and became a founding myth), but it led to a renewal of
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
in the military. It slowed the reform of French
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and republican integration of Catholics. It was during The Affair that the term, ''intellectual'', was coined in France. The Affair engendered numerous antisemitic demonstrations, which in turn affected sentiment within the Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe. This persuaded
Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern p ...
, one of the founding fathers of
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
, that the Jews must leave Europe and establish their own state.
Contexts
Political
In 1894, the
Third Republic was twenty-four years old. Although the
16 May Crisis in 1877 had crippled the political influence of both the
Bourbon Bourbon may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash
* Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels
* Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit
* A beer produced by Bras ...
and
Orléanist
Orléanist (french: Orléaniste) was a 19th-century French political label originally used by those who supported a constitutional monarchy expressed by the House of Orléans. Due to the radical political changes that occurred during that centu ...
royalists
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
, its ministries continued to be short-lived as the country lurched from crisis to crisis: three years immediately preceding the Dreyfus Affair were the
near-coup of Georges Boulanger in 1889, the
Panama scandals
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List of transcontinental countries#North America and South America, transcontinental country spanning the Central America, southern ...
in 1892, and the
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
threat (reduced by the "
villainous laws" of July 1894). The
elections of 1893 were focused on the "social question" and resulted in a Republican victory (just under half the seats) against the conservative right and the reinforcement of the Radicals (about 150 seats) and Socialists (about 50 seats).
The opposition of the Radicals and Socialists resulted in a centrist government with policies oriented towards economic protectionism, a certain indifference to social issues, a willingness to break international isolation, the Russian alliance, and development of the colonial empire. These centrist policies resulted in cabinet instability, with some Republican members of the government sometimes aligning with the radicals and some
Orléanists aligning with the
Legitimists
The Legitimists (french: Légitimistes) are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They re ...
in five successive governments from 1893 to 1896. This instability coincided with an equally unstable presidency: President
Sadi Carnot was assassinated on 24 June 1894, his moderate successor
Jean Casimir-Perier
Jean Paul Pierre Casimir-Perier (; 8 November 1847 – 11 March 1907) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1894 to 1895.
Biography
He was born in Paris, the son of Auguste Casimir-Perier, the grandson of Casimir Pie ...
resigned on 15 January 1895 and was replaced by
Félix Faure
Félix François Faure (; 30 January 1841 – 16 February 1899) was the President of France from 1895 until his death in 1899. A native of Paris, he worked as a tanner in his younger years. Faure became a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Se ...
.
Following the failure of the radical government of
Léon Bourgeois
Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois (; 21 May 185129 September 1925) was a French statesman. His ideas influenced the Radical Party regarding a wide range of issues. He promoted progressive taxation such as progressive income taxes and social insuran ...
in 1896, the president appointed
Jules Méline
Félix Jules Méline (; 20 May 183821 December 1925) was a French statesman, Prime Minister of France from 1896 to 1898.
Biography
Méline was born at Remiremont. Having taken up law as his profession, he was chosen a deputy in 1872, and in 187 ...
as prime minister. His government faced the opposition of the left and of some Republicans (including the Progressive Union) and made sure to keep the support of the right. He sought to appease religious, social, and economic tensions and conducted a fairly conservative policy. He succeeded in improving stability, and it was under this stable government that the Dreyfus affair occurred.
Military
![Raoul de Boisdeffre - photo Eugène Pirou](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Raoul_de_Boisdeffre_-_photo_Eug%C3%A8ne_Pirou.jpg)
The Dreyfus affair occurred in the context of the annexation of
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and
Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
by the Germans, an event that fed the most extreme nationalism. The
traumatic defeat in 1870 seemed far away, but a vengeful spirit remained. Many participants in the Dreyfus affair were Alsatian.
[Dreyfus was from ]Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...
, as were Sandherr and Scheurer-Kestner, Picquart was from Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
, Zurlinden was from Colmar
Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is ...
.
The military required considerable resources to prepare for the next conflict, and it was in this spirit that the
Franco-Russian Alliance
The Franco-Russian Alliance (french: Alliance Franco-Russe, russian: Франко-Русский Альянс, translit=Franko-Russkiy Al'yans), or Russo-French Rapprochement (''Rapprochement Russo-Français'', Русско-Французско ...
, which some saw as "against nature",
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner (11 February 1833 in Mulhouse (Haut Rhin) – 19 September 1899 in Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute Garonne)) was a chemist, industrialist, a Protestant and an Alsatian politician. He was the uncle by marriage of the wife o ...
in a speech in the Senate. of 27 August 1892 was signed. The army had recovered from the defeat but many of its officers were aristocrats and monarchists. Cult of the flag and contempt for the parliamentary republic prevailed in the army. The Republic celebrated its army; the army ignored the Republic.
Over the previous ten years the army had experienced a significant shift in its twofold aim to democratize and modernize. The graduates of the
École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
competed effectively with officers from the main career path of
Saint-Cyr, which caused strife, bitterness, and jealousy among junior officers expecting promotions. The period was also marked by an
arms race
An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and t ...
that primarily affected artillery. There were improvements in heavy artillery (guns of 120 mm and 155 mm,
Models 1890 Baquet, new hydropneumatic brakes), but also and especially the development of the ultra-secret
75mm gun.
The operation of military counterintelligence, alias the "Statistics Section" (SR), should be noted. Spying as a tool for secret war was a novelty as an organised activity in the late 19th century. The Statistics Section was created in 1871 but consisted of only a handful of officers and civilians. Its head in 1894 was Lieutenant-Colonel
Jean Sandherr
Colonel Nicolas Jean Robert Conrad Auguste Sandherr (6 June 1846 – 24 May 1897) was a French military officer involved in the Dreyfus Affair.
Early life and career
Sandherr was born in Mulhouse, in Alsace, then a part of France and also the ho ...
, a graduate of
Saint-Cyr, an Alsatian from
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...
, and a convinced anti-Semite. Its military mission was clear: to retrieve information about potential enemies of France and to feed them false information. The Statistics Section was supported by the "Secret Affairs" of the Quai d'Orsay at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was headed by a young diplomat,
Maurice Paléologue
Maurice Paléologue (13 January 1859 – 23 November 1944) was a French diplomat, historian, and essayist. As the French ambassador to Russia (1914-1917), he supported the Russian mobilization against Germany that led to World War I and likewise p ...
. The arms race created an acute atmosphere of intrigue in French
counter-espionage
Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or o ...
from 1890. One of the missions of the section was to spy on the German Embassy at Rue de Lille in Paris to thwart any attempt to transmit important information to the Germans. This was especially critical since several cases of
espionage
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
had already hit the headlines of newspapers, which were fond of sensationalism. Thus in 1890, the archivist Boutonnet was convicted for selling plans of shells that used
melinite.
The German military attaché in Paris in 1894 was Count
Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen
Maximilian Friedrich Wilhelm August Leopold von Schwartzkoppen (24 February 1850 – 8 January 1917) was a Prussian military officer. After serving as Imperial German military attaché in Paris, Schwartzkoppen was later given the rank of Genera ...
, who developed a policy of infiltration which appears to have been effective. In the 1880s Schwartzkoppen had begun an affair with an Italian military attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Count Alessandro Panizzardi. While neither had anything to do with Dreyfus, their intimate and erotic correspondence (e.g. "Don't exhaust yourself with too much buggery."), which was obtained by the authorities, lent an air of truth to other documents that were forged by prosecutors to lend retroactive credibility to Dreyfus's conviction as a spy. Some of these forgeries even referenced the real affair between the two officers; in one, Alessandro supposedly informed his lover that if "Dreyfus is brought in for questioning", they must both claim that they "never had any dealings with that Jew. ... Clearly, no one can ever know what happened with him." The letters, real and fake, provided a convenient excuse for placing the entire Dreyfus dossier under seal, given that exposure of the liaison would have 'dishonoured' Germany and Italy's military and compromised diplomatic relations. As homosexuality was, like Judaism, then often perceived as a sign of national degeneration, recent historians have suggested that combining them to inflate the scandal may have shaped the prosecution strategy.
Since early 1894, the Statistics Section had investigated traffic in master plans for Nice and the Meuse conducted by an officer whom the Germans and Italians nicknamed Dubois.
[This was the purpose of the letter intercepted by the French SR called the "Scoundrel D ...", used in the "secret file" to convict Dreyfus] This is what led to the origins of the Dreyfus affair.
Social
![Amnistie populaire - Musée des Horreurs 35](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Amnistie_populaire_-_Mus%C3%A9e_des_Horreurs_35.jpg)
The social context was marked by the rise of nationalism and antisemitism. The growth of antisemitism, virulent since the publication of ''Jewish France'' by
Édouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French antisemitic journalist, author and politician. He initiated the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper ''La Libre Parole''. ...
in 1886 (150,000 copies in the first year), went hand in hand with the rise of
clericalism
Clericalism is the application of the formal, church-based, leadership or opinion of ordained clergy in matters of either the Church or broader political and sociocultural import.
Clericalism is usually, if not always, used in a pejorative sense ...
. Tensions were high in all strata of society, fueled by an influential press, which was virtually free to write and disseminate any information even if offensive or defamatory. Legal risks were limited if the target was a private person.
Antisemitism did not spare the military, which practised hidden discrimination with the "cote d'amour" (a subjective assessment of personal acceptability) system of irrational grading, encountered by Dreyfus in his application to the Bourges School. However, while prejudices of this nature undoubtedly existed within the confines of the General Staff, the French Army as a whole was relatively open to individual talent. At the time of the Dreyfus affair there were an estimated 300 Jewish officers in the army (about 3 per cent of the total), of whom ten were generals.
The popularity of the duel using sword or small pistol, sometimes causing death, bore witness to the tensions of the period. When a series of press articles in ''
La Libre Parole
''La Libre Parole'' or ''La Libre Parole illustrée'' ( French; ''Free Speech'') was a French antisemitic political newspaper founded in 1892 by journalist and polemicist Édouard Drumont.
History
Claiming to adhere to theses close to social ...
'' accused Jewish officers of "betraying their birth", the officers challenged the editors. Captain Crémieu-Foa, a Jewish Alsatian graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, fought unsuccessfully against Drumont
[Count Esterházy was, ironically, one of the witnesses for Crémieu-Foa][Frederick Vie]
''Anti-Semitism in the Army: the Coblentz Affair at Fontainebleau''.
and against M. de Lamase, who was the author of the articles. Captain Mayer, another Jewish officer, was killed by the
Marquis de Morès
Antoine-Amédée-Marie-Vincent Manca Amat de Vallombrosa, Marquis de Morès et de Montemaggiore (14 June 1858 – 9 June 1896), commonly known as the Marquis de Morès, was a French duelist, frontier ranchman in the Badlands of Dakota Territory d ...
, a friend of Drumont, in another duel.
Hatred of Jews was now public and violent, driven by a firebrand (Drumont) who demonized the Jewish presence in France. Jews in metropolitan France in 1895 numbered about 80,000 (40,000 in Paris alone), who were highly integrated into society; an additional 45,000 Jews lived in
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
. The launch of ''La Libre Parole'' with a circulation estimated at 200,000 copies in 1892, allowed Drumont to expand his audience to a popular readership already enticed by the
boulangiste adventure in the past. The antisemitism circulated by ''La Libre Parole'', as well as by ''L'Éclair'', ''
Le Petit Journal'', ''La Patrie'', ''L'Intransigeant'' and ''
La Croix La Croix primarily refers to:
* ''La Croix'' (newspaper), a French Catholic newspaper
* La Croix Sparkling Water, a beverage distributed by the National Beverage Corporation
La Croix or Lacroix may also refer to:
Places
* Lacroix-Barrez, a muni ...
'', drew on antisemitic roots in certain Catholic circles.
Publications remarking on the Dreyfus Affair often reinforced antisemitic sentiments, language and imagery. The ''
Musée des Horreurs'' was a collection of anti-Dreyfus posters illustrated by Victor Lenepveu during the Dreyfus Affair. Lenepveu caricatured "prominent Jews, Dreyfus supporters, and Republican statesman." ''No. 35 Amnistie populaire'' depicts the corpse of Dreyfus himself as it dangles from a noose. Large noses, money, and Lenepveu's general tendency to illustrate subjects with bodies of animals likely contributed to the dissemination of antisemitism in French popular culture.
Origins of the case and the trial of 1894
The beginning: acts of espionage
![003 Bordereau recto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/003_Bordereau_recto.jpg)
The origin of the Dreyfus affair, although fully clarified since the 1960s, has aroused much controversy for nearly a century. The intentions remain unclear. Many eminent historians express different hypotheses about the affair but all arrive at the same conclusion: Dreyfus was innocent of any crime or offence.
Discovery of the "bordereau"
The staff of the Military Intelligence Service (SR) worked around the clock to spy on the German Embassy in Paris. They had managed to get a French housekeeper named "Madame Bastian" hired to work in the building and spy on the Germans. In September 1894, she found a torn-up note which she handed over to her employers at the Military Intelligence Service. This note later became known as "the bordereau".
[The French word ''bordereau'' means simply a note or slip of paper and can be applied to any note. In French, many documents in the case were called bordereaux; however, in this translation the term bordereau is used only for this note.] This piece of paper, torn into six large pieces, unsigned and undated, was addressed to the German military attaché stationed at the German Embassy,
Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen
Maximilian Friedrich Wilhelm August Leopold von Schwartzkoppen (24 February 1850 – 8 January 1917) was a Prussian military officer. After serving as Imperial German military attaché in Paris, Schwartzkoppen was later given the rank of Genera ...
. It stated that confidential French military documents regarding the newly developed "hydraulic brake of 120, and the way this gun has worked" were about to be sent to a foreign power.
The search for the author of the bordereau
![Auguste Mercier](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Auguste_Mercier.jpg)
This catch seemed of sufficient importance for the head of the "Statistical Section", the Mulhousian
Jean Sandherr
Colonel Nicolas Jean Robert Conrad Auguste Sandherr (6 June 1846 – 24 May 1897) was a French military officer involved in the Dreyfus Affair.
Early life and career
Sandherr was born in Mulhouse, in Alsace, then a part of France and also the ho ...
, to inform the Minister of War,
General
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
Auguste Mercier
Auguste Mercier (8 December 1833 – 3 March 1921) was a French general and Minister of War at the time of the Dreyfus Affair.
Military career
Auguste Mercier was born in Arras. He entered the École Polytechnique at the age of 19 in 1852, a ...
. In fact the SR suspected that there had been leaks since the beginning of 1894 and had been trying to find the perpetrator. The minister had been harshly attacked in the press for his actions, which were deemed incompetent, and appears to have sought an opportunity to enhance his image. He immediately initiated two secret investigations, one administrative and one judicial. To find the culprit, using simple though crude reasoning,
[Birnbaum, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', p. 40. ] the circle of the search was arbitrarily restricted to suspects posted to, or former employees of, the General Staff – necessarily a trainee artillery
[On the indication of Captain Matton, the only artillery officer in the Statistics Section. Three of the documents transmitted concerned short- and long-range artillery.] officer.
[The documents could come from 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th offices – only a trainee appeared able to offer such a variety of documents as they passed from one office to another to complete their training. This was the reasoning of Lieutenant-Colonel d'Aboville, which proved fallacious.]
The ideal culprit was identified: Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a graduate of the
École polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
and an artillery officer, of the Jewish faith and of Alsatian origin, coming from the republican meritocracy. At the beginning of the case the emphasis was rather on the Alsatian origins of Dreyfus than on his religion. These origins were not, however, exceptional because these officers were favoured by France for their knowledge of the German language and culture. There was also antisemitism in the offices of the General Staff, and it fast became central to the affair by filling in the credibility gaps in the preliminary enquiry.
In particular, Dreyfus was at that time the only Jewish officer to be recently passed by the General Staff.
In fact, the reputation of Dreyfus as a cold and withdrawn or even haughty character, as well as his "curiosity", worked strongly against him. These traits of character, some false, others natural, made the charges plausible by turning the most ordinary acts of everyday life in the ministry into proof of espionage. From the beginning a biased and one-sided multiplication of errors led the State to a false position. This was present throughout the affair, where irrationality prevailed over the positivism in vogue in that period:
Expertise in writing
![Du Paty de Clam](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Du_Paty_de_Clam.jpg)
To condemn Dreyfus, the writing on the bordereau had to be compared to that of the Captain. There was nobody competent to analyse the writing on the General Staff. Then
Major du Paty de Clam entered the scene: an eccentric man who prided himself on being an expert in
graphology
Graphology is the analysis of handwriting with attempt to determine someone's personality traits. No scientific evidence exists to support graphology, and it is generally considered a pseudoscience or scientifically questionable practice. Howe ...
. On being shown some letters by Dreyfus and the bordereau on 5 October, du Paty concluded immediately who had written the two writings. After a day of additional work he provided a report that, despite some differences, the similarities were sufficient to warrant an investigation. Dreyfus was therefore "the probable author" of the bordereau in the eyes of the General Staff.
![Alphonse Bertillon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Alphonse_Bertillon.jpg)
General Mercier believed he had the guilty party, but he exaggerated the value of the affair, which took on the status of an affair of state during the week preceding the arrest of Dreyfus. The Minister did consult and inform all the authorities of the State, yet despite prudent counsel
[From General Saussier, Governor of Paris for example.] and courageous objections expressed by
Gabriel Hanotaux
Albert Auguste Gabriel Hanotaux, known as Gabriel Hanotaux (19 November 1853 – 11 April 1944) was a French statesman and historian.
Biography
He was born at Beaurevoir in the ''département'' of Aisne. He studied history at the École des C ...
in the Council of Ministers he decided to pursue it. Du Paty de Clam was appointed
Judicial Police Officer to lead an official investigation.
Meanwhile, several parallel sources of information were opening up, some on the personality of Dreyfus, others to ensure the truth of the identity of the author of the bordereau. The expert
[Expert in writing from the Bank of France: his honest caution was vilified in the indictment of Major Ormescheville.] Gobert was not convinced and found many differences. He even wrote that "the nature of the writing on the bordereau excludes disguised handwriting". Disappointed, Mercier then called in
Alphonse Bertillon
Alphonse Bertillon (; 22 April 1853 – 13 February 1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement creating an identification system based on physical me ...
, the inventor of forensic
anthropometry
Anthropometry () refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthropology and in various atte ...
but no handwriting expert. He was initially no more positive than Gobert but he did not exclude the possibility of its being the writing of Dreyfus. Later, under pressure from the military, he argued that Dreyfus had autocopied it and developed his theory of "autoforgery".
The arrest
On 13 October 1894, without any tangible evidence and with an empty file, General Mercier summoned Captain Dreyfus for a general inspection in "bourgeois clothing", i.e. in civilian clothes. The purpose of the General Staff was to obtain the perfect proof under French law: a
confession
A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...
. That confession was to be obtained by surprise – by dictating a letter based on the bordereau to reveal his guilt.
On the morning of 15 October 1894, Captain Dreyfus underwent this ordeal but admitted nothing. Du Paty even tried to suggest suicide by placing a revolver in front of Dreyfus, but he refused to take his life, saying he "wanted to live to establish his innocence". The hopes of the military were crushed. Nevertheless Du Paty de Clam still arrested the captain, accused him of conspiring with the enemy, and told him that he would be brought before a court-martial. Dreyfus was imprisoned at the
Cherche-Midi prison
The Cherche-Midi prison was a French military prison located in Paris, France. It housed military prisoners between 1851 and 1947.
Construction on the prison began in 1847, when the former convent of the Daughters of the Good Shepherd was demolish ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.
The enquiry and the first military court
![Dreyfus-in-Prison-1895](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Dreyfus-in-Prison-1895.jpg)
Mrs. Dreyfus was informed of the arrest the same day by a police raid to search their apartment. She was terrorized by Du Paty, who ordered her to keep the arrest of her husband secret and even said, "One word, one single word and it will be a European war!" Totally illegally, Dreyfus was placed in solitary confinement in prison, where Du Paty interrogated him day and night in order to obtain a confession, which failed. The captain was morally supported by the first Dreyfusard, Major Forzinetti, commandant of the military prisons of Paris.
On 29 October 1894, the affair was revealed in an article in ''
La Libre Parole
''La Libre Parole'' or ''La Libre Parole illustrée'' ( French; ''Free Speech'') was a French antisemitic political newspaper founded in 1892 by journalist and polemicist Édouard Drumont.
History
Claiming to adhere to theses close to social ...
'', the antisemitic newspaper owned by
Édouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French antisemitic journalist, author and politician. He initiated the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper ''La Libre Parole''. ...
. This marked the beginning of a very brutal press campaign until the trial. This event put the affair in the field of antisemitism where it remained until its conclusion.
On 1 November 1894, Alfred's brother, Mathieu Dreyfus, became aware of the arrest after being called urgently to Paris. He became the architect of the arduous fight for the liberation of his brother. Without hesitation, he began looking for a lawyer, and retained the distinguished criminal lawyer
Edgar Demange
Edgar Demange (April 22, 1841 in Versailles – February 1925 in Paris) was a French jurist. He was, with Fernand Labori, the lawyer of Alfred Dreyfus during his trials in 1894 and 1899.
Biography
Demange was a winner of the national eloquenc ...
.
The enquiry
On 3 November 1894, General Saussier, the
Military governor of Paris
The Military governor of Paris is a post within the French Army. He commands the garrison of Paris and represents all the military based in Paris at high state occasions. He is also responsible (subordinate to the President of France) for organiz ...
, reluctantly gave the order for an enquiry. He had the power to stop the process but did not, perhaps because of an exaggerated confidence in military justice. Major Besson d'Ormescheville, the recorder for the Military Court, wrote an indictment in which "moral elements" of the charge (which gossiped about the habits of Dreyfus and his alleged attendance at "gambling circles", his knowledge of German,
[" ..he speaks several languages, especially German which he knows thoroughly."] and his "remarkable memory") were developed more extensively than the "material elements",
[These are treated in the single penultimate paragraph in one sentence: "The material elements consist of the incriminating letter including review by the majority of experts as well as by us and by the witnesses who have seen it until now except for those who wilfully see differences, showing a complete similarity with the authentic writing of Captain Dreyfus".] which are rarely seen in the charge:
"This is a proof of guilt because Dreyfus made everything disappear".
The complete lack of neutrality of the indictment led to Émile Zola calling it a "monument of bias".
After the news broke on Dreyfus' arrest, many journalists flocked to the story and flooded the story with speculations and accusations. The renowned journalist and antisemitic agitator
Edouard Drumont wrote in his publication on November 3, 1894, "What a terrible lesson, this disgraceful treason of the Jew Dreyfus."
On 4 December 1894, Dreyfus was referred to the first Military Court with this dossier. The secrecy was lifted and Demange could access the file for the first time. After reading it the lawyer had absolute confidence, as he saw the emptiness of the prosecution's case. The prosecution rested completely on the writing on a single piece of paper, the bordereau, on which experts disagreed, and on vague indirect testimonies.
The trial: "Closed Court or War!"
![Dreyfus Petit Journal 1894](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Dreyfus_Petit_Journal_1894.jpg)
During the two months before the trial, the press went wild. ''
La Libre Parole
''La Libre Parole'' or ''La Libre Parole illustrée'' ( French; ''Free Speech'') was a French antisemitic political newspaper founded in 1892 by journalist and polemicist Édouard Drumont.
History
Claiming to adhere to theses close to social ...
'', ''L'Autorité'', ''
Le Journal
''Le Journal'' (The Journal) was a Paris daily newspaper published from 1892 to 1944 in a small, four-page format.
Background
It was founded and edited by Fernand Arthur Pierre Xau until 1899. It was bought and managed by the family of Henri ...
'', and ''
Le Temps
''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...
'' described the supposed life of Dreyfus through lies and bad fiction.
This was also an opportunity for extreme headlines from ''La Libre Parole'' and ''
La Croix La Croix primarily refers to:
* ''La Croix'' (newspaper), a French Catholic newspaper
* La Croix Sparkling Water, a beverage distributed by the National Beverage Corporation
La Croix or Lacroix may also refer to:
Places
* Lacroix-Barrez, a muni ...
'' to justify their previous campaigns against the presence of Jews in the army on the theme "You have been told!" This long delay above all enabled the General Staff to prepare public opinion and to put indirect pressure on the judges. On 8 November 1894, General Mercier declared Dreyfus guilty in an interview with ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
''. He repeated himself on 29 November 1894 in an article by
Arthur Meyer in ''
Le Gaulois
''Le Gaulois'' () was a French daily newspaper, founded in 1868 by Edmond Tarbé and Henry de Pène. After a printing stoppage, it was revived by Arthur Meyer in 1882 with notable collaborators Paul Bourget, Alfred Grévin, Abel Hermant, and E ...
'', which in fact condemned the indictment against Dreyfus and asked, "How much freedom will the military court have to judge the defendant?"
The jousting of the columnists took place within a broader debate about the issue of a closed court. For Ranc and Cassagnac, who represented the majority of the press, the closed court was a low manoeuvre to enable the acquittal of Dreyfus, "because the minister is a coward". The proof was "that he ''grovels'' before the Prussians" by agreeing to publish the denials of the German ambassador in Paris. In other newspapers, such as ''L'Éclair'' on 13 December 1894: "the closed court is necessary to avoid a ''
casus belli
A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one b ...
''"; while for Judet in ''
Le Petit Journal'' of 18 December: "the closed court is our impregnable refuge against Germany"; or in ''La Croix'' the same day: it must be "the most absolute closed court".
The trial opened on 19 December 1894 at one o'clock and a closed court was immediately pronounced.
[Trial takes place solely in the presence of judges, the accused, and his defence.] This closed court was not legally consistent since
Major Picquart and Prefect
Louis Lépine
Louis Jean-Baptiste Lépine (1846 - 1933) was a lawyer, politician and inventor who was Préfet de Police with the Paris Police Prefecture from 1893 to 1897 and again from 1899 to 1913. He earned the nickname of "The Little Man with the Big Stick" ...
were present at certain proceedings in violation of the law. The closed court allowed the military to still not disclose the emptiness of their evidence to the public and to stifle debate. As expected, the emptiness of their case appeared clearly during the hearings. Detailed discussions on the bordereau showed that Captain Dreyfus could not be the author. At the same time the accused himself protested his innocence and defended himself point by point with energy and logic. Moreover, his statements were supported by a dozen defence witnesses. Finally, the absence of motive for the crime was a serious thorn in the prosecution case. Dreyfus was indeed a very patriotic officer highly rated by his superiors, very rich and with no tangible reason to betray France. The fact of Dreyfus's Jewishness was used only by the right-wing press and was not presented in court.
Alphonse Bertillon
Alphonse Bertillon (; 22 April 1853 – 13 February 1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement creating an identification system based on physical me ...
, who was not an expert in handwriting, was presented as a scholar of the first importance. He advanced the theory of "autoforgery" during the trial and accused Dreyfus of imitating his own handwriting, explaining the differences in writing by using extracts of writing from his brother Matthieu and his wife Lucie. This theory, although later regarded as bizarre and astonishing, seems to have had some effect on the judges. In addition, Major
Hubert-Joseph Henry
Hubert-Joseph Henry (2 June 1846 – 31 August 1898) was a French Lieutenant-Colonel in 1897 involved in the Dreyfus affair. Arrested for having forged evidence against Alfred Dreyfus, he was found dead in his prison cell. He was considered a h ...
made a theatrical statement in open court.
[Deputy Head of SR and discoverer of the bordereau.] He argued that leaks betraying the General Staff had been suspected to exist since February 1894 and that "a respectable person" accused Captain Dreyfus. He swore on oath that the traitor was Dreyfus, pointing to the crucifix hanging on the wall of the court. Dreyfus was apoplectic with rage and demanded to be confronted with his anonymous accuser, which was rejected by the General Staff. The incident had an undeniable effect on the court, which was composed of seven officers who were both judges and jury. However, the outcome of the trial remained uncertain. The conviction of the judges had been shaken by the firm and logical answers of the accused. The judges took leave to deliberate, but the General Staff still had a card in hand to tip the balance decisively against Dreyfus.
Transmission of a secret dossier to the judges
![Schwartzkoppen3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Schwartzkoppen3.jpg)
Military witnesses at the trial alerted high command about the risk of acquittal. For this eventuality the Statistics Section had prepared a file containing, in principle, four "absolute" proofs of the guilt of Captain Dreyfus accompanied by an explanatory note. The contents of this secret file remained uncertain until 2013, when they were released by the French Ministry of Defence. Recent research indicates the existence of numbering which suggests the presence of a dozen documents. Among these letters were some of an erotic homosexual nature (the Davignon letter among others) raising the question of the tainted methods of the Statistics Section and the objective of their choice of documents.
The secret file was illegally submitted at the beginning of the deliberations by the President of the Military Court, Colonel Émilien Maurel, by order of the Minister of War, General Mercier. Later at the Rennes trial of 1899, General Mercier explained the nature of the prohibited disclosure of the documents submitted in the courtroom.
[This was obviously wrong. The motive of Mercier was much to condemn Dreyfus unbeknownst to the defence. V. indictment.] This file contained, in addition to letters without much interest, some of which were falsified, a piece known as the "Scoundrel D ...".
It was a letter from the German military attaché, Max von Schwarzkoppen, to the Italian military attaché, Alessandro Panizzardi, intercepted by the SR. The letter was supposed to accuse Dreyfus definitively since, according to his accusers, it was signed with the initial of his name. In reality, the Statistics Section knew that the letter could not be attributed to Dreyfus and if it was, it was with criminal intent. Colonel Maurel confirmed in the second Dreyfus trial that the secret documents were not used to win the support of the judges of the Military Court. He contradicted himself, however, by saying that he read only one document, "which was enough".
Conviction, degradation, and deportation
![Galons arrachés à Alfred Dreyfus le jour de sa dégradation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Galons_arrach%C3%A9s_%C3%A0_Alfred_Dreyfus_le_jour_de_sa_d%C3%A9gradation.jpg)
On 22 December 1894, after several hours of deliberation, the verdict was reached. Seven judges unanimously convicted Alfred Dreyfus of collusion with a foreign power, to the maximum penalty under section 76 of the Criminal Code: ''permanent exile in a walled fortification'' (
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
), the cancellation of his army rank and
military degradation
Cashiering (or degradation ceremony), generally within military forces, is a ritual dismissal of an individual from some position of responsibility for a breach of discipline.
Etymology
From the Flemish (to dismiss from service; to discard ...
. Dreyfus was not
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, as it had been abolished for
political crime
In criminology
Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the ...
s
since 1848.
For the authorities, the press and the public, doubts had been dispelled by the trial and his guilt was certain. Right and left regretted the abolition of the death penalty for such a crime. Antisemitism peaked in the press and occurred in areas so far spared.
Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
regretted the lightness of the sentence in an address to the House and wrote, "A soldier has been sentenced to death and executed for throwing a button in the face of his corporal. So why leave this miserable traitor alive?"
Clemenceau in ''Justice'' made a similar comment.
On 5 January 1895, the ceremony of degradation took place in the Morlan Court of the
Military School
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...
in Paris. While the drums rolled, Dreyfus was accompanied by four artillery officers, who brought him before an officer of the state who read the judgment. A Republican Guard adjutant tore off his badges, thin strips of gold, his stripes, cuffs and sleeves of his jacket. As he was paraded throughout the streets, the crowd chanted "Death to Judas, death to the Jew." Witnesses report the dignity of Dreyfus, who continued to maintain his innocence while raising his arms: "Innocent, Innocent! Vive la France! Long live the Army". The Adjutant broke his sword on his knee and then the condemned Dreyfus marched at a slow pace in front of his former companions. An event known as "the legend of the confession" took place before the degradation. In the van that brought him to the military school, Dreyfus is said to have confided his treachery to Captain Lebrun-Renault. It appears that this was merely self-promotion by the captain of the Republican Guard, and that in reality Dreyfus had made no admission. Due to the affair's being related to national security, the prisoner was then held in solitary confinement in a cell awaiting transfer. On 17 January 1895, he was transferred to the prison on
Île de Ré
Île de Ré (; variously spelled Rhé or Rhéa; Poitevin: ''ile de Rét''; en, Isle of Ré, ) is an island off the Atlantic coast of France near La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait.
Its highe ...
where he was held for over a month. He had the right to see his wife twice a week in a long room, each of them at one end, with the director of the prison in the middle.
![Hutte von Dreyfus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Hutte_von_Dreyfus.jpg)
At the last minute, at the initiative of General Mercier, a law was passed on 9 February 1895, restoring the
Îles du Salut
The Salvation Islands (french: Îles du Salut, so called because the missionaries went there to escape plague on the mainland; sometimes mistakenly called Safety Islands) are a group of small islands of volcanic origin about off the coast of Fre ...
in
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
, as a place of fortified deportation so that Dreyfus was not sent to Ducos,
New Caledonia
)
, anthem = ""
, image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
, map_caption = Location of New Caledonia
, mapsize = 290px
, subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
. Indeed, during the deportation of Adjutant Lucien Châtelain, sentenced for conspiring with the enemy in 1888, the facilities did not provide the required conditions of confinement and detention conditions were considered too soft. On 21 February 1895, Dreyfus embarked on the ship Ville de Saint-Nazaire. The next day the ship sailed for
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
.
![Dreyfus Ile du diable 96](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Dreyfus_Ile_du_diable_96.jpg)
On 12 March 1895, after a difficult voyage of fifteen days, the ship anchored off the Îles du Salut. Dreyfus stayed one month in prison on
Île Royale
The Salvation Islands (french: Îles du Salut, so called because the missionaries went there to escape plague on the mainland; sometimes mistakenly called Safety Islands) are a group of small islands of volcano, volcanic origin about off the coa ...
and was transferred to
Devil's Island
The penal colony of Cayenne ( French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Islands ...
on 14 April 1895. Apart from his guards, he was the only inhabitant of the island and he stayed in a stone hut . Haunted by the risk of escape, the commandant of the prison sentenced him to a hellish life, even though living conditions were already very painful.
[The temperature reached 45 °C, he was underfed or fed contaminated food and hardly had any treatment for his many tropical diseases.] Dreyfus became sick and shaken by fevers that got worse every year.
Dreyfus was allowed to write on paper numbered and signed. He underwent censorship by the commandant even when he received mail from his wife Lucie, whereby they encouraged each other. On 6 September 1896, the conditions of life for Dreyfus worsened again; he was chained ''double looped'', forcing him to stay in bed motionless with his ankles shackled. This measure was the result of false information of his escape revealed by a British newspaper. For two long months, Dreyfus was plunged into deep despair, convinced that his life would end on this remote island.
The truth emerges (1895–1897)
The Dreyfus family exposes the affair and takes action
Mathieu Dreyfus
Mathieu Dreyfus (1857–1930) was an Alsace, Alsatian Jewish industrialist and the older brother of Alfred Dreyfus, a French people, French military officer falsely convicted of treason in what became known as the Dreyfus affair. Mathieu was one ...
, the elder brother of Alfred, was convinced of his innocence. He was the chief architect of the rehabilitation of his brother and spent his time, energy and fortune to gather an increasingly powerful movement for a retrial in December 1894, despite the difficulties of the task:
Mathieu tried all paths, even the most fantastic. Thanks to Dr. Gibert, a friend of President
Félix Faure
Félix François Faure (; 30 January 1841 – 16 February 1899) was the President of France from 1895 until his death in 1899. A native of Paris, he worked as a tanner in his younger years. Faure became a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Se ...
, he met at
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
a woman who spoke for the first time under
hypnosis
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
of a "secret file".
[Bredin, ''The Affair'', p. 117. ] This fact was confirmed by the President of the Republic to Dr. Gibert in a private conversation.
Little by little, despite threats of arrest for complicity, machinations and entrapment by the military, he managed to convince various moderates. Thus the
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
journalist
Bernard Lazare
Bernard Lazare (14 June 1865, Nîmes – 1 September 1903, Paris) was a French literary critic, political journalist, polemicist, and anarchist. He was also among the first Dreyfusards.
Life
Lazare's initial contact with symbolists introduced h ...
looked into the proceedings. In 1896, Lazare published the first Dreyfusard booklet in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. This publication had little influence on the political and intellectual world, but it contained so much detail that the General Staff suspected that Picquart, the new head of SR, was responsible.
The campaign for the review, relayed little by little into the leftist anti-military press, triggered a return of a violent yet vague antisemitism. France was overwhelmingly anti-Dreyfusard; Major Henry from the Statistics Section in turn was aware of the thinness of the prosecution case. At the request of his superiors,
General Boisdeffre, Chief of the General Staff and
Major-General Gonse, he was charged with the task of enlarging the file to prevent any attempt at a review. Unable to find any evidence, he decided to build some after the fact.
The discovery of the real culprit: Picquart "going to the enemy"
![Picquart 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Picquart_2.jpg)
Major
Georges Picquart
Marie-Georges Picquart (6 September 1854 – 19 January 1914) was a French Army officer and Minister of War. He is best known for his role in the Dreyfus affair, in which he played a key role in uncovering the real culprit.
Early career
Picqua ...
was assigned to be head of the staff of the Military Intelligence Service (SR) in July 1895, following the illness of Colonel Sandherr. In March 1896, Picquart, who had followed the Dreyfus Affair from the outset, now required to receive the documents stolen from the German Embassy directly without any intermediary.
[It was he who had been the captain on the morning of 15 October 1894 at the scene of the dictation.] He discovered a document called the "petit bleu": a telegram that was never sent, written by von Schwarzkoppen and intercepted at the German Embassy at the beginning of March 1896. It was addressed to a French officer,
Major Walsin-Esterhazy, 27 rue de la Bienfaisance – Paris. In another letter in black pencil, von Schwarzkoppen revealed the same clandestine relationship with Esterhazy.
On seeing letters from Esterhazy, Picquart realized with amazement that his writing was exactly the same as that on the "bordereau", which had been used to incriminate Dreyfus. He procured the "secret file" given to the judges in 1894 and was astonished by the lack of evidence against Dreyfus, and became convinced of his innocence. Moved by his discovery, Picquart diligently conducted an enquiry in secret without the consent of his superiors. The enquiry demonstrated that Esterhazy had knowledge of the elements described by the "bordereau" and that he was in contact with the German Embassy. It was established that the officer sold the Germans many secret documents, whose value was quite low.
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy was a former member of French counterespionage where he had served after the war of 1870. He had worked in the same office as Major
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
*Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
from 1877 to 1880. A man with a personality disorder, a sulphurous reputation and crippled by debt, he was considered by Picquart to be a traitor driven by monetary reasons to betray his country. Picquart communicated the results of his investigation to the General Staff, which opposed him under "the authority of the principle of ''
res judicata
''Res judicata'' (RJ) or ''res iudicata'', also known as claim preclusion, is the Latin term for "a matter decided" and refers to either of two concepts in both civil law and common law legal systems: a case in which there has been a final judgm ...
''". After this, everything was done to oust him from his position, with the help of his own deputy, Major Henry. It was primarily the upper echelons of the Army that did not want to admit that Dreyfus's conviction could be a grave miscarriage of justice. For Mercier, then
Zurlinden and the General Staff, what was done was done and should never be returned to. They found it convenient to separate the Dreyfus and Esterhazy affairs.
The denunciation of Esterhazy and the progress of Dreyfusism
The nationalist press launched a violent campaign against the burgeoning Dreyfusards. In counter-attack, the General Staff discovered and revealed the information hitherto ignored in the "secret file". Doubt began to surface, and figures in the artistic and political spheres asked questions.
[ Cassagnac, though antisemitic, published an article entitled ''Doubt'' in mid-September 1896.] Picquart tried to convince his seniors to react in favour of Dreyfus, but the General Staff seemed deaf. An investigation was started against him, he was monitored when he was in the east, then transferred to
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
"in the interest of the service".
At this moment Major Henry chose to take action. On 1 November 1896, he created a false document, subsequently called the "faux Henry"
enry forgery[Otherwise known as "faux patriotique" atriotic forgeryby the anti-Dreyfusards.] keeping the header and signature
[Alexandrine, Panizzardi's usual signature.] of an ordinary letter from Panizzardi, and wrote the central text himself:
This was a rather crude forgery. Generals Gonse and Boisdeffre, however, without asking questions, brought the letter to their minister,
General Billot. The doubts of the General Staff regarding the innocence of Dreyfus flew out the window.
[Bredin, ''The Affair'', p. 168. ] With this discovery the General Staff decided to protect Esterhazy and persecute Colonel Picquart, "who did not understand anything".
Picquart, who knew nothing of the "faux Henry", quickly felt isolated from his fellow soldiers. Major Henry accused Picquart of embezzlement and sent him a letter full of innuendo. He protested in writing and returned to Paris.
Picquart confided in his friend, lawyer Louis Leblois, who promised secrecy. Leblois, however, spoke to the vice president of the Senate, the Alsatian
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner (11 February 1833 in Mulhouse (Haut Rhin) – 19 September 1899 in Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute Garonne)) was a chemist, industrialist, a Protestant and an Alsatian politician. He was the uncle by marriage of the wife o ...
(born in
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...
, like Dreyfus), who was in turn infected by doubts. Without citing Picquart, the senator revealed the affair to the highest people in the country. The General Staff, however, still suspected Picquart of causing leaks. This was the beginning of the Picquart affair, a new conspiracy by the General Staff against an officer.
Major Henry, although deputy to Picquart, was jealous and fostered his own malicious operation to compromise his superior. He engaged in various malpractices (making a letter and designating it as an instrument of a "Jewish syndicate", wanting to help Dreyfus to escape, rigging the "petit bleu" to create a belief that Picquart erased the name of the real recipient, drafting a letter naming Dreyfus in full).
Parallel to the investigations of Picquart, the defenders of Dreyfus were informed in November 1897 that the identity of the writer of the "bordereau" was Esterhazy. Mathieu Dreyfus had a reproduction of the bordereau published by ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
''. A banker, Castro, formally identified the writing as that of Esterhazy, who was his debtor, and told Mathieu. On 11 November 1897, the two paths of investigation met during a meeting between Scheurer-Kestner and Mathieu Dreyfus. The latter finally received confirmation that Esterhazy was the author of the note. Based on this, on 15 November 1897 Mathieu Dreyfus made a complaint to the minister of war against Esterhazy. The controversy was now public and the army had no choice but to open an investigation. At the end of 1897, Picquart returned to Paris and made public his doubts about the guilt of Dreyfus because of his discoveries. Collusion to eliminate Picquart seemed to have failed. The challenge was very strong and turned to confrontation. To discredit Picquart, Esterhazy sent, without effect, letters of complaint to the president of the republic.
![Émile Zola par Paul Nadar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/%C3%89mile_Zola_par_Paul_Nadar.jpg)
The Dreyfusard movement, led by Bernard Lazare,
Mathieu Dreyfus
Mathieu Dreyfus (1857–1930) was an Alsace, Alsatian Jewish industrialist and the older brother of Alfred Dreyfus, a French people, French military officer falsely convicted of treason in what became known as the Dreyfus affair. Mathieu was one ...
,
Joseph Reinach
Joseph Reinach (30 September 1856 – 18 April 1921) was a French author and politician. Biography
He was born in Paris. His two brothers Salomon Reinach and Théodore Reinach would later be known in the field of archaeology. After studying at L ...
and
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner (11 February 1833 in Mulhouse (Haut Rhin) – 19 September 1899 in Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute Garonne)) was a chemist, industrialist, a Protestant and an Alsatian politician. He was the uncle by marriage of the wife o ...
gained momentum.
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
, informed in mid-November 1897 by Scheurer-Kestner with documents, was convinced of the innocence of Dreyfus and undertook to engage himself officially.
["He had already intervened in ''Le Figaro'' in May 1896, in the article "''For the Jews''".] On 25 November 1897 the novelist published ''Mr. Scheurer-Kestner'' in ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
'', which was the first article in a series of three.
[According to the ''Syndicat'' of 1 December 1897 and the ''Minutes'' of 5 December 1897.] Faced with threats of massive cancellations from its readers, the paper's editor stopped supporting Zola. Gradually, from late-November through early-December 1897, a number of prominent people got involved in the fight for retrial. These included the authors
Octave Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the ...
(his first article was published three days after Zola) and
Anatole France
(; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...
, academic
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (10 April 1857 – 13 March 1939) was a French scholar trained in philosophy who furthered anthropology with his contributions to the budding fields of sociology and ethnology. His primary field interest was ways of thinking.
...
, the librarian of the ''
École normale supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
''
Lucien Herr
Lucien Herr (17 January 1864 – 18 May 1926) was a French intellectual, librarian at the ''École Normale Supérieure'' in Paris, and mentor to a number of well-known socialist politicians and writers, including Jean Jaurès and Charles Péguy ...
(who convinced
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister.
As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...
and
Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
), the authors of ''
La Revue Blanche
''La Revue blanche'' was a French art and literary magazine run between 1889 and 1903. Some of the greatest writers and artists of the time were its collaborators.
History
The ''Revue blanche'' was founded in Liège in 1889 and run by the Natans ...
'',
[At that time the heart of the artistic avant-garde, publishing ]Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
, Saint-Pol-Roux
Paul-Pierre Roux, called Saint-Pol-Roux (15 January 1861, quartier de Saint-Henry, Marseille - 18 October 1940, Brest) was a French Symbolist poet.
Life
Marseille
Saint-Pol-Roux was born to a middle-class family in Marseille, where his fath ...
, Jules Renard
Pierre-Jules Renard (; 22 February 1864 – 22 May 1910) was a French author and member of the Académie Goncourt, most famous for the works ''Poil de carotte'' (Carrot Top, 1894) and ''Les Histoires Naturelles'' (Nature Stories, 1896). Among ...
, Charles Péguy
Charles Pierre Péguy (; 7 January 1873 – 5 September 1914) was a French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism. By 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a believing b ...
, et al. (where Lazare knew the director Thadee Natanson), and the Clemenceau brothers
Albert
Albert may refer to:
Companies
* Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic
* Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands
* Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia
* Albert Productions, a record label
* Alber ...
and
Georges. Blum tried in late November 1897 to sign, with his friend
Maurice Barrès
Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the Self'' in 1888. ...
, a petition calling for a retrial, but Barrès refused, broke with Zola and Blum in early-December, and began to popularize the term "intellectuals". This first break was the prelude to a division among the educated elite after 13 January 1898.
The Dreyfus Affair occupied more and more discussions, something the political world did not always recognize.
Jules Méline
Félix Jules Méline (; 20 May 183821 December 1925) was a French statesman, Prime Minister of France from 1896 to 1898.
Biography
Méline was born at Remiremont. Having taken up law as his profession, he was chosen a deputy in 1872, and in 187 ...
declared in the opening session of the National Assembly on 7 December 1897, "There is no Dreyfus affair. There is not now and there can be no Dreyfus affair."
Trial and acquittal of Esterhazy
![Clemenceau - Manet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Clemenceau_-_Manet.jpg)
General
Georges-Gabriel de Pellieux
George Gabriel de Pellieux (6 September 1842 – 15 July 1900) was a French army officer who was best known for ignoring evidence during the Dreyfus affair, a scandal in which a Jewish officer was convicted of treason on the basis of a forgery.
Ea ...
was responsible for conducting an investigation. It was brief, thanks to the General Staff's skillful manipulation of the investigator. The real culprit, they said, was Lieutenant-Colonel Picquart. The investigation was moving towards a predictable conclusion until Esterhazy's former mistress, Madame de Boulancy, published letters in ''Le Figaro'' in which ten years earlier Esterhazy had expressed violently his hatred for France and his contempt for the French army. The militarist press rushed to the rescue of Esterhazy with an unprecedented antisemitic campaign. The Dreyfusard press replied with strong new evidence in its possession.
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...
, in the newspaper ''
L'Aurore
''L’Aurore'' (; ) was a literary, liberal, and socialist newspaper published in Paris, France, from 1897 to 1914. Its most famous headline was Émile Zola's '' J'Accuse...!'' leading into his article on the Dreyfus Affair.
The newspaper was ...
'', asked, "Who protects Major Esterhazy? The law must stop sucking up to this ineffectual Prussian disguised as a French officer. Why? Who trembles before Esterhazy? What occult power, why shamefully oppose the action of justice? What stands in the way? Why is Esterhazy, a character of depravity and more than doubtful morals, protected while the accused is not? Why is an honest soldier such as Lieutenant-Colonel Picquart discredited, overwhelmed, dishonoured? If this is the case we must speak out!"
![Le Sifflet, February 17, 1898](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Le_Sifflet%2C_February_17%2C_1898.jpg)
Although protected by the General Staff and therefore by the government, Esterhazy was obliged to admit authorship of the Francophobe letters published by ''Le Figaro''. This convinced the Office of the General Staff to find a way to stop the questions, doubts, and the beginnings of demands for justice. The idea was to require Esterhazy to demand a trial and be acquitted, to stop the noise and allow a return to order. Thus, to finally exonerate him, according to the old rule ,
["What is already judged is held to be true".] Esterhazy was set to appear before a military court on 10 January 1898. A "delayed" closed court
[The room is emptied as soon as discussion covers topics related to national defence, i.e., the testimony of Picquart.] trial was pronounced. Esterhazy was notified of the matter on the following day, along with guidance on the defensive line to take. The trial was not normal: the civil trial Mathieu and Lucy Dreyfus
[President Delegorgue refused to be questioned when he was called to the bar.] requested was denied, and the three handwriting experts decided the writing in the bordereau was not Esterhazy's. The accused was applauded and the witnesses booed and jeered. Pellieux intervened to defend the General Staff without legal substance. The real accused was Picquart, who was dishonoured by all the military protagonists of the affair. Esterhazy was acquitted unanimously the next day after just three minutes of deliberation.
[Bredin, ''The Affair'', p. 227. ] With all the cheering, it was difficult for Esterhazy to make his way toward the exit, where some 1,500 people were waiting.
By error an innocent person was convicted, but on order the guilty party was acquitted. For many moderate Republicans it was an intolerable infringement of the fundamental values they defended. The acquittal of Esterhazy therefore brought about a change of strategy for the Dreyfusards. Liberalism-friendly Scheurer-Kestner and
Reinach, took more combative and rebellious action. In response to the acquittal, large and violent riots by anti-Dreyfusards and anti-Semites broke out across France.
Flush with victory, the General Staff arrested Picquart on charges of violation of professional secrecy following the disclosure of his investigation through his lawyer, who revealed it to Senator Scheurer-Kestner. The colonel, although placed under arrest at
Fort Mont-Valérien
Fort Mont-Valérien ( French: ''Forteresse du Mont-Valérien'') is a fortress in Suresnes, a western Paris suburb, built in 1841 as part of the city's ring of modern fortifications. It overlooks the Bois de Boulogne.
History
Before Thiers built ...
, did not give up and involved himself further in the affair. When Mathieu thanked him, he replied curtly that he was "doing his duty".
Esterhazy benefited from special treatment by the upper echelons of the army, which was inexplicable except for the General Staff's desire to stifle any inclination to challenge the verdict of the court martial that had convicted Dreyfus in 1894. The army declared Esterhazy unfit for service.
Esterhazy's flight to England and confession
To avoid personal risk Esterhazy shaved off his prominent moustache and went into exile in England.
[''Dictionary of the Dreyfus Affair'', Thomas, entry "Esterházy in England". ]
Rachel Beer
Rachel Beer (''née'' Sassoon; 7 April 1858 – 29 April 1927) was an Indian-born British newspaper editor. She was editor-in-chief of ''The Observer'' and ''The Sunday Times''.
Early life
Rachel Sassoon was born in Bombay to Sassoon David Sass ...
, editor of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' and the ''
Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', English newspapers, knew that Esterhazy was in London because ''The Observer'' Paris correspondent had made a connection with him; she interviewed him twice, and he confessed to being the culprit: ''I wrote the bordereau''. She published the interviews in September 1898, reporting his confession and writing a
leader column accusing the French military of antisemitism and calling for a retrial for Dreyfus.
Esterhazy lived comfortably in England until his death in 1923.
[
]
''J'Accuse ...!'' 1898
The Dreyfus affair becomes "The Affair"
On 13 January 1898, Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
touched off a new dimension in the Dreyfus Affair, which became known simply as ''The Affair''. The first great Dreyfusard intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
, Zola was at the height of his glory: the twenty volumes of the Rougon-Macquart epic were being distributed in dozens of countries. He was a leader in the literary world and was fully conscious of it. To General Pellieux, he said at his trial, "I ask General Pellieux if there are not many ways to serve France? It can be served by the sword or by the pen. General Pellieux has probably won great victories! I have won mine, too. By my work the French language has been brought into the world. I have my victories! I bequeath to posterity the name of General Pellieux and that of Émile Zola: history will choose!
Outraged by the acquittal of Esterhazy, Zola published a 4,500-word article on the front page of ''L'Aurore'' in the form of an open letter
An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
to President Félix Faure
Félix François Faure (; 30 January 1841 – 16 February 1899) was the President of France from 1895 until his death in 1899. A native of Paris, he worked as a tanner in his younger years. Faure became a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Se ...
(Clemenceau thought up the headline '' J'Accuse...!''). With a typical circulation of 30,000, the newspaper distributed nearly 300,000 copies that day. This article had the effect of an explosion. The article was a direct attack, explicit and clear, and named names. It denounced all those who had conspired against Dreyfus, including the minister of war and the General Staff. The article contained numerous errors, exaggerating or minimizing the roles of one or another of the figures involved (the role of General Mercier was greatly underestimated, for instance).
''J'Accuse...!'' provided for the first time a compilation of all existing data on the affair in one place. Zola's goal was to make himself a target, to force the authorities to prosecute him. His trial forced a new public review of both the Dreyfus and Esterhazy affairs. Here he went against the strategy of Scheurer-Kestner and Lazare, who advocated patience and reflection. Thanks to the national and international success of Zola's article, a trial became inevitable. From that critical moment the case followed two parallel paths. On one hand, the state used its apparatus to impose a limitation on the trial, restricting it to one of simple libel so as to separate the Dreyfus and Esterhazy cases, which had already been adjudicated. On the other hand, conflicting camps of opinion tried to influence judges and the government—one side pushed to obtain a review and the other to convict Zola. But Zola achieved his aim: the opening of a public debate at the Assize Court
The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...
.
On 15 January 1898, ''Le Temps
''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...
'' published a petition calling for a retrial. It included the names of Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
, Anatole France
(; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...
, director of the Pasteur Institute Émile Duclaux
Émile Duclaux (24 June 1840 – May 2, 1904) was a French microbiologist and chemist born in Aurillac, Cantal.
He studied at the College of Aurillac, the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris and at École Normale Supérieure. In 1862 he began work as ...
, Daniel Halévy
Daniel Halévy (12 December 1872 – 4 February 1962) was a French historian.
Life
The son of Ludovic Halévy, Daniel was born in and died in Paris. His family was of Jewish descent, but his parents were Protestant and he was brought up as a Pr ...
, Fernand Gregh
Fernand Gregh (14 October 1873, Paris – 5 January 1960, Paris) was a French poet and literary critic. He was accepted in the Académie française in 1953. British composer Eva Ruth Spalding
Eva Ruth Spalding (December 19, 1883 - March 1969) ...
, Félix Fénéon
Félix Fénéon (; 22 June 1861 – 29 February 1944) was a French art critic, gallery director, writer and anarchist during the late 19th century and early 20th century. He coined the term ''Neo-Impressionism'' in 1886 to identify a group of a ...
, Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
, Lucien Herr
Lucien Herr (17 January 1864 – 18 May 1926) was a French intellectual, librarian at the ''École Normale Supérieure'' in Paris, and mentor to a number of well-known socialist politicians and writers, including Jean Jaurès and Charles Péguy ...
, Charles Andler
Charles Philippe Théodore Andler (11 March 1866, Strasbourg – 1 April 1933, Malesherbes, Loiret) was a French Germanist and philosopher.
Life
Andler was born to a Protestant family in Strasbourg.Antoinette Blum, 'Charles Andler (1866-1933)', in ...
, Victor Bérard
Victor Bérard (; Morez, 10 August 1864 – Paris, 13 November 1931) was a French diplomat and politician.
Today, he is still renowned for his works about Hellenistic studies and geography of the Odyssey
Events in the main sequence of the '' ...
, François Simiand
François Joseph Charles Simiand (18 April 1873 – 13 April 1935) was a French sociologist and economist best known as a participant in the Année Sociologique. As a member of the French Historical School of economics, Simiand predicated a rig ...
, Georges Sorel
Georges Eugène Sorel (; ; 2 November 1847 – 29 August 1922) was a French social thinker, political theorist, historian, and later journalist. He has inspired theories and movements grouped under the name of Sorelianism. His social and p ...
, the painter Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
, the writer Jules Renard
Pierre-Jules Renard (; 22 February 1864 – 22 May 1910) was a French author and member of the Académie Goncourt, most famous for the works ''Poil de carotte'' (Carrot Top, 1894) and ''Les Histoires Naturelles'' (Nature Stories, 1896). Among ...
, the sociologist Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...
, and the historian Gabriel Monod
Gabriel Monod (7 March 1844 – 10 April 1912) was a French historian, the nephew of Adolphe Monod.
Biography
Born in Ingouville, Seine-Maritime, he was educated at Le Havre then went to Paris to complete his education, lodging with the de Pre ...
.
On 20 January 1898, after an anti-Zola speech by rightist politician Albert de Mun
Adrien Albert Marie, Comte de Mun (, 28 February 18416 October 1914), was a French political figure and Social Reformer of the nineteenth century.
Biography
Early years
Albert was born at Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux, Seine-et-Marne, son of the Marqu ...
at the Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
, the chamber voted 312–22 to prosecute Zola. On 23 January 1898 Clemenceau, in the name of a "peaceful revolt of the French spirit", picked up the term "intellectuals" and used it in ''L'Aurore'', but in a positive sense. On 1 February 1898, Barres lambasted the intellectuals in ''Le Journal''. Anti-intellectualism became a major theme of right-wing intellectuals, who accused the Dreyfusards of failing to put the nation's interests first, an argument that continued throughout the years that followed and which became the basis of the public debate: a choice between justice and truth on the one hand, and the defense of the nation, preservation of society, and superiority of the state on the other. At first, the political left did not echo this mobilization of intellectuals—on 19 January 1898 Socialist Deputies
A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...
distanced themselves from the "two rival bourgeois factions".
The trial of Zola
General Billot, Minister of War, filed a complaint against Zola and Alexandre Perrenx, the manager of ''L'Aurore'', to be heard at the Assises of the Seine from 7 to 23 February 1898. Defamation of a public authority was liable to trial in the Cour d'Assises
In France, a ''cour d'assises'', or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of felonies, meaning crimes as defined in French law. ...
, while insults to private figures—such as journalists and intellectuals—uttered by the nationalist and antisemitic press were limited to the civil adversarial system. (The taxpayer is at risk in the first case, while only the plaintiff is at risk in the second.) The minister referred to only three passages of Zola's article, eighteen lines out of hundreds. He accused Zola of having written that the court martial had committed "unlawful acts ..by order". The trial opened in an atmosphere of extreme violence—Zola had been the object of "the most shameful attacks"[He is treated as a stateless Italian immigrant.] as well as important support and congratulations.[On 2 February, ]Octave Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the ...
, Laurent Tailhade
Laurent Tailhade (; 1854–1919) was a French satirical poet, anarchist polemicist, essayist, and translator, active in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s.
Works
*''Au pays du mufle'' 1891.
*''Poèmes élégiaques'' Vitraux. Vanier, 1891.
*''A ...
, Pierre Quillard
Pierre Quillard (born Paris, 14 July 1864 - died Neuilly-sur-Seine, 4 February 1912) was a French symbolist poet, playwright, translator (from Greek), and journalist. An anarchist and supporter of Dreyfus, he later became one of the first ...
and Georges Courteline
Georges Courteline born Georges Victor Marcel Moinaux (25 June 1858 – 25 June 1929) was a French dramatist and novelist, a satirist notable for his sharp wit and cynical humor.
Biography
His family moved from Tours in Indre-et-Loire to Pari ...
, among others, in ''L'Aurore'' signed an "Address to Émile Zola" assuring him of their support "in the name of justice and truth".
Fernand Labori
Fernand-Gustave-Gaston Labori (April 18, 1860 – March 14, 1917) was a French attorney. He was born in Reims and educated at the Faculty of Law of Paris. In his professional life, he defended the accused in some of the most prominent polit ...
, Zola's lawyer, intended to call about 200 witnesses. The details of the Dreyfus Affair, unknown to most of the public, were published in the press. Several papers[''Le Siecle'' and ''L'Áurore'' among others.] published shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
notes verbatim of the debates every day to build support in the population. These notes were, for the Dreyfusards, an essential tool for later debates. The nationalists, behind Henri Rochefort
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry.
People with this given name
; French noblemen
:'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.''
* Henri I de Montm ...
, however, were more visible and organized riots, which forced the prefect of police to intervene to protect Zola whenever he left the facility after every hearing.
This trial was also the scene of a real legal battle in which the rights of the defence were constantly violated. Many observers were aware of the collusion between France's political and military worlds. Evidently the court received instructions not to raise the subject of former judicial errors. President Delegorgue, on the pretext of the long duration of the hearings, juggled the law incessantly to ensure that the trial dealt only with the alleged defamation by Zola. Delegorgue's phrase "the question will not be put" was repeated dozens of times.
Zola was sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 3,000 francs,[Octave Mirbeau paid 7,525 francs from his own pocket, which represented the amount of the fine and court costs on 8 August 1898.] which was the maximum penalty. This harshness was due to the atmosphere of violence surrounding the trial. "The excitement of the audience and the exasperation of the crowd in front of the courthouse were so violent that one could fear the worst excesses if the jury acquitted Mr. Zola". However, the Zola trial was rather a victory for the Dreyfusards. Indeed, the affair and its contradictions had been widely discussed throughout the trial, especially by the military. In addition, the violent attacks against Zola and the injustice of the conviction of Dreyfus reinforced the commitment of the Dreyfusards. Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...
declared, " amimbued by the admirable actions f Zola and Jules Renard
Pierre-Jules Renard (; 22 February 1864 – 22 May 1910) was a French author and member of the Académie Goncourt, most famous for the works ''Poil de carotte'' (Carrot Top, 1894) and ''Les Histoires Naturelles'' (Nature Stories, 1896). Among ...
wrote in his diary: "From tonight I hold on to the Republic that inspires respect in me, a tenderness in me that I do not know. I declare that Justice is the most beautiful word in the language of men and I must cry if men no longer understand it". Senator Ludovic Trarieux
Jacques Ludovic Trarieux (30 November 1840 in Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, Charente – 13 March 1904) was a French Republican statesman, lawyer, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.
Early life
Ludovic Trarieux was born on 3 ...
and Catholic jurist Paul Viollet
Paul Marie Viollet (24 October 1840, Tours, France22 November 1914, Paris) was a French historian.
Life
After serving his native city as secretary and archivist, he became archivist at the Archives impériales in Paris in 1866, and later librar ...
founded the League for the Defence of Human Rights. Even more than the Dreyfus Affair the Zola affair resulted in a regrouping of intellectual forces into two opposing camps.
On 2 April 1898, an application to the Supreme Court received a favourable response. This was the court's first intervention in the affair. The court upheld the appeal, on the formal grounds that as the alleged libel was against the military court, rather than the minister, it was the military court that should have made the complaint. Prosecutor-General Manau supported a review of the Dreyfus trial and strongly opposed the anti-Semites. The judges of the military court, whom Zola had challenged, therefore opened a new suit against him for libel. The case was brought before the Assizes of Seine-et-Oise in Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
where the public was considered more favourable to the army and more nationalistic. On 23 May 1898, at the first hearing, Mr. Labori appealed to the Supreme Court regarding the change of jurisdiction, which adjourned the trial and postponed the hearing to 18 July 1898. Labori advised Zola to leave France for England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
before the end of the trial, which the writer did, departing for a one-year exile in England. The defendants were convicted again. As for Colonel Picquart, he found himself again in prison.
Antisemitic riots
Antisemitic disturbances and riots broke out in 1898 in cities across Metropolitan France, mostly in January and February. Antisemitic riots predated the Dreyfus Affair, and were almost a tradition in the East, which "the Alsatian people observed upon the outbreak of any revolution in France".[ as quoted in p. 541] But the 1898 disturbances were much more widespread.
There were three waves of unrest in 55 localities: the first ending the week of 23 January; the second wave in the week following; and the third wave from 23–28 February; these waves and other incidents totaled 69 riots or disturbances across the country. Additionally, riots took place in Algeria from 18–25 January. Demonstrators at these disturbances threw stones, chanted slogans, attacked Jewish property and sometimes Jewish people, and resisted police efforts to stop them. Mayors called for calm, and troops including cavalry were called in an attempt to quell the disturbances.
Zola's ''J'Accuse'' appeared on 13 January, and most historians suggest that the riots were spontaneous reactions to its publication, and to the subsequent Zola trial. The press reported that "tumultuous demonstrations broke out nearly every day". Prefects or police in various towns noted demonstrations in their localities, and associated them with "the campaign undertaken in favor of ex-Captain Dreyfus", or with the "intervention by M. Zola", or the Zola trial itself, which "seems to have aroused the antisemitic demonstrations". In Paris, demonstrations around the Zola trial were frequent and sometimes violent. Roger Martin du Gard reported that "Individuals with Jewish features were grabbed, surrounded, and roughed up by delirious youths who danced round them, brandishing flaming torches, made from rolled-up copies of ''L'Aurore''.
However, the fervid reaction to the Dreyfus affair and especially the Zola trial was only partly spontaneous. In a dozen cities including Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
, Lille
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...
, and Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
, antisemitic posters appeared in the streets, and riots followed soon after. At Saint-Etienne, posters read, "Imitate your brothers of Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse... join with them in demonstrating against the underhand attacks being made on the Nation." In Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,[Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...]
, and other cities, riots followed antisemitic speeches or meetings, such as the meeting organized by the ''Comité de Défense Religieuse et Sociale'' in Caen.
Henry unmasked, the case is rekindled
The acquittal of Esterhazy, the convictions of Émile Zola and of Georges Picquart, and the continued presence of an innocent man in prison had a considerable national and international effect. France was exposed as an arbitrary state, which contradicted its founding republican principles. Antisemitism made considerable progress and riots were common throughout the year 1898. However politicians were still in denial about the affair. In April and May 1898, they were mostly concerned with elections, in which Jaurès lost his seat of Carmaux
Carmaux (; oc, Carmauç) is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.
Industries
The Compagnie minière de Carmaux has its origins in a coal mining concession granted in 1852 to Gabriel de Solages, which became the Compagnie minièr ...
. The majority was moderate, though a parliamentary group in the House was antisemitic. Nevertheless the cause of the Dreyfusards was restarted.
Godefroy Cavaignac Godefroy, a surname of Old French origin, and originally a given name, cognate with Geoffrey/Geoffroy/Jeffrey/Jeffries, Godfrey, Gottfried, etc. Godefroy may refer to:
People Given name
* Godefroi, Comte d'Estrades (1607–1686), French diplomat a ...
, the new minister of war and a fierce supporter of anti-revisionism, definitely wanted to prove the guilt of Dreyfus and from there "wring the neck" of Esterhazy, whom he considered "a pathological liar and blackmailer". He was absolutely convinced of Dreyfus's guilt, a conviction reinforced by the legend of the confession (after meeting the main witness, Captain Lebrun-Renault). Cavaignac had the honesty of a doctrinaire intransigent, but absolutely did not know the depths of the affair—the General Staff had kept him in the dark. He was surprised to learn that all the documents on which the prosecution was based had not been expertly appraised and that Boisdeffre had "absolute confidence" in Henry. Cavaignac decided to investigate—in his office, with his assistants—and retrieved the secret file, which now contained 365 items.
On 4 April, the newspaper ''Le Siècle'' published ''Lettre d'un Diplomate'', the first of four documents, that were of critical importance in exposing Esterhazy's guilt, and enabled the Dreyfusard cause to regain the initiative it had lost with Zola's conviction. The secret information had been provided by Zola, who had received it from Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
; Wilde had gained it from best friend Carlos Blacker, who was an intimate friend of Alessandro Panizzardi.
On 7 July 1898, during a questioning in the National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
Cavaignac reported three items "overwhelming among a thousand", two of which had no connection with the case. The other was the "faux Henry". Cavaignac's speech was effective: the ''députés'' (deputies) gave him an ovation and voted to display copies of the three documents in the 36,000 communes of France. The anti-Dreyfusards had triumphed, but Cavaignac implicitly recognized that the Dreyfus's defence had not had access to all the evidence. The application for annulment made by Lucie Dreyfus became admissible. The next day, Picquart declared in ''Le Temps'' to the council president, "I am in a position to establish before a court of competent jurisdiction that the two documents bearing the date of 1894 could not be attributed to Dreyfus and that the one that bears the date of 1896 had all the characteristics of a fake," which earned him eleven months in prison.
On the evening of 13 August 1898, Louis Cuignet, who was attached to the cabinet of Cavaignac, was working by the light of a lamp and observed that the colour of the lines on the "faux Henry" paper header and footer did not correspond with the central part of the document. Cavaignac was still trying to find logical reasons for the guilt and conviction of Dreyfus but was not silent on this discovery. A board of inquiry was formed to investigate Esterhazy, before which he panicked and confessed his secret reports to Major du Paty de Clam. Collusion between the General Staff and the traitor was revealed. On 30 August 1898 Cavaignac resigned himself to demanding explanations from Colonel Henry in the presence of Boisdeffre and Gonse. After an hour of questioning by the minister himself, Henry broke down and made a full confession. He was placed under arrest at the Mont-Valérien fortress, where he killed himself the next day by cutting his own throat with a razor. The request for review filed by Lucie Dreyfus could not be rejected. Yet Cavaignac said "less than ever!", but the president of the council, Henri Brisson
Eugène Henri Brisson (; 31 July 183514 April 1912) was a French statesman, Prime Minister of France for a period in 1885-1886 and again in 1898.
Biography
He was born at Bourges (Cher), and followed his father's profession of advocate. Havi ...
, forced him to resign. Despite his apparently entirely involuntary role in the revision of the 1894 trial, Brisson remained convinced that Dreyfus was guilty and made a statement disparaging and offensive to Dreyfus at the Rennes trial.
The anti-revisionists did not consider themselves beaten. On 6 September 1898 Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras (; ; 20 April 1868 – 16 November 1952) was a French author, politician, poet, and critic. He was an organizer and principal philosopher of ''Action Française'', a political movement that is monarchist, anti-parl ...
published a eulogy of Henry in ''La Gazette de France'' in which he called him a "heroic servant of the great interests of the State". ''La Libre Parole'', Drumont's antisemitic newspaper, spread the notion of "patriotic fake" ("''faux patriotique''"). In December the same newspaper launched a subscription, in favour of his widow, to erect a monument to Henry. Each gift was accompanied by pithy, often abusive, remarks on Dreyfus, the Dreyfusards, and the Jews. Some 14,000 subscribers, including 53 deputies, sent 131,000 francs. On 3 September 1898, Brisson, the president of the council, urged Mathieu Dreyfus
Mathieu Dreyfus (1857–1930) was an Alsace, Alsatian Jewish industrialist and the older brother of Alfred Dreyfus, a French people, French military officer falsely convicted of treason in what became known as the Dreyfus affair. Mathieu was one ...
to file an application for review of the military court of 1894. The government transferred the case to the Supreme Court for its opinion on the past four years of proceedings.
France was really divided into two, but no more generalization is possible: the Jewish community was little involved, intellectuals were not all Dreyfusards,[Of the 40 members of the French Academy Anatole France was the only revisionist.] the Protestants were divided, and Marxists refused to support Dreyfus. The split transcended religion and social background, as shown in a cartoon by Caran d'Ache
Caran d'Ache was the pseudonym of the 19th century French satirist and political cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré (6 November 1858 – 25 February 1909). The pseudonym comes from russian: карандаш, italic=unset, translit=karandash mean ...
''A family dinner'': before, "Above all, never talk about it !", after, "They talked about it".
Crisis and reshaping the political landscape
Henry was dead, Boisdeffre had resigned, Gonse had no more authority, and du Paty had been severely compromised by Esterhazy: for the conspirators it was a débâcle. The government was now caught between two fires: the nationalist pressure on the street and the higher command. Cavaignac, having resigned for continuing to spread his anti-Dreyfusard vision of the Affair, arose as an anti-revisionist leader. General Zurlinden who succeeded him and was influenced by the General Staff, delivered a negative opinion at the review on 10 September 1898 comforting the extremist press by saying that, "a review means war". The obstinacy of the government, who voted to revert to the Supreme Court on 26 September 1898, led to the resignation of Zurlinden who was soon replaced by General Chanoine. When Chanoine was questioned in the House he handed in his resignation; trust was denied to Brisson and he was also forced to resign. Ministerial instability caused some governmental instability.
On 1 November 1898, the Progressive Charles Dupuy
Charles Alexandre Dupuy (; 5 November 1851 – 23 July 1923) was a French statesman, three times prime minister.
Biography
He was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire, Auvergne, where his father was a minor official. After a period as a profe ...
was appointed in place of Brisson. In 1894 he had covered the actions of General Mercier at the beginning of the Dreyfus affair, and four years later he announced that he would follow the judgment of the Supreme Court, thus blocking the road for those who wanted to stifle the review and divest the Court. On 5 December 1898 in the shadow of a debate in the House on the transmission of the "secret file" to the Supreme Court the tension rose another notch. Insults, invective, and other nationalistic violence gave way to threats of an uprising. Paul Déroulède declared: "If there has to be a civil war so be it."
A new crisis arose at the same time in the heart of the Supreme Court, since Quesnay de Beaurepaire, president of the Civil Chamber, accused the Criminal Chamber of Dreyfusism in the press. He resigned on 8 January 1899 as a hero of the nationalist cause. This crisis led to the divestiture of the Criminal Division in favour of joint chambers. This was the point of blockage for the review.
In 1899, the Dreyfus affair took up more and more of the political scene. On 16 February 1899, Félix Faure
Félix François Faure (; 30 January 1841 – 16 February 1899) was the President of France from 1895 until his death in 1899. A native of Paris, he worked as a tanner in his younger years. Faure became a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Se ...
, the President of France, died. Émile Loubet
Émile François Loubet (; 30 December 183820 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906.
Trained in law, he became mayor of Montélimar, where he was note ...
was elected, which was an advance for the cause of the review as the previous president had been a fierce opponent. On 23 February 1899 at the funeral for Faure, Paul Déroulède attempted to force a coup at the Élysée Palace. It was a failure as it was not supported by the military. On 4 June 1899 Loubet was assaulted at the Longchamp Racecourse. These provocations plus permanent demonstrations from the extreme right, although it never actually put the Republic in danger, created a burst of Republicanism leading to the formation of a "government of republican defence" around Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, Waldeck-Rousseau on 22 June 1899. The center of French politics, including Raymond Poincaré, had aligned itself with the pro-revisionists. The progressive anti-Dreyfusard Republicans such as Jules Méline
Félix Jules Méline (; 20 May 183821 December 1925) was a French statesman, Prime Minister of France from 1896 to 1898.
Biography
Méline was born at Remiremont. Having taken up law as his profession, he was chosen a deputy in 1872, and in 187 ...
, were rejected outright. The Dreyfus affair led to a clear reorganization of the French political landscape.
The appeal on the judgment of 1894
The Supreme Court considered the Dreyfus affair in the context of press campaigns against the Court of Cassation (France), Criminal Division, the magistrates being constantly dragged through the mud in nationalist newspapers from the Panama scandals
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List of transcontinental countries#North America and South America, transcontinental country spanning the Central America, southern ...
. On 26 September 1898, after a Cabinet vote, the Minister of Justice appealed to the Supreme Court. On 29 October 1898, after the submission of the report from the recorder Alphonse Bard, the Criminal Chamber of the Court stated that "the application is admissible and will proceed with a supplementary investigation".
The recorder Louis Loew presided. He was subjected to a very violent campaign of antisemitic insults due to his being an Alsatian Protestantism, Protestant accused of being a deserter and tainted by the Prussians. Despite the compliant silence of Mercier, Billot, Zurlinden, and Roget, who hid behind the authority of "already judged" and "state secret", understanding of the affair increased. Cavaignac made a statement two days long, but failed to prove the guilt of Dreyfus. On the contrary, he unwittingly exonerated him by a demonstration of the exact date of the bordereau (August 1894).
Picquart then demonstrated all the workings of the error, then the conspiracy. In a decision dated 8 December 1898 in response to his divestiture announcement, Picquart was protected from the military court by the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court. This was a new obstacle to the wishes of the General Staff. A new furiously antisemitic press campaign burst during the event, while ''L'Aurore'' on 29 October 1898 published an article entitled ''Victory'' in the same character as ''J'accuse...!'' The work of the investigation was still to be taken back by the Criminal Division. The "secret file" was analyzed from 30 December 1898 and the Criminal Division requested disclosure of diplomatic records, which was granted.
On 9 February 1899, the Criminal Division submitted its report by highlighting two important facts: it was certain Esterhazy used the same paper as the bordereau[The court did make several detailed scientific expert assessments to conclude with certainty.] and the secret file was completely void. These two major events alone destroyed all proceedings against Alfred Dreyfus. In parallel, President Mazeau conducted an inquiry by the Criminal Division, which led to divestiture thereof "to not only leave it to bear alone all responsibility for the final decision," so protecting the Criminal Division from actions arising from its report.
On 28 February 1899, Waldeck-Rousseau spoke to the Senate on the floor and denounced "moral conspiracy" within the government and in the street. The review was no longer avoidable. On 1 March 1899, Alexis Ballot-Beaupré, the new president of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court, was appointed recorder for the consideration of the application for review. He took on the legal files and decided on a further investigation. Ten additional witnesses were interviewed, which further weakened the version of the General Staff. In the final discussion, President Ballot-Beaupré demonstrated the inanity of the bordereau, which was the only evidence against Dreyfus. The prosecutor Manau echoed the views of the President. Mornard who represented Lucie Dreyfus argued without any difficulty or opposition from the prosecution.
On 3 June 1899, the joint chambers of the Supreme Court overturned the judgment of 1894 in a formal hearing. The case was referred to the Military Court of Rennes. By that judgment, the Supreme Court imposed itself as an absolute authority capable of standing up to military and political power. For many Dreyfusards, this ruling was the prelude to the acquittal of the captain; they forgot to consider that it was again the army who would judge. The court, in overturning the judgement, believed in the legal autonomy of the military court without taking into account the laws of ''esprit de corps''.
Fear of boycott
Hannah Arendt writes that fear of an international boycott of the Paris Exposition of 1900 was what "united the disrupted country, turned parliament in favor of a retrial and eventually reconciled disparate elements" of France in a way "Clemenceau's daily editorials, Zola's pathos, Jaure's speeches and popular hatred of the clergy and aristocracy" had not.
The trial in Rennes 1899
Conduct of the trial
Alfred Dreyfus was in no way aware of what was happening thousands of kilometres from him. Neither was he aware of the schemes hatched to guarantee that he could never return, or the commitment of countless men and women to his cause. The prison administration filtered information deemed confidential. At the end of 1898, he learned with astonishment the actual size of the affair, about which he knew nothing: the accusation by his brother against Esterhazy, the acquittal of the traitor, Henry's confession and suicide, and the reading of the record of investigations of the Supreme Court, which he received two months after its publication. On 5 June 1899, Alfred Dreyfus was notified of the decision of the Supreme Court on the judgement of 1894. On 9 June 1899, he left Devil's Island
The penal colony of Cayenne ( French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Islands ...
, heading to France, but locked in a cabin as if guilty, even though he no longer was. He disembarked on 30 June 1899 in Quiberon Bay, Port Haliguen on the Quiberon peninsula in the greatest secrecy, "a clandestine and nocturnal return". After five years of imprisonment, he was on his native soil, but he was immediately locked up from 1 July 1899 in the military prison in Rennes
Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...
. He was remanded on 7 August 1899 before the military court of the Breton capital.
General Mercier, champion of the anti-Dreyfusards, intervened constantly in the press to confirm the accuracy of the first judgement: Dreyfus was surely guilty. Immediately, however, dissent emerged in the defence of Dreyfus. His two lawyers actually had opposing strategies. Demange wanted to stand on the defensive and just get the acquittal of Dreyfus. Labori, a brilliant lawyer who was just 35 years old, wanted to take the offensive, to aim higher and defeat and publicly humiliate the General Staff. Mathieu Dreyfus imagined a complementarity between the two lawyers. The conduct of the trial revealed the disunity that served the prosecution with a defence so impaired.
The trial opened on 7 August 1899 in an atmosphere of extreme tension. Rennes was in a state of siege. The judges of the court-martial were under pressure. Esterházy, who admitted authorship of the bordereau, was in exile in England. He and du Paty were both excused. On the appearance of Dreyfus, emotions ran high. His physical appearance disturbed his supporters and some of his opponents.Maurice Barrès
Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the Self'' in 1888. ...
made a poignant description of Dreyfus. Despite his deteriorated physical condition, he had a complete mastery of the files acquired in only a few weeks. All the General Staff testified against Dreyfus without providing any proof. They stubbornly considered null and void the confessions of Henry and Esterhazy. The trial even tended to go out of control to the extent that the decisions of the Supreme Court were not taken into account. They discussed in particular the bordereau, which was the proof of guilt of Esterhazy. Nevertheless Mercier was booed at the end of the hearing. The nationalist press and the anti-Dreyfusards could only speculate on his silence about the "conclusive evidence" (the pseudo-note annotated by the Kaiser, which nobody will ever see in evidence) that he had not ceased to report before the trial.
On 14 August 1899, Labori was on his way to court when he was shot in the back by an extremist who escaped and was never found. The lawyer was missing from discussions for over a week at the decisive moment of the examination of witnesses. On 22 August 1899, his condition had improved and he returned. Incidents between the two lawyers for Dreyfus multiplied. Labori reproached Demange about his excessive caution. The government, in the face of the military hardening stance, still had two ways to influence events: call for testimony from Germany or abandon the charge. These negotiations in the background, however, had no result. The German Embassy sent a polite refusal to the government. The Minister of War, General Gaston de Galliffet, sent respectful word to Major Louis Carrière, the government commissioner. He asked him to act in the spirit of the revised judgment of the Supreme Court. The officer pretended not to understand the allusion and helped the nationalist lawyer Auffray to make the indictment against Dreyfus. The defence needed to make a decision because the outcome of the case looked bad, despite evidence of the absence of charges against the accused. On behalf of the president of the council, Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, aided by Zola and Jaurès, Labori was convinced to give up his argument so as not to offend the military. They decided to risk conciliation in exchange for the acquittal that seemed to be promised by the government. Mr. Demange, alone and without illusions, continued the defence of Dreyfus in an atmosphere of civil war. In Paris, the antisemitic and nationalist agitators of Auteuil were arrested. Jules Guérin and those who fled and holed up in Fort Chabrol were assaulted by the police.
New conviction
On 9 September 1899, the court rendered its verdict: Dreyfus was convicted of treason, but "with extenuating circumstances" (by five votes to two) and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment and a further degradation. Contrary to appearances, this verdict was on the verge of acquittal by one vote. The Code of Military Justice adopted the principle that a minority vote of three against four was an acquittal.
The day after the verdict, Alfred Dreyfus, after much hesitation, filed an appeal for a retrial. Waldeck-Rousseau, in a difficult position, tackled for the first time the possibility of a pardon. Dreyfus had to accept guilt. Exhausted, having been away from his family for too long, he accepted. The decree was signed by President Émile Loubet
Émile François Loubet (; 30 December 183820 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906.
Trained in law, he became mayor of Montélimar, where he was note ...
on 19 September 1899 and Dreyfus was released on 21 September 1899. Many Dreyfusards were frustrated by this final act. Public opinion welcomed this conclusion indifferently. France wanted civil peace and harmony on the eve of the Exposition Universelle (1900), Universal Exhibition of 1900 and before the big fight that the Republic was about to take for freedom of association and 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, secularism.
It was in this spirit that on 17 November 1899, Waldeck-Rousseau filed an amnesty law covering "all criminal acts or misdemeanours related to the Dreyfus affair or that have been included in a prosecution for one of these acts" excluding only Alfred Dreyfus himself who was instead pardoned to be able to still seek acquittal. Many Dreyfusards protested as this indemnified not only Zola and Picquart against (further) punishment but also protected the real culprits. Despite these massive protests the bill was passed.
Reactions
Reactions in France were strong, consisting of "shock and sadness" in the revisionist camp. Still other reactions tended to show that the "verdict of appeasement" made by the judges was understood and accepted by the population. The Republicans sought above all social peace and to turn the page on this extremely long and controversial affair. Also there were very few demonstrations in the provinces while agitation persisted somewhat in Paris. In the military world appeasement was also essential. Two of the seven judges voted for acquittal. They refused to yield to the implied military order. This was also clearly seen. In an apostrophe for the army, Galliffet announced: "The incident is closed".
Anti-French demonstrations took place in twenty foreign capitals and the press was outraged. Reactions were twofold. Norwegians, Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg cancelled his concerts in France in protest. The British, as legalists, focused on espionage and challenged rather strongly this conviction devoid of positive arguments in its construction. As such the report of the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Chief Justice of England, Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen, Lord Russell of Killowen, on 16 September 1899, was a symbol of the global effect of the Affair in Great Britain. The English judge, who went as an observer to Rennes, criticised the weaknesses of the Military Court:
In Germany and Italy, the two countries widely challenged by lawsuits against Dreyfus, there was relief. Even if the Emperor of Germany regretted that the innocence of Dreyfus was not recognized, the normalization of future Franco-German relations was seen as a welcome relaxation. Diplomacy between the three powers with the help of England sought to relax in an atmosphere that deteriorated again on the eve of the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
This judicial conclusion also had an unfortunate consequence for the relationship between the Dreyfus family and the branch of ultra dreyfusists. Fernand Labori, Jaures, and Clemenceau, with the consent of Picquart openly accused Alfred Dreyfus of accepting the pardon and only gently protesting the amnesty law.
Rehabilitation, 1900–1906
Preferring to avoid a third trial the government decided to pardon Dreyfus by a decree signed by President Émile Loubet
Émile François Loubet (; 30 December 183820 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906.
Trained in law, he became mayor of Montélimar, where he was note ...
on 19 September 1899 after much hesitation. Dreyfus was not found innocent. The rehabilitation process was not completed until six years later, when passions had cooled. Many books appeared during this period. In addition to the memoires of Alfred Dreyfus, Reinach published his ''History of the Dreyfus Affair'' and Jaurès published ''The Proofs''. As for Zola, he wrote the third of his ''Gospels: Truth''. Even Esterhazy took advantage of his secrets and sold several different versions of the text of his statement to the consul of France.
Death of Zola
On 29 September 1902, Zola, who was the initiator of ''The Affair'' and the first of the intellectual Dreyfusards, died, asphyxiated by fumes from his chimney. His wife, Alexandrine, narrowly escaped. It was a shock for the Dreyfusard clan. Anatole France
(; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...
, who demanded that Dreyfus be present at the funeral while the Chief of Police wanted his absence "to avoid problems", read his funeral oration for the author of "''J'accuse...!''
In 1953, the newspaper ''Liberation'' published a death-bed confession by a Parisian roofer that he had murdered Zola by blocking the chimney of his house.
The semi-rehabilitation
Legal rehabilitation
The 1902 French legislative election, elections of 1902 saw the victory of the left. Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
was re-elected and he revived the Affair on 7 April 1903 while France thought the Affair buried forever. In a speech Jaurès evoked the long list of falsehoods peppering the Dreyfus case, and placed particular emphasis on two things, the letter of resignation from Georges-Gabriel de Pellieux, Pellieux, which was worded in very harsh terms. Legally, it formed an admission of the collusion of the General Staff,
[It] dupes people without honour [and] can no longer rely on the trust of subordinates, without which command is impossible. For my side I can not trust any of my chiefs who have been working on falsehoods, I ask for my retirement.
and the note allegedly annotated (by Kaiser Wilhelm II), which General Mercier had alluded to at the Rennes trial, which is reported by the press to have influenced the judges of the Military Court.[Faced with the evidence that the identity of the writer of the bordereau was Esterházy, the General Staff had spread the rumour that the bordereau was in fact copied from a note that was even commented in the handwriting of the German Emperor Wilhelm II. This allowed the people behind the rumours to explain the secrecy surrounding the whole affair, and the transmission of the "secret file" in 1894. Evidently, nobody ever found any evidence of these convenient assertions.]
Given these developments, General Louis André, the new Minister of War, led an investigation at the instigation of Émile Combes and assisted by judges. The investigation was conducted by Captain Antoine Louis Targe, aide to the minister. During searches of the Statistics Section he discovered numerous documents, most of which were obviously fabricated. In November 1903 a report was submitted to the Minister of Justice by the Minister of War. This was in compliance with the regulations since the Minister found an error committed by the Military Court. This was the beginning of a new review led by lawyer Ludovic Trarieux
Jacques Ludovic Trarieux (30 November 1840 in Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, Charente – 13 March 1904) was a French Republican statesman, lawyer, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.
Early life
Ludovic Trarieux was born on 3 ...
, the founder of the League of Human Rights, with a thorough investigation to run over two years. The years 1904 and 1905 were devoted to different legal phases before the Supreme Court. The court identified three events (grounds) for review, the demonstration of the falsification of the Panizzardi telegram, demonstration of a date change on a document in the 1894 trial (April 1895 changed to April 1894) and demonstration of the fact that Dreyfus had not removed the minutes related to heavy artillery in the army.
With regard to the writing of the bordereau, the court was particularly severe against Alphonse Bertillon
Alphonse Bertillon (; 22 April 1853 – 13 February 1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement creating an identification system based on physical me ...
who "reasoned badly on forged documents". The report[Among the experts consulted, the contribution of the mathematician and physicist ]Henri Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...
was noted. showed that the writing was certainly by Esterhazy and that the latter had also confessed subsequently. Finally the Court demonstrated by a comprehensive and skilled analysis of the bordereau the futility of this purely intellectual construction and a commission of four headed by a general of artillery, General Sebert, maintained "it is highly unlikely that an artillery officer could write this missive".
On 9 March 1905, Attorney-General Baudouin delivered an 800-page report in which he demanded the convictions be quashed without further reference to another court and denounced the army. He began a divestiture of the military justice system, which did not conclude until 1982. It was not until 12 July 1906 that the Supreme Court unanimously cancelled the judgment without reference to the military trial at Rennes in 1899 and pronounced "the end of the rehabilitation of Captain Dreyfus". The anti-Dreyfusards protested at this hasty rehabilitation. The goal was obviously political: it was to finish and finally turn the page. Nothing could dent the conviction of the opponents of Dreyfus. This method was the most direct and most definitive. What was annulled not only put a stop to Rennes, but the entire chain of prior acts, beginning with the arraignment order given by General Saussier in 1894. The Court focused on the legal aspects only and observed that Dreyfus did not have a duty to be returned before a Military Court for the simple reason that it should never have taken place due to the total absence of charges:
Whereas in the final analysis of the accusation against Dreyfus nothing remains standing and setting aside the judgment of the Military Court leaves nothing that can be considered to be a crime or misdemeanour; therefore by applying the final paragraph of Article 445 no reference to another court should be pronounced.
Subsequent career
Dreyfus was reinstated in the army with the rank of artillery major by law on 13 July 1906. This reflected the rank to which he could reasonably have been expected to have risen had his career not been interrupted by the false charges against him. However Dreyfus and his supporters were disappointed that his five years of imprisonment were not taken into account for the reconstruction of his career and that his promotion to major was back-dated only to 10 July 1903. This decision blocked any hope of a career worthy of his past successes before his arrest in 1894. After serving for a year as commander of the artillery depot at Fort Neuf de Vincennes, Major Dreyfus retired in June 1907; a decision taken in part because of recurrent tropical fevers and chronic fatigue arising from the strain of his imprisonment.
On 4 June 1908, on the occasion of the transfer of the ashes of Émile Zola to the Panthéon, Paris, Pantheon, Alfred Dreyfus was the target of an attack. Louis Grégori, an extreme right-wing journalist and assistant of Drumont, fired two shots from a revolver and wounded Dreyfus slightly in the arm. He was driven to do this for ''Action Française'' (French Action) not only to disrupt the ceremony for the "two traitors" Zola and Dreyfus, but also to remake the Dreyfus trial through a new trial, a revenge of some sort. The trial was at the Assizes of the Seine, where Grégori was acquitted – the latest in a long series of judicial misconducts. It was an occasion for new antisemitic riots that the government suppressed half-heartedly.
As a reserve officer, Dreyfus participated in the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
of 1914–1918, serving as head of the artillery depot at a fortified camp near Paris and commander of a supply column. In 1917 he saw frontline service at the Chemin des Dames and Verdun. Apart from Major Du Paty de Clam, Dreyfus was the only officer directly involved in the Affair to serve in the war. Having been named as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour at the time of his reinstatement in 1906, Dreyfus was promoted to the rank of officer of the Legion of Honour in 1919. His son, Pierre Dreyfus, also served in World War I as an artillery officer and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Alfred Dreyfus's two nephews also fought as artillery officers in the French Army and both were killed. The same artillery piece (the Obusier de 120 mm C modèle 1890), the secrets of which Dreyfus was accused of revealing to the Germans, was among those used in blunting the early German offensives. He ended his military career as a colonel.
Dreyfus died on 12 July 1935 at the age of seventy-five. His funeral cortège passed through ranks assembled for Bastille Day celebrations at the Place de la Concorde and he was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery. Colonel Picquart was also officially rehabilitated and reintegrated into the army with the rank of Brigadier general. Picquart was Minister of War from 1906 to 1909 in the first Clemenceau government; he died in January 1914 in a riding accident.
Consequences of the Dreyfus affair
For some the Dreyfus affair marked French society as a tortured society. All sections of society were affected; some were devastated. According to Katrin Schultheiss, a modern historian:
The enduring significance of the Dreyfus Affair ... lies in its manifest embodiment of multiple narratives and multiple strands of historical causality. It shows how longstanding beliefs and tensions can be transformed ... into a juggernaut that alters the political and cultural landscape for decades. In the interest of increasing our understanding ... the complexities of that transformation should be recognized and analyzed rather than packaged for moral or political usefulness.
Political consequences
The Dreyfus affair brought the confrontation between two sides of France to life. However, according to most historians, this opposition served the republican order. There was indeed a strengthening of parliamentary democracy and a failure of monarchist and reactionary forces.
The excessive violence of the nationalist parties brought together republicans in a united front, which defeated attempts to return to the ''old order''. In the short term, progressive political forces from the elections of 1893 and confirmed in 1898 as a result of the Dreyfus affair disappeared in 1899. The shock trials of Esterhazy and Zola created a dreyfusian politics whose aim was to develop a republican consciousness and to fight against authoritarian nationalism, which expressed itself during the affair. For the uninhibited growth of populist nationalism was another major result of the event in French politics even though it did not originate from the Dreyfus affair. It grew out of the Boulanger Affair, 1886–1889, and was shaped into a coherent theory by Maurice Barrès
Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the Self'' in 1888. ...
in 1892. Nationalism had its ups and downs, but managed to maintain itself as a political force under the name of ''Action Française'', among others. On that occasion many republicans rallied to Vichy, without which the operation of the State would have been precarious, which showed the fragility of the republican institution in extreme circumstances. Upon liberation, Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras (; ; 20 April 1868 – 16 November 1952) was a French author, politician, poet, and critic. He was an organizer and principal philosopher of ''Action Française'', a political movement that is monarchist, anti-parl ...
who was convicted on 25 January 1945 for acts of collaboration exclaimed at the verdict: "This is the revenge of Dreyfus!"
The other result was an intellectual mutation of socialism. Jaurès was a late Dreyfusard (January 1898) and was persuaded by revolutionary socialists. His commitment became unwavering alongside Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...
and from 1899 under the influence of Lucien Herr
Lucien Herr (17 January 1864 – 18 May 1926) was a French intellectual, librarian at the ''École Normale Supérieure'' in Paris, and mentor to a number of well-known socialist politicians and writers, including Jean Jaurès and Charles Péguy ...
. The year 1902 saw the birth of two parties: the French Socialist Party (1902), French Socialist Party, which brought together jaurésiens; and the Socialist Party of France (1902), Socialist Party of France under the influence of Guesde and Vaillant. Both parties merged in 1905 as the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO).
In addition, 1901 saw the birth of the Republican Radical and Radical-Socialist Party, the first modern political party, conceived as an electoral machine of the republican group. It had a permanent structure and relied on networks of Dreyfusards. The creation of the ''Human Rights League (France), French League for Human Rights'' was contemporaneous with the affair. It was the hub of the intellectual left and extremely active at the beginning of the century, the conscience of the humanist left.
The final consequence on the political scene at the turn of the century saw a profound renewal of political personalities with the disappearance of great republican figures beginning with Auguste Scheurer-Kestner
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner (11 February 1833 in Mulhouse (Haut Rhin) – 19 September 1899 in Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute Garonne)) was a chemist, industrialist, a Protestant and an Alsatian politician. He was the uncle by marriage of the wife o ...
. Those who at the end of the century could weigh heavily on the events of the affair had now disappeared giving way to new men whose ambition was to reform and correct the errors and injustices of the past.
Social consequences
Socially antisemitism was prominent. Existing prior to the Dreyfus affair, it had expressed itself during the Georges Ernest Boulanger, Boulangisme affair and the Panama scandals
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List of transcontinental countries#North America and South America, transcontinental country spanning the Central America, southern ...
but was limited to an intellectual elite. The Dreyfus affair spread hatred of Jews through all strata of society, a movement that certainly began with the success of ''Jewish France'' by Édouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French antisemitic journalist, author and politician. He initiated the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper ''La Libre Parole''. ...
in 1886. It was then greatly amplified by various legal episodes and press campaigns for nearly fifteen years. Antisemitism was from then on official and was espoused in numerous settings including the working classes. Candidates for the legislative elections took advantage of antisemitism as a watchword in parliamentary elections. This antisemitism was reinforced by the crisis of the separation of church and state in 1905, which probably led to its height in France. Antisemitic actions were permitted on the advent of the Vichy France, Vichy regime, which allowed free and unrestrained expression of racial hatred.
Another social consequence was the enhanced role of the press. For the first time it exerted an important influence on French political life. It was possible to speak of a fourth estate since it could act the part of all state organs. Especially as the high editorial quality of the press was mainly derived from the work of writers and novelists who used newspapers as a revolutionary way of expression. The power of the press certainly brought politicians to action, an example of which was Mercier, who appeared to have pushed at the Dreyfus trial in 1894 to please ''La Libre Parole'' who attacked ferociously. This being said the role of the press was limited by the size of circulation, influential in Paris but to a lesser extent nationwide. The entire run of the national press appeared to revolve around four and a half million copies whose real influence was relatively strong. There was also assistance through the publication in 1899 of a specific newspaper intended to coordinate the fight (in the dreyfusist camp), with the ''People's Daily'' of Sébastien Faure.
International consequences
The Dreyfus affair created difficulties and blocked the way for improved relations between France and Italy after the customs war as Italy was Europe's most Dreyfusard nation.
The shock of the Dreyfus affair also affected the Zionist movement "which found fertile ground for its emergence".
The Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern p ...
appeared profoundly moved by the Dreyfus affair, which followed his debut as a correspondent for the ''Neue Freie Presse'' of Vienna and was present at the degradation of Dreyfus in 1895. "The Affair ... acted as a catalyst in the conversion of Herzl". Before the wave of antisemitism that accompanied the degradation Herzl was "convinced of the need to resolve the Jewish question", which became "an obsession for him". In ''Der Judenstaat'' (State of the Jews), he considered that:
Herzl's shock was great, for, having lived his youth in History of the Jews in Austria, Austria, an antisemitic country, he chose to live in France for its secular humanism, humanist image, which made it appear a shelter from extremist excess. He had originally been a fanatic supporter for assimilation of Jews into European Gentile society. The Dreyfus affair shook Herzl's view on the world, and he became completely enveloped in a tiny movement calling for the restoration of a Jewish State within the biblical homeland in the Land of Israel. Herzl quickly took charge in leading the movement.
He organized on 29 August 1897, the First Zionist Congress in Basel and is considered the "inventor of Zionism as a real political movement". Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary (1 September 1897):
On 29 November 1947, a little over fifty years after the First Zionist Congress, the United Nations voted to United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, partition Palestine into a Jewish State. The following year the state of Israel was established. Consequently, the Dreyfus Affair is seen as a turning point in Jewish history and as the beginning of the Zionist movement.
The Dreyfus affair also marked a turning point in the lives of many Jews from Western and Central Europe, as the pogroms of 1881–1882 had done for the Jews of Eastern Europe, as many Jews had believed that they were Frenchmen first. Yet Jews, despite the state-sanctioned efforts of the Jewish emancipation, emancipation movement, were never truly accepted into society and were often deemed aliens and outsiders, even when they showed extreme devotion by fighting courageously in the wars of their respective countries.
21st century aftermath
In October 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron opened a museum dedicated to the Dreyfus affair in Médan in the northwestern suburbs of Paris. He said that nothing could repair the humiliations and injustices Dreyfus had suffered, and "let us not aggravate it by forgetting, deepening or repeating them".
The reference to not repeating them follows attempts by the French far right to question Dreyfus's innocence. An army colonel was Cashiering, cashiered in 1994 for publishing an article suggesting that Dreyfus was guilty; far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen's lawyer responded that Dreyfus's exoneration was "contrary to all known jurisprudence". Éric Zemmour, a far-right political opponent of Macron who had said that France's World War II, Second World War collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain, who had assisted deportation of French Jews to Nazi death camps, had actually saved their lives, said repeatedly in 2021 that the truth about Dreyfus was not clear, his innocence was "not obvious".[
Though Alfred Dreyfus was eventually exonerated of all charges, the scandal and its aftermath had lasting repercussions in French society. In the 21st century, the Dreyfus affair remains an important part of French history and has been the focus of much public debate. The controversy has been used to frame discussion on issues such as immigration, religious freedom, minority rights, and the French Republic itself. In recent years, the Dreyfus affair has also been used to draw attention to the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe, and to advocate for legislation that would protect minority rights across the continent. In recent years, there has been a significant push to create legislation to protect minority rights throughout Europe, with the Dreyfus affair serving as an important reference point. In France, lawmakers have proposed a number of bills that would extend protections to minority communities, such as prohibiting discrimination based on ethnicity or religion, and providing additional resources for victims of hate crimes. On a broader European level, the European Union has implemented a variety of measures, such as a hate crime reporting system and a program of positive discrimination to ensure that minority communities are not disproportionately affected by social and economic policies. Additionally, the European Commission has set up a coordinating body to ensure that member states are upholding their obligations to protect minority rights.
]
Other related events
Commission of sculpture
In 1985, President François Mitterrand commissioned a statue of Dreyfus by sculptor Louis Mitelberg. It was to be installed at the École Militaire but the Minister of Defense Charles Hernu refused to display it there. Hernu claimed that this was because the École Militaire is not open to the public, but it was widely believed that this was done to avoid provoking the army. Mitterrand did not override his minister and the statue was instead installed at Boulevard Raspail, No. 116–118 at the exit of the Notre-Dame-des-Champs metro station, where it can be found today. A replica is located at the entrance of Paris's Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Museum of Jewish Art and History, which houses the ''Fond Dreyfus'' of over three thousand historical documents donated by the grandchildren of Captain Dreyfus.
Centennial commemoration
On 12 July 2006, President Jacques Chirac held an official state ceremony marking the centenary of Dreyfus's official rehabilitation. This was held in the presence of the living descendants of both Émile Zola and Alfred Dreyfus. The event took place in the same cobblestone courtyard of Paris's École Militaire where Capitaine Dreyfus had been officially stripped of his officer's rank. Chirac stated that "the combat against the dark forces of intolerance and hate is never definitively won", and called Dreyfus "an exemplary officer" and a "patriot who passionately loved France". The French National Assembly also held a memorial ceremony of the centennial marking the end of the affair. This was held in remembrance of the 1906 laws that had reintegrated and promoted both Dreyfus and Picquart at the end of the Dreyfus affair.
Historiography of the Dreyfus affair
The Dreyfus affair is distinguished by the large number of books published on this subject.
All the official records are readily available including reports of all public hearings of the many trials in the affair. In addition, a large number of records are easily accessible in the Archives nationales (France), French National Archives and in the Military Archives at the Château de Vincennes, fort of Vincennes. The contemporary literature of the case was published between 1894 and 1906. It began with the pamphlet of Bernard Lazare, the first intellectual Dreyfusard.
''The Precis of the Dreyfus Affair'' by "Henri-Dutrait Crozon", a pseudonym of Colonel Larpent,[Inspired by Major Cuignet.] is the basis of all anti-Dreyfusard literature after the affair to the present time. The author develops the theory of conspiracy, fueled by Jewish finance, to push Esterhazy to accuse himself of crime. Under a scientific exterior there will be found there an elaboration of theories without evidence or support.
The publication of notes by Schwartzkoppen in 1930 shed light on the guilty role of Esterházy in the affair and exonerated Alfred Dreyfus at the same time, if such vindication was needed. The extreme right questioned the value of this testimony but most historians hold it to be a valid source despite some ambiguities and inaccuracies.
The period of the Occupation throws a veil over the case. The Liberation and the revelation of the Holocaust brought a deep reflection on all of the Dreyfus affair. Jacques Kayser (1946) then Maurice Paléologue
Maurice Paléologue (13 January 1859 – 23 November 1944) was a French diplomat, historian, and essayist. As the French ambassador to Russia (1914-1917), he supported the Russian mobilization against Germany that led to World War I and likewise p ...
(1955) and Henri Giscard d'Estaing (1960) revived the case without great revelations, a process generally considered insufficient historically.
Marcel Thomas, chief curator at the National Archives, in 1961 provided through his ''The Affair without Dreyfus'' in two volumes a complete review of the history of the affair supported by all available public and private archives. His work is the foundation of all subsequent historical studies.
Jean Doise, of the École Normale Supérieure and a military professional with a strong technical background attempts to explain the genesis of the case through the development, between 1892 and 1897, of the Canon de 75 modèle 1897, French 75mm field gun. Doise proposes in ''A Secret well guarded. Military History of the Dreyfus Affair'' that Alfred Dreyfus had been used by French counterintelligence to distract German espionage from the French 75's secret development and furthermore that Esterhazy, who once served in military counterintelligence, had played a role in this manipulation. These hypotheses are regarded with skepticism.
In 1983, the lawyer and historian Jean-Denis Bredin published ''L'Affair'' (''The Affair''). The interest of the book focuses on a strictly factual relating of the story with documented facts and multifaceted reflection on the different aspects of the event. The book also revealed for the first time the existence of homosexual correspondence in the prosecution case.
Reflecting the intense interest in social history that gripped historians since the 1960s and 1970s, Eric Cahm wrote ''The Dreyfus Affair in French Society and Politics'' (1996), an analysis of the sociology of the Affair. Michael Burns, ''Rural Society and French Politics, Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair, 1886–1900'' (1984) does the same in a more limited fashion. Vincent Duclert's ''Biography of Alfred Dreyfus'' (2005) includes, in 1300 pages, the complete correspondence of Alfred and Lucie Dreyfus from 1894 to 1899.
Expanding on a 2008 article they published in ''la Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine'', in 2012 the historians Pierre Gervais, Pauline Peretz and Pierre Stutin published ''Le dossier secret de l'affaire Dreyfus'' (''The Secret Record of the Dreyfus Affair''). Their research enabled the original contents of the secret file to be established. Their thesis was that historians had neglected the correspondence of Schwartzkoppen and Panizzardi, and that homosexuality played a central role in the slandering of Dreyfus.
In addition, the Dreyfus affair provided the basis for many novels. The last work of Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
(1902), ''Truth'', transposes the Dreyfus affair to the world of education. Anatole France
(; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...
published ''The Island of Penguins'' (1907), which recounts the Affair in Book VI: "The Case of 80,000 bundles of hay". Marcel Proust devoted significant passages of his second, third and fourth volumes of ''In Search of Lost Time'' to Parisian society's reaction to the Dreyfus affair. Other authors have also contributed, such as Roger Martin du Gard, Maurice Barrès
Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the Self'' in 1888. ...
, and Robert Harris (novelist), Robert Harris.
Many artifacts and documents related to the affair are on display in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris.
Early writers marginalized the role of antisemitism. However since the publication of Jean-Denis Bredin, ''The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus'' (1986) and Stephen Wilson (historian), Stephen Wilson, ''Ideology and Experience: Antisemitism in France at the Time of the Dreyfus Affair'' (1982), more attention has been paid to the undercurrent of antisemitism in French society and its effect on the evolution of the case.
The 2013 novel ''An Officer and a Spy'' and the An Officer and a Spy (film), 2019 film adapted from it, tells the story of the Dreyfus affair from Picquart's perspective.
See also
* Menahem Mendel Beilis affair
* Hilsner Affair
* Leo Frank affair
* Human Rights League (France)
* The Dreyfus Affair (film series), ''The Dreyfus Affair'' (film series), an 1899 series of short silent docudramas
* Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
* Henry Ossian Flipper
Notes
Sources
Book or article used as a source for writing this article
Primary sources
* 1898
Verbatim record of the trial of Emile Zola in the Assizes of the Seine and the Supreme Court.
* 1898
(1898–1899).
* 1898
Proceedings of the Supreme Court for the revision of the Dreyfus trial.
* 1899 Verbatim record of the proceedings of Renne
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
* 1904
* 1904
* 1906
* 1906 Decision of the Supreme Court for the verdict of the Dreyfus trial without reference to 1899.
* 2013
Reference bibliography
* 1901 Joseph Reinach
Joseph Reinach (30 September 1856 – 18 April 1921) was a French author and politician. Biography
He was born in Paris. His two brothers Salomon Reinach and Théodore Reinach would later be known in the field of archaeology. After studying at L ...
, ''History of the Dreyfus Affair'', Fasquelle, 1901–1911; éd. Robert Laffont, two vol., 2006 231.
* 1961 Marcel Thomas, ''The Affair without Dreyfus'', Fayard – Idégraf (Geneva), 1961–1979 – 2 volumes.
* 1981 Jean-Denis Bredin, ''The Affair'', Fayard, Paris, 1993 (1ère édition 1981) ().
* 1986 Jean-Denis Bredin, ''The Affair: the Case of Alfred Dreyfus'', George Braziller, New York, Plunkett Lake Press Ebooks
* 2005 Vincent Duclert, ''Biography of Alfred Dreyfus, The honour of a patriot'', Fayard, Paris, 2006 ().
Other general works
* McMillan, James F. ''Twentieth-Century France: Politics and Society in France 1898–1991'' (1992) pp. 3–12
* Sowerwine, Charles. ''France since 1870: Culture, Society and the Making of the Republic'' (2001
excerpt and text search
pp. 67–72
* 1984 Michael Burns, ''Rural Society and French Politics, Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair, 1886–1900'' Princeton University Press.
* 1991 Alfred S. Lindemann, ''The Jew Accused: Three Anti-Semitic Affairs, Dreyfus, Beilis, Frank, 1894–1914'' (Cambridge University Press).
* 1992 Michael Burns, ''Dreyfus: A Family Affair, from the French Revolution to the Holocaust'', New York: Harper.
* 1998 Michael Burns, ''France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Documentary History'' (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's)
* 1996 Eric Cahm, ''The Dreyfus Affair in French Society and Politics'' New York: Longman
* 2006 George Whyte, George R. Whyte, ''The Accused – The Dreyfus Trilogy'', Inter Nationes,
* 2006 George R. Whyte, ''The Dreyfus Affair – A chronological history'', Palgrave Macmillan 2006,
* 2007 Ruth Harris, ''The Assumptionists and the Dreyfus Affair, Past & Present'' (2007) 194#1 175–211
in Project MUSE
* 2010 Ruth Harris, ''Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century'' (Henry Holt and Company)
* 2008 Philippe Oriol, ''History of the Dreyfus Affair'' – Vol 1 – ''The History of Captain Dreyfus'', Stock, ()
* 2009 Louis Begley, ''Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters'' (Yale University Press)
* 2010 Frederick Brown, ''For the Soul of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus'' (Alfred A. Knopf)
* 2012 Robert L. Fuller, ''The Origins of the French Nationalist Movement, 1886–1914'', Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
* 2012 Piers Paul Read, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', Bloomsbury, London
In French
* 1961 Pierre Miquel, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', University of France Press – PUF – coll. "What do I know?", réprinted 2003 ()
* 1989 Pierre Miquel, ''The Third Republic'', Fayard
* 1986 Michel Winock, ''The fever of France. The great political crises. 1871–1968'', Points Seuil, ()
* 1999 Michel Winock, ''The School of Intellectuals'', Le Seuil, coll. Points
* 1994 Pierre Birnbaum, ''The Dreyfus Affair, The Republic in peril'', Gallimard, coll. "Discoveries", ().
* 1994 Pierre Birnbaum, ''The France of the Dreyfus Affair'', Gallimard, Paris
* 1998 Pierre Birnbaum, ''Was the French Army Antisemitic?'', pp. 70–82 in Michel Winock: ''The Dreyfus Affair'', Editions du Seuil, Paris,
* 1994 Michael Burns (historian), Michael Burns, ''Histoire d'une famille française, les Dreyfus'', Fayard, 1994 ()
* 1994 Éric Cahm, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', Päperback, coll. "references"
* 1994 Michel Drouin (dir.), ''The Dreyfus Affair Dictionary'', Flammarion, reprinted 2006 ().
* 1994 Vincent Duclert, ''The Dreyfus Affair, The Discovery'', reprinted 2006 ().
* 2006 Vincent Duclert, ''Dreyfus is Innocent: History of an Affair of State'', Larousse, ()
* 2006 Vincent Duclert, ''Alfred Dreyfus'', Librairie Artheme Fayard,
* 2010 Vincent Duclert, ''The Dreyfus Affair. When justice enlightens the Republic'', Private
* 1999 Martin P. Johnson, ''The Dreyfus Affair: Honour and Politics in the Belle Epoque'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
* 2000 Francis Démier, ''The France of the Nineteenth Century'', Seuil, coll. "Points in History".
* 2006 Méhana Mouhou, ''Dreyfus Affair: conspiracy in the Republic'', Éd. L'Harmattan.
* 2012 Pierre Gervais, Pauline Peretz et Pierre Stutin, ''The secret file of the Dreyfus Affair'', Alma editor, ()
Specialised works
* 1960 Patrice Boussel, ''The Dreyfus Affair and the Press'', Armand Colin, coll. "Kiosk", 272 pp.
* 1962 Henri Guillemin, ''The Esterházy Enigma'', Gallimard
* 1994 Jean Doise, ''A Secret well guarded – Military History of the Dreyfus Affair'', Le Seuil, 225 pp. ()
* 1998 Philippe-E. Landau, ''Jewish Opinion and the Dreyfus Affair'', Albin Michel, "The Presence of Judaism", paperback
* 2000 Armand Israël, ''The hidden truth of the Dreyfus Affair'', Albin Michel, ()
* 2000 Collective, ''Intellectuals face the Dreyfus Affair, then and now'', L'Harmattan, ()
* 2004 Général André Bach, ''The Army of Dreyfus. A political history of the French army from Charles X to "The Affair"'', Tallandier, ()
* 2006 Thierry Lévy, Jean-Pierre Royer, ''Labori, a lawyer'', Louis Audibert Éditions, ()
* 2006 Supreme Court, collective, ''Justice in the Dreyfus Affair'', Fayard, ()
* 2006 Pierre Touzin et Francois Vauvillier, ''Guns of Victory 1914–1918'', Volume 1, ''The Artillery of the campaign''. History and Collections, Paris.
* 2010 Georges Joumas, ''Echos of the Dreyfus Affair for an Orléanais'', Corsaire Éditions, ()
* 2013 Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez, ''Math on Trial, Math on trial. How numbers get used and abused in the courtroom'', Basic Books, 2013. . (Chapter 10: "Math error number 10: mathematical madness. The Dreyfus affair: spy or scapegoat?").
Anti-Dreyfusard works
* 1909 Henri Dutrait-Crozon, ''Précis of the Dreyfus Affair'', Paris, New National Library, First Editionmière, Final Edition 1924.
Articles and newspapers
* 1978 ''Dreyfusards!: Memories from Mathieu Dreyfus and other novelties'' (presented by Robert Gauthier). Gallimard & Julliard, coll. Archives No. 16, Paris
* 1988 Max Guermann, "The terrible truth", ''Revue Les Cahiers Naturalistes'', No. 62.
* 1994 ''Revue in L'Histoire n o 173'', Spécial Dreyfus, January 1994
* 2005 Special edition of ''Le Figaro'' on 12 July 2005, ''The centenary of the rehabilitation of Captain Dreyfus''
* 2006 Kim Willsher (27 June 2006)
"Calls for Dreyfus to be buried in Panthéon"
''The Guardian''
* 2006 Ronald Schechter (7 July 2006)
"The Ghosts of Alfred Dreyfus"
, ''The Forward''.
* 2006 Stanley Meisler (9 July 2006)
"Not just a Jew in a French jail"
''Los Angeles Times''
* 2006 Adam Kirsch (11 July 2006)
"The Most Shameful of Stains"
''The New York Sun''
* 2007 Thomas Loué, "The Dreyfus Affair", in L. Boltanski et alii éds., ''Affairs, scandals, and great causes'', Paris, Stock, pp. 213–227
* 2012 Schultheiss, Katrin. "The Dreyfus Affair and History", ''Journal of The Historical Society'', 12 189–203.
Testimonials
* 1898 Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
, ''The Evidence'', Collection of Articles appearing in ''La Petite République'' – available on Wikisource
* 1898 Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. ...
, ''Letters of an Innocent man'', Stock
* 1901 Alfred Dreyfus, ''Five Years of My Life'', French original "Cinq années de ma vie" published in France in 1901, English translation first published in 1901, newest reprint 2019 ().
* 1901 Alfred Dreyfus, ''Cinq années de ma vie'', Eugène Fasquelle Éditeurs, Paris, 1901, reprinted 2006 (The Discovery) ()
* 1898 Paschal Grousset, ''The Dreyfus Affair and its secret remits: a historical summary'', ed Godet et Cie, Paris, 240 p.
* 1899 Paschal Grousset, ''The Dreyfus Affair, the word of an enigma''. Paris, Stock.
* 1899 Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...
, ''Towards Reparation'', Tresse & Stock
* 1899 Georges Clemenceau, ''The Iniquity'', Stock
* 1903 Georges Clemenceau, ''The Disgrace''
* 1955 Maurice Paléologue
Maurice Paléologue (13 January 1859 – 23 November 1944) was a French diplomat, historian, and essayist. As the French ambassador to Russia (1914-1917), he supported the Russian mobilization against Germany that led to World War I and likewise p ...
, ''The Dreyfus Affair and the Quai d'Orsay'', Plon
* 1978 Mathieu Dreyfus, ''The Affair that I have lived'', Bernard Grasset, Paris. ()
* 1991 Octave Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the ...
, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', Librairie Séguier.
* 1993 Léon Blum
André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister.
As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...
, ''Memories of The Affair'', Flammarion, Folio Histoire, ()
* 2006 Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
, ''Fight for Dreyfus''. Preface by Martine Le Blond-Zola. Postscript by Jean-Louis Lévy. Presentation and notes d'Alain Pagès. Dilecta Edition.
Other reference material
Literature
* 1898 Poems written by Philadelphia poet Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927) about the affair:
::"s:Mine and Thine (1904)/Dreyfus, Dreyfus" – published in ''Poet Lore'' (September 1898) and subsequently in ''s:Mine and Thine (1904), Mine and Thine'' (1904).
::"s:Dreyfus (Coates), 1899, Dreyfus" – a fugitive poem published in ''The Independent'' (16 February 1899).
::"s:Mine and Thine (1904)/Picquart, Picquart" – published in ''The Century Magazine'' (July 1902) and subsequently in ''s:Mine and Thine (1904), Mine and Thine'' (1904) and s:Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume II, ''Poems'' Vol II.
::"s:Lyrics of Life (1909)/Le Grand Salut, Le Grand Salut" – published in ''The Living Age'' (25 August 1906) and subsequently in ''s:Lyrics of Life (1909), Lyrics of Life'' (1909) and s:Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume II, ''Poems'' Vol II.
* 1908 Anatole France
(; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...
: A satirical take on the Dreyfus affair appears in ''Penguin Island (novel), Island of Penguins''.
* 1913 Roger Martin du Gard: The Dreyfus affair occupies most of Martin du Gard's novel ''Jean Barois.''
* 1922 Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
, The Dreyfus affair plays an important part in ''In Search of Lost Time'', especially Vols. 3 and 4.
* 1994 The Dreyfus Centenary Committee, ''The Dreyfus Centenary Bulletin'', London/Bonn.
* 1994 George Whyte, ''The Affair in Song''; La contemporaine, Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine; Paris, Flammarion.
* 1996 George Whyte, ''The Dreyfus Trilogy'', Inter Nationes.
* 2006 George Whyte, ''The Dreyfus Affair, A Chronological History'', Palgrave Macmillan.
* 2007 George Whyte. ''Admission is not Acceptance – Reflections on the Dreyfus Affair''. Antisemitism. London Valentine Mitchell, 2007; Paris Editions Le Manuscript/Unesco 2008, Buenos Aires Lilmod 2009, Moscow Xonokoct 2010.
* 2009 A. S. Byatt, The Dreyfus Affair is mentioned several times in ''The Children's Book''.
* 2010 Kate Taylor (novelist), Kate Taylor, ''A Man in Uniform''.
* 2010 Umberto Eco, The Dreyfus Affair is woven into the plot of ''The Prague Cemetery''.
* 2010 Peter Lang, ''Die Dreyfus Affäre – Die Macht des Vorurteils'', Frankfurt,
* 2011 ''The Dreyfus Affair – A Trilogy of Plays'', Oberon Books, London, January 2011.
* 2013 Robert Harris (novelist), Robert Harris, ''An Officer and a Spy'', London: Hutchinson. 2013.
Filmography
News and stories
* 1899 ''Dereliction of Duty in the Trial at Rennes'' – Sequence of images
* 1899 ''Mrs Dreyfus and her lawyer at the exit of the prison at Rennes'' – Sequence of images
* 1899 ''The Dreyfus Affair (film series), The Dreyfus Affair'' (reconstructed scenes, 11 episodes, 15 min) by Georges Méliès (a Dreyfusard) – DVD 2008 par Studio Canal
* 1899 ''The Dreyfus Affair'' (reconstructed scenes, 6 episodes) – Actualités Pathé
* 1902 ''The Dreyfus Affair'' – French film attributed to Ferdinand Zecca produced by Pathé
* 1907 ''The Dreyfus Affair'' – French film by Lucien Nonguet produced by Pathé
Documentaries
* 1965 ''The Dreyfus Affair'', French film by Jean Vigne, made for schools – Black and White – 18 min
* 1972 ''The Dreyfus Affair'', American Documentary Film – Black and White – 15 min
* 1974 ''Dreyfus or the Intolerable Truth'', French Documentary Film by Jean Chérasse – Colour – 90 min – DVD 2006 by Alpamedia/Janus Diffusion
* 1994 ''Reasons of State: Chronicle of the Dreyfus Affair'', French film in two episodes by Pierre Sorlin – Colour – 26 min
Cinema films
* 1899 ''Trial of Captain Dreyfus'', American film – Black and White
* 1919 ''J'accuse (1919 film), J'accuse'', French silent film by Abel Gance – Black and White
* 1930 ''The Dreyfus Case'', German Film by Richard Oswald – Black and White – 115 min
* 1931 ''Dreyfus (1931 film), The Dreyfus Case'', English Film by F Kraemer and Milton Rosmer – Black and White – 90 min
* 1937 ''The Life of Émile Zola'', American Film by William Dieterle – Black and White – 90 min
* 1958 ''I Accuse!'', American film by José Ferrer – Black and White – 90 min
* 1960 ''I am innocent (1960 film), I am innocent'', Greek film by Dinos Katsouridis – Black and White – 90 min
* 2019 ''An Officer and a Spy (film), An Officer and a Spy'' – 2019 French film directed by Roman Polanski based on Harris' An Officer and a Spy, 2013 novel of the same name.
TV films
* 1964 In the first season episode "Rock-a-Bye Munster", of the TV show ''The Munsters'', Herman and Lilly mention meeting 'that charming Captain Dreyfus' on their honeymoon at Devil's Island.
* 1966 ''The Time Tunnel'', episode "Devil's Island". Story in which Drs. Newman & Phillips encounter Captain Dreyfus, newly arrived on Devil's Island. American Broadcasting Company, ABC, broadcast on 11 November 1966.
* 1968 ''Affaire Dreyfus'', German film in 3 episodes by ZDF
* 1978 ''Zola or the Human Conscience'', French film in four episodes by Stellio Lorenzi – Produced by Antenne 2 – Colour
* 1991 ''Can a Jew Be innocent?'', English film in four episodes by Jack Emery – Produced by the BBC – Colour – 30 min (X4)
* 1991 ''Prisoner of Honour'', American Film by Ken Russell – Colour – 88 min
* 1994 ''The Dreyfus Affair'', French film in two episodes by Yves Boisset – Produced by France 2 – Colour
* 1994 ''Rage and Outrage'', by George Whyte, French film – Produced by ARTE – Colour
* 1995 ''Dreyfus in Opera and Ballet'', German and English film by arte – Produced by WDR – Colour
* 1995 ''Die Affäre Dreyfus'', German film in two episodes by arte.
Theatre
* 1895 Seymour Hicks wrote a drama titled ''One of the Best'', based on the Dreyfus trial, starring William Terriss. It played at the Adelphi Theatre in London in 1895. The idea was suggested to Hicks by W. S. Gilbert.
* 1893 Jacob Gordin wrote a drama in Yiddish titled ''Captain Dreyfus; Pogrom'' based on the Dreyfus affair. The translation was republished in Nine One-Act Plays from the Yiddish by Bessie F White which was published in 1932.
* 1992 AJIOM/Captain Dreyfus, Musical. Music and text by George Whyte.
* 1994 (De En) ''The Dreyfus Trilogy'' by George Whyte (in collaboration with Luciano Berio, Jost Meier and Alfred Schnittke) comprising the opera ''Dreyfus-Die Affäre'' (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 8 May 1994; Theater Basle, 16 October 1994; ''The Dreyfus Affair'' New York City Opera, April 1996); the dance drama ''Dreyfus – J'accuse'' (Oper der Stadt Bonn, 4 September 1994) and the musical satire ''Rage et Outrage'' (Arte, April 1994; Zorn und Schande, Arte 1994; Rage and Outrage Channel 4, May 1994).
* 1998 ''Dreyfus: Prisoner of Devil's Island'' – Music Theatre piece – Music and Lyrics by Bryan Kesselman, St Giles Cripplegate, London, November 1998; Part of the 9th London international Jewish Music Festival.
* 2008 ''Dreyfus In time'' by George Whyte, Opernhaus Zurich, December 2008; Jüdisches Museum Berlin, May 2009. Also in German, English, French, Hungarian, Hebrew and Czech.
Radio
* 1995 ''The Dreyfus Affair'', interview with George Whyte, France Culture, 25 March 1995.
* 1998 ''J'accuse'', George Whyte, Canadian Broadcasting Service (CBS), 10 October 1998.
* 2005 ''The Dreyfus Affair'', interview with George Whyte, BBC Radio 3. By John Pilgrim, 28 October 2005.
* 2009 BBC Radio, ''J'Accuse'', UK, Hattie Naylor. Radio dramatisation inspired by a newspaper article written by Émile Zola in response to the Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s. BBC Radio 4, broadcast on 13 June 2009.
* 2009 "In Our Time, The Dreyfus Affair" Downloadable discussion on BBC Radio 4. Melvyn Bragg; Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University; Ruth Harris, Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford University; Robert Tombs, Professor of French History at Cambridge University.["In Our Time – The Dreyfus Affair"](_blank)
BBC Radio 4 (8 October 2009). Melvyn Bragg; Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University; Ruth Harris, Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford University; Robert Tombs, Professor of French History at Cambridge University
* 2010 Interview with Ruth Harris about her book ''Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, And the Scandal of the Century'' (2010).Podcast interview
New Books in History (17 June 2010).
References
External links
* [//en.wikisource.org/?curid=6792 Text of ''J'accuse!'']
Dreyfus Rehabilitated
, Dreyfus site of the French Ministry of Culture
Dreyfus Site of the French National Assembly
Greatest Newspaper Article of all Time
(Journalistic retrospective of Zola's '' J'Accuse...!'')
Dreyfus Affair Archive
at marxists.org
JewishEncyclopedia.com
– Andre Cremieu-Foa
translated by Alexander Dru
* [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/955422.The_Dreyfus_Affair Leslie Derfler, The Dreyfus Affair. A Tragedy of Errors?]
Nicholas Halasz, Captain Dreyfus
Dreyfus Society for Human Rights
George R. Whyte and The Dreyfus Affair
Ephemera and Original Art Documenting the Dreyfus Affair
Fond Dreyfus
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, (Musée d'art et d'histoire du judaïsme)
{{Portal bar, France, History, War
Dreyfus affair,
1894 in law
1894 in France
Political scandals in France
Injustice