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
The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...
, in which he played a key role in uncovering the real culprit.
Early career
Picquart was born in
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 ...
. He began his military career in 1872, graduating from the ''
Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr'' as fifth in his year. Picquart served as an infantry officer in France before seeing service in
Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
. He subsequently studied at the General Staff Academy (''École d'État-major'') where he was second in his class, after which he became a lecturer at the War Academy (''
École supérieure de guerre The ''École supérieure de guerre'' ("Superior School of Warfare") was the most senior military education institute and staff college of the French Army, from 1876 until 1993, when it was merged into the inter-service ' (Joint Defense College), wh ...
''). One of his students at the latter institute was
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. ...
.
Picquart and the Dreyfus Affair
Picquart was then appointed to the General Staff in Paris. As a staff officer he acted as reporter of the debates in the first Dreyfus
court-martial
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
for the then
Minister of War
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
,
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 ...
, and the
Chief of the Army General Staff,
Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre
Raoul François Charles Le Mouton de Boisdeffre, or more commonly Raoul de Boisdeffre (6 February 1839, Alençon – 24 August 1919, Paris) was a French Army general.
Biography
He studied at the College of Saint Cyr and at the Staff-College. D ...
. Picquart was subsequently promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel on 6 April 1896.
He was appointed chief of the army's intelligence section (''
Deuxième Bureau
The Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général ("Second Bureau of the General Staff") was France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany. Howeve ...
, service de renseignement militaire'') in 1895. The following year Picquart discovered that the memorandum ("''bordereau''") used to convict Captain Alfred Dreyfus, had actually been the work of Major
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. Several high-ranking generals warned Picquart to conceal his discovery, but Picquart continued his investigation. In this he was hindered and sabotaged by subordinate officers, notably 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 ...
. As a consequence, Picquart was relieved of duty with the ''Deuxième Bureau'' and sent in December 1896 to regimental duty, commanding the
4th Tunisian Tirailleurs Regiment (native infantry) based at
Sousse
Sousse or Soussa ( ar, سوسة, ; Berber:''Susa'') is a city in Tunisia, capital of the Sousse Governorate. Located south of the capital Tunis, the city has 271,428 inhabitants (2014). Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf ...
in French Tunisia.
![Picquart 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Picquart_2.jpg)
After the trial 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 ...
for publishing his 1898 open letter ''
J'Accuse…!
"''J'Accuse...!''" (; "I Accuse...!") is an open letter that was published on 13 January 1898 in the newspaper ''L'Aurore'' by Émile Zola in response to the Dreyfus affair. Zola addressed President of France Félix Faure and accused his govern ...
'', Picquart was himself accused of forging the note that had convinced him of Esterhazy's guilt. He was then arrested for forgery and was waiting for a court-martial, while the French
Court of Cassation
A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...
was reviewing the Dreyfus case. After the second court-martial, held as a consequence of the conclusions of the court, Picquart resigned from the army. However, the exoneration of Dreyfus in 1906 also absolved Picquart, who was, by an act of the
French Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies (french: Chambre des députés) was a parliamentary body in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of ...
, promoted to
brigadier general
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
. That was the rank that an officer of his seniority and experience could normally have expected to reach, if his career had not been interrupted by his involvement in the Dreyfus affair.
Subsequent career
In 1906, Picquart entered
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 ...
's first cabinet as Minister of War. He held that position for the entire duration of the Clemenceau Cabinet, from 25 October 1906 to 24 July 1909. Picquart then returned to military service as an Army Corps commander.
Private life
A keen amateur pianist, Picquart was a regular visitor to the Chaigneau family, whose daughters formed the
Trio Chaigneau. He later helped arrange concerts for them.
Death
While still a serving army officer, Picquart died on 19 January 1914 in
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
from injuries sustained in a fall from a horse. He was 59.
In popular culture
The 2013 novel ''
An Officer and a Spy
''An Officer and a Spy'' is a 2013 historical fiction thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It tells the true story of the French officer Georges Picquart from 1896 to 1906, as he struggles to expose the truth about the ...
'' and the
2019 film adapted from it, tells the story of the Dreyfus affair from Picquart's perspective.
See also
*
List of War Ministers of France
*
Picquart's investigations of the Dreyfus Affair
* "
Picquart", a poem by
Florence Earle Coates
Florence Van Leer Earle Nicholson Coates (July 1, 1850 – April 6, 1927) was an American poet, whose prolific output was published in many literary magazines, some of it set to music. She was mentored by the English poet Matthew Arnold, with wh ...
References
; Works cited
*
*
*
; Notes
External links
Dreyfus Rehabilitated
Official Website of Geudertheimwith page about Général Picquart (in French).
1968 portrait of Picquart by Ben Shahn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Picquart, Georges
1854 births
1914 deaths
Military personnel from Strasbourg
French Ministers of War
French generals
People associated with the Dreyfus affair
Deaths by horse-riding accident in France
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr alumni
Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur