The Dreyfus Affair* - a potted summary
Reminder: Have you read the preceding page: The Guermantes Way - 1?
On 26 September 1894 Mme Bastian, a French cleaning lady in the office of Maximilian Von Schwartzkoppen, the military attaché at the German Embassy in Paris delivered the contents of the latter’s wastebasket to Major Henry in the French Counter-Intelligence Section, the Section de Statistique.[1] It was a continuing task.
By this means it was ascertained that, since 1892, certain secret information concerning the French national defence had leaked out. Eventually, the conclusion was reached at high levels in the French General Staff that a traitor was passing on confidential military information to the German Embassy in Paris. Blame was quickly attributed to one Alfred Dreyfus, a young French Jewish artillery officer who was in training in the French Army's general staff.
On 15 October 1894, Dreyfus was arrested, tried by court martial on 19 December, sentenced on 22 December and shipped off to Devil's Island on 21 February 1895, where he would remain for the next 4 years and 4 months. In July 1895 Major Georges Picquart was placed in charge of the Section de Statistique and ordered to re-examine the case against Dreyfus to find a motive.
In March the following year, under Picquart’s stewardship, a torn “petit bleu” or closed telegraph card of blue colour sealed on three sides and containing an unsigned but handwritten list of highly sensitive French military documents came to light among the material retrieved from the attaché’s waste paper basket where it had apparently laid for some time, its significance being unrecognised. It was in fact in the undisguised writing of one of Major Henry’s former fellow officers, Major Esterhazy, an officer in the French Army from 1870 to 1898, a German spy and, as it turned out, the actual perpetrator of the act of treason of which Captain Dreyfus had been accused and convicted in 1894. In September 1896 Major Henry began forging new evidence against Dreyfus.
In November 1897 the affair exploded to the world at large when Clemenceau began a long series of articles in L'Aurore, demanding a revision of the trial. Esterhazy was in fact tried on 10-11 January 1898 and acquitted. On the 13th Picquart, under whose watch the petit bleu had come to light, was himself arrested and confined to the Fort Mont-Valérien overlooking the Bois de Boulogne. Zola's J'Accuse article then appeared in L’Autore, followed by a Petition of the Intellectuals the following morning.
On 26 September 1894 Mme Bastian, a French cleaning lady in the office of Maximilian Von Schwartzkoppen, the military attaché at the German Embassy in Paris delivered the contents of the latter’s wastebasket to Major Henry in the French Counter-Intelligence Section, the Section de Statistique.[1] It was a continuing task.
By this means it was ascertained that, since 1892, certain secret information concerning the French national defence had leaked out. Eventually, the conclusion was reached at high levels in the French General Staff that a traitor was passing on confidential military information to the German Embassy in Paris. Blame was quickly attributed to one Alfred Dreyfus, a young French Jewish artillery officer who was in training in the French Army's general staff.
On 15 October 1894, Dreyfus was arrested, tried by court martial on 19 December, sentenced on 22 December and shipped off to Devil's Island on 21 February 1895, where he would remain for the next 4 years and 4 months. In July 1895 Major Georges Picquart was placed in charge of the Section de Statistique and ordered to re-examine the case against Dreyfus to find a motive.
In March the following year, under Picquart’s stewardship, a torn “petit bleu” or closed telegraph card of blue colour sealed on three sides and containing an unsigned but handwritten list of highly sensitive French military documents came to light among the material retrieved from the attaché’s waste paper basket where it had apparently laid for some time, its significance being unrecognised. It was in fact in the undisguised writing of one of Major Henry’s former fellow officers, Major Esterhazy, an officer in the French Army from 1870 to 1898, a German spy and, as it turned out, the actual perpetrator of the act of treason of which Captain Dreyfus had been accused and convicted in 1894. In September 1896 Major Henry began forging new evidence against Dreyfus.
In November 1897 the affair exploded to the world at large when Clemenceau began a long series of articles in L'Aurore, demanding a revision of the trial. Esterhazy was in fact tried on 10-11 January 1898 and acquitted. On the 13th Picquart, under whose watch the petit bleu had come to light, was himself arrested and confined to the Fort Mont-Valérien overlooking the Bois de Boulogne. Zola's J'Accuse article then appeared in L’Autore, followed by a Petition of the Intellectuals the following morning.
Between 7 and 23 February 1898, Zola was tried for defamation of the officers who had acquitted Esterhazy, found guilty and sentenced to the maximum penalty of 1 year’s imprisonment and 3000 francs fine. Zola appealed, but after being retried with same result on 18 July, he fled to England and there remained until a general amnesty was pronounced 18 months later. Picquart was released from prison and dismissed from the service on 16 February. Zola was struck off the rolls of Légion d'Honneur.
France became divided into two blocs over the affair, each of which sought to further their own agendas: nationalists, anti-Semites, the Church and the Army sought to explain away every new fragment of truth as part of a conspiracy against the State by their enemies; socialists, Jews, anti-clericals and anti-militarists saw their chance to improve their own positions and rise to power on the back of the Dreyfusist cause. Bourgeois salons were either neutral or Dreyfusist.
On 7 July 1898, War Minister Cavaignac produced further "evidence" in the Chamber, which Picquart denounced as forgeries, causing him to be re-arrested on 12 July. Henry was taken into custody on 30 August and committed suicide the following day. Picquart was incarcerated for 10 months. On 3 June 1899, the United Appeals Court pronounced in favour of a retrial of Dreyfus, which was followed by the release of Picquart. Dreyfus returned from Devil’s Island after a sojourn of 4 years and 4 months. On 9 August 1899, a new court-martial of Dreyfus began at Rennes in Britanny. On 5 September, he was again found "guilty of high treason" and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment having regard to "extenuating circumstances". Dreyfus accepted the free pardon offered by President Loubet and was released.
On 19 September 1899, President Loubet remitted the remainder of Dreyfus’ sentence and cancelled the order for his military degradation. On 17 November, the new Prime Minister, Waldeck-Rousseau, a revisionist and moderate anti-clerical, tabled an amnesty bill cancelling all crimes or misdemeanors regarding the affair, not finally implemented until 24 Dec 1900.
In 1903, the Appeal Court began reviewing the Dreyfus case. On 13 July 1906. Dreyfus was exonerated and declared to have been innocent all along. On 20 July, he was invested with the cross of the Légion d'Honneur, was promoted to he rank of major, served a year for appearances sake, and then resigned to live on his ample private means. Picquart (in compulsory retirement since 1898) was made a general and on 26 October, War Minister. As a Minister, he was said to be “neither competent nor popular”.
Dreyfus subsequently served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He died in 1935.
Image at top: Dreyfus' degradation:
https://www.newhistorian.com/2014/12/18/development-dreyfus-affair/.
[1] What follows is an edited summary drawn from Marcel Proust, a Biography, by George D Painter, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1983, esp at 208, 211, 213, 217-8, 317-8. Reference has also been made to the Wikipedia sites on the main players.