Dreyfus, << DRAY fuhs or DRY fuhs, >> affair was a political scandal that reshaped French politics in the 1890’s and early 1900’s. In October 1894, the French army accused one of its officers, Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), of selling military secrets to Germany. Almost the only evidence against him was a secret document that a French agent found in the wastepaper basket of Lieutenant Colonel Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen, a German military attache in Paris. Handwriting on the document resembled that of Dreyfus. In December 1894, a court-martial condemned Dreyfus to life imprisonment on Devils Island (also spelled Devil’s Island) in French Guiana.
Efforts to clear Dreyfus’ name.
In 1896, Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, chief of the statistical section of the French general staff, found evidence suggesting that the real traitor was another officer, Major Marie Charles Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy. Probably to halt Picquart’s investigation, Picquart’s army superiors transferred him to northern Africa. In 1898, a court-martial failed to convict Major Esterhazy.
Soon after the Esterhazy trial, the French novelist Émile Zola stunned Paris by publishing an article that condemned France’s military leadership for framing Dreyfus. Zola’s article, J’accuse, resulted in a well-publicized trial in which he was convicted of libel. The article and trial made the Dreyfus case famous both in France and abroad. Conservative supporters of the French army and of the Roman Catholic Church formed the core of the anti-Dreyfusards, those who believed in Dreyfus’ guilt. These conservatives were joined by anti-Semites (people prejudiced against Jews) who insisted that Dreyfus, a Jew, could not have been a loyal Frenchman. Those who rallied to Dreyfus’ defense, called Dreyfusards, included intellectuals as well as socialists and other left wing politicians. These Dreyfusard groups were eager to correct an injustice, but also to gain an advantage over the moderates who controlled the French government. The ruling moderates had close links to the conservatives who belonged to the anti-Dreyfusards.
In 1899, the French court of appeals ordered a new court-martial after the discovery that forged documents had been used to strengthen the army’s weak case against Dreyfus. This second court-martial returned the verdict of guilty but “with extenuating circumstances.” French President Emile Loubet then pardoned Dreyfus. In 1906, the court of appeals cleared Dreyfus of all charges. Dreyfus, who was actually conservative and deeply patriotic, served in the French army in World War I (1914-1918) and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The result of the Dreyfus affair
was a rearrangement of French politics. Formerly divided left wing groups found enough common ground in the affair to form the Radical Party and the Socialist Party. The creation of these parties shifted the balance of power in the French Parliament toward the leftists for most of the first half of the 1900’s. The Dreyfus affair also led to an increase in anti-Semitism in France. This development helped convince Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl that Jews could never find a home in non-Jewish societies. As a result, he organized a worldwide Zionist movement, which inspired the founding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
