Dreyfus, Alfred

(1859-1935)

   military officer

   Alfred Dreyfus is best known for being the center of the major controversy known as the Dreyfus affair. Born in Mulhouse to a Jewish-Alsatian family, Dreyfus pursued a military career and, in 1893, as an artillery captain, was assigned to the general staff in Paris. Accused on the basis of handwriting of passing secrets to the Germans, he was found guilty (1894) of treason by a court-martial, reduced in rank, and sent to Devil's Island for imprisonment for life. in 1896, Lieutenant georges picquart, chief of French military intelligence, uncovered evidence that another officer, Major charles esterhazy, was actually the guilty party. Picquart was, however, silenced by his superior and dismissed from the service. In January 1898, émile zola wrote his impassioned letter "J'accuse," which was published in the Paris newspaper L'Aurore and in which zola denounced both the civil and the military authorities for their part in the case. In August of the same year, Lieutenant Colonel hubert henry confessed that as Picquart's successor as the head of intelligence, he had forged documents implicating Dreyfus. He was arrested and committed suicide. In 1899 the Dreyfus case was brought before the Cour de cassation (Supreme Court of Appeal), which ordered a new trial. A second court-martial again pronounced Dreyfus guilty, but 10 days later the government of Premier pierre waldeck-rousseau and President émile loubet nullified the verdict and pardoned Dreyfus. In 1906 Dreyfus was finally fully rehabilitated by the Cour de cassation, returned to the army with the rank of major, and awarded the legion of honor. He served in World War I with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The Dreyfus case was the spark for an inevitable major political and social controversy in the France of the third republic. Extremists of the Right and Left used the affair to illustrate their disillusionment with the prevailing order. The case also unleashed a strong anti-Semitism in various factions in France, including the military. The nation was divided sharply between "Dreyfusards"—intellectuals, including anatole france and charles péguy, Socialists, Radicals, Republicans, moderates, and antimilitarists— and "anti-Dreyfusards"—the anti-Semites and clericals, and the nationalist Right. As a result of the Dreyfus affair, a liberal government was voted into power, the military was reformed, and legislation was introduced that led to the 1905 separation of church and state.