Dreyfus affair

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The "Dreyfus Affair" was a political scandal which divided France for many years during the late 19th century.

Related Topics:
Political scandal - France - 19th century

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It centered on the 1894 treason conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army. Dreyfus was charged with passing military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. Dreyfus was, in fact, innocent; the conviction rested on false documents, and when high-ranking officers realised this they attempted to cover up the mistakes. The writer Émile Zola exposed the affair to the general public in the literary newspaper L'Aurore (The Dawn) in a famous open letter to the Président de la République Félix Faure, titled J'accuse! (I Accuse!) on January 13, 1898. In the words of historian Barbara W. Tuchman, it was "one of the great commotions of history".

Related Topics:
Treason - Alfred Dreyfus - Jew - Cover up - Writer - Émile Zola - Président de la République - Félix Faure - January 13 - 1898 - Barbara W. Tuchman

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The Dreyfus Affair split France between the dreyfusards (those supporting Alfred Dreyfus) and the antidreyfusards (those against him). The quarrel was especially violent since it involved many issues then highly controversial in a heated political climate. To some extent, these divisions followed those between a right wing often supporting a return to monarchy and clericalism—the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in public policy—, on the antidreyfusard side; and a left wing supporting the republic, often with violent anti-clerical feelings, on the dreyfusard side. However, the distinctions may not be that simple, since some right-wingers supported Dreyfus.

Related Topics:
Controversial - Right wing - Monarchy - Left wing - Republic - Anti-clerical

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The virulence of the passions aroused by the case was to a large extent due to the anti-Semitism then existing in France, often related to Catholic, reactionary, anti-Republican feelings. This may have been due partly to the failure of the Union Générale—a Roman Catholic banking establishment which aimed at superseding Jewish finance—in 1885; it also may have been partly due to the publication of Edouard Drumont's book La France Juive in 1886.

Related Topics:
Anti-Semitism - Reactionary - Union Générale - Roman Catholic - Edouard Drumont - 1886

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However, the affair could not have had that much importance if France had been solidly or even mostly antisemitic. Indeed, Alfred Dreyfus had been admitted to France's highest schools, had been made an army officer, and had been given access to military secrets. It is doubtful that any of the above would have been possible in a solidly antisemitic country such as Czarist Russia. The controversy that ensued was made possible by a large share of the population not being antisemites and willing to fight for an innocent.

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The case itself was more immediately the outcome of the continuous attack upon the presence of the Jews as officers in the French army, spearheaded by Drumont and others in the journal "La Libre Parole" (founded with the help of Jesuits in 1892). The articles of the "Libre Parole," which denounced French Jewish officers as being future traitors, led a Jewish captain of dragoons, Crémieu-Foa, to declare that he resented as a personal insult the slanderous assault made upon the body of Jewish officers. He fought a duel, first with Drumont, then with Lamase, under whose name the articles had appeared. It had been agreed that the report of the proceedings should not be made public. The brother of Crémieu-Foa, following the advice of Captain Esterhazy, one of the Jewish captain's seconds, communicated the information to the journal "Matin."

Related Topics:
Jesuits - 1892 - Duel - Captain Esterhazy

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The Marquis de Morès, who had been chief second of Lamase and was a well-known anti-Semite and famous duellist, held Captain Mayer, chief second of Crémieu-Foa, responsible for the breach of confidentiality. Though innocent of the matter, Mayer accepted a challenge from the marquis. The duel was fought on June 23, the Jewish captain being mortally wounded at the first attack; he died a few days after the duel. Owing to the sensation that was caused by this event, the "Libre Parole" thought it wise to stop the campaign against the Jewish officers until further orders.

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