Biography of Alfred Dreyfus

A bargain unfair

9 October 1859
July 12, 1935
Lost the Franco-Prussian War (1871), the third Republic France lies with a Government in which there is a strong contrast between Republicans and monarchists. The threat of a coup: the attempt came in 1877 by General Patrice de Mac-Mahon, then President of the French Republic, supported by the army and by the clergy. Foiled the coup rise to power the moderate Republicans (1879-1899). The reactionary forces Meanwhile organized around the Minister of war Georges Boulanger. The Dreyfus affair bursts in 1894, following the alleged treason of Alfred Dreyfus (born in Mulhouse on October 9, 1859), an artillery officer in the French army, Jewish Alsatian.
Dreyfus was accused of spying in favour of Prussia: he was arrested and sent to forced labor. The case will then be reopened in 1896 by Colonel Georges Piquart, new Chief of general staff, who presents information to his superiors a report which proves the innocence of the captain and the fact the major Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, nobleman of ancient origin, saddled by debts. Colonel Piquart is removed from Office and sent to the war zone. Picquart still manages to warn the Senate Vice-President Auguste Scheurer-Kestner was a disturbance and in Contemporary Jewish writer Bernard Lazar, a family friend of Dreyfus, which promoted an intense press campaign in favour of the prisoner. Many radical intellectuals (such as Octave Mirbeau) join the one campaign: the most famous is that of the writer Émile Zola which publishes 13 January 1898 on the literary magazine "Aurore" (head of the radical leader Georges Clemenceau) a famous letter to President Félix Faure, titled J'accuse! ".
The historian Barbara w. Tuchman, to define the fact will use the words "one of the great commotions of history". The Joint Chiefs answers by arresting Piquart for armed forces and for vilification, processing Zola sparking nationalistic newspapers a violent campaign against Jews, Liberals and Democrats. In 1898 Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy is moved away from the army and confesses that he counterfeited the documents of the case following orders; the same admission also comes from a senior officer, Colonel Hubert j. Henry, before committing suicide. After further military trial at Rennes, which took place in an atmosphere which is preceded by intense pressure and threats to judges and lawyers, Dreyfus was sentenced to ten years for the bizarre charges of treason with extenuating circumstances. In fact during the trial is amply demonstrated the groundlessness of the accusations against him, but the military court is "pressed" by staff (seriously compromised by the whole affair) that will not clear the previous sentence. To correct the injustice that is patently evident to all public opinion, the President of the Council is proposing to Dreyfus the escamotage of application of grace (which implies a recognition of guilt, in this case absolutely unfounded).
Dreyfus with the blessing of its lawyers agree. In September 1899 Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned by President Émile Loubet: is fully rehabilitated only in 1906. Exit from the army the next year only to be invoked during the first world war, during which reaches the rank of Colonel. Among the events so alleged the Dreyfus affair there is the death of Émile Zola (1902), for someone caused by tampering with its chimney. Dreyfus suffers an attack (it remains only slightly injured) in 1908, at the ceremony of moving the ashes of Zola in the pantheon. While in Germany is rising to power national socialism, Alfred Dreyfus died in Paris on July 12, 1935.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.