Dreyfus, Alfred
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Alfred (1859-), a lieutenant in the French army. He was born in Alsace in 1859 and came of a wealthy Jewish family. In 1894 he was arrested on a charge of conveying valuable military information to the German government. He was tried by secret court-martial and was sentenced to a public degradation from office and imprisonment for life. Subsequent information leaked out which incriminated another officer by the name of Esterhazy, who had taken an active part in the conviction of Dreyfus. Esterhazy was tried behind closed doors and was acquitted, but the public was convinced of his guilt. Zola, the novelist, came out in an open letter denouncing the government officials. The novelist was arrested on a charge of libel and was condemned to pay a fine and undergo imprisonment. The people of Paris were excited to the verge of revolution. The Anti-Dreyfusites shouted and urged that the Jews must be put down and the honor of the army upheld ; the Dreyfusites denounced bureaucracy and demanded justice at any cost. Dreyfus was given a second trial in 1899 and was condemned to light imprisonment in a fortress for ten years. Even this sentence was so at variance with popular opinion that President Loubet granted the prisoner a full pardon and set him at liberty. In the meantime Esterhazy had left the country. The Dreyfus affair was a burning question for five years and caused infinite trouble to three successive presidents, six ministries, and nine ministers of war. There is little doubt that someone gave out treasonable information. It is the general belief that Lieutenant Dreyfus was made a scapegoat. The virtual acquittal of the latter is regarded as a popular rebuke of military aristocracy.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's, writing in 1910, still hedged: "There is little doubt that someone gave out treasonable information" and Dreyfus was only "generally believed" a scapegoat. In fact the Court of Cassation had quashed the conviction outright on 12 July 1906, four years before that entry appeared; Dreyfus was reinstated as a major, made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and went on to serve through the First World War, dying in Paris in 1935. The real traitor, Major Ferdinand Esterhazy, admitted the authorship of the incriminating bordereau from exile in England. The French army did not formally acknowledge his innocence in its own name until 1995, and Dreyfus was posthumously promoted to brigadier general by parliament in 2025.
Written for this edition, 2026.