The Saverne Affair (German: Zabern-Affäre, French: Affaire de Saverne) was a crisis of domestic policy which occurred in the German Empire at the end of 1913. It was caused by political unrest in Saverne (German: Zabern) in Alsace-Lorraine, where two battalions of Prussian Infantry Regiment 99 were garrisoned, after a second lieutenant insulted the Alsatian population. The military reacted to the protests with arbitrary acts which were not covered by the law. These infringements led to a debate in the German Reichstag about the militaristic structures of German society, as well as the position of the leadership of the Empire in relationship to Kaiser Wilhelm II. The affair not only put a severe strain on the relationship between the imperial state of Alsace-Lorraine and the remainder of the German Empire, but also led to a considerable loss of prestige of the Kaiser.
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“Time, which shows so vacant, indivisible, and divine in its coming, is slit and peddled into trifles and tatters. A door is to be painted, a lock to be repaired. I want wood, or oil, or meal, or salt; the house smokes, or I have a headache; then the tax; and an affair to be transacted with a man without heart or brains; and the stinging recollection of an injurious or very awkward word,—these eat up the hours.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)