Trial and Conviction of Alfred Dreyfus - Germany

Germany

In the meantime, serious complications with Germany were expected. Once assured by Schwartzkoppen and by the War Office at Berlin that Dreyfus was utterly unknown to them, the German government protested publicly against the statements in the newspapers that persisted in bringing Germany into the case. Several times after the arrest of Dreyfus, semi-official notes of protest had been inserted in the different organs of the press; Count Münster, the German ambassador, denied to Hanotaux that Germany had taken any part in the affair. These declarations, although politely received, left the French government absolutely skeptical, for it knew from a positive source the origin of the bordereau.

A note from the Havas Agency (30 November) put the foreign embassies out of the case but the press continued to incriminate Germany. At the beginning of December, Münster, by the express order of the German Emperor, invited Hanotaux to call at the embassy and repeated his protestations. The report was spread abroad that Germany had demanded and obtained the restoration of the documents that established the traitor's guilt! Provoked by the persistence of these attacks, the German embassy inserted in the "Figaro" of 26 December a fresh notice denying formally that it had had "the least intercourse, either direct or indirect" with Dreyfus. As this notice also seemed to have little or no effect, the Emperor telegraphed to Münster on 5 January to go personally to Casimir-Perier and say, "If it be proved that the German embassy has never been implicated in the Dreyfus case, I hope the government will not hesitate to declare the fact." Otherwise, it was understood that the ambassador would leave Paris. This dispatch, communicated by Münster to Dupuy, who was then temporarily engaged at the Foreign Office, had the appearance of an ultimatum. The president of the republic up to this time had known very little of the details of the case, and had been kept by Hanotaux in complete ignorance of Münster's previous communications but now he had the contents of the legal documents shown to him. After having read them, he granted Münster the audience that he had requested. Then, considering honesty to be the best policy, he asserted very frankly that the criminal letter had been taken from the German embassy, but that it was not an important document and that nothing proved that it had been "solicited."

After having referred the matter to Berlin, Münster consented to the drawing up of a note by the Havas Agency, which once more put all the embassies out of the case, and terminated the incident (9 January 1895). General Auguste Mercier did not long enjoy his triumph. On 15 January, under pretext of a ministerial crisis, in which his friends abandoned him, Casimir-Perier handed in his resignation as president of the republic, The mysteries and unpleasantness of the Dreyfus affair hastened this decision. At the congress called together to elect a new president, printed ballots were passed about in favor of General Mercier; one handbill even set him down as the savior of the republic for having had the traitor Dreyfus condemned in spite of all difficulties. He obtained three votes. Ribot, entrusted by the new president (Félix Faure) with forming a cabinet, did not appeal to an assistant so compromised as Mercier. The office of minister of war was given to General Zurlinden.