Editing Dreyfus affair (section)

=== The discovery of the real culprit: Picquart "going to the enemy" ===
{{Main|Georges Picquart's investigations of the Dreyfus affair}}

[[File:Picquart 2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Lieutenant Colonel [[Georges Picquart]] in the uniform of the 4th Algerian ''[[Tirailleur]]s'']]
Major [[Georges Picquart]] was assigned to be head of the staff of the Military Intelligence Service (SR) in July 1895, following the illness of Colonel Sandherr. In March 1896, Picquart, who had followed the Dreyfus affair from the outset, now required to receive the documents stolen from the German Embassy directly without any intermediary.<ref name=":1"/> He discovered a document called the "petit bleu": a telegram that was never sent, written by von Schwarzkoppen and intercepted at the German Embassy at the beginning of March 1896.<ref>Thomas, ''The Affair Without Dreyfus'', p. 276. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> It was addressed to a French officer, [[Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy|Major Walsin-Esterhazy]], 27 rue de la Bienfaisance – Paris.<ref>On the personality and life of Walsin-Esterhazy, see: Reinach, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k750834 ''History of the Dreyfus Affair'' Volume 2], chapter 1 and all of the first part of ''The Affair Without Dreyfus'' by Marcel Thomas. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> In another letter in black pencil, von Schwarzkoppen revealed the same clandestine relationship with Esterhazy.<ref>Bredin, ''The Affair'', p. 142. {{in lang|fr}} It was Marcel Thomas who discovered this letter at the beginning of the 1970s. V. the annexes in ''The Affair Without Dreyfus''. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

On seeing letters from Esterhazy, Picquart realized with amazement that his writing was exactly the same as that on the "bordereau", which had been used to incriminate Dreyfus. He procured the "secret file" given to the judges in 1894 and was astonished by the lack of evidence against Dreyfus, and became convinced of his innocence. Moved by his discovery, Picquart diligently conducted an enquiry in secret without the consent of his superiors.<ref>Bredin, ''The Affair'', p. 144. {{in lang|fr}}. This lack of consent allowed the General Staff to contest openly the quality of the evidence and to go hard on Picquart to discredit him.</ref> The enquiry demonstrated that Esterhazy had knowledge of the elements described by the "bordereau" and that he was in contact with the German Embassy.<ref>Birnbaum, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', p. 56. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> It was established that the officer sold the Germans many secret documents, whose value was quite low.<ref>It was at this point that von Schwartzkoppen terminated his relationship with Esterházy at the beginning of 1896. Thomas, ''The Affair Without Dreyfus'', p. 145. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy was a former member of French counterespionage where he had served after the war of 1870.<ref>Reinach, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k750834 ''History of the Dreyfus affair'', Volume 2], p. 26. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> He had worked in the same office as Major [[Hubert-Joseph Henry|Henry]] from 1877 to 1880.<ref>This raised the question of whether there was complicity between the two men. Bredin, ''The Affair'', p. 144 and Thomas, ''The Affair Without Dreyfus'' p. 231, are sceptical.</ref> A man with a personality disorder, a sulphurous reputation and crippled by debt, he was considered by Picquart to be a traitor driven by monetary reasons to betray his country.<ref>see: Thomas, ''The Affair Without Dreyfus'', Chap. 1, ''The romance of a cheat''. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Picquart communicated the results of his investigation to the General Staff, which opposed him under "the authority of the principle of ''[[res judicata]]''". After this, everything was done to oust him from his position, with the help of his own deputy, Major Henry. It was primarily the upper echelons of the Army that did not want to admit that Dreyfus's conviction could be a grave miscarriage of justice. For Mercier, then [[Émile Zurlinden|Zurlinden]] and the General Staff, what was done was done and should never be returned to.<ref>Doise, ''A secret well guarded'', p. 24 et seq. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> They found it convenient to separate the Dreyfus and Esterhazy affairs.