Editing Dreyfus affair (section)

=== Military ===
[[File:Raoul de Boisdeffre - photo Eugène Pirou.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre|General Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre]], architect of the military alliance with Russia]]

The Dreyfus affair occurred in the context of German annexation of [[Alsace]] and [[Moselle (department)|Moselle]], an event that fed the most extreme nationalism. The [[Franco-Prussian War|traumatic defeat]] of France in 1870 seemed far away, but a vengeful spirit remained. 

The military required considerable resources to prepare for the next conflict, and it was in this spirit that the [[Franco-Russian Alliance]] of 27 August 1892 was signed, although some opponents thought it "against nature".<ref group="Note">[[Auguste Scheurer-Kestner]] in a speech in the Senate.</ref> The army had recovered from the defeat, but many of its officers were aristocrats and monarchists. Cult of the flag and contempt for the parliamentary republic prevailed in the army.<ref>Duclert, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', p. 5. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The Republic celebrated its army; the army ignored the Republic.

Over the previous ten years the army had undergone a significant shift resulting from its twofold aim to democratize and modernize. The graduates of the [[École Polytechnique]] now competed effectively with officers from the main career path of [[Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr|Saint-Cyr]], which caused strife, bitterness, and jealousy among junior officers expecting promotions. The period was also marked by an [[arms race]] that primarily affected artillery. There were improvements in heavy artillery (guns of 120&nbsp;mm and 155&nbsp;mm, [[Obusier de 120 mm C modèle 1890|Models 1890 Baquet]], new hydropneumatic brakes), but also, and especially, development of the ultra-secret [[Canon de 75 modèle 1897|75mm gun]].<ref>On the appearance of the 75&nbsp;mm gun see: Doise, ''A Secret well guarded'', p. 9. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

The operation of military counterintelligence, alias the "Statistics Section" (SR), should be noted. Spying as a tool for secret war was a novelty as an organised activity by governments in the late 19th century. The Statistics Section was created in 1871 but consisted of only a handful of officers and civilians. Its head in 1894 was Lieutenant-Colonel [[Jean Sandherr]], a graduate of [[Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr|Saint-Cyr]], an Alsatian from [[Mulhouse]], and a convinced antisemite. Its military mission was clear: to retrieve information about potential enemies of France and to feed them false information. The Statistics Section was supported by the "Secret Affairs" of the Quai d'Orsay at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was headed by a young diplomat, [[Maurice Paléologue]].

The arms race created an acute atmosphere of intrigue from 1890 in French [[Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage|counter-espionage]]. One of the missions of the section was to spy on the German Embassy at Rue de Lille in Paris to thwart any attempt by the French to transmit important information to the Germans. This was especially critical since several cases of [[espionage]] had already been featured in the headlines of newspapers, which were fond of [[sensationalism]]. In 1890, the archivist Boutonnet was convicted for selling plans of shells that used [[Picric acid|melinite]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chapentier |first1=Armand |title=The Dreyfus case |date=1935 |publisher=[[Geoffrey Bles]]|location=London |oclc=1171284758 |page=259|translator-last1= May|translator-first1=J. Lewis|author-link1=:fr:Armand Charpentier |translator-link1=:s:Author:James Lewis May}}</ref>

The German military attaché in Paris in 1894 was Count [[Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen]], who developed a policy of infiltration that appears to have been effective. In the 1880s Schwartzkoppen had begun an affair with an Italian military attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Count [[Alessandro Panizzardi]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/germany/berlin/gay-love-sheds-light-on-laffaire-dreyfus-9f3v8lcb9sx|title=Gay love sheds light on l'affaire Dreyfus {{!}} The Times|language=en-GB|access-date=17 August 2016|last1=Bremner|first1=Charles}}</ref> While neither had anything to do with Dreyfus, their intimate and erotic correspondence (e.g. "Don't exhaust yourself with too much buggery."),<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/28/trial-of-the-century|title=Trial of the Century|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=17 August 2016}}</ref> which was obtained by the authorities, lent an air of truth to other documents that were forged by prosecutors to lend retroactive credibility to Dreyfus's conviction as a spy. Some of these forgeries referred to the real affair between the two officers; in one, Alessandro supposedly informed his lover that if "Dreyfus is brought in for questioning", they must both claim that they "never had any dealings with that Jew.&nbsp;... Clearly, no one can ever know what happened with him."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-12/dreyfus-proust-and-the-crimes-of-the-belle-epoque|title=Dreyfus, Proust and the Crimes of the Belle Epoque|last=Weber|first=Caroline|author-link=Caroline Weber (author)|date=13 March 2013|newspaper=Bloomberg.com|access-date=17 August 2016|archive-date=2 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102022358/http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-12/dreyfus-proust-and-the-crimes-of-the-belle-epoque|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The letters, real and fake, provided a convenient excuse for placing the entire Dreyfus dossier under seal, given that exposure of the liaison would have 'dishonoured' Germany and Italy's military and compromised diplomatic relations. As homosexuality was, like Judaism, then often perceived as a sign of national degeneration, recent historians have suggested that combining them to inflate the scandal may have shaped the prosecution strategy.<ref name="Idier">{{Cite journal|last=Idier|first=Antoine|date=23 October 2012|title=Pierre Gervais, Pauline Peretz, Pierre Stutin, Le dossier secret de l'affaire Dreyfus|url=https://lectures.revues.org/9588|journal=Lectures|doi=10.4000/lectures.9588|language=fr|issn=2116-5289|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="mediapart.fr">{{cite web|url=https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-idees/070308/l-affaire-dreyfus-est-aussi-une-affaire-d-homophobie?onglet=full|title=L'affaire Dreyfus est aussi une affaire d'homophobie|date=26 March 2008|language=fr-FR|access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref>

Since early 1894, the Statistics Section had investigated traffic in master plans for Nice and the Meuse conducted by an officer whom the Germans and Italians nicknamed Dubois. This is what led to the origins of the Dreyfus affair.