The Dreyfus Affair

The final lecture of semester 2 was based around The Dreyfus affair and J’ Accuse written by Emile Zola written in 1898. This affair can be seen as one of the most crucial events in history and had a huge impact on journalism. In order to fully understand the affair in its context we must look at the history of France during the 19^th century.

In 1871 the French army was defeated by the Prussian army during the Franco Prussian War and Paris was under siege. There was a severe shortage of food and the Parisians were forced to eat animals from the zoo and the rich merchants fled.  France was absolutely ruined as a country and the King, Napoleon III was forced to abdicate and a new provisional government was formed. The rich merchants returned to Paris and demanded rent with interest from the workers which they had no means to pay as they had just been freed from siege. In March of that year, the poor started a revolution whereby they took control of the state and the Paris Commune was set up to introduce new social reforms that would benefit the people such as improved working conditions. At the end of May, the French army stormed into the city and destroyed the commune executing nearly 30,000 people.

Alfred Dreyfus
9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935

The Dreyfus affair began in 1874 when secret documents were found in a rubbish bin at the German Embassy giving important information about the French army. The government immediately began looking for the culprit and Alfred Dreyfus was accused of supplying documents to the Germans. Dreyfus was a captain in the French army and was fully educated at a military school. He grew up in the town of Alsace which was German controlled and was raised by his parents as a Jew. During his trial in front of French army officers he was humiliated and his war medals were torn off his uniform and his sword was snapped in half.  He was judged to be guilty and was sent to Devil’s Island where he was imprisoned, had little exercise and awful food.  Following his exile a fellow French journalist, Emile Zola published an article named J’ Accuse in a newspaper claiming that Dreyfus was innocent and he named the corrupt officers who had actually been spying. The documents were found to be written by Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy who was a known spy. After much uproar he was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay huge fines.

When the French government changed, Dreyfus was brought back from Devil’s Island but he was a weak shadow of his former self. He was weak and could barely talk and his name was in ruins. It was ordered that he should face yet another trial and amazingly he was found to be guilty yet again with “extenuating circumstances”. This was one of the biggest trials in Europe and journalists came to France from all over Europe to report on events. Before the trail began his barrister was shot but police refused to help and he was robbed of all his possessions. He was eventually pardoned in 1899 but the events had caused a great divide throughout Europe between the left and right wing parties.