Alfred Dreyfus is framed for treason
On 22 December 1894, after a four-day trial at the Cherche-Midi prison in Paris, seven judges unanimously convicted Alfred Dreyfus, an artillery officer, of collusion with a foreign power. Born in Mulhouse, Alsace, Dreyfus was a patriotic and independently wealthy soldier of Jewish heritage. He was sentenced to the harshest penalty under French law – that of permanent exile in a walled fortification.
The discovery, three months earlier, of a ripped-up, handwritten note – the – in a wastebasketnation. Ever since Germany's annexation of France's easternmost regions, Alsace and Lorraine, in 1871, there had been deep mistrust between Paris and Berlin. The note, addressed to the German military attaché, served to validate this paranoia. Its contents divulged information on changes to French artillery regulations, the outcome of a weapons test and plans to conquer Madagascar.
