Alfred Dreyfus, (born Oct. 9, 1859, Mulhouse, France—died July 12, 1935, Paris), French army officer, subject of the Dreyfus Affair (l’Affaire). Son of a Jewish textile manufacturer, he studied at the École Polytechnique, then entered the army and rose to the rank of captain (1889). He was assigned to the war ministry when, in 1894, he was accused of selling military secrets to Germany. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. The legal proceedings, based on insufficient evidence, were highly irregular, but public opinion and the French press, led by its virulently anti-Semitic section, welcomed the verdict. Doubts began to grow as evidence came out suggesting that C.F. Esterhazy (1847–1923) was the true traitor. The movement for revision of Dreyfus’s trial gained momentum when Émile Zola wrote an open letter under the headline “J’Accuse,” accusing the army of covering up its errors in making the case. After a new court-martial (1899) again found Dreyfus guilty, he was pardoned by the president of the republic in an effort to resolve the issue. In 1906 a civilian court of appeals cleared Dreyfus and reversed all previous convictions. Formally reinstated and decorated with the Legion of Honour, he later saw active service in World War I. The affair resulted in the separation of church and state in 1905.
