Alfred Dreyfus was born on October 9, 1859 in Mulhouse, Alsace to a family of Alsatian Jews. His family roots in Mulhouse and Alsace had been established for several centuries. His father Raphael Dreyfus had set up a small cotton mill, to which he soon added a textile factory. His business prospered enough to secure his family a more-than comfortable upbringing. Raphael married Jeanne Libmann and the couple had 13 children. Only seven of those children – four boys and three girls – survived infancy, and these seven grew up in a comfortable, respected lifestyle. Th

Alfred attended the Ecole Polytechnique and graduated in 1880, ranked 128 out of 235 and was appointed a sublieutenant in the school of instruction at Fontainebleu. Alfred was now a French soldier.

… the Court annuls the verdict of the court-martial of Rennes which, on September 9, 1899 condemned Dreyfus to ten years of detention and dishonorable discharge from the Army… declares that it was wrongfully and by error that that conviction was pronounced (Bredin 480).

On October 1, 1882, Alfred was named lieutenant of the Thirty-first Artillery Regiment. Over the next few years, Alfred excelled in his Army activities and was given superb reports by his superiors. During this time, Alfred met Lucie Hadamard, whom he would marry on April 21, 1890. Two children would be born to them, a son Pierre, in 1891 and a daughter, Jeanne, in 1893. At this time, Alfred was excelling even better than he thought he would in the Army and was appointed to the General Staff in the French Army. As he described it himself, “everything in life seemed to smile at me” (Bredin 20). This wouldn’t last for much longer.

e Dreyfus family – as a result of their wealth – were very well respected around France. In 1870, in the midst of the France-Prussian war, the Dreyfus family was forced out of Alsace and took refuge in Carpentras. It has been said that “the sight of French troops traversing Mulhouse… determined his military destiny” (Bredin 12). In 1871 with the Treaty of Frankfurt, Raphael chose French citizenship for him and his children who were minors and then left Mulhouse to settle in Basel, Switzerland. In 1873, Raphael and Jeanne decided to send Alfred to boarding school in Paris, however he had a hard time adapting and soon returned home to his family. Over the next few years, Alfred transferred from boarding school to boarding school, all the time suffering from the same instability as the first one. Alfred decided to prepare for his baccalaureate on his own, and after passing the exam at the Faculte de Grenoble, he chose to prepare for the Ecole Polytechnique and his entrance into the French Army. According to his son Pierre, Alfred chose to become an officer because it would have

Some topics in this essay:
Pierre Alfred, Jeanne Libmann, Dreyfus Affair, Paris October, Raphael Jeanne, Reberioux Madelaine, Bernard Lazare, French Army, Alfred Dreyfus, Bastien Section, dreyfus affair, alfred dreyfus, french army, boarding school, jewish history, 1 note, � anti-dreyfusards �, mulhouse alsace, german embassy, � anti-dreyfusards, dreyfus trial, commandant du paty,