Hubert Henry
Joseph Hubert Henry (born June 2, 1846 in Pogny , † August 31, 1898 in Fort Mont Valérien ), often referred to in literature as Hubert Henry or Joseph Henry , was a French professional soldier who was significantly involved in the Dreyfus Affair . Together with Armand du Paty de Clam, he was already involved in compiling the secret dossier, which contained the first forgeries. These forgeries were intended to ensure that the Jewish artillery captain Alfred Dreyfus was actually convicted as a traitor by the court martial in December 1894. When the true traitor was discovered, Hubert Henry was involved in several other forgeries designed to cover up the miscarriage of justice. With the so-called Espérance letter , Henry warned the real informant of the German Reich, Ferdinand Walsin-Esterházy , about the suspicions that existed against him. One of the best-known forgeries in the context of the Dreyfus affair, the faux Henry , which was supposed to maintain suspicion against Dreyfus, is even named after Henry.
Life
Hubert Henry was born the son of a farmer. He volunteered for the army in 1865, where he made a career and was promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant. He was wounded during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. In 1874 he was made a lieutenant and in 1876 even a wing adjudicator to General Marie François Joseph de Miribel , who was then Chief of the French General Staff. In 1877 he was transferred to the General Staff , where he served in a department of the Deuxième Bureau , which was engaged in counter-espionage , among other things . In the meantime he was deployed abroad and was promoted to the rank of major in 1890. From 1893 he worked again in the intelligence service, this time under its director Jean Sandherr .
In 1894 he was one of the people who were investigating an intercepted letter that proved that the German intelligence service had an informant on the French General Staff. The letter revealed that an informant had given the German military attaché Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen five confidential documents. It was concluded that the handwriting was similar to that of Captain Dreyfus. However, graphologists came to conflicting assessments. Since the arrest had already become public and it was to be assumed that high-ranking military officials such as the then Minister of War Auguste Mercier and the Military Governor of Paris Félix Gustave Saussier would suffer considerable political damage as a result of this affair, he was involved in the compilation of a secret dossier, among other things Dreyfus apparently continued to burden. Before the court-martial , he made a false oath , claiming one person had informed him several months ago about the fact that Dreyfus information to pass on to foreign powers. He was involved in further forgeries when the verdict against Dreyfus was increasingly criticized in public.
The new news chief, Lieutenant Colonel Marie-Georges Picquart discovered in the course of 1896 that the French major Ferdinand Walsin-Esterházy was the actual traitor. His superiors asked him not to disclose it, which Picquart initially adhered to. The circle around the deputy chief of staff, General Charles Arthur Gonse , probably thought Picquart to be the weakest link in their defense chain. Gonse ordered him on October 27th to go on an inspection tour of the French province. Major Hubert Henry saw Picquart's absence as an opportunity to recommend himself to the General Staff as Picquart's successor. Either on October 30th or November 1st, 1896, he obtained a letter from the Italian military attaché Major Alessandro Panizzardi to Schwartzkoppen, dated this previously dated letter to June 14th, 1894 and added another text between the salutation and signature, in which Dreyfus it was named and implied that Dreyfus had sold information to them. Ruth Harris describes Major Henry's forgery as almost grotesquely amateurish. Henry's handwriting not only differed significantly from the Panizzardis, the forgery, now known as faux Henry , was also glued together from two different types of paper, which had to be noticed on closer inspection. Henry delivered this document to General Gonse on November 2nd, who, together with General Boisdeffre, shortly thereafter informed the Secretary of War of Henry's new "discovery".
As part of the investigation of the Dreyfus affair, he admitted his falsifications during a questioning by the Minister of War Godefroy Cavaignac . On August 31, Henry committed suicide in Mont Valérien Prison by slitting his throat with his razor.
literature
- Louis Begley : The Dreyfus Case: Devil's Island, Guantánamo, History's Nightmare. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-42062-1 .
- Léon Blum : Summoning the Shadows. The Dreyfus Affair. From the French with an introduction and a note by Joachim Kalka. Berenberg, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-937834-07-9 .
- Ruth Harris: The Man on Devil's Island - Alfred Dreyfus and the Affair that divided France. Penguin Books, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-14-101477-7 .
- Elke-Vera Kotowski , Julius H. Schoeps (Eds.): J'accuse…! …I accuse! About the Dreyfus affair. A documentation. Catalog accompanying the traveling exhibition in Germany May to November 2005. Published on behalf of the Moses Mendelssohn Center . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2005, ISBN 3-935035-76-4 .
- George Whyte : The Dreyfus Affair. The power of prejudice. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-60218-8 .
Web links
Single receipts
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Henry, Hubert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Henry, Joseph Hubert (full name); Henry, Joseph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French professional soldier |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 2, 1846 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pogny |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 31, 1898 |
| Place of death | Mont Valérien |