Schnaebele incident

Guillaume Schnaebelé or Wilhelm Schnäbele (1831 in Eckbolsheim near Strasbourg – 5 December 1900 in Nancy, France) was a French official from Alsace, best known for being arrested by Germans in the April 1887 Schnaebele incident (or Affair) which nearly led to war between France and Germany.

Who caused the incident and why remains speculative, but it has been suggested German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was its instigator, for a number of possible motivations: baiting France into starting a war; or, gauging the extent of French support for Boulangism; or, creating a strained situation with France to force the renewal of a Russian-German alliance of neutrality that was under debate at the Russian court. Others see it as simply a series of unintended consequences, notable for the role played by France's General Boulanger. This and a number of other incidents involving General Georges Ernest Boulanger are elements of what is known as the Boulanger Affair, a series of embarrassments for the newly formed government of the French Third Republic that some consider to have nearly led to a coup d'état.

Guillaume Schnaebelé or Wilhelm Schnäbele was an Alsatian born in 1831 in Eckbolsheim. After the Franco-Prussian War and Germany's subsequent annexation of Alsace in 1871, he emigrated to France, probably altering the spelling of his name accordingly. He had served in the war and was awarded a Knight of the Legion of Honor. After the incident of 1887 he was moved to a post at Laon. He died on 5 December 1900. In 2005, as part of the arrival of the TGV to Pagny-sur-Moselle, a bridge was named after Schnaebelé.

On 21 April 1887 the French Havas news agency published a dispatch to the effect that Schnaebelé, a mid-level and obscure French police inspector, had been arrested by two agents of the German secret police on the Franco-German frontier near Pagny-sur-Moselle, as he was on his way to Ars-sur-Moselle for a meeting with the German police inspector there, at the latter's request. A dispute followed as to whether the arrest had taken place on French or on German territory (see "Account of incident" below); but regardless, the French claimed that under the circumstances Schnaebelé was entitled to immunity even if on German territory, since he had been invited to a conference by German officials. The reason given by the German authorities for the arrest was that in a previous inquiry into charges of treasonable practices against a number of Alsatians, evidence had been produced that Schnaebelé was involved in transmitting to Paris information as to German fortresses, furnished by Alsatians in the pay of the French Government, and that an order had been given to arrest him if ever he should be found on German soil. In other words, the Germans believed Schnaebelé to be a spy.

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