Guillaume Schnaebelé

Guillaume Schnaebelé or Wilhelm Schnäbele (1831 – 5 December 1900) 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 that German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was its instigator, for a number of possible reasons: inciting France into starting a war, gauging the extent of French support for Boulangism, or creating tensions 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 Georges Ernest Boulanger. This and a number of other incidents involving General 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. Thus ended the Schnaebelé incident.

The week-long incident, between 21 and 28 April, generated such threatening and provocative language from both sides as to cause serious concern of war. A large section of the German press demanded that Germany make no concession. In France, the Cabinet voted 6 to 5 against an ultimatum demanding the release of Schnaebelé with an apology, which would almost certainly have meant war, as had happened with the Ems Dispatch in 1870. The proposed ultimatum had been put forward by French war hawk and Minister of War Georges Ernest Boulanger, who also brought in a bill to mobilise an army corps.

After Schnaebelé's release and Bismarck's letter, many in the French public thought Bismarck backed down because he was afraid of Boulanger, For this and other reasons, on 7 July 1887 Boulanger was released as Minister of War and dispatched by the government to a provincial post to be hopefully forgotten, but not before admiring throngs tried to stop his train from leaving Paris: loyal to his military orders, he was smuggled out in a switch engine. that Bismarck brought about the incident intentionally (for reasons explained below); that Czar Alexander III, made apprehensive for the peace of Europe, wrote an autographic letter to William I in regard to the matter, and that the Kaiser, going over the head of his chancellor Bismarck, ordered the release of Schnaebelé. Several French politicians at the time suspected the incident of being a calculated experiment by Bismarck to gauge the depth of the anti-German feeling in France, a means of testing, by an incident, which could be closed at any time by a mere apology, without any shock to German national dignity, whether Boulanger had a sufficient following in public opinion to make Boulangism a real danger to peace. and it has occasionally been speculated that it was necessary to inflame the menace of war to justify these new taxes. However, the Army Bill was passed on 11 March, three weeks before Schnaebelé crossed the border.

Bismarck might have been trying to agitate conflict with France before Germany's treaty of neutrality with Russia expired that year (signed in 1881 and renewed in 1884) – Germany knew from experience that it could not afford a war with France without a neutral or allied Russia.

Modern (1989) research suggests a simpler explanation. Schnaebelé was, in fact, engaged in espionage, working under the express request of Boulanger.

Account According to one account, the incident occurred as follows: