Count Esterhazy: Double-agent or Traitor?

[IRG CommandoJoe]

Everyone knows about the Dreyfus Affair in France; that Alfred Dreyfus was an innocent man and had no part in passing military secrets to the Germans. And there was a huge cover-up protecting several high-level military officers because they framed Alfred Dreyfus. But why?

Count Esterhazy was the one who delivered the bordereau to Major Max von Schwartzkoppen at the German Embassy. Lieutenant Colonel Sandherr of counter-intelligence was the one who reported to Minister of War Mercier that this note got into the hands of the Germans, thus initiating the investigation in the first place. Sandherr and another guy, Colonel Henry, concealed Esterhazy's guilt in writing the note and convinced Mercier it was not him. However, there is a problem with this.

There are two theories I know about Esterhazy's motivations. One was that he was a traitor who hated France while the other is that he in fact was a counter-intelligence agent feeding the Germans bullshit information on a 120 mm cannon to distract them from the development of the famous "French 75" artillery piece.

But if he was a counter-intelligence agent, working with Sandherr and Henry, why would they bring this matter up to Mercier at all? Is there something wrong with my knowledge of this account? Did the bordereau not get delivered to Mercier by Sandherr? Are there some complexities to the occurrences I am unaware of? There must be. It just doesn't make sense that Sandherr and Henry would go out of their way to pin the blame on some patsy for absolutely no reason at all.

And if he wasn't a counter-intelligence agent and was a traitor, why would they feel obligated to protect him? Were they really just that despicable to protect a traitor just because they knew him? How could they trust him anymore?

This whole thing makes my head spin; I can't make heads or tails of it. Can anyone make this historical episode more clear?

[Norseman]

You know that in France you can still cause a flamewar if you bring up the Dreyfus affair, then again it was worse before. Seriously though there's a much easier explanation: If they didn't admit Esterhazy then they'd have to admit that they were wrong, that the French Army had screwed up. Much easier then to protect a traitor and keep on accusing a Jew.