Guillaume Schnaebelé

Who was Guillaume Schnaebelé?

Guillaume Schnaebelé or Wilhelm Schnäbele was an Alsace-born French official best known for being arrested by Germans in the April 1887 Schnaebele incident 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.