Background
He was born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, the son of Prussian general Emil von Schwartzkoppen (1810–1878) and his wife Anna Marie Luise, née von Ditfurth (1816–1865).
He was born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, the son of Prussian general Emil von Schwartzkoppen (1810–1878) and his wife Anna Marie Luise, née von Ditfurth (1816–1865).
He is best known for his role in the Dreyfus Affair. The Schwartzkoppen family, ennobled in 1688, descended from Brunswick. Schwartzkoppen joined the Prussian Army in the late 1860s and took part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.
On 10 December 1891, Schwartzkoppen took office as military attaché of the German Empire in Paris, maintaining relations with the French Republic.
His subisidiary task was obtain secret informations on the French Army, and he became involved in the Dreyfus Affair. In 1894, he received an anonymous offer for the purchase of rather insignificant military intelligence, outlined in an unsigned "bordereau".
The torn paper, supposedly in the handwriting of Alfred Dreyfus, was recovered from Schwartzkoppen"s wastebasket by a cleaning woman on September 25. lieutenant became the key evidence of his conviction for treason.
Serious doubts regarding the guilt of Dreyfus were raised already during his trial.
Later investigations showed that Schwartzkoppen was receiving intelligence from not Dreyfus but the French officer Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. Schwartzkoppen himself confirmed Dreyfus" innocence in his memoirs, published posthumously in 1930.
He served as a member of the general staff in the rank of captain (Hauptmann) from 1885 to 1888 and thereupon became adjutant of Prince Ernest Louis of Hesse.