Maximilian Friedrich Wilhelm August Leopold von Schwartzkoppen
(24.02.1850 - 08.01.1917)
place of birth:  Potsdam
Königreich Preußen:  Div-Kdr,  General der Infanterie ch. z.D.


Imperial Prussian general officer and military attaché Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen was the son of army corps commander General Emil von Schwartzkoppen. Maximilian entered the army in time to take part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. He thereafter served on the Great General Staff in Berlin at the rank of Hauptmann and was later selected as military escort to Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hessen-Darmstadt.

Schwartzkoppen had worked for three years (1882-1885) in the office of Imperial Germany's military attaché in Paris. He returned to the German Embassy in Paris in 1891 to serve a six-year tour as the head of the military attaché's office, when he inadvertently became entangled in the so-called Dreyfus-Affair. In additional to his consular duties, Schwartzkoppen was also actively spying on the French Army and reporting directly to Berlin's Director of Military Intelligence. In September 1894, a French spy working as a cleaning lady in the German Embassy found a discarded piece of intelligence in Schwartzkoppen's office waste basket. This evidence, known as the bordereau, was addressed to Schwartzkoppen and stated that classified French military documents regarding the 120 mm howitzer were about to be sent to a foreign power. French investigators falsely identified the Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus as their scape-goat and he was sentenced to prison on the infamous Devil's Island.

Schwartzkoppen returned to Berlin in late 1897 and was brevetted as General der Infanterie in 1907. Although he retired from military duty in 1908, he was reactivated six years later following the outbreak of World War One. He was initially given command of 233. Infanterie-Brigade and in the summer of 1916 was assigned to command 202. Infanterie-Division. He soon fell ill with pneumonia, however, and passed away while in the hospital in Berlin. Since he knew of Dreyfus's innocence. he officially confirmed that in his memoirs which were published posthumously in 1930.

	General der Infanterie	11.09.1907  (charakter)
	Eisernes Kreuz II	Deutsch-Französischer Krieg  1870–1871