Of the men who surrounded the Emperor, each remembers an image such as that of Talleyrand associated with the silk stocking, of Fouché or “The passion to betray”, of Ney “The brave of the brave”. There is one, on the other hand, who already divided his contemporaries: Charles Schulmeister. For Napoleon, “This man is worth forty thousand” he would have said; for Fouché, Schulmeister was a “True Information Proteus”; for Lezay-Marnézia, it was “Magnificent”; for Alain Montarras in Jean Tulard’s Dictionnaire Napoléon, he was a “James Bond”. And, more recently, about Savary, didn't Thierry Lentz qualify him as "the minion's minion" (1)?
Charles Schulmeister was born in Freistett, a small town in Baden, on August 5, 1770, to a family of pastors and customs lieutenants from father to son. His father successively married three pastors' daughters, his uncles being pastors, like one of his brothers. He received solid studies but very quickly rebelled against paternal authority. His father then had him appointed clerk in Kork (near Kehl).
The smuggler
Feeling bored, the young man finds a way out in marriage. On December 20, 1792, he married a lovely brunette, Charlotte Unger, daughter of the director of the Sainte-Marie mines. A year later, the austere pastor Johann Gottfried Schulmeister dies and Charles finally feels free... Another life will begin for him... Another life, or rather ten crazy years. At the end of 1793, the household returned to Freistett where Schulmeister was already being talked about as a smuggler. Also from a family of customs officers, he knows all the meanders of the Rhine, from Freistett to Strasbourg. Notoriously, he is said to have helped the Army of the Rhine cross the river three times from 1794 to 1796. Each time, the young Commander Savary was with them. Thus they would have known each other by the sound of the cannon and the War Song for the Army of the Rhine.
On April 16, 1805, despite his perfect knowledge of the course of the Rhine, he was arrested and imprisoned in Strasbourg for smuggling. Released three months later against a large ransom, he was expelled across the river. Immediately, the Grand Duke's police actively searched, in turn, for this cause of disorder and trouble. Was he a Jacobin in those years or “Fouché’s fly” to better infiltrate their club? His action at this time created so much agitation and disruption that he found himself forced for the second time to flee the Duchy of Baden and apply for French nationality. Obtaining this is made easier for him by the investment of his maternal share of inheritance, in this country bled by the Revolution. Having become a Strasbourg resident and iron merchant, living at the foot of the cathedral, he nevertheless continued the smuggling which enriched him.
On several occasions, he requested passports for Germany and Switzerland. Elmer (2), his first biographer, reports that he would have been a double agent, mainly in the service of the Austrian enemy during the Italian campaign, spying especially on behalf of generals Mélas, Merveldt, and Zach. Unfortunately, Elmer's sources disappeared in the fire of part of the Vienna archives in 1927. Schulmeister himself would allude to them during the capture of Ulm seven years later to explain his introductions to the Austrian generals (3).
The double spy
Schulmeister is in dire straits when legend has it, Savary comes to Freistett to hire him. It must have been in the first days of August 1805. At that time, the smuggler still had only two companions: Rippmann and Hammel, who infiltrated with him into enemy lines.
Much has been written about Schulmeister's role in Ulm, but little is known. He is still considered today to be one of the architects of victory. Through Wend, an Austrian officer whom he said he knew during the Italian campaigns, he reached Mack, the commander of the Austrian army that occupied Ulm. Affirming one thing and his companions spreading rumors to the contrary, he reduces the Austrian general to inaction while the French surround the city. To this end, on October 10, Schulmeister arranged in Stuttgart for Magistrate von Steiner to be convinced that the English had landed in Calais and that Napoleon had returned to France to put down an uprising in Paris. Von Steinher reportedly rushed to Mack to tell him the false news. This reached Mack on the 12th, who stopped his victorious offensive against Dupont at Hashlach. From now on, Mack will wait for the Russians to arrive so, he thinks, that they can crush the French army together. The rest is well known. Napoleon's encirclement of Ulm must have taken Mack completely by surprise. The city capitulated on October 20. Forty thousand men were taken prisoner without fighting.
In two days, from October 23 to 25, Schulmeister traveled 400 km through enemy lines, playing the role of a double agent to obtain as much information as possible, paid by both parties, particularly on the position of Russian troops.
On the morning of the 27th, he left again with Rippmann. In Braunau, trying to hire an Austrian smoker, he denounced them. Both arrested, they are beaten, and left for dead. Rippmann died a few days later. By trudging through the night along small roads, Schulmeister was able to return to the outskirts of Vienna thirteen days later and reunite with the Grande Armée. On November 13, disguised as a wealthy bourgeois, he took part in the trap set up by Murat to disorient the Austrians and seize Mount Tabor. During the day, Vienna was occupied and Schulmeister was appointed city police chief. The Emperor also rewards him with an annuity of 40,000 francs.
From that day on and in his official functions, Schulmeister “doubled up” by calling himself “Mister Charles” to preserve his spy persona. December 2 is Austerlitz. Schulmeister cannot attend, busy with his administrative duties as police chief of Vienna (maintaining order, stopping looting in the city, disarming Austrians who remained hidden, recovering weapons of all kinds, etc.). His absence on the front must be felt. Deprived of information, Murat finds it difficult to pursue the fugitives. The occupation is short. Once peace was signed, the French left the city on January 29, 1806. Grateful for the restored order, the city of Vienna offered its “prefect of police” a superb “return from Egypt” tea service, currently kept at the Rohan Museum in Strasbourg.
The leader of the Savary Free Corps
Ten months later, Savary, still flanked by Schulmeister, left for a new campaign, this time in Prussia, to respond to that country's invasion of Saxony. The two friends show a new side of their talent since Schulmeister, posted in Savary's vanguard, takes Wismar by trick, with only forty hussars. The 3,000 Prussians of Husdom capitulated on November 5, 1806.
Then came the captures of Rostock and Hameln where Schulmeister put down the rebellion of the Prussian garrison, with the help of a Dutch regiment of which he took command! In Rostock, on November 9, Savary and Schulmeister seized twenty-two boats moored in the port and distributed part of the loot among the three hundred men led by the accomplices.
On November 12, 1805, with a few scouts, the two men, riding side by side, left for Lübeck then Hamburg... They were only 400 km from the French border when Napoleon resumed the offensive. Lannes being ill, Savary temporarily took command of the 5th Corps.
Since February 2, Savary wrote to the Emperor: “The soldiers have only a third of a ration of bread, no brandy and always the bag on their back […]. The thaw is causing my artillery to sink […]. I don't have a potato anymore. What will I do if I miss bread? […] »
Out of a total of 270,000 French people, deserters, marauders, and sick people numbered at least 60,000 men. The Emperor himself wrote to his brother Joseph: “The staff officers have not undressed for two months, and some for four. I went two weeks without taking off my boots […]. We are in the middle of snow and mud, without wine, without brandy, without bread, eating potatoes and meat, making long marches and counter-marches, without any kind of sweets, and fighting. usually with the bayonet and grapeshot, the wounded forced to retreat by sleigh, in the open air, for fifty leagues […]. » It is no longer weapons caches that it is urgent to discover, but food caches. Unglamorous work, but essential. Many hidden supplies were discovered by Schulmeister in the occupied districts on the Nogath and Elbing. It is no longer the enemy that Schulmeister must pursue, but the Baden, Württemberg, Saxon deserters, who hide in the villages they pass through... It is like a warning of what is going to happen in Russia during the winter of 1812. Unfortunately, no one learned the lessons from it.
Via Berlin and Poznan, Savary, Schulmeister, and the 5th Corps reached Ostrolenka on February 16, 1807. Thanks to information from Mr. Charles, Savary foiled a Russian maneuver there and saved Warsaw. After the siege and capitulation of Danzig where Schulmeister served as interpreter for the talks, Friedland where he was wounded in the head on June 14, Königsberg had to be occupied and administered by Savary with, once again, Schulmeister as police prefect. The latter has a lot to do with Rüchel, a fanatical general who excites the population against the French. Peace is finally signed in Tilsit.
When he returned to Strasbourg on July 13, 1807, Schulmeister had, in ten months, covered nearly 6,000 km, including 4,000 in reconnaissance and combat. But France, once again, will only experience one year of rest. Despite the Erfurt meeting in the autumn of 1808 during which Schulmeister was responsible for the security of emperors, kings, and princes, a fifth coalition was formed in the spring of 1809.
From April 21, Schulmeister distinguished himself by capturing the main Landshutt bridge in flames. The road to Vienna is opened for the second time, after an intensive bombardment. On May 12, Savary and Charles, on reconnaissance in the capital, were violently attacked. Schulmeister, by burning the leader's head, saves his leader's life. We must act quickly, occupy the city, and disarm the inhabitants and the Austrian soldiers hiding there. General Andreossy was appointed governor on the 13th and Monsieur Charles general police commissioner four days later.
The general police commissioner of the city of Vienna
Without complexes, Mr. Charles calls himself “Commissioner General of the Imperial Armies”. The occupation of the city lasted five months, from May 13 to October 14, 1809. From the first day of the occupation, the city was in turmoil. The task is immense. As soon as he was appointed, he carried out arrests: that of the most notorious political opponents (Archbishop Colloredo, the minister's Stadion, Stein, and Hormayer, the prince of Metternich, the Count von Pergen, the councilor Lorentz), those for disturbances of public order and black marketing (such as the 438 Jewish peddlers arrested and caned, not counting the Greek, English, Turkish traders, for violation of the rules of the continental blockade) and those for possession of weapons sometimes leading to executions (Eschenbach).
The searches were numerous and sometimes incredible like that of this trader denounced for hiding numerous soldiers, cannons, and even horses in his home. After a careful search, a French gendarme, more astute than his comrades, suddenly realizes that they have been sent to a merchant... of toy soldiers!
The rule advocated by Schulmeister, however, is moderation, as for the knight Malliat who trades in arms, because the worst thing to avoid is an uprising in the city which would have caught the French, entrenched on the island of Lobau, between two fires. The front is only a few kilometers away... Schulmeister generally shows humanity towards enemy patriots. He tries to save the life of the very young Staps who planned to stab the Emperor during a review in Schönbrunn. During the interrogations he made him undergo, he neglected the influence, on the unfortunate man, of his entourage and the membership of his friends in the Tugendbund, a Prussian secret society which plotted against Napoleon (4).
However, Vienna is on the verge of an uprising because the city is hungry and Schulmeister is worried. “Very little flour on the market yesterday. No miller came,” he wrote on May 16. “We must restore supplies” (May 30). “We are throwing stones at the shop of a baker who has already sold all his bread and has just closed” (June 9). “The soldiers receive their rations and demand bread from the bakers. The Viennese cannot be served” (June 10). The Volk baker makes too small loaves. Charles will sentence him to deliver two hundred loaves of bread each day at 6 cents to the police station who will distribute them to the poor people of the neighborhood...
So Charles struggles. On June 8, a convoy of 840 oxen and five convoys of 60 cars of flour entered Vienna. The police preside over the distributions. On June 19, flour arrived in Vienna in quantity. The same goes for meat on the night of August 27.
In the meantime, there is a shortage of wine in hospitals. Charles takes care of it and informs Savary on August 6. Hospitals are “another subject of discontent among the Viennese.” The wounded Austrians would be left to die without care... Charles multiplies the posters on the walls after Essling, after Wagram, to ask the Viennese: lint, sheets, blankets, mattresses... Nothing comes... He will proceed to requisitions because he took care from upon arrival, to have the list of owners drawn up. Tireless, Schulmeister watches out for epidemics and forces the Viennese to rid the courtyards and streets of garbage. He also inquires about the numbering of the houses to impose taxation on each of them.
Initiated on December 12, 1808, in the Respectable Lodge of Saint Jean la Vraie Fraternité, in Strasbourg, Mr. Charles was also concerned with spreading the ideas of Freemasonry to the Viennese. At his own expense he translated and published, wrote, “[…] all the forbidden philosophical books, Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, Helvétius, Holbach…”, and, he continues: “Everything is now sold in German and French. The truth must emerge, and the light must spread […]. » With Schulmeister, what breath does the Revolution not bring to the Viennese? (5)
Fighting and espionage around Vienna during the occupation
Meanwhile, fighting to the north and east of Vienna rages. At Essling, on May 20, 1809, the French came close to disaster. On July 5, Schulmeister, perched on a roof in the village of Wagram, provides information and narrowly escapes, disguised as a barber.
While Tyrol rose against the troops of Marshal Lefebvre, François I recruited, in Hungary and Transylvania, 30,000 men on July 28, and 100,000 on August 10, the alarming reports from Mr. Charles follow one another. He will leave Vienna for a crazy adventure in Hungary. The reports he will transmit to the Emperor will hasten the peace which will be dated October 14.
England remained at war, as did Spain. Russia arms again, leading Prussia and Sweden. It was the terrible Russian campaign in 1812, then, with the retreat of the French, the Saxon campaign began.
There, Schulmeister mastered the language and was able to return to service. On May 24, 1813, Hager, Minister of Police under Francis I, wrote to the police offices of the Empire: “Schulmeister has again started an intelligence trip through Switzerland, Tyrol, and Austria […] traveling in the company of a servant, an elderly man, and two other people. To disguise themselves, they have fake hair, passports of all kinds […], and large sums of money […]. If we can arrest them, we must do it discreetly so that no one knows where they will be transferred […]. It seems that the so-called Schulmeister is the servant and vice versa […]. In case their passports are checked, firstly it is expressly requested not to say anything and to make a report and locate their accommodation; secondly, the two conveyors of the present dispatch have already seen Schulmeister. They are asked to allow them to see who Schulmeister is among the four men. Third, check which direction they are heading. If it is certain that these are the men wanted, they will have to be arrested, if possible at night with as little noise as possible and kept well […]. If necessary, we will put them in irons, we will make them travel in different cars so that they cannot communicate with each other..." We measure the precautions to be taken in the event of arrest to avoid in particular a mistaken identity. Eight years after Ulm, the Austrians still only have a vague description of the spy. To our knowledge, only two portraits exist, one around the age of thirty-five and the other, a pen drawing by Schuler after Waterloo, where Schulmeister would be around seventy years old. The spy was always careful not to be represented. Until the end, the Vienna archives amply testify to this, Schulmeister provided information within Berthier's staff where this time he called himself "Monsieur Saint-Charles".
But Savary, now Minister of Police, is no longer there... In the tandem, Charles was the eyes and the Duke of Rovigo the voice. Charles can no longer make himself heard. He will continue to spy nonetheless. On December 29, 1813, an Austrian spy, based in Paris, again mentioned Charles within the French army. Three months later, the tsar entered the capital.
The travels of Monsieur Charles, a stockbroker
To ruin the economies of England, Austria, and Russia, Napoleon charged Desmarest, head of division at the Ministry of General Police, and Savary, Minister of Police, with manufacturing counterfeit notes. He had been toying with the idea of issuing counterfeit notes since 1803. He therefore put it into practice in 1809, first targeting England, then Austria and Russia. England is the financial backer of successive coalitions. The continental blockade, which has the same goal of breaking the economy of these countries, is proving difficult in its application and leading to new conflicts... However, by reducing the volume of trade, the sale of counterfeit notes only becomes more difficult.
In March 1810, Desmarest summoned Mr. Lale, who was the first writing engraver at the Ministry of War and charged him with making the copper plates from a bundle of Bank of England notes. The first plates were printed in the workshops of Mr. Fain (6). Poor Lale finds himself involved in the manufacture of counterfeit notes without written orders. He had been working there for three months when Savary, taken into his confidence, signed an authorization for the unfortunate engraver on August 1st. The activity of the printer Fain did not take long to attract the attention of the police and intrigue them: “One Tuesday at two o'clock in the day,” writes Lale in his report, “a ring of the doorbell was heard […] . » When the door opens, there is a rush of police officers from Commissioner Maçon into the premises, followed by a Homeric fight which ends in a pool of blood, when Fain can finally show his authorization... Maçon withdraws sheepishly with his men, asking themselves a thousand questions. Criticized in high places, he narrowly avoided dismissal.
Quite naturally, Savary meets Schulmeister to organize the sale of counterfeit money. From mid-1810 to mid-1813, Mr. Charles made numerous trips to Germany to replenish the coffers of the Army commissary and pay the suppliers of the Hanseatic cities from which the commissary obtained its supplies. The sale of counterfeit notes was relatively easy. Only one color at the time, the tickets were easily falsified.
Mr. Charles also uses members of his particularly secure spy network, without their knowledge. However, a rascal named Bernard, with whom Schulmeister maintains excellent neighborly relations, is taken into confidence, their properties both being neighboring the Château de Grosbois, belonging to Marshal Berthier. Schulmeister also informs someone named Gérard, Bernard's brother-in-law. Gérard will be arrested in Hamburg; Bernard owes his salvation only to flight, his principal deputy being hanged in England. A Jewish man from Hamburg named Marcuff had his effigy hung in his place in London. With his accomplices, Schulmeister was arrested in Bas-Rhin in November 1811 and brought before one of his main enemies, the prefect Lezay-Marnésia. The latter receives orders from Savary to release all these beautiful people immediately. Stunned, the prefect is also unaware that part of this money goes into the coffers of the secret police.
Before launching the mass production of the first books, several million florins were printed on a trial basis in Vincennes and put into circulation in 1809. During his marriage to Marie-Louise, Napoleon promised Metternich to give him the three hundred million florins printed. Some were put into circulation at the end of 1809. The fate of the others is unknown, and they were probably destroyed. The affair ended up being known in broad terms by certain opponents of the regime. Two of them, Castel and Fierard, published pamphlets during the Restoration, but reasons of state must be the strongest. A thick silence soon enveloped this affair... The report of Mr. Lale, the engraver who died alone and indigent, was published by the Commune in 1870, to general indifference.
Gaming houses at the service of espionage
Throughout the Empire, Napoleon considered gambling houses to be a necessary evil that he could not completely get rid of. It must be said that they bring in a lot of money: 50% of the annual earnings of each establishment go into the state coffers up to one million francs and 75% of earnings beyond that. Once the operating costs of the establishments have been paid, the rest constitutes the remuneration of the farmers.
As early as 1806, Schulmeister understood all the advantages he could gain from gambling houses, particularly during military campaigns. With the tacit agreement of the Emperor, Savary opened some in Königsberg, Vienna, Hamburg, Baden… As there were none before, people rushed there and spent even more sums. crazy that we know to be more ephemeral the opening of some, limited to the duration of the occupation of the troops.
Until 1806, it was Fouché who administered the games in the capital and all the major cities of France. He often changes farmers. The job proved very lucrative: “You will find attached,” he wrote to Régnier, “a decree which fixes the salary of citizen Réal [deputy of Fouché]. You will have him remit 5,000 francs from the gaming funds every three months to cover extraordinary expenses and small police costs for which he will not owe any account. » In addition to these small jobs, the proceeds from the games essentially feed the secret funds managed by Savary.
But gaming houses have other interests directly linked to espionage. We lose a lot. The unlucky ones are in dire straits... officers, servants of high-ranking people, gripped by the anguish of not being able to repay, are ripe and easy prey for espionage, and Schulmeister knows how to recruit them at the opportune moment. Prince Sulkowski, hoping to be better paid, betrayed Austria for a few years for the benefit of France. He has to pay off gambling debts. The ex-French captain Guéniard, having lost a lot of money in the games in Vienna, tries to betray his country by handing over to the Austrian general Bubna the position of the troops of the Grande Armée east of Vienna. Unmasked, he is found carrying a large sum of money. Arrested by Schulmeister, he is condemned to irons. The judgment having been overturned by the Emperor, he was retried by a court-martial, with a view to an indictment hastily prepared by Monsieur Charles, condemned to death and shot on October 1, 1809.
Gaming houses have even other advantages. In exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon said one day to Gourgaud: “I have often wanted to close the gambling houses, but they run into hundreds of millions and I have always been afraid to know from which side this torrent This is where we would go if we closed the houses. Then, that’s where the police discover the plots, the counterfeiters; we remove the counterfeit money […]. »
In Erfurt, Schulmeister participated in the management of the gambling houses and at the same time supervised them. On October 4, 1808, he noted: “The games of chance continue and almost every night there are quarrels between the games manager and the players. Otherwise, the whole town is quiet. » Bringing the order and the gaming houses to coexist requires a subtle dosage that Schulmeister must master when he exercises the functions of commissioner general.
Jean-Joseph Bernard, a crooked merchant, and former supplier to the armies, was particularly responsible for the Vienna gambling houses in 1809. It was there that Schulmeister sold the very first florins made in Paris, mixed with real banknotes.
Appointed Minister of Police, Savary continued to obtain responsibility for these houses. The Emperor, who hopes for better functioning, grants it to him. On January 1, 1813, Savary decided to entrust the lease of the games to Bernard for six years, knowing full well that the rascal was not sure. So he adds Schulmeister to him so that everything is reported to him. Bernard has few scruples, all the courage and fear of nothing. In turn, he recruits his brother-in-law Gérard, then rascals he knows well such as Fierard who later denounces the affair. Under their leadership, a significant prize pool is formed. The first Restoration maintains Bernard in his monopoly, against the payment of an annuity of 6,600,000 francs. Fierard, who farmed the games for eighteen years and who was removed by Savary, decides to take revenge on Schulmeister and Bernard, denouncing: “The considerable sums left in the hands of this criminal triumvirate. All of Paris read the memoir where I showed Mr. Bernard in his hideous nudity. » Fierard denounces the use of part of these funds which would have financed the return of the Emperor from the Island of Elba. Nevertheless, Louis XVIII left Bernard and his associate Schulmeister at the head of the games until October 14, 1819, when the city of Paris obtained from the king the privilege of chartering the games. All accounts are cleared. No legal action will be taken.
Schulmeister hunted and proscribed (1815-1830)
During his espionage missions and official positions from 1806 to 1814, Schulmeister invested in real estate. He thus acquired the land of La Canardière in Strasbourg on which he built his Château de la Meinau, a Palladian-style villa designed by Weinbrenner, the great architect of the court of Baden, numerous surrounding lands, a very important farm where he has a remarkable stud farm and a herd of Spanish merino sheep, particularly sought after for their wool at the time. We can imagine what the funeral vigil for the mortal remains of General Kléber must have been like in this castle, the three days preceding his burial in 1818, upon his return from the Château d'If where she waited eighteen years before joining his hometown.
In 1823, he acquired the Château du Piple in Boissy Saint-Léger which once belonged to Marshal de Saxe, buildings in Paris on rue Taibout, numerous objects of art, statues, and fountains, notably due to the sculptor Ohmacht, etc. Little by little, devoid of income, Schulmeister will have to part with his possessions one by one.
If he was not worried by the first Restoration, on the other hand, after the Hundred Days, he had to begin a long period of tracking and close surveillance by the Prussians.
On August 14, 1815, Mr. Charles was arrested on the road between Strasbourg and Boissy Saint-Léger where he hoped to hide. He and his wife carry with them 300,000 francs (or one and a half million euros) in coins and jewelry that were taken from them. While his wife was released without money, Schulmeister was taken to Fort Wesel on the banks of the Rhine and incarcerated with three guards: one at his door, one at his window, and a third in his cell. He was subjected to almost daily interrogations and then released on November 20 against a very high ransom estimated at the time at one million francs but which over time revealed itself to be 400,000 francs. Released, he returned to La Meinau followed step by step by the Prussian police at all hours of the day. The police pressure is such that he is considering emigrating to the United States, having been refused a passport. The abdication of Charles
Financial disasters
Schulmeister then remained with his property in La Meinau and shareholder shares in a madder factory, a vitriol and soda factory, and a lighting oil factory. He then decided to try everything and create a sugar company by pledging the property of La Meinau, valued at 400,000 francs, as a guarantee. A company is thus created with a capital of 750,000 francs, made up of 150 shares of 5,000 francs each (including 90 shares belonging to Schulmeister and the others distributed among the twenty-four other shareholders). To preserve the economy of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which supply the metropolis with cane sugar, the government imposes a tax of 15% on the turnover of sugar companies in the metropolis.
The sugar mill started with the campaign of 1837 and, despite this brand-new tax, Charles persisted. However, with a profit margin of 10%, all the manufacturers have gone out of business. In addition, the beet harvest of 1839 was catastrophic. Not leaving it, he invested again in 1840 in a refinery, drawing on all his remaining liquidity... he thus hoped to sell his production more easily. The La Meinau sugar factory lasted for four more years, at the end of which its owner was forced to file for bankruptcy on August 28, 1843. The law was merciless for “bankrupts”. On August 31, the castle of La Meinau and its one hundred and fifty hectares were sold at auction for 400,000 francs. Grand lord, Schulmeister reimburses the other members in full, i.e. 350,000 francs, and, on September 23, sells the factory equipment. The remaining 50,000 francs are insufficient to cover the factory's operating deficit. What remains is thus sold, namely: madder, lighting oil, soda, and vitriol factories. This is still insufficient. His son-in-law, Baron Charles Garat (7), completes the missing sums.
Schulmeister is on the street at seventy-three years old but honored his signature until the end. The daughter of a friend, Marie Élisabeth de Morlet (future mother of Charles de Foucauld), took him in for a meager rent in a small house she owned from her father, 3 Place Broglie in Strasbourg. This is where Schulmeister spent the last ten years of his life with a dozen Angora cats for company. His wife, whom he loves so much, has been dead for nine years already.
Thus his last days passed slowly when, suddenly, during the summer of 1850, he learned that the Prince-President, the nephew of the great Emperor, was going to Strasbourg. His desire to appear once again is the strongest. He immediately had the campaign furniture, a gift from the Emperor, transported to the prefecture where Louis-Napoleon was to stay, which he carefully preserved. The day after he arrives in Strasbourg, to everyone's surprise, the Prince-President goes to the humble home of this spy, of whom his mother, Queen Hortense, had spoken to him when, in 1809, she was the guest from La Meinau. In everyone’s eyes, it’s a rehabilitation. Little by little it is becoming clear that his actions have contributed to limiting human losses and hastening peace.
The old man died two years later, at Place Broglie, of a ruptured aneurysm. All of Strasbourg accompanies him to his final resting place, the perfect making an enthusiastic speech about this “worthy son of the city”, writes the Revue Rhénane. A detachment of hunters fires a farewell salvo at his grave and music plays in his honor the old imperial romance Leaving for Syria. It’s a bit as if, having died sixteen years ago, Queen Hortense, whom he had received at La Meinau, welcomed him in turn.
Later, writing his Chronicles of the End of a World, Pierre Mac Orlan paid him a final tribute: “The word spy carries within itself its terrible venom. For this reason, it should only be used in its most pejorative sense. He who defends his country is not a spy: he is an intelligence agent. Such was Monsieur Charles, such are those who defend the common ideal and who do not betray. »
(1) Thierry Lentz, Savary, Napoleon's minion, Fayard, 2001.
(2) A. Elmer, Napoleon's secret agent. Charles-Louis Schulmeister, from the secret archives of the House of Austria, Payot 1931, reissued Payot-histoire 1980.
(3) S.H.D – 2 C 13. Correspondence of the Grande Armée. Day of October 26, 1805. Report from Schulmeister to Savary.
(4) Gérard Hertault and Abel Douay, Freemasonry and Prussian Secret Societies against Napoleon, birth of the German nation, Paris, co-edition Fondation Napoléon – Nouveau monde Éditions, 2005.
(5) Cadet de Gassicourt, Travels in Austria, Moravia, and Bavaria made following the French army during the campaign of 1809, Paris 1818.
(6) We can assume, the affair being very secret, the existence of a family link with Agathon Fain, intimate secretary of the Emperor in the archives and successor to Baron de Méneval as secretary to the Emperor.
(7) Son of Martin Garat who was director of the Bank of France from 1810. His son Charles was the director of the Strasbourg branch which he built at Place Broglie.
Schulmeister's cronies
If the archives of the Historical Service of Defense (S.H.D.) ignore them, on the other hand, those of Vienna contain the personal files of the main spies of Mr. Charles, poor fellows who form a veritable army of shadows. Forgotten by history, let us nevertheless cite a few whose names recur most often in the “Staats Archiv” of Austria: Rippmann, Rübsamer, Lippmann, Oppermann, Otto Count of Mosloy, Hammel, Hurter, Müller known as Adonis … They are from Strasbourg, Baden, Württemberg, Alsatian. Certainly, the immense profits they derive from it ensure their comfort, but the risks incurred are finding themselves "between heaven and earth", that is to say, hanged, not to mention the considerable physical expenditure and the discomfort permanent. Only then, returning to the spirit and thinking of the times, will it be possible to better understand the master spy that Schulmeister was and, with the benefit of time, to pass judgment on early espionage of the 19th century.
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