Letter to Joseph Weydemeyer, April 22, 1850

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 22 April 1850


First published: in Die Gesellschaft, Jg. VII, Bd. 2, Berlin, 1930
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 38, p. 232-233
Collection(s): Die Gesellschaft

TO JOSEPH WEYDEMEYER IN FRANKFURT AM MAIN

London, 22 April 1850
6 Macclesfield Street, Soho

Dear Weydemeyer,

Could you insert the statement overleaf[1] in the Neue Deutsche Zeitung. The attempts of the 'great men' here to regain a position for themselves at the expense of the refugees, and their attempted manoeuvrings to that end in the press at large, are discouraging people from sending money here.[2] We have now received and distributed some £120-130 for the refugees, and the others have raised summa summarum[3] £2.15 s., and now they are trying to make themselves out to be the champions of the 'helpless' refugees. Unless we get some money now, our 50-60 refugees will, within a week, be out on the street and without a penny. This evening the bigwigs intend to hold a refugee meeting to see what they can devise. We'll leave them to it. Naturally there will again be big words and vast schemes, but no money for the refugees. Anyway, they're likely to fail, even though none of us will be going.

Marx is waiting anxiously for your reply to his last letter, which went off to you about a fortnight ago.[4]

Best regards to your wife[5] and to Lüning's also from

Your F. Engels

  1. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Statement. 20 April 1850'.
  2. ↑ In April 1850 the petty-bourgeois democrats Gustav Struve, Rudolf Schramm and others tried to gain influence among the German political refugees in London to counterbalance the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee. They spread false rumours, which got into the German press, alleging a biased approach on the part of the Committee in distributing material aid among the refugees. The London Refugee Committee's statement mentioned at the beginning of this letter refuted the rumours.
  3. ↑ all in all
  4. ↑ See this volume, pp. 230-31.
  5. ↑ Louise