Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 2, 1850

Author(s) Jenny von Westphalen
Karl Marx
Written 2 December 1850


Source: Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 38, pp. 244-251;
First published: abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 1, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 1, 1929

London, 2 December [1850]

64 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

For several days I have been seriously unwell and hence this letter, together with advice of receipt of the two POST OFFICE ORDERS, will reach you later than I would have wished. I have remitted 7/6d to Seiler. As regards the Indépendance[1] we neither of us owe him anything for the time being, as he opportunely got himself thrown out by his landlord, leaving behind in return for the £10 he owed him nothing but unsold copies of the Indépendance, personal effects to the value of 18 pence, and 2 or 3 books which he had borrowed from myself and others. Truly, he possesses IN A HIGH DEGREE the ability to liquidate, American-fashion, the excess of his expenditure over his revenue.

The great Heilberg has arrived here with a young wife, soi-disant.[2] I have not yet had the honour of seeing the legendary Tuck, who has been cast back across the ocean, considerably aggrandised, of course—a dangerous rival for Seiler. He completely monopolises Bamberger, calling him 'little brother', and the old Amschel, 'auntie'.

As yet I have neither seen nor heard anything of our Revue.[3] I am negotiating with Cologne about the publication of the quarterly.[4] Partly because of ill-health, partly on purpose, I never foregather with the others at the Pulteney Stores[5] except on the official days. Since these gentlemen have so extensively debated whether or not this company is ennuyante,[6] I, of course, am leaving them to agree amongst themselves upon the solace to be derived from their discourse. I, however, make myself scarce. As we have both of us experienced, one loses these people's esteem to the same extent that one is liberal with them. Moreover, I'm tired of them and wish to employ my time as productively as possible. Friend Schramm,[7] who for several weeks has been playing the malcontent and has finally come to the conviction that no one is in the least inclined to place obstacles in the way of the natural course of his emotional ups and downs, is gradually readapting himself to the type of humour compatible with the MODEL-LODGING-HOUSE.

At the Great Windmill[8] considerable annoyance reigns over the loss of £16 as a result of a court ruling. Lehmann, in particular, is seething. His rage will not abate until Bauer and Pfänder are publicly branded as thieves and miscreants by every newspaper in Europe. Now, of course, little Bauer maintains with suppressed moral fury that the payment of a single penny, whether to the Great Windmill or to a public poor box, would be an unpardonable affront to the English courts and 'recognition of the bourgeoisie'.

Meanwhile the great men of Great Windmill Street have experienced a triumph, as the following[9] shows:

'Aux démocrates de toutes les nations!

Citoyens! Proscrits Réfugiés en Angleterre et mieux placés par cela même pour juger des mouvements politiques du Continent, nous' (note well! An out-and-out solecism in this single phrase which they have daringly tacked on to subject, copula and predicate, and should in any case read: et ainsi mieux placés que vous autres pour) 'avons pu suivre et surveiller activement toutes les combinaisons des Puissances coalisées se préparant à une nouvelle invasion de la France, où' (very naice!) 'les Cosaques du Nord sont attendus par leurs complices, pour (yet again attendus pour) 'éteindre dans son foyer même' (the birthplace of Barthélemy and Pottier) 'le volcan de la Révolution Universelle.—Les Rois et les aristocrates de l'Europe ont compris qu'il était temps d'élever des digues pour arrêter la marée populaire' (should read: le marasme populaire) 'qui menace d'engloutir leurs trônes ébranlés.—Des troupes nombreuses levées en Russie, en Autriche, en Prusse, en Bavière, dans le Hanovre, dans le Würtemberg, en Saxe et enfin dans tous les états de l'Allemagne, sont déjà réunies.' (Des troupes ... sont déjà réunies!) 'En Italie 150 000 hommes menacent la frontière suisse. Le Vorarlberg est occupé par 80 000 hommes. Le Haut Rhin est couvert par 80 000 hommes, Wurtembergeois, Bedois et Prussiens. Le Main est gardé par 80 000 Bavarois et Autrichiens. Tandis que 370 000 hommes occupent les points que nous venons d'indiquer, la Prusse a mobilisé 200 000 soldats qu'elle tient disponible' (sic) 'pour être lancé sur les frontières de la Belgique et de la France: la Hollande et la Belgique, contraintes par les coalitions, soutiendront le mouvement d'invasion avec une armée forte de 150 000 hommes. En Bohême 150 000 hommes se tiennent prêts et patiendent qu'un ordre pour se réunir à l'armée du Main, qui serait alors forte de 230 000 hommes. Autour de Vienne sont concentrés 80 000 hommes. 300 000 Russes campent en Pologne, et 80 000 dans les environs de St. Pétersbourg: ces armées réunies composent une force d'un million trois cents trente mille combattants, qui n'attendent que le signal de l'attaque. Derrière ces troupes se tiennent aussi (!) prêts 180 000 Autrichiens, 200 000 Prussiens, 100 000 hommes fournis par les principautés de l'Allemagne, et 220 000 Russes. Ces armées forment ensemble, comme troupes de réserve 700 000 hommes; sans compter les hordes innombrables' (sic) 'de Barbares que l'Attila Moscovite ferait surgir du fond de l'Asie, pour lancer, comme autrefois (!) sur la civilisation Européenne. Des journaux allemands' (here a note is appended with a piffling sentence from the Neue Deutsche Zeitung to put Lüning in a good mood) 'et nos renseignements particuliers nous font connaître les secrètes intentions des Puissances dont les Plénipotentiaires se sont réunis à Varsovie le 25 Octobre dernier.[10] Il a été décidé, dans la (!) conférence, qu'une guerre feinte' (My God! what diplomats!) 'entre la Prusse et l'Autriche, servirait de prétexte au mouvement des soldats que la volonté du Czar transforme en instruments aveugles et en sicaires féroces contre les défenseurs de la liberté.' (Bravo!) 'En présence de ces faits, il n'est plus possible de douter: on organise en ce moment le massacre, déjà commencé (!!) de tous les Républicains. Les journées de juin 1848 avec leurs exécutions sanglantes et les proscriptions que les ont suivies—la Hongrie dévastée et asservie par l'Autriche—l'Italie livrée au Pape et aux Jésuites, après l'égorgement de la République Romaine par les soldats du Gouvernement de la France n'ont point assouvi la rage de nos ennemis: ils rêvent l'asservissement de tous les peuples qui combattent pour le triomphe de la liberté commune. Si la démocratie n'y prend garde, la Pologne, la Hongrie, l'Allemagne, l'Italie et la France seront bientôt encore vouées aux fureurs de la soldatesque sauvage de Nicolas qui, pour exciter les Barbares au combat leur promet la dévastation et le pillage de l'Europe.

Devant ce danger qui nous menace, debout! Debout!.. Républicains Français, Allemands, Italiens, Polonais, et Hongrois, sortons de cet engourdissement' (Toping Schapper and Willich!) 'qui énerve nos forces et prépare une victoire facile à nos oppresseurs. ''Debout!''... Aux jours de repos et de honte du présent, faisons succéder les jours de fatigue et de gloire, que nous préparîz la guerre sainte de la liberté! En examinant ces dangers que nous vous signalerons, vous comprendrez, comme nous, qu'il y aurait folie d'attendre plus longtemps l'attaque de l'ennemi commun; nous devons tout préparer et aller au devant du péril qui nous environne.' (Just try au devant d'une chose qui vous environne!) 'Citoyens Démocrates Socialistes, notre salut n'est qu'en nous mêmes: nous ne devons compter que sur nos propres efforts; et éclairés des exemples du passé, nous devons nous prémunir contre les trahisons de l'avenir. Évitons, évitons surtout le piège qui nous est tendu par les serpens (!) de la diplomatie. Les émules des Metternich et des Talleyrand méditent en ce moment d'éteindre le flambeau de la Révolution, en suscitant à la France, par l'invasion qu'ils préparent, une guerre nationale dans laquelle les peuples s'égorgeraient au profit des ennemis de leur affranchissement. Non, Citoyens! plus de guerre nationale! Les barrières que les despotes avaient élevées entre les nations qu'ils s'égayent partagées, sont désormais tombées pour nous, et les peuples confondus' (really: confondus) 'n'ont plus qu'un drapeau, sur lequel nous avons écrit avec le sang fécond de nos martyrs: République Universelle Démocratique et Sociale'.

Pour Leurs Sociétés: 'Les membres du comité de la société des proscrits Démocrates Socialistes Français à Londres: Adam (Cambreur), Barthélemy (Emmanuel), Caperon (Paulin), Fanon, Gouté, Thierry, Vidil (Jules); les délégués de la commission permanente de la section de la démocracie polonaise à Londres: Sawaszkiewicz, Warskiroski; les membres du comité démocrate socialiste des réfugiés allemands et de la société ouvrière allemande: Dietz (Oswald), Gebert (A.), Mayer (Adolphe), Schärttner (A.), Schapper (Charles), Willich (Auguste). Les délégués de la société démocratique hongroise à Londres: Molikoy, Simonyi.

Londres le 16. Novembre 1850.'[11] [12]

If that's not champion drivel, then I really don't know what is.[13] Having read the Rollin, Mazzini, Ruge, etc. manifesto addressed to the Germans,[14] wherein they are invited to sing the Bardiet[15] and reminded that their forbears were called 'Franks', and wherein the King of Prussia[16] had already agreed to be whacked by Austria, I thought I had plumbed the depths of stupidity. Mais non! For here is the Fanon-Caperon-Gouté manifesto, as the Patrie calls it,[17] of the dii minorum gentium[18] with, as it rightly remarks, the same content but devoid of chic, devoid of style, with the most pathetic rhetorical flourishes such as serpents and sicaires[19] and égorgements![20] The Indépendance, quoting a few sentences from this masterpiece, relates that it was composed by the soldats les plus obscurs de la Démocratie[21] and that these poor devils had sent it to the London correspondent of that paper, despite the latter's conservatism. Such was their longing to appear in print. In retribution it names no names, and similarly the Patrie names only the three mentioned above. To compound the misère they gave one of the Straubingers here (yesterday this same person told Pfänder the sorry tale) 50 copies to take to France. Just off Boulogne he hurled 49 of them into the sea; on reaching Boulogne Brother Straubinger was sent back to London for lack of a passport, and declares 'that he is now off to Boston'.

Farewell and write by return.

Your

K.Marx


Apropos! Do write sometime to the worthy Dronke telling him to reply about League matters and not to write only in the case of begging letters. The gentlemen in Cologne[22] have sent no news. 'Haude', who is now back, having lost all his worldly goods in Germany,[23] is described by Weydemeyer as an 'otherwise stout lad'.

You must seriously consider what you are going to write about.[24] England won't do, there being 2 articles on the subject already,[25] perhaps 3 with Eccarius.[26] Nor is there a great deal to say about France. Could you not perhaps, in conjunction with Mazzini's latest things, tackle the rotten Italians along with their revolution? (His Republic and Monarchy etc., as well as his religion, the Pope, etc.)[27]


[From Jenny Marx]

Dear Mr Engels,

Your kind sympathy over the heavy blow dealt us by fate through the loss of our little darling, my poor little child of sorrow,[28] has been a great comfort to me, the more so as, in the last few sorrowful days, I have found cause for the most bitter complaint in our friend Schramm. My husband and all the rest of us have missed you sorely and have often longed to see you. However, I am very glad that you have left and are well on the way to becoming a great COTTON LORD. See that you entrench yourself firmly between the two warring brothers[29] ; their tussle is bound to place you in a position of indispensability vis-à-vis your respected Papa, and in my mind's eye I already see you as Friedrich Engels JUNIOR and partner of the SENIOR. But of course the best thing about it is that, notwithstanding the COTTON TRADE and all the rest, you are still the same old Fritze and, in the words of those three arch-democrats, Frederick William the First,[30] Kinkel and Mazzini, you will not become 'estranged from the sacred cause of freedom'. Karl has told you something about the mummery here. I might add some nova.[31] That obese ruffian, Haude, shed all his fat during his muckraking tour of the German provinces and trips over his own legs whenever he sees anyone. It would seem that a little hippopotamus of dubious origin has joined the dictator hippopotamus,[32] and that the Great Windmill Knight, Hohenzoller Willich, has reinforced his guard of nobles with a few qualified footpads and blackguards. Our own people dawdle along from one day to the next with the help of a few borrowed pence. Rings is now earning something as a claqueur with the Duke of Brunswick, who is once more loudly pontificating before the courts.

The last Polish banquet, at which were foregathered the French, German, Hungarian and Polish crapauds[33] (Willich, Fieschi, Adam, etc.),[34] ended up in a free-for-all. Apart from that we've heard nothing of the crew. Last night we attended Ernest Jones' first lecture on the history of the papacy. His lecture was marvellous and, by English standards, advanced, though not quite à la hauteur[35] for us Germans who have run the gauntlet of Hegel, Feuerbach, etc. Poor Harney was dangerously ill of an abscess of the windpipe. He is not allowed to speak. An English doctor has made two incisions without finding the affected spot. His Red [Republican][36] has turned into The Friend of the People. Well, enough for today. The children chatter a great deal about Uncle Angeis and, thanks to your estimable tuition, dear Mr Engels, little Till[37] now gives a splendid rendering of the song about the 'journeyman's pelt and the nimble broom'.

I hope we shall see you at Christmas.[38]

Yours

Jenny Marx

  1. ↑ L'Indépendance belge—a daily newspaper founded in Brussels in 1831; mouthpiece of the liberal opposition; in the 1840s and 1850s it published articles and reports by German and other political refugees.
  2. ↑ self-styled
  3. ↑ Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue
  4. ↑ Marx has in mind negotiations concerning publication of his works started with Hermann Becker in December 1850. The first issue of Gesammelte Aufsätze von Karl Marx was published in Cologne in April 1851.
  5. ↑ Pulteney Stores—apparently the premises where the members of the London district of the Communist League held their meetings. At the meeting of the Central Authority held on 15 September 1850 Marx, in an effort to avert a split and with the support of the majority, suggested to transfer the seat of the Central Authority to Cologne, to authorise the Cologne district committee to form a new Central Authority, and to set up in London two independent district committees, one of the followers of Marx and Engels, and the other of those of Willich and Schapper. The separatists refused to submit to this decision and formed their own Central Committee in London. Marx's followers in London grouped around the London district committee, while a new Central Authority was formed in Cologne in October 1850, and expelled the members of the separatist organisation from the Communist League.
  6. ↑ dull
  7. ↑ Conrad Schramm (1820-1858)—German jurist and journalist, member of the Communist League from 1846, commander of a workers' company in the Palatinate during the 1849 revolution; after its suppression émigré in Switzerland and from 1850 in London; contributor to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue; member of the Communist League and of its London Central Authority; friend and associate of Marx and Engels.
  8. ↑ The London German Workers' Educational Society had its premises in Great Windmill Street. In mid-September 1850 the Communist League split due to the adventurist activities of the Willich-Schapper separatist group, which, contrary to the majority of the League's Central Authority, stood for the tactics of immediately launching a revolution without due consideration of the real conditions in Europe. On 17 September Marx, Engels and their followers withdrew from the London German Workers' Educational Society which fell under the influence of the group. The spokesmen of the Willich-Schapper group brought a suit on behalf of the Society against Heinrich Bauer and Karl Pfänder, supporters of the majority of the League's Central Authority, who held some of the Society's money as trustees to cover the needs of the League and help political refugees. Bauer and Pfänder were willing to return the money in instalments, provided it was not spent by the separatists to the detriment of the Communist League. However, the separatists insisted on the immediate return of the entire sum. On 20 November 1850 the court rejected the Society's suit, but the followers of Willich and Schapper did not halt their insinuations and started a press campaign against Bauer and Pfänder, accusing them of embezzlement. Marx and Engels helped to refute this slander.
  9. ↑ Published in Le Constitutionnel, 18 December 1850.
  10. ↑ The meeting between the Russian Emperor Nicholas I, the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph and the head of the Prussian Government, the Count of Brandenburg, took place in Warsaw on 28 October 1850. At it Nicholas I resolutely took the side of Austria in the Austro-Prussian conflict and brought pressure to bear upon the Prussian Prime Minister, demanding that Prussia should abandon all plans to unite Germany under her hegemony.
  11. ↑ 'To the democrats of all nations!
    Citizens! Proscribed refugees in England who, for that very reason, are in a better position to judge the political movements on the Continent, we' (note well! An out-and-out solecism in this single phrase which they have daringly tacked on to subject, copula and predicate, and should in any case read: and hence in a better position than the rest of you to) 'have been able actively to keep track of and observe all the combinations of the coalition powers preparing for a fresh invasion of France, where' (very naice!) 'the Cossacks of the North are awaited by their accomplices to' (yet again 'awaited to') 'extinguish at its very centre' (the birthplace of Barthélemy and Pottier) 'the volcano of the Universal Revolution.— The kings and aristocrats of Europe have realised that it was time to put up dykes to arrest the popular tide' (should read: popular stagnation) 'which is threatening to engulf their tottering thrones.—Large numbers of troops raised in Russia, in Austria, in Prussia, in Bavaria, in Hanover, in Württemberg, in Saxony and, in short, in all the states of Germany, have already mustered' (troops ... have already mustered!). 'In Italy 130,000 men are threatening the Swiss frontier. The Vorarlberg is occupied by 80,000 men, The Upper Rhine is covered by 80,000 men, Württembergers, Badeners and Prussians. The Main is guarded by 80,000 Bavarians and Austrians. While 370,000 men occupy the localities indicated above, Prussia has mobilised 200,000 soldiers which she is holding available' (sic!) 'for launching against the frontiers of Belgium and France. Holland and Belgium, constrained by the coalitions, will support the invasion move with an army 150,000 strong. In Bohemia 150,000 men are holding themselves ready and only await the order to join up with the army of the Main, which will thus be 230,000 strong. 80,000 men are concentrated round Vienna. 300,000 Russians are encamped in Poland, and 80,000 in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg: all together these armies make up a force of one million three hundred and thirty thousand combatants who are only awaiting the signal to attack. Behind these troops and also (!) holding themselves ready are 180,000 Austrians, 200,000 Prussians, 100,000 men provided by the German principalities, and 230,000 Russians. Taken together these armies form a reserve of 700,000 men; not counting the innumerable (sic!) 'hordes of barbarians which the Muscovite Attila will unleash from the heart of Asia to be launched, as of yore (!), against European civilisation. From German newspapers' (here a note is appended with a piffling sentence from the Neue Deutsche Zeitung to put Lüning in a good mood) 'and from our own sources of information we learn the secret intentions of the Powers whose Plenipotentiaries foregathered in Warsaw on 25 October last. It was decided, in the (!) conference, that a feint war' (My God! what diplomats!) 'between Prussia and Austria would serve as a pretext for the movement of troops whom the will of the Czar is transforming into blind instruments and ferocious bravoes to combat the defenders of liberty.' (Bravo!) 'In the face of these facts, there can no longer be any possible doubt: at this moment they are organising the massacre, already begun (!!), of all republicans. The days of June 1848, with their bloody executions and i—proscriptions that followed them—Hungary devastated and enslaved by Austria—Italy delivered up to the Pope and the Jesuits, after the Roman Republic had been butchered by the soldiers of the French Government, have in no way assuaged the fury of our enemies: they dream of the enslavement of all those people who are fighting for the victory of common liberty. If democracy is not on its guard, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Italy and France will soon again fall victim to the fury of the brutal soldiery of Nicholas who whets the barbarians' appetite for battle with the promise that they may devastate and pillage Europe.
    In the face of this danger by which we are threatened, arise! Arise ... French, German, Italian, Polish and Hungarian republicans, let us emerge from this torpor' (Toping Schapper and Willich!) 'which debilitates our strength and paves the way for an easy victory for our oppressors. Arise!... Let us ensure that the present days of inactivity and shame are succeeded by the days of fatigue and glory which await us with the holy war of liberty! On examining these dangers we have pointed out to you, you will realise, like us that it would be folly to wait any longer for our common enemy to attack; we must make every preparation and go out to face the peril which surrounds us.' (Just try going out to face something which surrounds you!) 'Citizens, Socialist Democrats, our salvation lies only with ourselves: we cannot count on anything but our own efforts; and, enlightened by the examples of the past, we must provide against the betrayals of the future. Let us avoid, let us avoid above all, the trap that has been laid for us by the serpents (!) of diplomacy. The emulators of the Metternichs and the Talleyrands are at this moment contemplating how they may extinguish the torch of the Revolution by instigating in France, through the invasion they are preparing, a national war in which the peoples will butcher each other for the benefit of the enemies of their liberation. Nay, Citizens! No more national war! For us the barriers, set up by despots between the nations they had shared out among them, are henceforward fallen, and the peoples, confounded,' (really: confounded), 'have only one flag upon which, with the fertile blood of our martyrs, we have written: Universal Democratic and Social Republic'
    On behalf of Their Societies: 'The members of the Committee of the Society of Exiled French Socialist Democrats in London: Adam (Cambreur), Barthélémy (Emmanuel), Caperon (Paulin), Fanon, Goûté, Thierry, Vidil (Jules); the delegates of the Permanent Commission of the Polish Democracy Section in London: Sawaszkiewicz, Warskiroski; the members of the Socialist Democratic Committee of German Refugees and the German Workers' Society: Dietz (Oswald), Geben (A.), Mayer (Adolphe), Schärttner (A.), Schapper (Karl), Willich (August). The delegates of the Hungarian Democratic Society in London: Molikoy, Simonyi.
    London, 16 November 1850.'
  12. ↑ The leaders of the refugee organisations listed signed this document. Among them were in particular the organisation of the French Blanquist refugees—Société des proscrits démocrates socialistes, the London German Workers' Educational Society and the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee. The last two fell after the split in the Communist League under the influence of the Willich-Schapper separatist group. Subsequently, in their satirical pamphlet The Great Men of the Exile, Marx and Engels noted that this group was formed from the lower strata of the emigrants and took part in the squabbles among the political refugees. They also made fun of its Fanon-Caperon manifesto, as the conservative press called it.
  13. ↑ Marx adapts here a saying current in the Mark.
  14. ↑ 'Le Comité central démocratique européen, aux Allemands, 13 novembre 1850' published in La Voix du Proscrit, No. 4, 17 November 1850 and other papers.
  15. ↑ Teutonic war song
  16. ↑ Frederick William IV
  17. ↑ G. de Molinari, 'Un nouveau manifeste rouge', La Patrie, 28 November 1850.
  18. ↑ second-rate luminaries (literally: gods of minor nations)
  19. ↑ assassins
  20. ↑ butchery
  21. ↑ the most obscure soldiers of Democracy (L'Indépendance belge, No. 323, 19 November 1850); the newspaper has: 'soldats ... de la démagogie'.
  22. ↑ members of the Cologne Central Authority of the Communist League
  23. ↑ Haude went to Germany as an emissary of the Willich-Schapper group after the split in the Communist League.
  24. ↑ Marx apparently has in mind Engels' work for a quarterly planned by him as a continuation of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue.
  25. ↑ F. Engels, 'The English Ten Hours' Bill' and K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Review. May to October [1850]'.
  26. ↑ J. G. Eccarius, 'Die Schneiderei in London oder der Kampf des grossen und des kleinen Capitals', Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue, No. 5-6, 1850.
  27. ↑ J. Mazzini, Republic and Royalty in Italy published in several issues of The Red Republican in June-November 1850; G. Mazzini, Le Pape au dix-neuvième siècle.
  28. ↑ Heinrich Guido Marx, the youngest son of Karl and Jenny Marx, who died on 19 November 1850
  29. ↑ Gottfried and Peter Ermen
  30. ↑ August Willich
  31. ↑ novelties, news
  32. ↑ August Willich
  33. ↑ toads (French pejorative term)
  34. ↑ The last Polish banquet at which the French, German, Hungarian and Polish emigrants gathered was held on 29 November 1850 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Polish uprising of 1830. Marx and Engels ridiculed this banquet in their pamphlet The Great Men of the Exile.
  35. ↑ up to the standard
  36. ↑ The Red Republican—a Chartist weekly published in London from June to November 1850, edited by George Julian Harney. From December 1850 it was renamed The Friend of the People to avoid persecution.
  37. ↑ Probably Marx's daughter Laura, nicknamed Till
  38. ↑ At the end of 1850 Engels stayed with Marx's family in London for a whole week and on 30 December he made a speech at a New Year party organised by the Fraternal Democrats. Marx and his wife were also present.