Letter to Ferdinand Freiligrath, January 26, 1852

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 26 January 1852


First published in part in Die Neue Zeit, Ergänzungshefte, No. 12, 12 April, Stuttgart, 1912 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO FERDINAND FREILIGRATH

IN LONDON

[London,] 26 January 1852 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Freiligrath,

The verse you sent me to have a look at is delicious and expresses the corpus delicti in a masterly manner, but I believe it impairs the effect of the whole.[1] D'abord,[2] is Kinkel a 'German poet? I and a great many other bons gens[3] venture modestly to express some doubt upon this point. Then: will it not detract from the significant contrast between the 'German poet' and the 'commercial' Babylon to deal yet again with the contrast between the 'free' and the 'servile' poet? The more so as the relationship of the puffed-up man of letters to the world that confronts the 'poet' is already depicted exhaustively in Andersen.[4] Since, as I see it, there is no intrinsic need to bring in Kinkel at this point, your verse would only provide our opponents with the opportunity of coming down on it as the expression of personal pique or rivalry. But as it is so felicitous and ought not to be wasted, you will—if you agree with my view in other respects—certainly have a chance of using it in a different context, in one of the later poetical letters. For the sketch is delicious.

Since Engels-Weerth have not returned the copy of your first poem[5] which I sent them, all I had to offer red Wolff[6] yesterday were the few bits I knew by heart which, however, sufficed to bring on one of his fits of enthusiasm.

Quant à notre ami[7] Ebner,[8] he has undoubtedly had letters from Pieper, the best proof being that Pieper possesses a reply from him. Besides, he wrote him another long letter quite recently, excusing my silence on the grounds of my indisposition.

I have had a letter from Bermbach consisting of some 30 lines. He asks why he has not heard from me for so long. The answer is quite simple. I send about half a sheet to Cologne and, after a very long delay, receive in return a few lines, none of which ever answers my questions. For instance, never a word about Daniels' state of health and the like. You will get this letter as soon as it comes back from Manchester. Engels is going to use it for articles for the English papers.[9] There is nothing of importance in the scrawl save the following: The Board of indicting magistrates, remarquez le bien,[10] in view of the fact 'that there was no actual evidence of an indictable offence', rules that the investigation must start all over again. First then, on the basis of some stupid presumption, you have to spend 9 months in jug. Next, it transpires that there are no legal grounds for your being in jug. Conclusion: You must remain in jug until the examining magistrate finds himself à même[11] to present 'actual evidence of an indictable offence' and, if the 'actual evidence' is not forthcoming, in gaol you remain until you rot.

Such shameless poltroonery is unbelievable. The main fault lies with the wretched 'Press' which utters not a word. A few articles in the Kölnische Zeitung, the National-Zeitung and the Breslauer Zeitung—and the Cologne Board of indicting magistrates would never have dared do anything of the sort. But the liberals and democrats, like the curs they are, rejoice at the removal of their communist rivals. Did we not stand up for the Temmes and every imaginable variety of democratic riff-raff whenever they found themselves in conflict with the police and the courts?[12] Not once does Kinkel, for whom Becker was a hearth and Bürgers a haven,[13] render them any thanks in the Lithographische Korrespondenz which he sustains with American funds. Les canailles!

If I knew of a safe bourgeois address in Cologne, I would write to Mrs Daniels and endeavour to reassure her to some extent about political conditions. From what Pieper tells me, it would seem that every counter-revolutionary advance is exploited by the 'worthy citizens' to alarm and vex her.

Enclosed a note from Miss Jenny to Master Wolfgang.[14]

Kind regards,

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ The reference is to the verse added by Freiligrath to the second poem which he had written for Weydemeyer's newspaper on 23 January 1852 (see Note 13) and sent to Marx on 25 January 1852 to have his opinion: Das heißt: dafern Du Babel nicht beglücktest Endlos mit Briefen, Karten, Inseraten, (Plakaten gar!)—dafern Du Dich nicht bücktest, Und um ein Wörtlein nur von Deinen Thaten Feig vor der Presse krochst und so Dich drücktest, (Gleich Virtuosen oder Akrobaten,) Daß Dich zuletzt, nach manchem sauern Schritt, Wirklich in Holz die Illustrierte schnitt! Here Freiligrath alludes to the fact that Kinkel, by flattery and fawning, succeeded in having an article about himself, together with a portrait, printed in the Illustrated News on 30 November 1850. When the poem was published, the additional verse about Kinkel was not included, which means that Freiligrath complied with Marx's recommendation
  2. ↑ Firstly
  3. ↑ good people
  4. ↑ Freiligrath's second poem contained verses addressed to Hans Andersen which Marx mentions here. They were prompted by Freiligrath's grudge against Andersen who, while in London, did not recognise him when they chanced to meet. He felt all the more bitter because the Danish storyteller had enjoyed his hospitality in Germany. When the poem was published in Die Revolution the editors supplied the following note to Andersen's name: 'Herr Andersen himself appears here not merely as an individual but as the epitome of a peculiar type of literary lion and parasite to which the revolution seemed to have dealt the death-blow but which is again coming up and boastfully asserting itself everywhere.' In Freüigraths gesammelte Dichtungen published in Stuttgart in 1870 (Bd. 4, S. 5-6) the poem was printed without the 11 verses devoted to Hans Christian Andersen
  5. ↑ F. Freiligrath, 'An Joseph Weydemeyer', I.
  6. ↑ Ferdinand Wolff
  7. ↑ As for our friend
  8. ↑ In a letter to Marx of 25 January 1852 Freiligrath quoted a letter from Ebner who expressed surprise at not having received any letters from Marx and Pieper and promised to discuss with the publisher Löwenthal the possibility of printing Marx's works. It later transpired that Ebner was an Austrian police informer, of which Marx and his friends were not aware at the time
  9. ↑ Things are moving.
  10. ↑ note it well
  11. ↑ in a position
  12. ↑ See this volume, p. 20.
  13. ↑ Pun in the original on the name of Becker and 'hat gebacken' (has baked—figuratively, set up in the world) and the name of Bürgers and 'hat geborgen' (went security for). During the legal proceedings in May 1850 the Westdeutsche Zeitung, whose editor was Hermann Becker, came out in defence of Kinkel by publishing Bürgers' articles 'Die Logik in dem Prozesse Kinkels und Genossen' and 'Die Freisprechung Kinkels', Nos. 102-104, 107, 30 April, 1, 2 and 5 May 1850. See also this volume, pp. 34 and 570.
  14. ↑ Marx's daughter to Freiligrath's son