Letter to Sophie von Hatzfeldt, December 22, 1864

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 22 December 1864


First published in: F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Bd. III, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1922
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


MARX TO SOPHIE VON HATZFELDT

IN BERLIN

[Draft]

London, 22 December 1864

1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park,
Haverstock Hill

My dear Countess,

A few days ago, a friend in Hamburg sent me the Nordstern containing my statement against Blind,[1] duly emended with misprints.

It was at your request that I made this statement, although its composition did not come easily to me as I did not agree with Lassalle's political tactics. However, all my scruples were removed by Blind's shameless outburst against the deceased in the St Louis 'Westliche Post'.[2] I had not the slightest idea which papers you would send the statement to. The Nordstern was the furthest from my mind. Mr Bruhn has now seized upon this opportunity to make an 'indecent gesture' in my direction, by hinting to his readers in the commentaries that I had sought access to his emporium through the back door and had been granted it as an act of extreme graciousness only because a third party had intervened especially on my behalf.[3] I have no doubt that his accomplice in America will make use of this. Is it Mr Bruhn's desire that I should be forced into exposing him publicly for the conceited nonentity that he is?

If Bruhn, Bernhard Becker and tutti quanti set out to oppose me and my efforts in any manner whatsoever that I consider harmful to the workers' movement itself, a storm will break about these gentlemen's heads that will take their breath away. Reasons of long-standing personal friendship and party interest, which held me back vis-à-vis Lassalle, can no longer have the slightest force in respect of these dii minorum gentium[4] This I am stating once and for all, so that I cannot later be charged with ambiguity or inconsiderateness.

In no circumstances, do I wish the Eighteenth Brumaire to be published, and, if steps have already been taken to this end, they are to be checked forthwith.[5]

I scarcely dare express any good wishes for the New Year, knowing as I do that the old year has left you, my dear Countess, only with memories.

Yours very respectfully

K. M.

  1. ↑ K. Marx, 'To the Editor of the Stuttgart Beobachter'.
  2. ↑ Karl Blind
  3. ↑ The Beobachter editor confined himself to publishing only the covering letter to Marx's statement (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 22) and his own 'comments' on this statement.
    Marx foresaw that the Beobachter editor might not publish his statement and sent a copy of it TO SOPHIE VON HATZFELDT for publication in other German papers. Without notifying Marx, the Countess sent the statement to Karl Bruhn, the editor of the Lassallean Nordstern. He published it on 10 December 1864, with the following editorial note: 'We have got the article through second hand, and only because of this particular circumstance is it accepted for publication in the Nordstern. Marx expressed his indignation at this in a letter TO SOPHIE VON HATZFELDT on 22 December (see this volume, pp. 56-57).
  4. ↑ Literally: minor gods; here, creatures of a lesser kind.
  5. ↑ This refers TO SOPHIE VON HATZFELDT's intention to republish Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. It was to be printed in Switzerland. Liebknecht informed Marx of this on 2 December 1864 and asked him to send two copies of the book for the purpose. Marx objected because he was obviously afraid that the Lassalleans might use his works to propagate Lassalle's cult.
    Subsequently, Liebknecht, independently of Hatzfeldt, attempted to come to terms with the Swiss publisher, but in vain. The second edition of The Eighteenth Brumaire appeared only in 1869, in Germany.