Letter to Karl Marx, September 24, 1868

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 September 1868


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 24 September 1868

Dear Moor,

So that is the reason for the sycophantic letter from Schweitzer![1]

The fellow obviously knew what was in store for him when he wrote to you. On the one hand, it may not be altogether unwelcome to him that he can drop the strict Lassallean religion, but fundamentally the loss of the 'tight' organisation and of the possibility to play at dictator is certainly fatal to him. Of course, this is the end of the Lassallean sect's self-important pretence that it is 'the party' in Germany, and the sect will gradually expire; it will continue to twitch the longest in the Bergisches Land, the real home of sects.

Incidentally, as Wilhelm[2] rightly guesses, his associations will also come under attack.[3] So much the better. The petty-bourgeois- people's-party-federalist fad of these fellows is not worth a penny. And it is a good thing that the government really stirs up the workers, once it sees that the workers won't let themselves be used by it against the bourgeoisie. Some form or another will surely be found.

But what a comrade Wilhelm is! Less than 4 months since he entered into a 'sort of alliance' with Schweitzer,[4] and today they are again at loggerheads, and he is too SLIPPERY for him. He knew that before, didn't he—but what about the fine lads he had 'assigned to watch him'!

What is this proclamation that you are supposed to issue by all means?[5] And these fine phrases in it about 'persons' which Wilhelm might construe against Baptist[6] and Baptist against Wilhelm! The South German democrat is impossible to get rid of, once you have him in your system. One might think Wilhelm was writing to Struve.

Schloff el (the elder) has turned up again in Silesia. I am folding into the returned Social-Demokrat some curiosa from the Zukunft.

If you had only gone to Nuremberg! You would have been compensated and afterwards been able to start again from the beginning with the SUFFERINGS. I tell you the fellow still can't distinguish you from Struve.

Apropos the dissolution of the General Association of German Workers[7] Wilhelm could now reprint the pertinent passages from my pamphlet,[8] in which all this was predicted for the Lassallean gentlemen. What do you think about it? I could prepare the muck for him, as I still have a few copies here.[9]

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ See this volume, pp. 105 and 107 08.
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Liebknecht; see this volume, p. 109.
  3. ↑ Engels is referring to the Union of German Workers' Associations, which was set up at the workers' educational societies' congress in Frankfurt am Main on 7 June 1863, in opposition to the Lassallean General Association of German Workers (see Note 104). Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel were actively involved in its activities, heading the workers' movement for a revolutionary and democratic way of Germany's unification and against the influence of the liberal bourgeoisie, which was quite strong in the first years of the Union's existence. At the Nuremberg Congress (see Note 135), it in fact affiliated itself with the International. Later, the Union was instrumental in the formation, at the Eisenach Congress of 1869, of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (see Note 373).
  4. ↑ Engels is referring to Liebknecht's letter TO MARX of 17 July 1868 about the arrangement made by Liebknecht and Schweitzer in Berlin in July 1868. During the meeting, Liebknecht told Schweitzer about his and Bebel's intention to recommend the forthcoming congress of the Union of German Workers' Associations in Nuremberg (see Note 135) to adopt the programme of the International, and insisted that the Lassallean Association be affiliated with it, believing that this would remove the cause for dissent between the Lassalleans and the followers of Bebel and Liebknecht, and make unification possible.
  5. ↑ In a letter TO MARX of 16 September 1868, Liebknecht proposed that an address to the German workers be drawn up urging unification and criticising Schweitzer and his followers as opponents of unity in the ranks of Social-Democrats.
  6. ↑ Baptist Schweitzer
  7. ↑ A reference to the ban imposed on 16 September 1868 by the Leipzig police on the General Association of German Workers (see Note 104) centred in Leipzig, and on its local branch in Berlin (see Engels' article 'On the Dissolution of the Lassallean Workers' Association', present edition, Vol. 21). On 10 October, however, a group of Lassalleans headed by Schweitzer restored the association under the same name, transferring its seat to Berlin. The new Statutes of the Association published in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 119, 11 October 1868, stated that the Association would abide by Prussian laws and act only in a peaceful, legal way. Adapting itself to Prussian law, the Association dissolved its local branches. (For Marx's and Engels' opinion of these manoeuvres, see letters of Marx to Engels of 25, 26 and 29 September and of Engels TO MARX of 21, 24 and 30 September and 2 October, as well as Marx's letter to Schweitzer of 13 October 1868.)
  8. ↑ The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party.
  9. ↑ In late September 1868, Engels wrote an article 'On the Dissolution of the Lassallean Workers' Association' for the Demokratisches Wochenblatt published by Liebknecht (present edition, Vol. 21). In it he quoted excerpts from his pamphlet 'The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party' (present edition, Vol. 20).—1ll, 112, 114