Letter to Karl Klein and Friedrich Moll, March 10, 1871

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	10 March 1871

First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44

ENGELS TO KARL KLEIN AND FRIEDRICH MOLL

IN SOLINGEN

London, 10 March 1871

122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.

Dear Friends Klein and Moll,

You must have been very surprised not to have received any reply to your letters of February last year. There were, however, a number of reasons for it. In the first place, I had hoped from one day to the next to be in a position to have something positive to say about the Association. But this turned out to be impossible and after the outbreak of the war it could no longer be expected. In the second place, your letter arrived in such a sorry state that I could be in no doubt that the postal authorities had been at pains to read it. So I waited for an opportune moment, particularly since the war, the state of siege and the many arrests. And, finally, I could not know whether both of you had not been conscripted into the Landwehr^[1] during the war.

An opportunity has now arisen to send a letter to Barmen, whence it could be passed on with little danger, and so I shall make use of it to give you a sign of life, and to enclose the promised portrait of myself. I have not yet been able to obtain one of Schapper who, as you know, died last year; as soon as I can lay hands on one, you shall have it.

The German workers now have a hard time ahead of them; it seems to have been decided that they should be the victims whose sacrifice will provide the occasion for a reconciliation between Junker and bourgeoisie. But it doesn't matter. The workers' movement has become too powerful even in Germany to be snuffed out that easily by Prussian tricks. On the contrary, the persecutions we have to be prepared for will just give us greater strength, and when the bourgeois at present drunk with victory has overslept from intoxication and the hangover is beginning, a chance will arise for our party to raise its voice once more. At any rate, the exemplary behaviour of the German workers during the war has demonstrated that they know what is at stake and that they alone, of all the parties, have a correct insight into the history of our age, whereas the bourgeois have really let victory go to their heads.

I have been living here in London for the past five months. It seems doubtful whether you can continue for much longer to belong to the International Working Men's Association unless just in principle, since they seem to want to make it a criminal offence to be a member of that Association in Germany. At any rate, you may rest assured that having prepared the way for the association of the entire European and American proletariat over the past seven years, we shall take good care that it does not disintegrate whatever the circumstances. And that is the main thing.

With fraternal greetings,

Yours,

F. Engels

↑ The Landwehr—a second-line army reserve formed in Prussia during the struggle against Napoleonic rule. In the 1870s, it consisted of men under forty years of age who had seen active service and had been in the first-line reserve. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Landwehr was used in military actions on a par with the regular troops.

[1] The Landwehr—a second-line army reserve formed in Prussia during the struggle against Napoleonic rule. In the 1870s, it consisted of men under forty years of age who had seen active service and had been in the first-line reserve. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Landwehr was used in military actions on a par with the regular troops.

[1]