Letter to Laura Lafargue, February 24, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 February 1887


First published, in the language of the original (English), in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. 2 (1887-1890), Paris, Ed. sociales, 1956
Reproduced from the original
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 24 February 1887

My dear Laura,

The Révolution en Allemagne-Prise de Berlin[1] —does not exactly come off in the way depicted in the Way of the People. The Voie du peuple on the other side of the Vosges is not exactly along the Boulevards of beautiful Paris. Not to speak of their mistakes about seats lost and gained, etc., the success of our German friends lies in another direction than where they seek it.[2] First of all, we have so far lost seats and not gained any, but that, though a fact, counts for nothing. The decisive fact is that, while we are very slowly losing ground in the Saxon districts of hand-weaving (which is dying out) and which were our original strong- holds, we are gaining far more rapidly not only in the large towns but in all rural industrial districts. I have the exact figures of 43 districts with one deputy each, including Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Munich, Leipzig, Hanover, Magdeburg, Elberfeld, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Nürnberg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt etc, mostly large towns of course.

In these we had in all votes 408,360 in the same places in 1884 321,876
Gained
86,484

or 27 per cent on the votes of 1884, in 3 years; and these include 5 districts in which we lost votes. In a day or two I shall have more data to extend my list which comprises all districts the figures of which I know. Berlin has come out splendidly and I begin to have some confidence in that otherwise ridiculous town.

The pressure brought to bear on our people was tremendous. Not even public proclamation of their candidates was allowed. Every one who took a part in the election by distributing bulletins de vote[3] etc. was noted—which means expulsion in the numerous towns under state of siege. Wherever possible, the manufacturers conducted them to the poll and saw that they voted for Bismarck unless they wanted immediate discharge from work. And all this will be repeated and increased on the day of ballotage where we expect to secure most of our seats.

Singer is the Lockroy[4] —le premier élu de l'Allemagne.[5] He had 32,227 votes which no other member can boast of. Bebel is in for Hamburg, Liebknecht out for Offenbach[6] ; had he had 50 more votes, he would have been in the ballot at Bremen and then sure of election. But there are sure to be double elections so that he will not want the place whereon to rest his hind quarters.[7] The exact number of ballots in which we are interested I do not know; 16 at the least. These we shall almost all carry, as far as I can see—and unless we are left in the lurch by the Centre[8] or Progressists,[9] which is quite on the cards.

While ordinarily but 55 to 65% of the voters polled, this time the philistine came up in force; 85 to 90% of the number on the list. And this accounts for many defeats.

I am extremely glad of the Alsatian vote.[10] That will help us to get rid of these non-descripts—neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring—all the easier.

In a day or two you will get a printed circular with Aveling's reply to the charges of the New York Executive.[11] If this circular has not been sent to the German club in Paris, then it has not been sent to Paris at all. It is nothing but the usual complaint of Knoten[12] against Gelehrte[13] that they lived extravagantly on the pence of the working man. Fortunately we have a good reply.

Tell Paul that his discovery about Oriental Circumcision[14] shares the fate of many of my discoveries in natural science viz. that it had been made before. I have read the same thing long ago in German books and should not wonder if it was already in old Creuzer's Symbolik[15] which is as old as the battle of Waterloo.

Poor Edward had an awful shock about these ridiculous accusations, so soon after his quinsy. He is not over-endowed with power of resis- tance to malady, and so this threw him back very much. He has been off and on at Hastings and is going off again to-night.

The last page of the Voie to-day[16] looks rather queer, all Bel Ami[17] and no advertisements.[18] Rather too much for one dose, I should think.

Half past five—Postschluss[19] —and Dinner Bell! So farewell for to-day.

Very affectionately yours

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Revolution in Germany—Capture of Berlin
  2. ↑ On 24 February 1887 the Vole du peuple, under the general headline 'La Revolution en Allemagne. Prise de Berlin', carried an editorial entitled 'Victoirel' devoted to the German Reichstag election of 21 February (see note 15).
  3. ↑ polling cards
  4. ↑ Engels compares Paul Singer's success at the Reichstag election to that of the French Radical Edouard Lockroy, who obtained 272,680 votes, more than any other candidate, at the 1885 parliamentary election and was called 'le premier elu de la France' (France's first choice). As can be seen from Singer's letter of 7 March 1887, Engels congratulated him on the great success.
  5. ↑ the top candidate in Germany
  6. ↑ Engels has: Offenburg
  7. ↑ After failing to poll the requisite number of votes at the Reichstag election of 21 February 1887, Wilhelm Liebknecht succeeded in winning a seat in the run-off in Berlin's Fourth constituency on 30 August 1888 in lieu of Wilhelm Hasenclever, who had dropped out for health reasons.
  8. ↑ The Centre was a political party of German Catholics formed in June 1870. It expressed the separatist and anti-Prussian sentiments current in West and Southwest Germany. (The seats of its Reichstag deputies were in the centre of the hall, hence the name of the party.) The Centre's following consisted of socially disparate sections of Catholic clergy, landowners, bourgeois and peasants. Its deputies usually took a noncommittal attitude, manoeuvring between the pro-government parties and the Left opposition groups. Although it opposed the Bismarck government in the mid-1870s and early 1880s, the Centre voted for its measures against the working-class and socialist movement. Engels gave a detailed characterisation of the Centre in his work The Role of Force in History (see present edition, Vol. 26) and in his article 'What Now?' (see Vol. 27).
  9. ↑ The Party of Progress, founded in June 1861, advocated the unification of Germany under the aegis of Prussia, the convocation of an all-German parliament, and a liberal Ministry responsible to the Chamber of Deputies. Fearing a popular revolution, it did not support the basic democratic demands - universal suffrage and the freedom of the press, association and assembly. In 1866 the Party of Progress split. Its right wing founded the National Liberal Party, which capitulated to the Bismarck government. After the final unification of Germany in 1871, the Progressists continued to describe themselves as an opposition party, but their opposition was purely declaratory. In March 1884 they merged with the left wing of the National Liberals to form the German Free-Thinking Party (Die Deutsche Freisinnige Partei).
  10. ↑ Despite Bismarck's anti-French press campaign in Alsace Lorraine, which was supported by the clergy, candidates opposing his militarist ambitions were put up in the Reichstag elections. All the fifteen nominees elected were members of the Elsasser (Alsatian) party.
  11. ↑ This refers to Aveling's letter of 26 February 1887 which was circulated, in printed form, to the sections of the Socialist Labor Party of North Americnd other socialist organisations. It was a detailed answer to the accusations levelled at Aveling by the party's Executive on 7 January 1887 (see note 32).
  12. ↑ louts
  13. ↑ the educated
  14. ↑ See P. Lafargue, 'Die Beschneidung, ihre soziale und religiöse Bedeutung', Neue Zeit, 6. Jhg., 1888, pp.496-505
  15. ↑ F. Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen
  16. ↑ the Voie du peuple of 24 February 1887
  17. ↑ the novel of Guy de Maupassant
  18. ↑ On 8 February 1887 the Voie du peuple began serialising Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami.
  19. ↑ time for the post