Letter to August Bebel, August 13, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 13 August 1887


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO AUGUST BEBEL

IN PLAUEN NEAR DRESDEN

Eastbourne, 13 August 1887
4 Cavendish Place

Dear Bebel,

Tomorrow or the day after you will be released from prison[1] and I, for my part, hope to realise a plan which I have had in mind ever since you took up lodgings with the King of Saxony. Namely, to invite you to make a short trip to London at my expense to help you recover from the wear and tear of martyrdom. But you must do me the favour of accepting my proposal in its entirely, especially as regards it's being at my expense, for my conscience would not allow me to impose upon you any sacrifices, however small, in this connection. A holiday of this kind would seem to me absolutely essential to your health; you would at long last be able to breathe the air of liberty again, for over here the air is as free as it ever can be in a capitalist society. An abrupt transition from the narrow confines of Zwickau prison to the wider ones of the prison that is Germany would be altogether too hard. But I can think of nothing that is of more vital concern to the party now than your state of health, and therefore beg you to allow me to make my contribution to the party in the shape that seems to me most fitting.

I shall be here for the next fortnight, i.e. shall return to London on the 27th inst.[2] I imagine it will take you roughly the same amount of time to put various matters in order, and I myself am unable to go back to town before then because my house is being refurbished from attic to cellar and everything is at sixes and sevens. But if you can come over any earlier and spend a few days with us here at the seaside, so much the better and the sooner the better. You can take the night boat from Flushing and travel to Victoria Station in London; the trains for Eastbourne leave from the same station and will get you here in 2 or 2'x'h hours. Kautsky, who returns to town from Ventnor on Monday (address 35 Lady Somerset Road, Highgate, London, N. W.), will gladly pilot you around London. Liebknecht, who also paid us a visit last year, was enthusiastic about the locality.

So I eagerly await your answer and, provided this is in the affirmative and you are not coming straight away, shall send you an advance remittance and thus make even more sure of you.

All other discussions have best be left until we meet. So much has happened which you are better qualified than anyone else to explain to me. On the whole I am satisfied with the course the world has taken since you went into isolation; things are going ahead everywhere.

Now I must close, for down here the post goes at 1.15 p.m. and if I miss it my letter won't leave London until Monday morning. I am addressing it for safety's sake to your wife, to whom, as to your daughter,[3] kindly give my warmest regards.

Your old friend

F. E.

In case you should have to look up Kautsky in London, herewith a more detailed address:

35 Lady Somerset Road, Highgate, near Kentish Town Station, Kentish Town Road. No need to put this on letters.

  1. ↑ From mid-November 1886 to 14 August 1887 August Bebel was in prison in Zwickau. He was one of a group of German Social Democrats (others included Ignaz Auer, Johann Dietz, Georg Vollmar, Karl Frohme) condemned on trumped up charges of belonging to a 'secret union' whose purpose it was to obstruct by illegal means the enforcement of laws and government regulations. The indictment was based on the defendants' participation in the 1883 Copenhagen Social Democratic Party Congress. The court brought in a verdict of not guilty. However, the government appealed to the Imperial Court, which sent the case for re-examination to the Saxony State Court in Freiberg. On 4 August 1886 the latter sentenced the defendants to various prison terms. In the subsequent two and a half years another 55 trials of socialists were staged, resulting in the conviction of 236 people.
  2. ↑ Engels holidayed in Eastbourne from 23 July to 2 September.
  3. ↑ Julie and Frieda Bebel