| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 29 December 1887 |
ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE[1]
IN PARIS
London, 29 December 1887
My dear Lafargue
I held back my reply until today when I should have received more precise information from Kautsky about the worthy Oberwinder. I knew about the business in general terms, but I wanted to be sure.[2]
After 1873 Oberwinder played a fairly important part in the Viennese movement. He was an erstwhile Lassallean, and editor of the Volkswille, a weekly paper. At that time, the deputies to the Austrian parliament were elected by the provincial diets, and the Liberals were agitating for direct election by the districts. Oberwinder espoused their cause with a fervour all the more disinterested for his being in the pay of the Liberals—through an intermediary, a Mr Szeps of the Neue Wiener Tagblatt. On the pretext that the Liberals' demand was the first step towards universal suffrage, he urged the workers to support them. Scheu opposed this, but in Vienna Oberwinder had a majority and compelled Scheu and his friends to secede; the latter, who had a majority in the provinces, founded Die Gleichheit in Wiener Neustadt and used their journal to attack Oberwinder in all kinds of ways, reproaching him for the above-mentioned activities and for other things besides. Oberwinder brought a libel action against Scheu, but the jury found that Scheu had proved his case and acquitted him. In the course of the proceedings it was further established that Oberwinder had expended on his weekly paper the sum of 10,000 florins (25,000 francs) subscribed towards the founding of a daily, and had done other things of a similar nature. In short, the case ruined Oberwinder's position in Vienna and the Liberals could have no further interest in paying him. He went to Hamburg where he associated with the Breuerist group of Lassalleans— one of those sects in which moribund Lassalleanism was ending its days. Its members were out-and-out petty bourgeois and their sect has been extinct for ten years or more. Next, Oberwinder came to Paris. About a year ago he published a pamphlet[3] in which he called on the German workers to rally to Bismarck's policy and support him so that he, in return, should grant them social reforms.
As you can see, he's a Lassallean who can say he has never betrayed his own opinions. 1) He believes in the omnipotence of universal suffrage, which is why he supported the Austrian Liberals; 2) Lassalle demanded that, in the struggle between royalty and the bourgeoisie, the workers should side with royalty—and that is why Oberwinder is a partisan of Bismarck's. Seeing that Lassalleanism is extinct in Germany, why should not this erstwhile Lassallean take Bismarck's money just as he had taken it from the Austrian Liberals? Except that, once he had drawn his first Bismarckian penny, he must have realised he was dealing with one more wily than himself and that he was trapped.
The discovery made by our people in Switzerland[4] may be of the utmost importance—the Swiss authorities will do all in their power to compromise Prussia, and the Geneva affair—a nihilist plot—will have repercussions. It is typical of the stupidity of the Prussian police! The said Haupt, caught red-handed by a handful of intrepid workers who, while searching his house—which he allowed them to do!—discovered his correspondence with Krüger—the Haupt is such a muffzs to admit having been an informer for the past seven years! And that's the man to whom they entrust a mission of this kind! After that, the suborning of Nonne and Oberwinder surely comes as no surprise. But as Heine always used to say: the Prussian informers are the most dangerous because they are not paid but always live in hopes, which makes them active and intelligent; if Prussia were to pay them, they would no longer be good for anything.
I hope that the Pucks and Judges sent off yesterday have reached Laura.[5]
That your protégé Stead is very useful just now, no one will deny, but it doesn't prevent this man, who defends in Russia what he attacks in Ireland, from living in a century which is not our own. You ought like- wise to take the Salvation Army[6] under your wing for, without it, the right to hold processions and discussions in the street would be in a far more parlous state in England than it now is.
Nim, Jollymeier, Pumps and the little ones have gone to the theatre to see Hans the Boatman, an American play in which there are lots of chil- dren and a large dog.
Laura's paintings won't dry well with the weather we are having.[7]
A thousand good wishes for the New Year.
Yours ever,
F. E.
I am sending my card to Mesa, 36 rue du Bac; is that still his address? Isn't the Socialiste coming out any longer?