Letter to Conrad Schmidt, March 12, 1889

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 March 1889


First published in Sozialistische Monatschefte, Nos. 15 and 16, 1920. Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO CONRAD SCHMIDT

IN BERLIN

London, 12 March 1889
122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Dr Schmidt,

You must excuse me for being unable to reply to your note of the 5th inst. Until today. I have had a family over here from Germany on a visit and there hasn't been a moment to spare.

So your academic adventures have been followed by adventures with the press.[1] It's just like it was between 1842 and 1845[2] and you'll now have some idea of how we fared then. However, we have made a bit of progress since that time and the tricks played by the world of official- dom today, even though they may be quite as beastly as they were then, are no longer so far-reaching.

If you approach Meissner, don't hesitate to refer him straight to me, and if he sends me an inquiry, I shall gladly do whatever I can. But I know that he usually rejects pamphlets on principle and it wouldn't surprise me if that is the reason he will give.

However, I have yet another suggestion: You should write and ask Karl Kautsky, whom you know, of course, from the time you were both over here—Igelgasse 13/I, Vienna IV—whether he cannot arrange for Dietz in Stuttgart to take the piece. Or again to Dr H. Braun, Munich, to see whether he can suggest a publisher.

If you would like me to send you an introduction to Bebel, Liebknecht or Singer while the Reichstag is in session, you are very welcome to one.

If the thing isn't too long, Kautsky might possibly take it for the Neue Zeit.

So you too live in the Dorotheenstrasse—I myself lived there in 1841[3] on the south side, a bit to the east of the Friedrichstrasse—it will all have changed a great deal by now.

I was also glad to get your note of 18 January. I trust the plan you outlined in it to live by your pen will come off. Obviously you will first have to learn the ropes to some extent in this new world and if the gentlemen of the press are of the same breed over there as they are here, you can hardly fail to make a number of unavoidable, if somewhat unde- sirable, acquaintanceships.

I have taken a look at the Sweating Committee report[4] —there are two fat folio volumes (containing the witnesses' statements) and hardly believe you will feel impelled to work your way through them. However, if you want to take a preliminary look at them, you will find them in the Reichstag library; one or other of the deputies could get hold of them for you, and if you then felt inclined to go into the matter more thoroughly, I should be happy to send them to you.

Meanwhile my sincere regards combined with the request that you send me further news of yourself from time to time.

Yours,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ On 5 March 1889, Conrad Schmidt asked Engels to help him come to terms with Otto Meissner with the publication of his monograph Die Durchschnittsprofitrate auf Grundlage des Marx'schen Werthgesetzes; this work appeared somewhat later at Stuttgart published by Dietz. Schmidt also wrote about his failure to obtain the position of senior lecturer at Leipzig University because of his socialist views.
  2. ↑ This refers to the setbacks of Marx and Engels in connection with the publication of their works in those years, specifically, The German Ideology (present edition, Vol. 5).
  3. ↑ From the latter half of September 1841, to about 10 October 1842, Engels stayed in Berlin for his tour of duty in an artillery brigade. In his spare time he attended lectures at Berlin University and forged close contacts with leftwing Hegelians, progressive writers and scholars. It was at that time that Engels maintained close ties with East Prussian liberals (Eduard Plottwell and Johann Jacoby). Through them he might have contacted the bourgeois newspaper Konigl. Preufl. Staats-Kriegs-und-Friedenszeitung (a progressive paper in the 1840s); however, we have no evidence that Engels really cooperated with the newspaper. 'The restricted intelligence of loyal subjects' ('beschrankter Untertanenverstand') was a phrase coined by the Prussian Minister of the Interior von Rochow; it gained wide currency in Germany.
  4. ↑ First report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Sweating System; together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. Ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed, 11 August 1888, London