Letter to Natalie Liebknecht, June 19, 1890

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 19 June 1890


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO NATALIE LIEBKNECHT

IN BERLIN

London, 19 June 1890

Dear Mrs Liebknecht,

If I made a reference to your remarks about your being isolated and virtually ostracised in Leipzig, this was perfectly natural. From what you said I was bound to conclude that you found Leipzig insufferable and am glad to learn that such was by no means the case.

As to any other comparison between the merits of Leipzig and the drawbacks of Berlin, this is something I am really unable to discuss, as I don't know the former at all, while the latter are no more than a distant memory and since those days Berlin is said to have improved quite miraculously, or so the Berliners maintain. However I'm perfectly willing to believe you when you say that, from the point of view of family life, Leipzig has immeasurably more to offer than the metropolis of the Brandenburgian Sahara.[1]

All these, I have written to tell Singer and Liebknecht, are matters which everybody must thrash out with himself, his family and the party and in which we outsiders must acquiesce. However I can only say that I am also firmly of the opinion that Liebknecht's place is in Berlin if the party leadership and the party organ are transferred there. Whether or not that happens is not for me to say; I can only express an unauthoritative opinion. But should it happen and Liebknecht remain in Leipzig, he would, by so doing, lower himself to the status of a second-class party leader, pension himself off, so to speak, and find himself in a situation in which he could be neither consulted nor heard when an important problem arose—in short, it would be the first step towards resignation and you wouldn't want that.

People like us are tossed around by politics in a quite singular way. When in 1858 Lassalle wanted to bring out a paper with Marx and myself in Berlin, we couldn't actually say no and were prepared to move to the sandy metropolis—fortunately negotiations broke down.[2] And for me that would have meant terminating my contracts with the firm[3] and for us both a removal with much more far-reaching consequences than those of a transition from Leipzig to Berlin. If, therefore, circumstances arise which make your removal to the imperial sand-box unavoidable, you can certainly draw comfort, not only from the belated discovery that life there is bearable after all, but also from the certain knowledge that Liebknecht is thereby assuming the position in the party that is his by right and that he has come to the place where he can do full justice to his position.

At all events this business will be decided before very long and it is my hope that, whatever that decision may be, you will in the long run become reconciled to it.

Kindest regards from Nim, Mme Lafargue, the Roshers and

Yours very sincerely,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Die Streusandbiichse (the sandbox) of the German Reich was the name given to the Brandenburger Mark with Berlin as the capital city.
  2. ↑ A reference to F. Lassalle's proposal to Marx in January 1861 to publish a joint newspaper in Berlin; the preconditions made by Lassalle ruled out Marx's and Engels' participation in the project. About the reasons for the refusal of Marx and Engels to co-operate, see present edition Vol. 41 (Marx to Engels, 29 January 1861, Marx to Engels, 14 February 1861, Marx to Engels, 7 May 1861).
  3. ↑ Ermen and Engels