Biographical Notes on Wilhelm Wolff

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written May 1864


MIA-bannière.gif
Written in late May and early June 1864
Printed according to the manuscript
First published in the journal Novaya i noveishaya istoriya, 1959, No. 4
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 19

Marx wrote these notes in late May and early June 1864, after Wilhelm Wolff's death on May 9. He intended to write a detailed biography of Wolff, one of his closest friends and associates, and collected data on his life. However, the project failed to materialise. In 1876, Engels carried it out, in part, by writing an extensive article titled "Wilhelm Wolff", which appeared in the journal Neue Welt, Nos. 27, 28, 30, 31, 40-45 and 47 (see Vol. 24 of the present edition). p. 335

1809, June 21. Born in Tarnau, Schweidnitz[1] District.

1813. Russians.

1834-38. 4 1/2 years in Silberberg?[2] Casemate Wolf[f]" wishes to see his dying father, even if accompanied by a gendarme. Refused. 1843-February 1846, in Breslau.[3]

1846. Wolff flees because of press prosecution. Article on uprising of Silesian weavers.[4]

1846-48. Brussels. "Bureau de Correspondance".[5] Jailed in Brussels. (Arrested between February 26 and 28.)

1848, April to June, in Breslau.

1848, September, Cologne. Lupus presents himself [for trial].[6] Warrant of arrest withdrawn.

October 22, 1848. Warrant of arrest issued by Hecker. Withdrawn March 8, 1849.

June 1848 to May 10, 1849, in Cologne. Thence to Frankfurt.

May 26, 1849. Scene in German Parliament (Frankfurt).[7]

1849, with Lupus already in Switzerland, warrant of arrest issued in connection with Rump in Stuttgart.[8]

July 5, 1849, to Basle. Thence to Berne, interned. 1 3/4 of year teacher in Zurich. March 31, 1851, written order of expulsion from Zurich. (September 10, 1850 in Zurich. Lupus protests against being assigned to Lucerne Canton in consequence of Federal Council decision on refugees.)

June 4, 1851-1853. Arrival[9] in London. Stays about 2 years there.

January 12, 1861. Prussian Amnesty Decree.[10] January 4, 1862, application to the Prussian government. No answer for 5 months. Another application on June 4, 1862. August 1, 1862 Schweidnitz Municipal Council requires him to name his last place of residence in Prussia.

September 5, 1862. Prussian government answers that amnesty implies resumption of investigation.[11]

  1. ↑ Swidnica.— Ed.
  2. ↑ Silberberg was the prison in Silesia to which Wolff was confined for being a member of a student association and for "crimes against His Majesty, the King of Prussia". He was nicknamed Casemate Wolf for his article "Die Kasematten", describing the slums of Breslau, which was published in the Breslauer Zeitung, No. 271, on November 18, 1843, and caused a public outcry. p. 335
  3. ↑ Wroclaw.— Ed
  4. ↑ Wolff, W., "Das Elend und der Aufruhr in Schlesien". In: Deutsches Bürgerbuch für 1845, Darmstadt, 1845.— Ed.
  5. ↑ The Bureau de Correspondance, set up by the German democratic journalist Sebastian Seiler (later a member of the Communist League) in Brussels in 1845, gathered, translated and forwarded to German newspapers news items and articles from the British, French and Belgian press, giving them, as far as possible, a Social-Democratic tendency, a fact later noted by Engels in his article "Wilhelm Wolff" (present edition. Vol. 24). The Bureau maintained close links with the Brussels Communist Correspondence Committee established by Marx and Engels. In October 1847, when Seiler for unknown reasons withdrew from the Bureau, it was headed by Wolff and Louis Heilberg. p. 335
  6. ↑ Following the imposition of martial law in Cologne on September 26, 1848, publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was suspended and a number of its editors (Engels, Wolff, Bürgers and others) were charged with sedition. To evade arrest Wolff went into hiding in Dürkheim, Palatinate, but soon secretly returned to Cologne and resumed his work with the newspaper. p. 335
  7. ↑ Addressing the Frankfurt National Assembly (see Note 258) on May 26, 1849, Wolff, a deputy for Silesia, demanded the outlawing of Archduke John (the Imperial Regent) and his Ministers as the worst traitors to the nation (see Engels's article "Wilhelm Wolff" in Vol. 24 of the present edition). p. 335
  8. ↑ See Note 258. p. 335
  9. ↑ Marx uses the English word.— Ed.
  10. ↑ See Note 257. p. 336
  11. ↑ See this volume, p. 243.— Ed.