Letter to Sophie von Hatzfeldt, November 24, 1864

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 24 November 1864


First published in International Review of Social History, Vol. XXVII, Assen, 1982
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


MARX TO SOPHIE VON HATZFELDT

IN BERLIN

London, 24 November 1864

1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill

My dear Countess,

I have just informed you by telegraph[1] (to avoid all delay in reply) of my view that the two photograms of von R. et Co.[2] should, in no circumstances, appear together with Lassalle's in the pamphlet. It would, on the one hand, dishonour the deceased, and, on the other, give the publication a gaudy appearance which should be avoided completely. Furthermore, as you know, [3] contra hostem vindicatio aeterna sit is my motto too, but, for revenge to be successfully executed, it is advisable not to initiate the public in one's vindictive intent'.[4] [5] 'Ex ossibus ultor' would seem to me the best title for Lassalle's portrait. They were also my last words spoken at the graveside of my never-to-be-forgotten friend W. Wolff[6] some six months ago.

As regards ex-student Blind, that fellow who made himself known before 1848 by peddling Heinzen's nonsense and as the [7] homme entretenu of the wife of the Jewish banker Cohen[8] (whom he later married in London), so I would ask you to remember that in my piece Herr Vogt (see pp. 58-69 and Appendices 9 and 11)[9] I do not merely describe this student Blind as a deliberate liar', but I prove by reference to legal documents that this wretched man fabricated false witness' to cast suspicion on myself and to extricate his neck from a noose that this creature had made for himself for the purpose of merely making himself look big (which is indeed this rascal's sole purpose in every public step, or rather crawl, he undertakes).[10]

Then Blind succeeded in deflecting the catastrophe of his political operations—by simply saying nothing. In this he was sustained firstly by the fact that Freiligrath (this entre nous) unfortunately continued to parade publicly as his friend, and that Lassalle, although I had strongly urged him to do so, neglected to force my pillorying of Blind [11] d'une manière ou d'une autre on the attention of the German public.[12] This appeared necessary to me because the liberal press in Germany instinctively took the side of a scoundrel like Blind, and therefore sought to hush up my attack. Lassalle considered Blind too insignificant. It was only later that he discovered that there are times when one cannot decline a 'combat with a flea'.[13]

When Lassalle was here in London,[14] he sought to enlighten Louis Blanc and Mazzini about Blind on his personal visits to them, but in vain. The man is exactly what Mazzini, Ledru, etc., had hoped, but failed, to find in the other Germans of standing, a servile lackey and sycophant. Through his relations with these people he makes the English think that he represents Germany, and he impresses the Germans by his boasting here. Yet the whole of this fellow's activity consists in writing, in conjunction with 3 or 4 South Germans,[15] from, for and about 'Karl Blind' and, at every possible opportunity, to force on the English, Germans and Americans his 'unofficial judgment' as the self-appointed representative of German republicanism (a party, which is well known to exist only on the moon, since the German bourgeois is interested in a constitutional monarchy, the feudal lord in an aristocratic monarchy, and the worker in general not in mere forms of state, but in the form of state as the expression of economic social conditions, and, at all events, has never recognised ex-student Blind as representative). He is a true master of dictating letters to one of his 6 satellites,[16] in which they call on the said, etc., 'Karl Blind' to do this or that, or congratulate him on this or that, and then—by oversight or OTHERWISE—the replies from the same Karl Blind gain entry to the press.

As one of the 'YOUNG MEN' who were active in the service of F. Hecker, Blind learnt that art, which is by no means rare among the South Germans, of self-defamation and creating a spurious PUBLIC OPINION about people who are essentially nonentities. In London he thought himself far enough advanced along the road or to have served long enough in the 'Democratic cause' to exploit for himself those arts he had acquired in the service of others.

Regarding his education, it is, as I told Lassalle during his sojourn here, that of a [17] Baden publican, who has read Rotteck's Weltgeschichte, Welker's Staatslexikon and Mr Struve's republican Almanac.[18]

In his manoeuvres in Germany Mr Blind enjoys the particular support of Mr Gustav Rasch of Berlin.

Bernhard Becker, as the former SUBEDITOR of the London Hermann, best knows how Blind composed with his own fair hand the paeans of praise to himself that appeared e.g. in the Hermann. He does this mostly and on average. By way of variation he will occasionally get a certain Dr Bronner in Bradford or his Schaible (see Herr Vogt') via London to put their names to his epistles. All the agitation of this person is nothing but a tissue of lies, self-deception and hot air. In this field, however, he has no rivals. He demonstrated the height of his dexterity when Garibaldi visited London.[19] He first spread the rumour in the English papers that he was an intimate friend of Garibaldi. Imposing himself as is his custom, he issued 'addresses' to Garibaldi from London and you know that in his kind-hearted naivety Garibaldi will write a nice letter back to anyone. Then he descends on the Isle of Wight (before Garibaldi made his ceremonial entry to London), and 'appoints' with him the date on which Garibaldi would receive the German deputation (Blind, you see, had so arranged things as to get a few Germans, including Kinkel and unfortunately my friend Freiligrath as well, to elect him as the leader of a deputation) and at the same time sends mysterious hints to some London papers[20] that Garibaldi WAS CLOSETED WITH 'HIS FRIEND' (Blind) and, of course, settled some very important affairs of state with him.[21] But Blind's masterstroke is still to come. As serving-man to the European 'kings of democracy'[22] (for so he designates Mazzini, Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, and indeed COMPARED WITH student Blind even they are 'great men'[23] ), our Baden trickster manages so to arrange things that he, as a member of the society and a leader, fetches Garibaldi from the Duke of Sutherland's, where he is staying, and escorts him in the Duke's State Carriage to Ledru Rollin and Louis Blanc. He seizes the opportunity to have the carriage stand for a while outside Mr Blind's house for Garibaldi to 'PAY HIS COMPLIMENTS TO Madame Karl Blind'. By skilful MANAGEMENT all this even appears in The Times,[24] and at the moment when Garibaldi is being idolized by all London. Perhaps you recall how 'Rameau', the nephew, in Diderot's wonderful piece, bursts out in admiration at the genius of Bouret, the general tax-collector, who cunningly devised a way to disaffect his little dog from himself and make it prefer the minister! This Garibaldi-farce was Blind's Bouret-prank! It is my belief that from that time on he began bona fide to think himself a great man! He has really got hold of something with Schleswig-Holstein! Did you not know then that for years Blind has been deriving his chief importance from acting as a 'representative' for Schleswig-Holstein against Denmark, saying 'he' had 'forced' the German tyrants into war against Denmark, and that was why friend Rasch dedicated his piece about the 'orphaned' kith and kin[25] to him! Did you not know that in the Prussian House Prof. Virchow (probably at Mr Rasch's instigation) cited Blind's great influence in the Schleswig-Holstein affair[26] as proof of what a single man can do by his own efforts for a whole nation! The shameless man had made those German jackasses believe that he had got the English to change their view of Schleswig-Holstein! His feeble leaflets about Schleswig-Holstein are just about (and that is saying something) the most stupid thing that has appeared in this LINE. (Incidentally, Mr ex-student's best friend and associate is that lout Karl Heinzen in America, whose business for 20 years past has been to slander me in a manner such as even Lassalle never experienced. I have never thought it worth the trouble to reply to this fellow, but I was astonished that the Nordstern—for a long time also a major mouthpiece for student Blind—is constantly printing Heinzen's filth, which is extremely hostile to the principles of the workers' party, and generally makes propaganda for Mr Heinzen.)

But Garibaldi, Schleswig-Holstein, America, Lassalle, all are for the ex-student only a pretext for puffing up his own self-importance! The modest fellow wrote in his own fair hand a short while ago to the Glasgow Sentinel that the whole of Europe (literally) was not yet divided into two hostile camps with regard to 'Karl Blind', but that a tiers parti existed in this respect, too![27] In The Observer he describes himself as 'THE ILLUSTRIOUS CHIEF OF THE GERMAN REPUBLICANS'.'[28] A few more little touches to the description of this man, who, if one views him aright, is a highly comical character.

After his success with Garibaldi MR KARL BLIND JOINED THE SHAKESPEARE COMMITTEE,[29] as was stated in the Athenaeum[30] He had now clearly progressed to the status of 'literary' representative of Germany, too!

During the skirmish in Baden (1849),[31] Struve, as he himself recounts in a piece about the 'Baden revolution',[32] sent the 'young man', as he calls Blind, as Under-Secretary to Schütz, who had been appointed Secretary, from Mainz to Paris, to rescue ex-student Blind from conflict with Brentano. The government to which Blind was directed as Under-Secretary to Secretary Schütz,— the provisional government no longer existed when Secretary and Under-Secretary arrived in Paris. Nevertheless, in mysterious hints in English papers, he let it be understood that he held an important diplomatic post as agent of the German 'republican government' in Paris!

In the first few years after 1849 he lived in Belgium with his present wife. Since this woman has children from her marriage to the dead banker (and they inherited) and she also has children by Blind (at that time still illegitimate), a court in Baden ruled that Cohen's children should be taken away from his widow Cohen because of her 'immoral' relations with ex-student Blind. The court in Brussels gave this ruling legal force in Belgium, and this caused Blind to flee to England together with his wife and the children. He later got English papers to print (and was brazen enough to boast publicly of it on a visit to South Germany) that he had been expelled from Belgium for political reasons![33]

His next deed you will see from the enclosed cutting, which he had printed in many London papers. What provoked it was the report disseminated in some papers that Garibaldi had declared his support for the slave-owners! Blind used this to extort a short letter from Garibaldi with 'CORDIAL GREETINGS FOR MRS BLIND'. YOU can see what lies he told Garibaldi from his remark 'I THANK YOU FOR YOUR GOOD NEWS'.[34] What on earth could this 'GOOD NEWS' have been in October 1864? Blind was obviously writing Garibaldi the most monstrous lies about the progress of 'republicanism' in Germany, which is presumably just awaiting Blind's arrival to lash out.

The most splendid aspect of the affair is that the London paper to which Blind is a regular contributor, the mouthpiece of the publicans (a most appropriate context to a 'Blind'), is a fanatical supporter of the Confederates! And by the by, the paper— The Morning Advertiser—is at one and the same time the mouthpiece of spirits, the Low CHURCH (English pietism),[35] the SWELL-MOB which is concerned with gambling, PRICEFIGHTS AND SO FORTH, and the most lickspittling poodle of Palmerston's. FROM A LITERARY STANDPOINT, it cannot be counted among the English daily press and is in general only read in TAPROOMS.

So much for the man. In Lassalle's lifetime he issued an address casting doubt on the former's integrity.[36] But Lassalle—as far as I know—did not think it worth the trouble of a reply. I was only surprised that B. Becker, who is fully aware of Blind's doings, did not then take the opportunity to blazon abroad [37] my revelations about Blind?

One of the reasons why I have joined the International Working Men's Association here is to expose that man. After the statements I have made against Blind, branding him as a deliberate liar' and a falsifier of evidence', I cannot of course further involve myself in polemic against the fellow. I reserve the right to treat him as a figure of comedy should the occasion arise. If I should now take his scrawl against Lassalle, which I have incidentally not seen, as grounds for an attack on him, people here, who know of my implacable hostility to Blind, will think that in fact I am only using Lassalle's name as a pretext for personal spite.

But do send me the (printed) declaration by the workers. I shall ensure that it gets into a German paper here and if student Blind then makes any further moves, perhaps he will give me the opportunity to let me fall upon him.

At all events, you may depend on it that he will be shown no favours. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is to disseminate my revelations about Blind as a deliberate liar and falsifier as far as possible in Germany. (If his scrawl about Lassalle had set any mice stirring here, a word or two about it at all events would have reached my ears.) This would force him to break his silence and so enable me to open my mouth again concerning a fellow whom I have publicly declared to be atrocious.

Apart from anything else, it would be quite impossible for me to travel to Berlin on account of the fresh outbreak of the fearful carbuncle disease that I have been struggling against for 14 months with slight interruptions.

You may, however, be sure that I shall seize whatever opportunity I find appropriate (but you will have to leave it to me to choose whatever moment appears favourable to me) to rebuff all malicious attacks on the friend who has been prematurely taken from me.

Yours very respectfully

K. M.

  1. ↑ Marx's telegram has not been found.
  2. ↑ Janko von Racowija and Helene von Dönniges
  3. ↑ A paraphrase of an article from the Twelve Tables (a code of law of ancient Rome) which says: 'Adversus hostem aeterna auctoritas [esto]' (III, 7); Marx uses the word vindicatio in the sense of revenge.
  4. ↑ In the pamphlet in honour of Lassalle's memory (see Note 42) Countess von Hatzfeldt intended to place, next to a photograph of Lassalle on his death bed, portraits of Janko von Racowija and Helene von Dönniges, who were guilty of his death, regarding this as a form of revenge on the 'assassins'. In a letter to Marx on 21 November 1864 she asked Marx for his opinion of her intention.
  5. ↑ 'Let the avenger rise' (Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 625: 'exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor').
  6. ↑ Wilhelm Wolff, to whom Marx dedicated the first volume of Capital, died in Manchester on 9 May 1864. Marx delivered a short oration at his funeral (see Marx's letter to Jenny Marx of 13 May 1864, present edition, Vol. 41).
  7. ↑ kept man
  8. ↑ Friederike Ettlinger, Cohen's and later Karl Blind's wife
  9. ↑ See present edition, Vol. 17, pp. 116 32, 315, 317 20.
  10. ↑ In his pamphlet Herr Vogt (a copy of which Marx sent to Lassalle and Sophie von Hatzfeldt after its publication), Marx exposed Blind's cowardly attempts to deny his authorship of the flysheet Zur Warnung (A Warning) (it was published in London in 1859 and reprinted in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung), which revealed Vogt's connections with the Bonapartists. Blind's statements in the press citing false evidence of Fidelio Hollinger, the owner of a printshop where the flysheet had been printed, and of a compositor, Johann Wiehe, gave Vogt a pretext to attribute the authorship of the flysheet to Marx and his friends.
  11. ↑ in one way or another
  12. ↑ On 15 November 1859 Marx sent Lassalle his reply to Blind's declaration regarding Karl Vogt (see present edition, Vol. 40, p. 526), asking him to have it published in the Berlin Volks-Zeitung. In his reply of 20 November 1859 Lassalle recommended Marx to avoid any controversy with Blind in the press. Marx's declaration was published in the supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 325, 21 November 1859 (see present edition, Vol. 17, pp. 8-9).
  13. ↑ Heinrich Heine, Atta Troll. Ein Sommernachtstraum, 11.
  14. ↑ Lassalle was in London in July 1862.
  15. ↑ Marx presumably has in mind, first and foremost, Eduard Bronner and Karl Heinrich Schaible.
  16. ↑ Marx presumably means the members of the Deutsche Freiheit und Einheit, an association which was founded in London about 1860 and included, besides Blind, Eduard Bronner, Karl Heinrich Schaible, Ravenstein (secretary) and Wolffsohn (cashier).
  17. ↑ An allusion to Karl Blind's father, Johann Adam Blind who was a publican in Mannheim.
  18. ↑ G. Struve, Die neue Zeit. Ein Volkskalender auf das Jahr 1.
  19. ↑ On 26 March 1863 the London Trades Council held a meeting at St James's Hall to express the British workers' solidarity with the struggle of the North American States to abolish slavery. The participants also protested against Britain's plans for armed intervention in the US Civil War (see Note 11) on the side of the Southern States. The meeting was chaired by the bourgeois radical John Bright. In early April 1864, Garibaldi visited England with a view to raising funds for an expedition to end Austrian domination in Venetia. The English public at large gave an enthusiastic welcome to Italy's national hero and official honours were therefore heaped on him at the beginning of his visit. However, Garibaldi's meeting with Mazzini, who lived in England as a political emigrant, and his speeches in support of the Polish insurgents angered the British ruling circles. Garibaldi left England at the end of April.
  20. ↑ 'Interview of Karl Blind with Garibaldi', The Morning Advertiser, No. 22726, 11 April 1864.
  21. ↑ In view of Garibaldi's forthcoming visit to England, the German refugees in London set up a Garibaldi Committee on 6 April 1864. It included Blind, Juch (publisher of the Hermann), Trübner, Freiligrath, Kinkel and others. Blind met Garibaldi on the Isle of Wight on 9 April. Blind and his associates took advantage of the meeting with Italy's national hero to advertise themselves in the English press.
  22. ↑ Marx quotes Karl Blind
  23. ↑ Cf. the title of Marx and Engels' pamphlet: The Great Men of the Exile (present edition, Vol. 11, pp. 227 326).
  24. ↑ 'General Garibaldi', The Times, 19 April 1864.
  25. ↑ G. Rasch, Vom verlassenen Bruderstamm. Das dänische Regiment in Schleswig-Holstein, Bd. 1-3; Vom verrathenen Bruderstamm. Der Krieg in Schleswig-Holstein im Jahre 1864. Bd. 1 2.
  26. ↑ R. Virchow's speech in the House of Representatives on 9 December 1863. In: Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen der [...] beiden Häuser des Landtages, Haus der Abgeordneten, 13 Sitzung, Bd. 1.
  27. ↑ 'M. Karl Blind', North British Daily Mail, 30 March 1863.
  28. ↑ Marx refers to the reports on Blind's meetings with Garibaldi published in The Observer, Nos. 3804, 3805 and 3806, 10, 17 and 24 April 1864.
  29. ↑ The Shakespeare Committee was set up to mark the tercentenary of Shakespeare's birthday which was celebrated from 23 April to 3 May 1864. German men of letters were represented by Freiligrath, who recommended that Karl Blind should also be a member of the committee.
  30. ↑ The Athenaeum, No. 1902, 9 April 1864.
  31. ↑ In the spring of 1849, during an uprising in defence of the Imperial Constitution in Southern and Western Germany, a Provisional Government was formed in Baden headed by the petty-bourgeois democrat Lorenz Peter Brentano. In face of the impending intervention of Prussian troops in Baden and the Palatinate, this government, having in fact sabotaged the actions of the revolutionary masses, applied for help to France. Karl Blind was sent to Paris with this purpose. The Baden government counted on the support of the party of petty-bourgeois democrats headed by Ledru-Rollin, but by that time it had been pushed into the background by the bourgeois 'party of Order' and the Bonapartists. This predetermined the failure of Blind's mission.
  32. ↑ G. Struve, Geschichte der drei Volkserhebungen in Baden.
  33. ↑ 'M. Karl Blind', North British Daily Mail, 30 March 1863.
  34. ↑ Blind published Garibaldi's letter to him in The Morning Advertiser, 9 November 1864.
  35. ↑ The Low Church—a trend in the Anglican Church which laid special emphasis on Christian morality; its following originally consisted predominantly of the bourgeoisie and the lower clergy. Pietism—a trend in the Lutheran Church that emerged in Germany in the seventeenth century. Distinguished by extreme mysticism, it rejected rites and attached special importance to personal religious experience.
  36. ↑ Blind's address 'Ein Freundeswort an Deutschlands Arbeiter, Bürger und Bauer' was published in a number of German newspapers and as a leaflet in June 1863. In it, Blind opposed Lassalle's agitation among the workers saying that the campaign for universal suffrage did not accord with the 'main principles of German democracy'.
  37. ↑ Marx means his revelations about Blind in Herr Vogt.