Letter from Karl Marx to Wilhelm Liebknecht, April 13, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Written 13 April 1871


This letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Letters on 'Capital', New Park Publications, London, 1983.
First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT

IN LEIPZIG

[London,] 13 April 1871

Dear Liebknecht,

You may make use of the 80 thalers either for your family, or for the Volksstaat.[1] Both are 'victims' of the recent war.

I do not have the Freiligrath poem; it came out in 1852 and appeared also in Cotta's Morgenblatt which you can perhaps unearth in Leipzig.[2]

I do not think it would be useful to reprint items from the Revue der Rheinischen Zeitung without introductions, additions, etc., and this is hardly the time for that.[3]

Engels asks me to tell you that his essay in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher[4] is now only of historical interest and so no longer has any value as practical propaganda. On the other hand, you could print more extensive excerpts from Capital, e.g. extracts from the chapter on 'Primitive Accumulation',[5] etc.

Miquel was in the League[6] and threw his weight about in the Kingdom of Hanover as the League's District Adviser Extraordinary. You can print that, but leave my name out of it, since I have to keep the 'secret' unless directly forced by Miquel [to reveal it].

'Bid me not speak, bid me be silent To keep the secret I am bound.'[7]

The Communist Manifesto cannot of course appear without a new preface. Engels and I will see what can be done about it. My kind regards to your dear wife.[8]

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ In the original Volksblatt, which is a slip of the pen.
  2. ↑ The reference is to Ferdinand Freiligrath's poem 'An Joseph Weydemeyer', an attack on Gottfried Kinkel, written in January 1852 (Marx has, erroneously, '1851') specially for Die Revolution, a journal published in the USA by Weydemeyer. Since its publication in America was delayed, Freiligrath published this poem in the literary newspaper Morgenblatt für gebildete Leser (No. 10, 7 March 1852) printed in Stuttgart and Tübingen. In America the poem was published in May 1852.
  3. ↑ In his letter to Marx written around 10 April 1871, Liebknecht asked his consent to reprint articles from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue, and requested Marx to send a complete run of the journal.
    The magazine published several reviews by Marx and Engels, three international reviews written jointly by them, as well as Marx's The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 and Louis Napoleon and Fould, and Engels' The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution, The English Ten Hours' Bill and The Peasant War in Germany (see present edition, Vol. 10).
  4. ↑ F. Engels, Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy
  5. ↑ This refers to Section 2 ('The So-Called Primitive Accumulation') of the last, sixth Chapter of the first German edition of Volume I of Capital. When preparing the second German edition of this volume, which appeared in 1872-73, Marx made this section into a separate Chapter. In the authorised English edition Engels changed the composition of the volume making this Chapter into Part VIII (see present edition, Vol. 35).
  6. ↑ the Communist League
  7. ↑ Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.
  8. ↑ Natalie Liebknecht