Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, February 12, 1873

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 February 1873


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT[1]

IN HUBERTUSBURG

London, 12 February 1873

Dear Liebknecht,

Before I can give you a definite answer to the many questions in your letter, I must first know exactly what you mean by saying that 'the Volksstaat cannot become involved in International polemics at the present time'.[2] If the Volksstaat proclaims itself neutral in the International's war against the secessionists, if it refuses to explain these events clearly to the German workers, if, in a word, the Lassallean revolt is to be concluded by your shaking hands over and beyond the International and by your sacrificing the International and Yorck to the Hasselmanns, then our attitude to the Volksstaat will change fundamentally. So I must ask you to speak out frankly at once.

About my book,[3] negotiations are pending with Wigand and I would have to free myself from him before deciding on any alternative. But on the general issue of letting you have the rights to practically all our earlier writings gratis at the very moment when we are in a position to make money from them, I would ask you to bear in mind that we too need money, firstly in order to live, and secondly in order to meet the daily mounting costs of agitation, propaganda material, etc. The essays by Marx and myself will certainly be collected and printed, but at the moment we have no time to take care of it ourselves. I am even less in a position to distil the essence of Owen's works for you. In the first place I do not have the time and in the second, I lack the material—my collection of Owen's writings went astray in 1848-49, and these things are no longer obtainable.—At all events the Misère de la philosophie is being reprinted in Paris; as to the German translation, Marx is negotiating with Meissner about a complete edition of earlier writings and so can hardly just take out one of the largest works without further ado. And anyway, you have plenty of time before you get from the Utopia to us; better look after the intermediate links first.

Furthermore, I cannot conceal from you the fact that our treatment at the hands of the 'Party' does absolutely nothing to encourage us to entrust even more of our writings to it. I have not been sent even a single copy of my Peasant War; I had to purchase the copies I needed for myself. I am not even consulted about the publication of the articles on the housing shortage,[4] whether they should come out separately or together.[5] When I asked for free copies of the Manifesto[6] for us and for the Workers' Society here—in recognition of their having reprinted it three times at their own expense—we were sent 100 copies together with the bill. I have written to Hepner about that[7] and now request once and for all that this boorish treatment should cease.

I shall try and unearth a copy of the Utopia (in English), but it may be difficult as all the old popular editions were bought up long since.

I must close here and regret that I am prevented by the need to catch the post from enclosing a few lines to your wife.[8] Please be kind enough to make my excuses. Does your family still live at 11 Braustrasse? We have only that address and the Volksstaat.

With best wishes from your

F. E.

  1. ↑ This is Engels' reply to Liebknecht's letter of 8 February 1873 written from the Hubertusburg fortress where he had been imprisoned. The letter outlined a plan to publish a popular 'social and political library', which was to open with Thomas More's Utopia. It was also to comprise a number of Marx's and Engels' works. Liebknecht was making enquiries as to their reprinting. No such library, however, was established in the 1870s.
  2. ↑ On 8 February 1873 Liebknecht wrote to Engels that Der Volksstaat was as yet unable to devote much space to the polemics inside the International. On 27 February 1873, replying to Engels' demand for an explanation of this, Liebknecht wrote that he had had in mind the paper's limited space and its difficult position following the arrest of its editors.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England. Th. Morus, Utopia.
  4. ↑ F. Engels, The Housing Question.
  5. ↑ Der Volksstaat, Nos. 10-13, 15 and 19 of 3, 7, 10, 14 and 21 February and 6 March 1872, reprinted from the Austrian workers' newspaper Volkswille a series of anonymous articles under the heading 'Die Wohnungsfrage'. The author of the articles was a doctor of medicine, the Proudhonist Arthur Mülberger. On 22 May Engels sent Liebknecht his reply to Mülberger's articles, which formed Part I of his work The Housing Question (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 315-37).
  6. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party.
  7. ↑ See this volume, pp. 462-63.
  8. ↑ Natalie Liebknecht