Letter to Natalie Liebknecht, March 11, 1873

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 11 March 1873


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


ENGELS TO NATALIE LIEBKNECHT

IN LEIPZIG

London, 11 March 1873

122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.

Dear Mrs Liebknecht,

Would you be so kind as to hand the enclosed letter to Liebknecht[1] on your next visit to the Castle?[2] Up to now I have sent most letters for him to the office of the Volksstaat, because I did not know whether you still lived at 11 Braustrasse. Your enforced grass-widowhood must be increasingly burdensome to you as time passes. You really have a lot to put up with! At all events, however, you are still able to visit Liebknecht regularly, and if you do not think it too impertinent of me I would ask you to tell me how he is physically, what the treatment is like, whether he is limited to the resources of the Castle for food and drink, or whether he can supplement this from outside, and in general everything pertaining to his situation and Bebel's—he himself

writes very little about such matters, indeed recently he has stopped commenting on them altogether, and you will appreciate that all this interests us very much. Not only for the prisoners' own sake—our interest is also a little egoistic, since this is something that might happen to us too, one day, and we would like to know what we might have to expect. What is the position with regard to books? Can he have everything he needs—at least as far as scholarly and literary works are concerned—or is the censorship strict? I know of course that the pigeon-post, or THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY as they say in America, is easily organised.

I hope that you are in good spirits and that you and the children are in good health. IT IS A LONG LANE THAT HAS NO TURNING, as the English proverb has it, and the TURNING cannot be very far away any more. And you may be sure that, however things turn out, you have friends here in London who take the warmest interest in Liebknecht's and your fate.

If any of the children should remember me, which I very much doubt, since I did not live in London at the time,[3] please give them my very kindest regards.

With sincere good wishes,

Yours truly,

Friedrich Engels

  1. ↑ This letter by Engels has not been found.
  2. ↑ On 15 June 1872 Wilhelm Liebknecht began to serve in the Hubertusburg fortress the prison sentence to which he had been condemned at the Leipzig trial (see Note 274). He remained in prison until 15 April 1874.
  3. ↑ Between May 1850 and July 1862 Liebknecht lived in exile in London, while Engels resided (from November 1850) in Manchester.