Letter to Friedrich Lessner, December 16, 1875

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 16 December 1875


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH LESSNER

IN LONDON

[London,] 16 December 1875

Dear Lessner,

Frankel, who was imprudent enough to live in Vienna u n d e r an assumed name, has been found out and arrested. T h e French Embassy are demanding his extradition for arson and for taking part in the shooting of the Dominican monks.[1] But this is nonsensical, for a country does not extradite its own nationals but only foreigners, assuming in the first place that there could be any question of extradition here. H e will probably get off with a token punishment for using a false name.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ This is Engels' reply to Lessner's letter of 15 December 1875. The latter wrote that he was told The Daily News of 13 December had carried a telegraph communication about Leo Frankel's arrest.
    Frankel was arrested in Vienna on 9 December 1875. As a member of the Paris Commune, he was charged with arson in the city and with shooting hostages, including the Archbishop of Paris, Georges Darboy. After two months' imprisonment in Vienna Frankel was transferred to Budapest. Since, for reasons of domestic policy, the French government did not dare to publicly demand Frankel's extradition, he was released on 27 March 1876. He informed Marx of this on 28 March.