Letter to Berthold Sparr, April 12, 1882

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 April 1882


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46


ENGELS TO BERTHOLD SPARR

IN LONDON

[Draft]

[London,] 12 April 1882

Dear Sir,

I am not acquainted either with you or with the Mr K. Schmidt you refer to. If you mean Mr K. Schneidt, the anarchist, he will be able to get you into the club in Rose Street[1] and obtain assistance for you. In view of the way in which the people on the Freiheit have laid into the Social-Democratic Party in Germany,[2] I hardly feel called upon to give the adherents of that tendency a helping hand. However I do not know which tendency you belong to. The German Club, which sides with the great party in Germany, is, as anyone will tell you, at 49 Tottenham Street[3] and I find it inconceivable that both these clubs should let a fugitive party member starve to death.— In view of the great distress brought about among the members of the great Social-Democratic Party by police persecution in Germany, my resources will scarcely permit me to support, in addition, adherents of other, opposing tendencies. If, however, the Tottenham Street society is prepared to do something for you, I shall be pleased to make a contribution.

Yours very truly

  1. ↑ when staying in London in 1876, the German Social-Democrat Gustav Rasch maintained friendly relations with Prince Nicholas of Montenegro.
  2. ↑ In his letters to Marx of 9 July and to Engels of 10 July 1877, Franz Wiede proposed that they contribute to the Neue Gesellschaft magazine he was planning to start (the first issue appeared in Zurich in October 1877). In a letter to Engels of 20 July 1877, Wiede asked for a speedy reply to his proposal.
  3. ↑ Engels is referring to the proofs of Part II of Anti-Diihring (see Note 155), which appeared in the Vorwärts between 27 July and 30 December 1877 as a series of articles under the general heading 'Herrn Eugen Dühring's Umwälzung der politischen Oekonomie'.