Letter to Eduard Bernstein, June 16, 1885

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	16 June 1885

First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Book I, Moscow, 1924
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47

ENGELS TO EDUARD BERNSTEIN

IN ZURICH

London, 16 June 1885

Dear Ede,

Last week I returned to you by registered mail Rodbertus' two pamphlets from the archives, which I trust you have received.^[1] Yesterday Karl Kautsky received the complete set of Frankfurter Zeitungs containing the various statements.^[2] Most amusing. But I'm prepared to bet that even so they will let all this fuss die down again, and that the majority in the parliamentary group will reassure themselves by pointing out that there were mistakes on both sides. The whole thing is primarily just another flash in the pan, but that, too, is a symptom.

Today Frederick Charles inspected the heavenly host and grumbled about the slovenliness of their goose-step.

Your

F. E.

↑ One of these was apparently Rodbertus' Briefe und Socialpolitische Aufsaetze which Engels asked to be sent in a letter to Bernstein of 8 February 1883 (see present edition, Vol. 46, pp. 431-34).
↑ Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 17, 23 April 1885 published a statement adopted by a meeting of Social Democrats in Frankfurt-am-Main and sharply criticising the position of the majority of the Social-Democratic group in the Reichstag and its attempts to impose this position on the party as a whole (see Note 374). On 7 May 1885 Karl Frohme, one of the leaders of the parliamentary group, published a letter attacking this statement in response to this in the bourgeois Frankfurter Journal. The editorial board of Der Sozialdemokrat reprinted Frohme's letter (No. 20, 14 May 1885) and in the next issue, 21 May 1885 published August Bebel's article in reply called 'Auch "ein Protest" ' in which he criticised Frohme's position.

[1] One of these was apparently Rodbertus' Briefe und Socialpolitische Aufsaetze which Engels asked to be sent in a letter to Bernstein of 8 February 1883 (see present edition, Vol. 46, pp. 431-34).

[2] Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 17, 23 April 1885 published a statement adopted by a meeting of Social Democrats in Frankfurt-am-Main and sharply criticising the position of the majority of the Social-Democratic group in the Reichstag and its attempts to impose this position on the party as a whole (see Note 374). On 7 May 1885 Karl Frohme, one of the leaders of the parliamentary group, published a letter attacking this statement in response to this in the bourgeois Frankfurter Journal. The editorial board of Der Sozialdemokrat reprinted Frohme's letter (No. 20, 14 May 1885) and in the next issue, 21 May 1885 published August Bebel's article in reply called 'Auch "ein Protest" ' in which he criticised Frohme's position.

[1]

[2]