Letter to Conrad Schmidt, November 26, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 26 November 1887


First published in Sozialistische Monatshefte, Nos. 15 and 16, 1920. Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO CONRAD SCHMIDT

IN KÖNIGSBERG

London, 26 November 1887
122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Dr Schmidt,

I was delighted to hear from you again and to learn that you had left behind the fogs of London and the exuberant air of Paris and were back in the atmosphere of 'pure reason'. I had learned from the press about the strange adventures connected with the arrival of your crate of books[1] and imagined I was back again in those long-forgotten days when I myself was in Berlin, an occasional contributor to the Hartungsche Zeitung,[2] and when everything was banned save a 'narrow slave mentality'.[3] But no doubt there are even better things in store!

As regards Heine's letter, I cannot throw any definite light on it.[4]

Up till 1848 Lassalle cut no sort of political figure at all; he became known only as a result of the Hatzfeldt trial.[5] And in it both parties had recourse to all possible means, no matter what, provided they gave promise of success, and brought into play, whenever and however they thought fit, anyone who might conceivably be of use. On the other hand, the ban placed by the Federal Diet on Heine's books, even future ones, forced him to use all available methods of advertisement in order to ensure the sales that he would otherwise have automatically enjoyed. In the circumstances, Lassalle could become most useful to Heine; on the other hand, Heine was impressed by his energy, ruthlessness and knowledge of the world—all things rare in the majority of young Germans then as they are today.

So it is more than probable that Lassalle sought to make use of Heine for the benefit of the Countess, and the letter in question almost certainly relates to some aspect of the case—very probably the casket. Whether la Meyendorf was in Paris at the beginning of 1846, I cannot say for certain but, from what I remember of the proceedings, I think she was. Either the proceedings in the casket case of 1846, or those in Lassalle's of 1848 should provide a clue (best source Kölnische Zeitung). If she was in Paris, it was doubtless for the purpose of making an attempt on the casket. Heine and I never discussed Lassalle, whom neither Marx nor I knew at that time.

Your fellow-townsman Weiss came to see me here; has gone to Berne to complete his studies.[6]

A fortnight ago we had a rumpus of our own over here during which Mrs Aveling became involved in a scuffle with the police without, however, coming to any serious harm.[7] The fact is that our Tory government's stupidity is such as almost to rival Puttkamer's. If old Disraeli were to rise up out of his grave, he would lambast these school- boys good and proper.

May I thank you in advance for the article you promised to send me.[8]

Recently I was called upon by Herkner, a quite intelligent man when one comes to converse with him, and a good deal more radical than his book.[9] He seemed very anxious to impress upon me that in reality even Brentano is, at heart, less tame than he makes himself out to be in his books. Indeed, if the gentlemen at German universities only had the courage of their convictions, we should at any rate be as far on as we were in 1837 and 1840. But whether, in that case, they would find an audience is questionable to say the least.

Otherwise, everything goes jogging on in the same old way over here, so there's nothing new to report.

Do write again some time and, if I can be of any service to you over here, I shall be glad to oblige. Cordial regards,

Your

F. Engels

  1. ↑ As Conrad Schmidt told Engels in his letter of 22 November 1887, his relatives in Kdnigsberg had been searched on having received a box with books which he, Schmidt, had sent them from Paris during his trip abroad. The police tried to prosecute Schmidt on the grounds that the parcel had contained several numbers of the newspaper Sozialdemokrat which was banned in Germany. He managed to avoid arrest.
  2. ↑ Königsberger Hartungsche Zeitung
  3. ↑ From the latter half of September 1841, to about 10 October 1842, Engels stayed in Berlin for his tour of duty in an artillery brigade. In his spare time he attended lectures at Berlin University and forged close contacts with leftwing Hegelians, progressive writers and scholars. It was at that time that Engels maintained close ties with East Prussian liberals (Eduard Plottwell and Johann Jacoby). Through them he might have contacted the bourgeois newspaper Konigl. Preufl. Staats-Kriegs-und-Friedenszeitung (a progressive paper in the 1840s); however, we have no evidence that Engels really cooperated with the newspaper. 'The restricted intelligence of loyal subjects' ('beschrankter Untertanenverstand') was a phrase coined by the Prussian Minister of the Interior von Rochow; it gained wide currency in Germany.
  4. ↑ On behalf of Ernst Eisters, preparing a new edition of Heine's works for publication, C. Schmidt appealed to Engels on 22 November 1887, with the request to clarify some 'mysterious innuendoes' made in Heine's letter to Lassalle on 7 March 1846, which was to be included in that edition. This letter appeared in the second volume of Heine-Briefwechsels, Miinchen-Berlin, 1917, published by Friedrich Hirth.
  5. ↑ As a lawyer, Lassalle conducted Countess Sophie Hatzfeldt's divorce proceedings in 1846-54. In February 1848, he was arrested on a charge of abetting the theft of a casket with documents with intent to present them to the court. Lassalle was held in custody till 11 August 1848, when acquitted by the jury.
  6. ↑ See this volume, p. 105
  7. ↑ In view of the frequent meetings of the unemployed from the autumn of 1886 to the spring of 1887, the Chief Constable of London, Charles Warren, banned demonstrations and meetings in Trafalgar Square by his fiat of 8 November, 1887. In reply the Metropolitan Radical Federation (see note 22) appointed Sunday, 13 November 1887, as the day of a rally. On that day Trafalgar Square was cordoned off by the police and soldiers, and nearly all the demonstrators, about a hundred thousand strong, were dispersed with exceptional cruelty on their way to the square. Hundreds of workers sustained injuries in clashes with the police (with three workers receiving deadly wounds); numerous arrests were made. Also taking part in the demonstration was Eleanor Marx-Aveling, who described the events of that day in the Pall Mall Gazette on the 14th of November 1887. 13 November 1887 went down in the history of the British working class movement as 'Bloody Sunday'.
  8. ↑ On 22 November 1887, Conrad Schmidt wrote to Engels that he had read with much interest Volume II of Das Kapital'., he said if some economic newspaper could accept his article on the Marxian system, he would like to send it to Engels. It must have been Schmidt's work Die Durchschnittsprofitrate anf Grnndlage des Marx'schen Werthgesetzes, Stuttgart, 1889.
  9. ↑ H. Herkner, Die oberelsässische Baumwollindustrie und ihre Arbeiter, Strasbourg, 1887