Letter to August Bebel, April 12, 1888

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 April 1888


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow 1940
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO AUGUST BEBEL

IN PLAUEN NEAR DRESDEN

London, 12 April 1888

Dear Bebel,

Since you wrote on 8 March, I have been taking a bit of a look at events; things now seem to be settling down sufficiently for one to size them up. Your policy of saying that nothing has changed is, when applied to the masses, tactically quite correct; but in my view it by no means does justice to the historical situation.

Fritz's proclamations[1] show him to be of exceedingly mediocre intellect. Anyone who, after so many years as Crown Prince, can find nothing better to put forward than the elimination of this or that petty tax and, on the military side, the abolition of the third rank, which is quite pointless because long since abolished in a fighting formation, is unlikely to change the face of the world. The plaint about the evils of an inadequate education is apt to be the monopoly of the inadequately educated—as in this instance. So much for his intellect.

In assessing his character one must—because of the state of his health—proceed with the utmost caution. If a man is in constant danger of having his throat slit by his doctors,[2] he may be excused from bestir- ring himself unduly; this would only be appropriate were his health to improve. Hence it is understandable that in internal affairs Bismarck and Puttkamer should have a freer hand than ever before.

But that is not to imply that nothing has changed. In William[3] the building has lost its keystone and the fact that it is tottering is plainly manifest. Their internal policy betrays how desperately Bismarck and Co. are clinging to their positions. Nor is yours unchanged; it has dete- riorated precisely because Bismarck wishes to demonstrate that nothing has changed. The ostentatious exclusion of the Social Democrats from the amnesty, the mass scale of house searches and persecution, the desperate efforts to kill off the Sozialdemokrat in Switzerland[4] —all this proves that Bismarck & Co. feel the ground quaking under their feet, as do the efforts of the supporters of the Kartell[5] to make Fritz realise what a monarch is.

In true monarchical fashion they give way over all political questions, yet it's a court intrigue which brings the conflict to light. The thing's absolutely farcical—according to Bismarck, the Tsar[6] has the right to forbid Battenberg's marriage, while according to Fritz and Victoria, in their particular case, all the profound and inscrutable political axioms whereby they have been guided throughout their lives are suddenly to be abolished![7]

Being in such a parlous state, Fritz will doubtless be forced to give way here again—unless he gets better and can really weather a minis- terial crisis. It is not at all in our interests that Bismarck should sulkily withdraw, only to return in triumph 4 weeks later, the idol of your coalitionist philistine. We should be more than satisfied if the said coalitionist philistine were to lose all faith in the stability of Bismarck's regime. Nor will that stability be restored in Fritz's lifetime.

Since absolutely nothing more is being divulged about the nature of the disease—not even Waldeyer's report which, if favourable, would certainly have been made public—there can be no doubt that it's a case of cancer. And here again our men of Progress[8] are showing what stuff they are made of. Virchow who, if only in his capacity as a medical man, and one who has already been consulted, ought now to be on the spot, is digging for antiquities in Egypt! No doubt he wishes to be called in officially!

There can be no empire without an empereur, no Bonapartism with- out a Bonaparte. The system is tailored to the man, stands or falls with him. Like the old Slav idol of Pomerania, Triglav, our Bonaparte had three heads; the middle one has been cut off and, of the other two, Moltke is already past his prime and Bismarck tottering. He won't get the better of Victoria, she having learnt from her mother[9] how to deal with ministers, even all-powerful ones. The old security is gone. The insecurity of the foundations will also become apparent in their policy; blunders abroad, at home recurrent coups de main. And it will become apparent in your philistine's loss of faith in his own idol, in the dwin- dling energy and zeal of civil servants, their minds bent on the possibil- ity of change and consequently of a changed future for themselves. All this if, as seems probable, Bismarck stays where he is. But should Fritz get better and Bismarck's position become seriously endangered, then, so Lenchen maintains, they'll take a pot shot at Fritz. This might in fact actually happen, should Puttkamer and his Ihrings and Naporras be endangered.

So whatever happens there'll be an interregnum, with Bismarck yearning for the exit of Fritz and the entry of the other William.[10] In that case, however, things won't be at all the same as they used to be. In that case there'll be bedlam. Our Bonapartism has now just about reached its Mexican period. When that comes, so will our 1866, followed shortly by 1870; i.e. it will come from within, a domestic Sedan.[11] Well, let it!

In France things are taking a perfectly logical course—the right-wing Republicans are being forced into an alliance with the Monarchists and are foundering as a result, and possible governments have to be formed ever further to the left. Boulanger is obviously a political nitwit and will probably soon come to grief in the Chamber. Your French provincial philistine has but one article of faith—the indispensability of the Republic, since Monarchy spells civil war and war abroad.

Shall send receipt for Mrs Pf ander 's 100 marks in my next; I forgot to get it from her. Meanwhile many thanks for the donation. I shall do what I can to support the woman, but shall take the liberty of approaching you people again.

Kindest regards to your wife and daughter, and to Singer.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ The reference is to the manifesto of Frederick III on the occasion of his ascension to the throne on 12 March 1888. This proclamation - An mein Volk (To my people) - was marked by the same date as his message to Chancellor Bismarck.
  2. ↑ Frederick III had larynx cancer
  3. ↑ William I
  4. ↑ At the insistence of the German authorities the Swiss Federal Council on 18 April 1888 expelled several associate editors of and contributors to the Sozialdemokrat (Eduard Bernstein, Julius Motteler, Hermann Schluter and Leonard Tauscher) from the country. Until 22 September the paper continued to appear in Switzerland, edited by the Swiss Social Democrat Conrad Consett. From 1 October 1888 to 27 September 1890 the paper was published in London.
  5. ↑ The Kartell was a coalition of conservative parties - die Deutsch-Konservative Partei, die Deutsche Reichspartei (Freikonservative) und die Nationalliberale Partei - which was formed after Bismarck had dissolved the Reichstag in January 1887 (see note 15). Supporting the Bismarck government, Kartell won the election of February 1887 by obtaining the largest number of seats in the Reichstag (220). Assisted by the coalition, Bismarck was able to secure the passage of reactionary laws in the interests of the Junkers and the big bourgeoisie (imposition of protectionist tariffs, higher taxes, etc.) (see note 152). However, he could not get the Reichstag to prolong the Anti-Socialist Law. The exacerbation of differences among the parties affiliated with the Kartell and the electoral defeat of 1890, with only 135 seats secured in the Reichstag, resulted in the disintegration of the coalition.
  6. ↑ Alexander III
  7. ↑ A reference to the intended marriage of Victoria, the daughter of Frederick III, to Prince Alexander Battenberg of Bulgaria, who occupied the Bulgarian throne in 1879-86 and steered a policy hostile to Russia. Fearing a worsening of Russo-German relations, Bismarck opposed the marriage.
  8. ↑ The Party of Progress, founded in June 1861, advocated the unification of Germany under the aegis of Prussia, the convocation of an all-German parliament, and a liberal Ministry responsible to the Chamber of Deputies. Fearing a popular revolution, it did not support the basic democratic demands - universal suffrage and the freedom of the press, association and assembly. In 1866 the Party of Progress split. Its right wing founded the National Liberal Party, which capitulated to the Bismarck government. After the final unification of Germany in 1871, the Progressists continued to describe themselves as an opposition party, but their opposition was purely declaratory. In March 1884 they merged with the left wing of the National Liberals to form the German Free-Thinking Party (Die Deutsche Freisinnige Partei).
  9. ↑ Queen Victoria
  10. ↑ William II
  11. ↑ Believing that the Bismarck regime was in for a political crisis, Engels considers, by way of comparison, the landmark stages of the political crisis of the Second Empire in France: The Mexican period of Bonapartism - the abortive armed intervention of France in Mexico (1862-67) with the aim of suppressing the Mexican revolution. The military expedition incurred huge expenses and caused grave damage to the empire of Napoleon III. 1866 - the defeat of Austria in her war against Prussia deprived Napoleon III of an essential ally in the confrontation with Prussia. 1870 - the routing, on 1-2 September, of French troops at Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Sedan debacle speeded up the collapse of the Second Empire and led to the proclamation of a republic in France on 4 September 1870.