Letter to Karl Kautsky, April 20, 1889

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 20 April 1889


First published in: Aus der Frühzeit des Marxismus, Engels Briefwechsel mit Kautsky, Prag, 1935
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN VIENNA

London, 20 April 1889

Dear Kautsky,

As regards Schlesinger, I shall have a word with Liebknecht when he comes over here in about a fortnight. I have already written to him outlining the essential points. But you might be so good as to send me the thing[1] —stuff of this sort is unobtainable over here and I shouldn't like to be in the position of having to accept everything he says at its face value.

As to Schmidt, I have advised him to send you the ms. and see whether you can place it.[2] Schmidt has quietly developed into a Marxian and, as a result, no longer has any prospect of a university career, having been turned down by Halle—that noble university is confessional!—as a dissident and by Leipzig as a socialist,[3] while the Swiss have begged him to spare them his presence. Just now he is trying to get someone to publish the thesis he wrote for his habilitation[4] the academic socialists[5] tell him it is too Marxist and really won't do. So the publishers are none too many. Schmidt came over to us entirely of his own accord, without any prompting and, indeed, despite numerous indirect warnings from myself, simply because he could not set his face against the truth. As things are today that is greatly to his credit and he has, moreover, acted most courageously.

Now the point is that I am the very person who must not read and pass an opinion on his ms. He is seeking to reply to the question I raised in the preface to Volume II.[6] But I mustn't come out prematurely with the contents of Volume III, and that is what is preventing me from taking a direct hand in the business. So I can't be of any help to you this time.

He—Schmidt—has thrown himself into journalism in Berlin; how he'll get on I have no idea. At all events he has behaved with more energy and good sense than I credited him with. For a journalist, his style is quite exceptionally ponderous, but that, after all, doesn't matter much in Germany.

I hope Louise gets through her last six weeks all right, and that she'll then take a rest.[7] That damned Paris congress is causing me nothing but vexation. What a muddle! Ede helps me and I help him, where possible, and Tussy helps us both, but for the rest all is chaos.

Your lieutenant[8] hasn't been here yet. On the other hand we have Schorlemmer with us. The weather is glorious. Nim and I were in Highgate[9] today—three hours' stroll. But it's now time for a meal and—at 5.30—for the post.

Kindest regards from us all to Louise and yourself.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ M. Schlesinger, Die soziale Frage
  2. ↑ See this volume, p.276
  3. ↑ On 23 August 1888 Conrad Schmidt wrote to Engels that he was not eligible as lecturer at Halle University on account of his atheist views.
  4. ↑ Formal admission of a lecturer into a university faculty
  5. ↑ The academic socialists (die Kathedersozialisten - literally 'lectern socialists') were representatives of a trend in German political economy in the latter third of the 19th century, a response to the growing working-class movement and the propagation of the ideas of socialism. They used university lecterns (Katheder) to preach bourgeois reformism under the flag of socialism and claimed that the state, the German Reich in particular, was above class, and that with its help the working class would be able to improve its position through social reforms.
  6. ↑ In his preface to Volume II of Capital that appeared in 1885 Engels suggested that economists clarify the question 'in which way an equal average rate of profit can and must come about, not only without a violation of the law of value, but on the basis of it' (see present edition, Vol. 36). Marx had offered a solution to this problem in Volume III of Capital on which Engels was working at the time. Having taken an interest in the problem raised by Engels, C. Schmidt was working on the book Die Durchschnittsprofitrate auf Grundlage des Marx'schen Werthgesetzes which came out in 1889. In the review of Volume II of Capital - Die Marx'sche Kapitaltheorie - published by the journal Jahrhiicher fur Nationaldkonomie und Statistik, new series, Vol. XI, 1885, Wilhelm Lexis likewise raised this problem, though he could offer no solution. Engels made a circumstantial appraisal of these works in his preface to Volume III of Capital (see present edition, Vol. 37).
  7. ↑ Louise Kautsky was attending obstetrics classes.
  8. ↑ Fritz Kautsky
  9. ↑ The cemetery where Marx, his wife and their daughter Jenny are buried