| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 30 September 1893 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
London, 30 September 1893 My dear Löhr,
We arrived here all right yesterday morning 189 and my first and agreeable duty is to remit to you one third of Meissner's remittance for 1892/93 of £60. = 20.—and one fifth of Sonnenschein' s ditto of £5.10.5. (2/5 go to the translator and 3/5 to the heirs 261) —
thus..................................................................................... £1.2.1
£21.2.1 for which the cheque is enclosed. Please inform me of its safe receipt.
You may have seen in the papers how I was drawn out of my reserve— first at Zurich, then at Vienna 257 and finally at Berlin. 262 I fought as hard as I could but it was no use, they must have me out. Well it will be the last time, I have informed them I will not go there again except under a written engagement that I shall be allowed to travel as a private individual. Anyhow they everywhere received me more than splendidly, far more so than I did, or had a right to, expect.
As to the movement in Austria and Germany, it has exceeded my most extravagant expectations. Our French friends will have to bestir themselves if they will not be left behind. There is a power there, and both our men and their opponents know it.
At Vienna I was at a meeting of some 6,000, and at the Konimers in Berlin they honoured me with, there were 4,000 present—only the representative men and women of the party—and I can assure you it was a pleasure to see and hear this people. When you come from England with this distracted and disunited working class we have here, when you have heard for years nothing but bickering and squabbles from France, from Italy, from America, and then go amongst these people—the German-speaking ones—and see the unity of purpose, the splendid organisation, the enthusiasm, the unverwüstliche Humor, der aus der Siegesgewissheit quillt,[1] you cannot help being carried away and saying: this is the centre of gravity of the working class movement. And if our French friends do not care, the Austrians may take the wind out of their sails. They are a mixed race—Germans grafted upon a Celtic (Noric) 263 stock and getting strongly mixed with a Slavonic element—thus combining the three chief European races in their blood. Their temper is very much like the French—more lively and sanguine than the less mixed Germans, and more capable of initiative by impulse. Unless Paris minds its p s and q's, Vienna may give the signal of the next revolution. I like the people very much, and the Viennese women remind me very much of the French working women of 40 years ago; of course they are oversanguine of success just like the French, but I think they are a deal clearer headed than those Parisians who fell in love with Boulanger—must close—company arriving.
Kind regards to Paul
Ever yours
General[2]
Louise grüsst herzlich.[3]