Marx-Engels Correspondence 1867
Source: MECW Volume 42, p. 359;
First published: abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Berlin, 1930.
Dear Fred,
I have been here as Dr Kugelmann’s guest for a week now. I was obliged to stay in Hamburg or right near Hamburg on account of the printing [of Volume I of Capital]. Things stand as follows. Meissner wants to have the whole undertaking complete in 4-5 weeks, but cannot get the printing done in Hamburg, both because there are not enough printers, and because the proof-readers are insufficiently learned. He is therefore having the printing done at Otto Wigand’s (or rather his son’s, as that puffed-up old cur only has a nominal share in the business now). He sent the manuscript to Leipzig a week ago. He now wants to have me to hand to check the first 2 proof-sheets and at the same time to decide whether it is ‘possible’ to print quickly with a single proof-reading on my part. In this case, the whole undertaking would be complete in 4-5 weeks. However, Easter week is now holding it up. Wigand Jr wrote to Meissner that he cannot start until the end of this week. At Kugelmann’s pressing invitation, I therefore came here (which also has economic advantages) for the interim. Before I say anything about ‘local’ affairs, I must not forget to tell you: Meissner would appreciate it, and asks me to pass on the request to you, if you would write a warning concerning Russia, for the benefit of the Germans and the French simultaneously. If you do undertake it, he wishes it done quickly. He would, however, prefer you to write at some length rather than more briefly, as small pamphlets do not sell well. You could discuss conditions when you send him the manuscript, as he says the two of you would not fall out over the matter. You could write with ‘no holds barred’, as Meissner considers that there is no need whatever to be concerned about considerations.
Regarding Hanover, then.
Kugelmann is a doctor of great eminence in his special field, which is gynaecology. He is in correspondence with Virchow and the other authorities (including one Meyer in Berlin) and formerly with von Siebold in Göttingen and with Semmelweis in Vienna, before he went mad. Whenever there is a difficult case in this field over here, he is always brought in as consultant. As an instance of the professional jealousy and stupidity of the locals, he told me he had initially been blackballed, i.e., not admitted to the doctors’ association here, because ‘gynaecology’ is a ‘cesspit of immorality’. Kugelmann is very talented technically, too. He has invented a mass of new instruments in this field.
Kugelmann is secondly a fanatical supporter (and for my taste excessively Westphalian in his admiration) of our ideas and the two of us personally. He sometimes bores me with his enthusiasm, which is at odds with the detachment he displays as a doctor. But he understands, and he is a really excellent man, unaffected by qualms, capable of making sacrifices, and, most important of all, convinced. He has a charming little wife and an 8-year old daughter who is positively sweet. He has in his possession a far better collection of our works than the two of us together. I even came across The Holy Family again here, which he presented to me and of which he will be sending you a copy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we have no need to feel ashamed of the piece, although the Feuerbach cult now makes a most comical impression upon one. The ordinary people, and in the capital, Hanover, even the bourgeoisie, are extremely hostile to the Prussians (ditto in Electoral Hesse) and miss no opportunity of expressing their sentiments. They openly proclaim their longing — for the French. If one remarks to them that this is unpatriotic, they say, ‘The Prussians did just the same thing. When they marched through here, they were boasting, the officers first and foremost among them, that the French would come to their aid — if need be.’ Wehner’s father is much respected here and is considered a Guelph. Bismarck sent one of his satraps, the advocate Warnebold, to see me yesterday (keep this under your hat). He wishes to ‘make use of me and my great talents in the interests of the German people’. Von Benningsen will be paying ‘meah’ his respects tomorrow.
The standing the two of us enjoy in Germany, particularly among the ‘educated’ officials, is of an altogether different order from what we imagined. Thus, e.g., the director of the statistical bureau here, Merkel, visited me and told me, he had been studying questions of money for years to no avail, and I had immediately clarified the matter once and for all. ‘Your Dioscurus Engels,’ he told me, ‘was recently acknowledged by my colleague Engel before the royal family in Berlin.’ These are trifling things, but they are important for us. We have more influence on these officials than on the louts.
I was also invited to attend the society of ‘Europeans’, as they call the anti-Prussian, North-Germanic members of the National Association here. What jackasses!
I also received an invitation from the head (head-in-chief, as Stieber calls it) of the railway here. I went along, he provided some good herb wine, his wife was ‘delaighted’, and as I was leaving, he thanked me ‘for doing him such an honour’.
I have a debt of honour — £10 — to settle with Mr Wheeler, a member of our Council and Manager of the Empire Insurance Corporation. You would oblige me greatly if you would send him the money on my behalf: ‘G. Wheeler, Esq., 27 Gresham Street, E.C. Private’ (London). I am also very much afraid that my family in London may be ‘in profundis’. This grieves me the more particularly because poor good little Jenny’s birthday is May Ist. I have cast out nets with a view to making a monetary haul. With what success remains to be seen.
My health is extraordinarily improved. No trace of the old complaint. What is more, in good spirits, despite all adversity, and no liver trouble.
Do please write me a few lines by return (address: Dr Kugelmann, Hanover). Salut to Mrs Burns.
Your
Moor
Freiligrath is making a fool of himself by his public beggary in Germany. Meissner tells me he has disappeared without trace in North Germany.