How far Fr. Engels was from the contemptuous attitude toward contemporary German annexations that is characteristic of certain doctrinaire distorters of Marxism among present-day German Social-Democrats is shown by the following statement of his, dating from 1893:

“We must not forget that 27 years of Bismarck’s rule made Germany hated throughout all foreign countries—and rightly so. Neither the annexation of the North Schleswig Danes, nor the non-observance, and ultimately the fraudulent annulment, of the clause of the Prague Treaty relating to them, nor the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, nor the repulsive measures against the Prussian Poles had anything in common with the creation of ‘national unity’.” (“Kann Europa abrüsten?” Nürnberg 1893, p. 27)*. By the Prague Treaty of 23 August 1866, Austria renounced Schleswig-Holstein in favor of Prussia on the condition that the population of the northern districts of Schleswig should be ceded to Denmark if, in a free vote, it declared itself in favor of union with Denmark. The fraudulent annulment of this clause was carried out by the Vienna Treaty between Germany and Austria of 11 October 1878. Even 15 years later, in 1893, Engels had not forgotten this deception and brands it, emphasizing the difference between the creation of the national unity of the Germans and a series of violent and fraudulent measures of oppression against peoples dependent on the Germans.