London, 10 March 1871 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N.W. 

Dear Friends Klein and Moll, 

You must have been very surprised not to have received any 
reply to your letters of February last year. There were, however, a 
number of reasons for it. In the first place, I had hoped from one 
day to the next to be in a position to have something positive to 
say about the Association. But this turned out to be impossible and 
after the outbreak of the war it could no longer be expected. In 
the second place, your letter arrived in such a sorry state that I 
could be in no doubt that the postal authorities had been at pains 
to read it. So I waited for an opportune moment, particularly 
since the war, the state of siege and the many arrests. And, finally, 
I could not know whether both of you had not been conscripted 
into the Landwehr’! during the war. 

An opportunity has now arisen to send a letter to Barmen, whence 
it could be passed on with little danger, and so I shall make use of it 
to give you a sign of life, and to enclose the promised portrait of 

myself. I have not yet been able to obtain one of Schapper who, as 
you know, died last year; as soon as I can lay hands on one, you 
shall have it. 

The German workers now have a hard time ahead of them; it 
seems to have been decided that they should be the victims whose 
sacrifice will provide the occasion for a reconciliation between 
Junker and bourgeoisie. But it doesn’t matter. The workers’ 
movement has become too powerful even in Germany to be 
snuffed out that easily by Prussian tricks. On the contrary, the 
persecutions we have to be prepared for will just give us greater 
strength, and when the bourgeois at present drunk with victory has 
overslept from intoxication and the hangover is beginning, a 
chance will arise for our party to raise its voice once more. At any 
rate, the exemplary behaviour of the German workers during the 
war has demonstrated that they know what is at stake and that 
they alone, of all the parties, have a correct insight into the history 
of our age, whereas the bourgeois have really let victory go to 
their heads. 

I have been living here in London for the past five months. It 
seems doubtful whether you can continue for much longer to 
belong to the International Working Men’s Association unless just 
in principle, since they seem to want to make it a criminal offence 
to be a member of that Association in Germany. At any rate, you 
may rest assured that having prepared the way for the association 
of the entire European and American proletariat over the past 
seven years, we shall take good care that it does not disintegrate 
whatever the circumstances. And that is the main thing. 

With fraternal greetings, 

Yours, 
F. Engels