IN ZALT-BOMMEL 
[Brussels,] 28-30 September 1847 

Tuesday, 28 September 
Dear Marx, 

There has recently been a very curious business here. All those 
elements among the local Germans who are dissatisfied with us 
and what we do have formed a coalition for the purpose of 
overthrowing you, me and the communists in general, and 
competing with the Workers’ Society.'* Bornstedt is exceedingly 
displeased; the story emanating from Otterberg, passed on and 
confirmed by Sandkuhl and exploited by Criger and Moras, to 
the effect that we were simply exploiting him, Bornstedt, has 
made him furtous with all of us; Moras and Criiger, who go about 
complaining of our alleged cavalier treatment of them, have 
put his back up even further. Seiler is annoyed because of the 
unpardonable neglect he suffered: at the founding of the Workers’ 
Society, and because of its good progress, which has given the lie 
to all his predictions. Heilberg is seeking to take spectacular if 
unbloody revenge for all the slights that have been, and are being, 
daily meted out to him. Bornstedt, too, is seething because his gifts 
of books and maps have failed to buy him the status of an 
influential democrat and honorary membership of, and a place for 
his bust in, the Society, instead of which his typesetter* will, 
tomorrow evening, put his name to the vote like that of any 
ordinary mortal. He is also vexed that he, the aristocratic homme 
desprit? should find much less opportunity to make fun of the 
workers than he had hoped. Then Moras is annoyed at having 
been unable to win over the Briisseler-Zeitung for Heinzen. Enfin 
all these heterogeneous elements agreed upon a coup that was to 
reduce us one and all to a secondary role vis-a-vis Imbert and the 
Belgian democrats, and to call into being a society far more 
grandiose and universal than our uncouth Workers’ Society. All 
these gentlemen were fired by the idea of taking the initiative in 
something for once, and the cowardly rascals deemed the moment of 
your absence admirably suited to that end. But they had shamefully: 
miscalculated. 

a Karl Wallau - > wit 

They therefore decided quite on the sly to arrange a cosmopoli- 
tan-democratic supper and there to propose without prior warning 
a society a@ la Fraternat Democrats '? with workers’ meetings, etc., etc. 
They set up a kind of committee onto which as a matter of form 
they co-opted the, to them, completely harmless Imbert. After 
hearing all kinds of vague rumours, it was not until Sunday* 
evening at the Society that I learned anything positive about it 
from Bornstedt, and on Monday the. meal was to take place. I 
could get no details from Bornstedt except that Jottrand, General 
Mellinet, Adolf Bartels, Kats, etc., etc., would be there, Poles, 
Italians, etc., etc. Although I had no inkling whatever about the 
whole coalition (only. on Monday morning did I learn that 
Bornstedt was somewhat piqued and that Moras and Criger were 
moaning and plotting: about Seiler and Heilberg I knew nothing), 
nonetheless I smelled a rat. But it was essential to attend because 
of the Belgians and because nothing democratic must be allowed 
to take place in little Brussels without our participating. But 
something had to be done about forming a group. Wallau and I 
accordingly put the matter forward and advocated it vigorously, 
upon which some thirty immediately agreed to go. On Monday 
morning I was told by Lupus that, besides the président d’honneur, 
old Mellinet, and the actual chairman, Jottrand, they would have 
to have two vice-chairmen, one of whom would be Imbert and the 
other a German, preferably a working man. Wallau was, unfortu- 
nately, out of the running since he didn’t speak French. That’s 
what he’d been told by Bornstedt. He, Lupus, had replied that in 
that case it must be me. I told Lupus that it must be him, but he 
refused point-blank. I was also reluctant because I look so awfully 
young, but finally I thought that, for all eventualities, it would be 
best for me to accept. 

We went there in the evening.? Bornstedt was all innocence, as 
though nothing had as yet been arranged, merely the officials 
(toujours a exception de l’Allemand”), and a few registered speakers, 
none of whose names, save for Criiger and Moras I was able to 
discover; he kept making off to see to the arrangement of the 
place, hurried from one person to the next, duping, intriguing, 
bootlicking for all he was worth. However I saw no evidence of 
any specific intrigue; this didn’t transpire till later on. We were at 
the Estaminet‘ Liégeois in the Place du Palais de justice. When it 
came to electing the officials, Bornstedt, contrary to all that had 

a 96 September - > always excepting the German - © tavern 

6* 

been agreed, proposed Wallau. The latter declined through Wolff 
(Lupus) and had me proposed, this being carried in style. Thus 
thwarted, the whole plot collapsed. They now + * lost their heads and 
gave themselves away. After Imbert had proposed the health of the 
martyrs de la liberté, 1 came out with a toast in French au souvenir de la 
révolution de 1792” and, as an afterthought, of the anniversaire du 1° 
vendémiaire an I de la république. Criiger followed me with 
a ludicrous speech during which he dried up and had to resort to his 
manuscript. Then Moras, who read out an harangue almost entirely 
devoted to his humble self.* Both in German. So confused were their 
toasts that I have absolutely no recollection of them. Then Pellering 
in Flemish. The lawyer Spilthoorn of Ghent, speaking French au 
peuple anglais then, to my great astonishment, that hunchbacked 
spider Heilberg, with a long, school-masterly, vapid speech in French 
in which he 1) patted himself on the back as editor of the Atelier 
Démocratique; 2) declared that he, Maximus Heilberg, had for several 
months been pursuing— mais cela doit se dire en francais: L’association 
des ouvriers belges, voila le but que Je poursuis depuis quelques mois (c. ad. 
depuis le moment ot: J'ai daigné prendre connaissance du dernier chapitre de 
la Misere de la philosophie).' He, then, and not Kats and the other 
Belgians. ‘Nous entrerons dans la carriére quand nos ainés n’y seront plus’ 
etc., etc. He will achieve what Kats and Jottrand could not do; 3) 
proposed to found a FRATERNAL DEMOCRACY and to reorganise the 
meetings; 4) to entrust the elected bureau with the organisation of 
both. 

Well now, what confusion! First lump together the cosmopolitan 
business and Belgian meetings on Belgian affairs and 2) instead of 
dropping this proposal because everything's going wrong for you, 
pass it on to the existing bureau! And if he had my departure in 
mind, should he not have known that it would be unthinkable to 
bring anyone else but you into the bureau? But the numskull had 
already written the whole of his speech and his vanity wouldn’t 
allow him to omit anything by which he could seize the initiative in 

a more or less - © in memory of the 1792 revolution - © the anniversary of the First 
Vendémiaire of the first year of the Republic (22 September 1792, the day when the 
Republic was proclaimed, fell on the First Vendémiaire according to the republican 
calendar). - 4 [J.] Imbert, [C.] Moras, F. Criiger, [Speeches delivered at the 
democratic banquet in Brussels on 27 September], Deutsche-Briisseler-Zeitung, Nos. 80 
and 83, 7 and 17 October 1847. - € to the English people - f but that must be said in 
French: The Association of Belgian Working Men, that is the goal I have been 
pursuing for several months (i. e. since the moment I deigned to take cognizance of 
the final chapter of the Poverty of Philosophy). - &‘ We shall enter the lists when our elders are 
no longer theré (Marseillaise by Rouget de Lisle) 

some way. The thing, of course, went through, but in view of the 
highly factice* albeit noisy enthusiasm, there could be no question 
of putting the confused proposal into better order. Next 
A. Bartels spoke (Jules? wasn’t there), and then Wallau demanded 
the floor. But how intense was my astonishment when suddenly 
Bornstedt thrust himself forward and urgently demanded the 
floor for Seiler as a speaker whose name was higher up the 
register. Having got it, Seiler delivered an interminably long, 
garrulous, silly, absurdly vapid and truly shameful speech (in 
French) in which he talked the most hair-raising nonsense about 
pouvoirs législatif, administratif et exécutif, gave all manner of wise 
advice to the democrats (as did Heilberg, who invented the most 
wondrous things about instruction et question, de Venseignement‘), in 
which Seiler, further posing en grand homme,’ spoke of democratic 
societies, auxquelles j'ai participé et que j'ai peut-étre méme 
diri gees (lattéralement),* and finally, with the derniéres nouvelles 
arrivées de Paris etc., etc., actually dragged in his precious bureau.'*! 
In short, it was ghastly. Several speakers followed, a Swiss jackass, 
Pellering, Kats (very good), etc., etc., and at ten o’clock Jottrand (who 
blushed with shame for the Germans) declared the sitting closed. 
Suddenly Heilberg called for silence and announced that Weerth’s 
speech at the rres-rrape concress '*” would be appearing next day in a 
supplement to the Alelier qui se vendra séparément™!!! Then 
Zalewski also spoke, whining a while sur l’union de cette matheureuse 
Pologne et de cette grande, noble et poétique Allemagne—enfin, all went 
home quietly. enough but very much out of temper. 

Thursday, 30 September 

Since the above was written a great deal more has happened 
and various things have been decided. On Tuesday morning, 
when the whole plot was clear to me, I hurried round to counter 
it; that same night at 2 o’clock I went to see Lupus at the bureau): 
could not Bornstedt be balloted out of the Workers’ Society? 
Wednesday called on all and sundry, but everybody was of the 
opinion that we couldn’t do it. On Wednesday evening, when I 

@ factitious - > Jules Bartels - © teaching and questions of education - 4 as a great 
man -¢ in which I participated and which I may perhaps even have directed 
(literally) - £ latest news to come from Paris - 8 Marty from Zurich -» which would be 
sold separately - i about the union between that unfortunate Poland and that great, 
noble and poetical Germany—finally -i Probably the editorial office of the 
Deutsche-Briisseler-Zeitung. 

arrived at the Society, Bornstedt was already there; his attitude was 
equivocal; finally Thomis came in with the latest issue; my 
anti-Heinzen article which ’d brought him as long ago as Monday 
and, not finding him in (2 o’clock in the afternoon), had taken to the 
printers, was not in it2 On my questioning him, he said there had 
been no space. I reminded him of what you and he had agreed.’ He 
denied it; I waited till Wallau arrived and he told me there had been 
space enough but that on Tuesday Bornstedt had had the article 
fetched from the printers and had not sent it back again. I went to 
Bornstedt and very rudely told him as much. He tried to lie his way 
out. I again reverted to the agreement, which he again denied, save 
for a few trivial generalities. I passed some insulting remarks— 
Griiger, Gigot.and Imbert, etc., etc., were present—and asked: ‘Do 
you intend to publish the article on Sunday, oui ou non?—We'll have 
to discuss it first.-—T refuse to discuss it with you. — And thereupon 
I left him. 

The sitting began. Bornstedt, chin cradled in his hands, sat 
looking at me with a curiously gloating expression. I stared back 
at him and waited. Up got Mr Thomis, who, as you know, had 
demanded the floor. He drew a prepared speech out of his pocket 
and read out a series of the most peculiar aspersions on our sham 
battle.'** This went on for some time but, as cela ne finissait pas,” 
there was a general muttering, a mass of people demanded the 
floor, and Wallau called Thomis to order. The latter, Thomis, 
then read out some half dozen inane phrases on the question and 
withdrew. Then Hess spoke and defended us pretty well. Then 
Junge. Then Wolff‘ of Paris who, though he dried up 3 times, 
was much applauded. Then several more. Wolff had betrayed the 
fact that our opposition had been purely formal. So I had to take 
the floor. 1 spoke—4 la grande déconfiture de’ Bornstedt, who had 
believed that I was too much preoccupied with personal squab- 
bles—I spoke, then, about the revolutionary aspect of the 
protectionist system, completely ignoring the aforesaid Thomis, of 
course, and proposed a new question. Agreed.— Pause.— 
Bornstedt, badly shaken by the vehement way I had addressed 
him, by Thomis’ ratting on him (il y avait du Bornstedt dans son 
discours) ahd by the vehemence of my peroration—Bornstedt 
came up to me: My dear boy, how terribly impassioned you are, 

a F. Engels,“The Communists and Karl Heinzen’. First article (dated 26 September 
was not printed in No. 78, 29 September; it appeared in the next issue on 3 October 
1847). - > it showed no signs of finishing - © Ferdinand Wolff - 4 to the great 
discomfiture of - ¢ there were echoes of Bornstedt in his speech 

etc., etc. In short, I was to sign the article-—No.—Then at least we 
should agree on a short editorial introduction.— Bien, a demain a 
onze heures au Café Suisse? 

There followed the matter of the admission of Bornstedt, 
Criger, Wolff. Hess was the first to get up; he addressed 2 
questions to Bornstedt about Monday’s meeting. Bornstedt lied his 
way out, and Hess was weak enough to declare himself. satisfied. 
Junge went for Bornstedt personally because of his behaviour at 
the Society and because he had introduced Sandkuhl under a false 
name. Fischer came out very energetically against Bornstedt, quite 
impromptu but very well. Several others likewise. In short, the 
triumphant Mr von Bornstedt had almost literally to run the 
gauntlet of the workers. He took a severe drubbing and was so 
thunderstruck—he, who of course believed he had well and truly 
bought his way in with his gifts of books—that he could only 
answer evasively, feebly, concedingly—in spite of the fact that 
Wallau, fanatically in support of him, was a wretched chairman 
who permitted him to interrupt the speakers at any and every 
opportunity. Everything was stil] hanging in the balance when 
Wallau directed the candidates to withdraw and called for a vote. 
. Criiger, proposed by me as an exceptionally guileless man, who could 
in no way harm the Society, and purement et simplement seconded by 
Wolff, got through. In the case of Bornstedt, Wallau came out 
with a long, impassioned speech on his behalf. Then I stood up, 
went into the whole matter of the plot in so far as it concerned the 
Society, demolished Bornstedt’s evasions, each by means of the 
other, and finally declared: Bornstedt has intrigued against us, has 
sought to compete with us, but we have won, and hence can now 
admit him into the Society. During my speech—the best I have 
ever made—I was constantly interrupted by applause; notably 
when I said: these gentlemen believed that all had been won 
because I, their vice-chairman, was going away, but it had not 
occurred to them that there is, amongst us, one to whom the 
position belongs by right, one who alone is able to represent the 
German democrats here in Brussels, and that is Marx— 
whereupon tremendous applause. In short, no one spoke after 
me, and thus Bornstedt was not done the honour of being thrown 
out. He was standing outside the door and listening to it all. I 
would rather have said my say while he was still in the room, mais 
il n’y avait pas moyen,’ because I had to spare myself for the final 

4 Very well, eleven o'clock tomorrow at the Café Suisse. - > but it could not be done 

blow, and Wallau broke off the discussion. But, like Wolff and 
Criiger, he had heard every word. As opposed to him, Wolff was 
admitted almost without a hitch. 

In short, at yesterday’s sitting Bornstedt, Criiger, etc., etc., 
suffered such an affront that they cannot honourably frequent the 
Society again, and they’ve had enough to last them a long time. 
But frequent it they certainly will; the shameless Bornstedt has 
been so reduced by our even greater insolence, by the utter failure 
of all his calculations, and by our vehemence, that all he can do is 
trot around Brussels whining to everyone about his disgrace— le 
dernier degré de UVabaissement* He came back into the hall raging but 
impotent and, when I took my leave of the Society and was 
allowed to go with every imaginable mark of respect, he departed 
seething. Burgers, who has been here since the day before 
yesterday evening, was present while we discussed Bornstedt. 

Throughout, the behaviour of our workers was really splendid: 
the gifts, 26 books and 27 maps, were never mentioned, they 
treated Bornstedt with the utmost frigidity and lack of considera- 
tion—and, when I spoke and had reached my peroration, I had it 
in my power to have him rejected by a vast majority. Even Wallau 
admits as much. But we treated him worse than that by adopting 
him with scorn and contumely. The affair has made a capital 
impression on the Society; for the first time they have had a role 
to play, have dominated a meeting despite all the plotting, and 
have put in his place a fellow who was trying to set himself up 
against them. Only a few clerks, etc., etc., are dissatisfied, the vast 
majority being enthusiastically on our side. They have experienced 
what it means to be associated. 

This morning I went to the Café Suisse, and who should fail to 
turn up but Bornstedt.—Weerth and Seiler, however, were there 
to meet me; they had just been talking to Bornstedt, and Seiler 
was obsequiousness and ingratiation personified. I, of course, gave 
him the cold shoulder. Yesterday’s sitting, by the way, was so 
dramatic, and evolved so splendidly towards its climax that sheer 
aesthetic emotion momentarily turned Wolff of Paris into a party 
man. Today I also went to see A. Bartels and explained to him 
that the German Society was in no way responsible for what had 
happened on Monday, that Criiger, Bornstedt, Moras, Seiler, 
Heilberg, etc., etc., were not even members, and that the whole 
affair, staged a l’insu of the German Society, was in fact a bid to 

a the lowest depths of debasement - © without the knowledge 

set up a rival faction. A letter in similar vein, signed by all the 
committee members, is to be sent to Jottrand tomorrow, when I 
and Lupus will also be going to see Imbert. I have further written 
the following letter to Jottrand about the place on the organising 
committee of the Brussels Fraternal pemocrats which will become 
vacant on my departure: 

‘Monsieur! Obligé de quitter Bruxelles pour quelques mois, je me 
trouve dans limpossibilité de remplir les fonctions dont la réunion 
du 27 de ce mois a bien voulu m’investir.—Je vous prie donc 
d’appeler un démocrate allemand résidant 4 Bruxelles 4 assister aux 
travaux de la commission chargée d’organiser une société démocrati- 
que universelle.— Je me permettrai de vous proposer celui parmi les 
démocrates allemands de Bruxelles, que la réunion, s’il avait pu y 
assister, aurait nommé a la charge qu’en son absence on m’a fait 
Vhonneur de me conférer. Je parle de Mr Marx qui dans mon intime 
conviction a le droit le plus fondé de représenter a la commission la 
démocratie allemande. Ce ne serait donc pas Mr Marx qui m’y 
remplacerait, c’était plut6t moi qui a la réunion ai remplacé Mr 
Marx. Agréez, pp. pp.’* 

1 had in fact already agreed with Jottrand that I would advise 
him in writing of my departure and propose you for the 
committee. Jottrand is also away and will be back in a fortnight. If, 
as I believe, nothing comes of the whole affair, it will be Heilberg’s 
proposal that falls through; if something does come of it, then it 
will be we who have brought the thing about. Either way we have 
succeeded in getting you and, after you, myself, recognised as 
representatives of the German democrats in Brussels, besides the 
whole plot having been brought to a dreadfully ignominious 
end. 

This evening there was a meeting of the community at which 
I took the chair. With the exception of Wallau who, by the way, 
allowed himself to be converted and whose conduct yesterday was, 

a ‘Sir, Being obliged to leave Brussels for a few months, I find myself unable to 
carry out the functions which the meeting of the 27th instant saw fit to entrust to 
me.—I therefore request you to call on a German democrat resident in Brussels to 
participate in the work of the committee charged with organising a universal 
democratic society. I would take the liberty of proposing to you one of the German 
democrats in Brussels whom the meeting, had he been able to attend it, would have 
nominated for the office which, in his absence, it honoured me by conferring upon 
myself. I mean Mr Marx who, I am firmly convinced, has the best claim to represent 
German democracy on the committee. Hence it would not be Mr Marx who would be 
replacing me there, but rather I who, at the meeting, replaced Mr Marx. I am, Sir, etc., 
etc. (cf. pp. 132-33). 

indeed, excusable on various grounds for which I made allow- 
ance—with this one exception, then, the enthusiasm about the — 
Bornstedt affair was unanimous. The fellows are beginning to feel 
their own importance. They have at last taken their stand as a 
society, as a power, vis-a-vis other people, and the fact that 
everything went with such a splendid swing and that their victory 
was so complete has made them enormously proud. Junge’s in the 
seventh heaven, Riedel is beside himself with joy, even little 
Ohnemans goes strutting about like a ricnrinc cock. Anyway, as I 
said before, this affair has given, and will continue to give, the 
Society a tremendous impetus, both internal and external Fellows 
who otherwise never open their traps have attacked Bornstedt. 
And even the plot has helped us: firstly Bornstedt went about 
telling everyone that the German democratic Workers’ Society had 
arranged the meeting and secondly we denied it all and, as a 
result of both these things, the society has become a general topic 
of conversation among Belgian democrats and is regarded as a 
highly significant, plus ou moins* mysterious power. La démocratie 
allemande devient tres forte a Bruxelles,” Bartels remarked _ this 
morning. 

By the way, you too are to be included in the committee’s letter 
to Jottrand. Gigot will sign himself ‘Secretary in Marx’s absence’. 

Settle your financial affairs as quickly as possible and come back 
here again. I’m itching to get away, but must first wait until these 
plots have run their course. Just now I can’t possibly leave. So the 
sooner you come the better. But first put your financial affairs in 
order. At all events I’ll remain at my post as long as I possibly 
can; st c’est possible, until you arrive. But for that very reason it’s 
desirable that you come soon. 

Your 
Engels