IN VIENNA ON SEPTEMBER 14, 1893] 

Esteemed Comrades! 

I cannot leave this hall without expressing my deepest, heartfelt 
thanks for the undeserved reception given to me this evening. I 
can only say that unfortunately it is my fate to reap the fame of 
my departed friend. It is in this spirit that I accept your ovations. 
If I have been able to do anything for the movement in the fifty 
years I have belonged to it, I ask no reward. You are the finest 
reward! We have our people in the prisons of Siberia, we have 
them in the gold mines of California—everywhere, even as far 
afield as Australia. There is no country, no large state, where 
Social Democracy is not a power to be reckoned with. Everything 
that happens all over the world happens with due consideration to 
us. We are a great power that is to be feared, on which more 
depends than on the other great powers. That is my pride! We 
have not lived in vain, and can look back on our efforts with pride 
and satisfaction. In Germany they tried to stifle the movement by 
force, and each time the Social-Democratic movement has 
answered in ways which the bourgeoisie least expected.* The 
repeated elections, this steady, irresistible growth of the Social 
Democratic vote frightens the bourgeoisie, frightens Caprivi, and 
frightens all the authorities. (Tumultuous applause.) The previous 
speaker” observed that the Social-Democratic movement has 

Speech at a S.-D. Meeting in Vienna on September 14, 1893 407 

always been underestimated abroad. My esteemed comrades, I 
have walked through the streets of Vienna and seen the wonderful 
buildings which the bourgeoisie has been kind enough to build for 
the proletariat of the future (tumultuous amusement) and I was 
also shown the magnificent arcaded building of the town hall, of 
which you have so deservedly taken possession. After that takeover 
of power no one will ever again underestimate you. (Vigorous 
applause.) That day was epoch-making. I saw the terror of the 
English newspaper correspondents—I was in London at the 
time—when they reported that on July 9 the proletariat ruled 
Vienna,’ ruled it better than it has ever been ruled before. 
(Uproarious, persistent applause and hand-clapping. Constantly 
renewed cries of “Long live Engels”’.) 

No. 10440, September 15, 1893 and Ar- Zeitung, checked with the Neue