MARX TO HERMANN EBNER**% 

[Copy] 
[London, 15-22 August 1851] 

..You will have read, in various German papers, the semi- 
ministerial Lithographische Correspondenz* article in which the official 
German emigration in London notifies the public of its fraternal 
unification, its constitution as a joint body, The agreement-seeking 
united democrats fall into 3 cliques: the Ruge clique, the Kinkel 
clique, and the indescribable Willich clique. Between the three 
hover ‘the intercalated deities, minor l[tterafti such as Meyen, 
Faucher, Oppenheim, etc., erstwhile Berlin agreers and, finally, 
‘Tausenau along with a few Austrians. 

Let us begin, as is fitting, with A. Ruge, the 5th wheel of 
European Central Democracy’s state coach. A. Ruge arrived in 
London, not exactly weighed down with laurels. All that was 
known of him was that, at the critical moment, he had cut and run 
from Berlin and had later vainly applied to Brentano for the post 
of Ambassador in Paris, that throughout the period of revolution 
he had espoused, always with the same unshakable conviction, 
whatever illusion happened to be in vogue and, at one inspired 
moment, had even discovered that the simplest way of resolving 
modern conflicts was ‘after the Dessau pattern’. For that is what he 
called this little model state’s royalist-constitutional-democratic 
farce. Meanwhile he was firmly determined to become a great man 
in London. As always, he had prudently arranged to maintain 
contact with a democratic local paper in Germany so that he could, 
without constraint, regale the German public with talk of his 
important person. This time the lot fell to the Bremer Tages- 
Chronik. Now Ruge could embark on further operations. Since he 
speaks only very broken French, no one could stop him presenting 
himself to foreigners as Germany’s most important man, and 
Mazzini aptly summed him up at first glance as a homme sans 
conséquence” whom he could, without hesitation, call on to supply 
the German counter-signature to his manifesto. In this way 
A. Ruge became the 5th wheel of the Provisional Government of 

@ Note in the margin: from Berlin (see this volume, p. 418) -> man of no 
consequence 

Europe and, as Ledru-Rollin once said, l’homme de Mazzini. He 
found himself outdone in his own ideal. However, it now behoved 
him to make himself appear a power in the eyes of Mazzini and 
Ledru-Rollin, and to prove that there was more to be thrown onto 
the scales than an equivocal name. A. Ruge set himself to perform 
three great deeds. In company with Messrs Haug, Ronge, Struve 
and Kinkel, he founded a so-called German Central Committee,* 
he founded a journal modestly entitled Der Kosmos and, finally, he 
sought to extract a loan of 10 millions from the German people, 
the quid pro quo being that he would gain them their liberty. The 
10 millions never came in, but the Kosmos came to an end and the 
Central Committee came apart, disintegrating into its original 
elements. The Kosmos had appeared only three times. Ruge’s 
classical style put his profane readers to flight, but nevertheless 
this much had been achieved: A. Ruge had been able to place on 
record his amazement at the fact that the Queen should have 
invited Herr von Radowitz to Windsor Castle rather than 
himself *”°; and in letters of his own fabrication he had had himself 
hailed from Germany ‘as provisional government’ and condoled 
with in advance by gullible friends on the score that, after his 
return to the fatherland, ‘affairs of state’ would debar him from 
all companionable intercourse. 

Hardly had the invitation to subscribe to the loan of 10 millions 
appeared, signed by Messrs Ruge, Ronge, Haug, Struve and 
Kinkel,* when the rumour was suddenly put round that a 
subscription list was circulating in the City for the purpose of 
dispatching Struve to America, while at the same time the 
Kélnische Zeitung carried a statement by Mrs Johanna Kinkel to 
the effect that her husband had not signed that appeal and had 
resigned from the newly formed Central Committee.? 

Mr Struve’s entire political wisdom before and after the March 
revolution had notoriously confined itself to preaching ‘hatred of 
princes’. Nevertheless in London he found himself compelled to 
contribute articles for cash to Duke Karl of Brunswick’s German 
paper and even to submit to the ducal blue pencil wielded by His 
Grace himself. Mazzini had been secretly informed of this and, 
when Mr Struve wished to see his name appear in splendour 
beneath the European circular letter, Mazzini pronounced an 
interdict. His heart filled with rage against the Central Commit- 
tee, Struve shook the dust off his feet and sailed for New York, 

* ‘An die Deutschen’, Bremer Tages-Chronik, No. 534, 28 March 1851. - > ‘Bonn, 10 
Min’, Kélnische Zeitung, No. 114, 13 May 1851. -<¢ Deutsche Londoner Zeitung 

there to acclimatise his idée fixe, his inevitable Deutscher 
Zuschauer. 

Now as for Kinkel, he had not, if the gossip of A. Ruge and the 
New York Schnellpost are to be believed, actually signed that 
appeal but had approved it, the scheme had been hatched in his 
own room, he had himself undertaken to dispatch a number of 
copies to Germany and had only resigned because the Central 
Committee had elected General Haug chairman instead of himself. 
A. Ruge accompanied this explanation with angry attacks upon 
the ‘vanity’ of Kinkel whom he described as a democratic Beckerath 
and with aspersions upon Mrs Johanna Kinkel for having access to 
newspapers as execrated as the Koélnische Zeitung. 

Thus the democratic Central Committee was reduced to Messrs 
Ruge, Ronge and Haug; even A. Ruge realised that this trinity was 
incapable of creating anything at all, let alone a world. However, 
the tireless fellow by no means threw up the sponge. All this great 
man was really concerned about was that something or other 
should be always afoot, which would lend him an air of activity, of 
being engaged in deep political combinations, and, above all, 
afford him material for self-important chitchat, for comings and 
goings, negotiations, complacent gossip and notices in the press. 
Luckily for him, Fickler now arrived in London. Like his fellow 
South Germans, Goegg and Sigel, he was repelled by Kinkel’s 
pretentious mannerisms. Sigel felt no inclination whatever to place 
himself under the supreme command of Willich, any more than 
did Goegg to accept his plans for world improvement. Finally, all 
3 were too little acquainted with the history of German philosophy 
not to mistake Ruge for a significant thinker, too naive not to be 
taken in by his false bonhomie, and too gullible not to take au 
sérieux* all the doings of the so-called emigration. They decided, as 
one of them? writes in the New York Schnellpost, upon union with 
the other coteries for the purpose of restoring the reputation of 
the moribund Central Committee. But, the same correspondent 
complains, there was little prospect for this pious and well- 
intentioned task; Kinkel was continuing to intrigue; he had 
formed a committee consisting of his saviour, his biographer‘ and 
several Prussian lieutenants; it was to work unseen, expand in 
secret, if possible attract democratic funds and then, suddenly, 
emerge into the light of day as the mighty Kinkel party. This was 
neither honourable, nor just, nor sensible. In the same issue of the 

@ seriously - > Amand Goegg - © Karl Schurz (helped Kinkel to escape from prison 
in 1850) - 4 Adolf Strodtmann 

paper Ruge was unable to resist a few innuendoes at the expense 
of the ‘absolute martyr’. On the very same day that the New York 
Schnellpost brought this gossip to London, the hostile coteries for 
the first time officially celebrated their fraternal unification. But 
that is not all. A. Ruge is making propaganda in America through 
the New York Schnellpost on behalf of the unfortunate European 
loan. But Kinkel, who disavowed this absurd undertaking in the 
Kolnische Zeitung, is now, off his own bat, calling for a loan in the 
transatlantic papers, with the comment that the money should be 
sent to the man who enjoys the greatest confidence; that he is that 
man, goes without saying. 

For the present he is demanding an instalment of £500 sterling 
in order to manufacture revolutionary paper money. Ruge, no 
sluggard, lets it be known through the Schnellpost that he, A. Ruge, 
is the treasurer of the democratic Central Committee and the 
notes, ready and to hand, are to be had from him; anybody with 
£500 sterling to lose would do better to exchange it for already 
printed notes than as yet non-existent ones. And the editorial 
department of the Schnellpost has stated pretty plainly that, if Mr 
Kinkel does not desist from his machinations, he will be treated as 
an enemy of the revolution. Finally, while Ruge disposes of his 
weekly gossip in the Schnellpost, cuts his capers here as man of the 
future and has himself accorded all the honours due to a 5th 
wheel, Kinkel writes in the New-Yorker Staatszeitung, the direct 
antagonist of the Schnellpost: 

‘So you see that, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, war is waged in due 
form, whereas on this side Judas kisses are exchanged.’ 

_ If you were to ask me how an A. Ruge—a man who, almost 
from the start, has been quite useless, who in theory has long 
departed this life and distinguished himself only by his classically 
confused style—how he can continue to play any role at all, I 
would first remark that that role is a pure newspaper fiction which 
he tries, with a unique and persistent diligence and by the most 
mean-minded methods, to disseminate and convince himself and 
others. As regards his position among the so-called emigration here, 
it is a fitting one, be it only as a gutter for the reception of all the 
contradictions, inconsistencies and limitations of the united demo- 
crats. As the classic representative of their general confusion and 
woolly state of mind, he rightly claims his place as their Confucius.* 

a A pun on the name of the Chinese philosopher Confucius and the word 
‘confusion’. 

From the foregoing you will have seen how Kinkel now 
advances, now retreats, now embarks on an undertaking, now 
disavows it, always in accordance with the way he believes the 
popular wind to be blowing. In a piece for the short-lived Kosmos, 
he expressed particular admiration for a gigantic mirror exhibited 
in the Crystal Palace.* That’s Kinkel for you; the mirror is the 
element in which he exists. He is first and foremost an actor. As 
the martyr par excellence of the German revolution, he has received 
here in London the honours due to the other battle victims. But 
while, officially, he allows himself to be paid and féted by the 
liberal-aesthetic bourgeoisie, he engages behind the latter’s back in 
illicit dealings with the most extreme fraction of the agreement- 
seeking émigrés represented by Willich, thinking thereby to assure 
himself both the delights of the bourgeois present and a title to 
the revolutionary future. While the conditions in which he lives 
here might be called splendid by comparison with his former 
position in Bonn, he nonetheless writes to St Louis saying he 
lodges and lives as befits the representative of the poor. > Thus he 
simultaneously complies with the required etiquette vis-a-vis the 
bourgeoisie, while making the obeisance that is due to the 
proletariat. However, as a man in whom imagination far outweighs 
intelligence, he has been unable to avoid succumbing to some of 
the vices and pretensions of the parvenu, and this has alienated 
from him many a pompous émigré worthy. At this moment he 
apparently intends to make a tour of England to lecture in various 
towns to audiences of German merchants, receive homage and 
extend to the North of England the privilege of the double 
harvest normally confined to southern climes. It is self-delusion on 
Kinkel’s part if he regards himself as ambitious. He is a man of 
vain appetites, and fate could play this otherwise innocuous 
speechifier no worse trick than to permit him to attain the goal of 
his desires and a responsible position. He would be a complete 
and irretrievable failure. 

Finally, as to Willich, I need do no more than apprise you of the 
opinion of his acquaintances, all of whom regard him as an 
uninspired visionary. They doubt his talent but, for that very 
reason, declare him to be a character.“ He is happy in this 

@ The Crystal Palace was built of metal and glass for the first world trade and 
industrial exhibition in London in 1851. - > G. Kinkel, ‘Der Brief an die Burger von 
St. Louis’, Bremer Tages-Chronik, No. 507, 25 February 1851. - ¢ Cf. H. Heine, Atia 
Troll, XXIV—‘no talent but a character’ (description of the bear-hero Atta Troll). 

situation and exploits it with more Prussian cunning than he is 
generally credited with. Now you know who the great men of the 
future are. 

The vast majority of the official emigration consists with very 
few exceptions of noughts, each of whom thinks to become the 
number one by combining with others to form a dozen. Hence 
their constant attempts at uniting and conglomerating, which 
are constantly being undone by the petty jealousies, intrigues, 
basenesses and rivalries of these petits grands hommes, and as 
ceaselessly entered into again. While slinging mud at each other in 
the North American papers they believe that, vis-a-vis Germany, 
they form a front, and that by coagulating to form a great 
gossiping cheese-pat they will inevitably produce the effect of 
being a power and a corpus venerabile.” They are always under the 
impression that there is still something they lack if they are to 
impress, hence their organised courtship of every new arrival. 
Their efforts to win over Freiligrath, whom they have now sent to 
Coventry, and to lure him away from Marx, were as importunate 
as they were, of course, fruitless. Kinkel left no stone unturned, 
and A. Ruge actually wrote him a letter to induce him to join the 
League of the Just. He does not now, of course, belong to ‘the 
emigration’ any more than W. Wolff and other refugees who 
remain aloof from these goings-on. One more name! If these 
capuchins of the revolution, these mendicant friars of the same, 
had anything at all to give away, they would give a kingdom for 
one more name, especially a name as popular as Freiligrath’s. 
Place-seekers and popularity-mongers, that’s what all this crowd 
amounts to. These gentlemen believe that the revolution is at hand 
and that they must naturally make their dispositions. In like 
manner did the Imperial Assembly“ men in Switzerland form 
themselves into an association in which future posts were shared 
out hierarchically by number. And it bred bitter strife as to who 
should represent No. 17 or 18. 

You express surprise that these gentlemen should make the 
semi-ministerial Lithographische Correspondenz their monitor. Your 
surprise will be at an end when I tell you that one of its scribes 
regularly scribbles in the Neue Preussische Zeitung, another serves 
as general factotum to the Russian Morning Chronicle, etc., etc. Nor 
does this take place behind the backs of the official emigration— 

4 petty panjandrums - » a venerable body - © Cf. Shakespeare, Richard IIT, Act V, 
4.-4 Frankfurt - © A reference to Julius Faucher 

far from it. Indeed, their first general assembly opened with a 
reading of the article from the Lithographische Correspondenz. They 
mustered some 50 men, a number which, at the second sitting, 
dwindled to less than half.* The seed of discord had alréady begun 
to germinate freely among those craving agreement, who, by the 
by, as one of them remarked in confidence, consisted solely of 
‘superior refugees’. Of the profane vulgus” of the refugee working 
men, none was to be seen. 

If there is one point upon which the fraternising emigration are 
all unanimous, it is their common and fanatical hatred of Marx, a 
hatred which regards no fatuity, no baseness, no intrigue as too 
high a price to pay for the gratification of their ill-humour 
towards this, their béte noire. For these gentlemen have not even 
thought it beneath their dignity to make contact with Beta or 
Bettziech, a former collaborator on Gubitz’s Gesellschafter, and 
through that great author and patriot writing in the organ of the 
merry vintner, Louis Drucker,° to insinuate that Marx is a spy 
because he is brother-in-law to the Prussian minister, von 
Westphalen.*”' The only connection Herr von Westphalen ever had 
with Marx lay in the former’s confiscation of Becker’s printing 
works and the incarceration of H. Becker in Cologne, by which he 
frustrated the publication of Marx’s Gesammelte Aufsatze which 
Becker had undertaken and of which the first volume had already 
appeared,” and likewise prevented the publication of a Revue 
then actually printing. Their hatred of Marx was further 
intensified by the Saxon Government’ publication of the 
communist address,’ since he was held to be its author. 
Marx, however, being wholly engaged in working out his cri- 
tique and history of political economy, begun years before, had 
no more time or inclination than Freiligrath and their mutual 
friends to attend to the tittle-tattle of the fraternising emigra- 
tion. 

But the more one ignores them, the more frantic the yapping of 
these pug-dogs of the future becomes. Gustav Julius, a man with a 
thoroughly critical and scientifically trained intellect, who died all 
too young and is now being claimed by the emigration for their 
own, grew so weary of their shallow and preposterous goings-on 

4 The reference is to emigrant meetings in London on 8 and 15 August. - 
b common people - © How Do You Do?-4 K. Marx and F. Engels, ‘Address of the 
Central Authority to the League. March 1850’. 

203. Marx to Engels. About 20 August 1851 433 

that he wrote a full and detailed description of the same and, only a 
few weeks before his death, sent it to a North German newspaper? 
which, however, rejected it....