[London,] 12 July 1861 

Dear Engels, 

Your last letter **? together with enclosure, or rather the enclosure 
minus letter, most gratefully received. 

The grand tragi-comedy of Gottfried Kinkel has come to a 
worthy end, and poor Gottfried has been knocked on the head. 

To put the grand goings-on into a nutshell, what actually 
happened was this: On 15 June, Gottfried and Co., as I have 
already related,* had, off their own bat, held a special meeting, 
at which they passed resolutions agreeable to themselves. On 
18 June, Heintzmann took the chair at an extraordinary meeting, 
whose agenda did not include the great point at issue, since they 
were still awaiting a reply from Coburg. 

The crucial meeting finally took place on 6 July, an answer 
HAVING MEANWHILE arrived from the oracle at Coburg.** Both parties 
were there in force, including the 35 members of the Association 
of German Men bought by Gottfried for cash. However, before 
the day of the meeting there had already been a considerable 

« See this volume, pp. 301-02. 

amount of agitation. For instance, the Association of German Men 
had been harangued by Heinztmann et cie and told about 
Gottfried’s machinations. The chairman of that association, a ship 
agent by the name of Schmidt (a Hanoverian), went over to the 
‘patriotic’ side, of course, 

Heintzmann—sy tHE sy—has, of course, a twofold interest in 
view: on the one hand, to appear pleasing to the Prussian 
government, on the other, perhaps to obtain hac via* from that 
government some important rrustive office connected with the 
forthcoming industrial exhibition.*** From what I hear, the fellow 
has performed the office of chairman after the true heavy-handed 
fashion of your Royal Prussian Elberfeld prosecutor. Not that this 
isn't the right way to handle the melodramatic Gottfried. 

Well then, after the meeting (on 6 July) had been declared 
open, Heintzmann called for the reading of the minutes of 1 and 
18 June. Neither Kinkel nor Zerffi dared so much as suggest that 
their minutes of the 15th should be read. Thus, they admit the 
illegality of the meeting secretly organised by themselves. Next, 
Heintzmann read out the letter from Coburg. The oracle over 
there had written as follows: While expulsion from the National 
Association could, of course, only be effected by the senate at 
Coburg, expulsion from the comité (as in Zerffi’s case) was a local 
matter and hence must be decided in London. 

Now, it so happened that the election of new officials to the 

London National Association was in general due to take place on 
6 July. Hence, when Schmidt moved that they proceed with the 
agenda and allow the elections to decide the case, his motion was 
carried. 
- Gottfried made a very long speech and generally conducted 
himself in a melodramatically excited manner. The few hairs he 
still possesses stood on end. He was by turns acrimonious and 
threatening and even, at times, had recourse to irony, a field that 
is quite foreign to him. Throughout his speech, the utmost 
disorder reigned. Hissing. Notably, too, reiterated shouts of 
‘Gottfried’, which he always regards as a grievous outrage. But 
oddest of all, it seems, was the manner in which, during the 
succeeding debate, even though he no longer had the floor, 
Gottfried kept-leaping to his feet in order to interrupt, whereupon 
Heintzmann, raising a menacing arm, caused him by a mere 
gesture. to subside into his seat. , 

a thereby 

At the elections Gottfried and his whole gang were thoroughly 
trounced. Heintzmann was elected chairman by 133 votes to 
Gottfried’s 5. So, even the fellows he had suborned voted for the 
most part against him. No sooner had these results been 
proclaimed than he apparently adopted a most ‘dignified’ pose, a 
synthesis of the ‘dying gladiator’ and ‘Christ crucified’. Has 
Gottfried deserved this of ‘his beloved Germany’? 

In the meantime, however, that creature Blind—who, as a 
‘republican’, does not,of course,belong to the National Association — 
had succeeded by dint of obsequiousness, sharp practice, and 
intrigues of all kinds in having himself loudly acclaimed as the 
courageous and patriotic champion of Schleswig-Holstein at both 
the National Association meetings of 15 and 18 June.’ 

So much for this war between mice and frogs.” You will have 
seen that even the Kladderadatsch contained a joke or two at the 
expense of the noble poet.‘ 

Salut. 

Your 
K. M.