London, 29 October 1889 

Dear Liebknecht, 

I can tell you very little about the Prophet Gottschalk, having long 
since forgotten the creature. Moses Hess brought him into the League*?! 
prior to 1848 and made him out to be a veritable prodigy. In Cologne 

early in March 1848 he posed as a working men’s leader.*** For the 
conditions as they then were, he was the perfect demagogue who flat- 
tered the masses at the very moment of their awakening and pandered to 
all their traditional prejudices—but apart from that he was a complete 
numskull, as befits a prophet, and for that reason actually regarded 
himself as a prophet. Moreover, as a genuine prophet he was above all 
scruples and thus capable of every kind of dirty trick. Whether he ever 
uttered the words you cite**? seems to me doubtful; he would systemat- 
ically invent legends about himself. In short, he played a certain role in 
Cologne at the beginning of March and had quite crazy schemes, the 
details of which I have forgotten, that were supposed to work miracles 
overnight. All this was before our time. When we arrived in Cologne in 
April his star was very much on the wane and, when we foregathered 
there again, having finally decided to publish the paper,? it had all but set. 
The paper and our Workers’ Association*** placed him in a quandary; 
either he went along with us or he opposed us. Luckily for him, he and 
Anneke were arrested at the beginning of July—on account of speeches 
of some sort, I believe. They were acquitted at the end of 1848 or the 
beginning of 1849 (I have been vainly searching through the Neue 
Rheinische Zeitung for the date, etc., and shall have to discontinue the 
search if this letter is to go off). Thereupon the Prophet Gottschalk went 
into voluntary exile in Paris in the expectation of being recalled by 
gigantic demonstrations. But no one lifted a finger. After our departure 
Gottschalk returned to Cologne (it might even have been just before we 
left) and, having gained his former popularity on the strength of his 
medical practice in the poorer districts, went back into harness with a 
will at the outbreak of the cholera epidemic, treated his proletarian 
patients free of charge, contracted cholera himself, and died. 

That is all I know. 

In Paris things would seem to have settled down again. Lafargue is by 
no means as bad as you make him out to be—Jourde is no Boulangist; 
rather, he masqueraded as a Boulangist in Bordeaux with the consent of 
the local party comrades, which I, of course, definitely disapprove of. 
The man has blundered and will have to pay for it, at any rate for the 
time being. If, however, he is all right in other respects, and that is some- 
thing I don’t know, he may be restored to grace later on. 

I’m very sorry that the Volks-Bibliothek>*> should have involved you 

a Neue Rheinische Zeitung 

in such losses. But in view of your lack of business experience it was 
only to be expected that Geiser would land you in the cart. After all, the 
rotten stuff he published was made no better by having your name on it, 
while the Schlesingeriad must inevitably have proved the last straw. 
That, I think, explains it all quite naturally, without your needing to seek 
the reason in the ill-will of others. You surely can’t expect the party to 
enthuse over this Volks-Bibliothek. 

I too am having a bad time. Percy has gone bankrupt and the whole 
family is living here so as to avoid execution at their house; nothing has 
been decided yet. Negotiations are going on with the old man? but he 
maintains that he himself is in a mess—and he’s really a bit cracked. In 
short Augustine is in a mess—O my darling Augustine, everything’s 
gone. How it will all end I don’t know. 

Warm regards from Lenchen and 

Your 
EE.