Dear Mrs Liebknecht,

If I made a reference to your remarks about your being isolated and
virtually ostracised in Leipzig, this was perfectly natural. From what
you said I was bound to conclude that you found Leipzig insufferable
and am glad to learn that such was by no means the case.

As to any other comparison between the merits of Leipzig and the
drawbacks of Berlin, this is something I am really unable to discuss, as I
don’t know the former at all, while the latter are no more than a distant
memory and since those days Berlin is said to have improved quite miraculously, or so the Berliners maintain. However I’m perfectly willing

aE. M. Arndt, Des Deutschen Vaterland

to believe you when you say that, from the point of view of family life,
Leipzig has immeasurably more to offer than the metropolis of the
Brandenburgian Sahara.*©8

All these, I have written to tell Singer and Liebknecht, are matters
which everybody must thrash out with himself, his family and the party
and in which we outsiders must acquiesce. However I can only say that
I am also firmly of the opinion that Liebknecht’s place is in Berlin if the
party leadership and the party organ are transferred there. Whether or
not that happens is not for me to say; I can only express an unauthoritative opinion. But should it happen and Liebknecht remain in Leipzig, he
would, by so doing, lower himself to the status of a second-class party
leader, pension himself off, so to speak, and find himself in a situation in
which he could be neither consulted nor heard when an important problem arose—in short, it would be the first step towards resignation and
you wouldn’t want that.

People like us are tossed around by politics in a quite singular way.
When in 1858 Lassalle wanted to bring out a paper with Marx and myself
in Berlin, we couldn’t actually say no and were prepared to move to the
sandy metropolis—fortunately negotiations broke down. And for me
that would have meant terminating my contracts with the firm? and for us
both a removal with much more far-reaching consequences than those of
a transition from Leipzig to Berlin. If, therefore, circumstances arise
which make your removal to the imperial sand-box unavoidable, you can
certainly draw comfort, not only from the belated discovery that life there
is bearable after all, but also from the certain knowledge that Liebknecht
is thereby assuming the position in the party that is his by right and that
he has come to the place where he can do full justice to his position.

At all events this business will be decided before very long and it is
my hope that, whatever that decision may be, you will in the long run
become reconciled to it.

Kindest regards from Nim, Mme Lafargue, the Roshers and

Yours very sincerely,
F, Engels