Marx-Engels Collected Works
1 The Bedouin was Engels’ first work to appear in print. He wrote it at the beginning of his stay in Bremen, where he worked as a clerk in a trading company from July 1838 to March 1841. When preparing this poem for the press the editors of the Bremisches Conversationsblatt changed the last stanza without the author’s permission. The original text is cited by Engels in his letter to the Graeber brothers dated September 17-18, 1838.
2 In this poem Engels ridiculed the heated polemic between the weekly Der Bremer Stadtbote and the newspaper Bremisches Unterhaltungsblatt (see Engels’ letters to his brother Hermann of March 11-12, 1839, and to his sister Marie of March 12, 1839). For fun Engels sent this poem to Der Bremer Stadtbote under the pen-name of Theodor H. (Hildebrand). Not realising its ironical character, the editors published the poem as a regular item against the rival newspaper. The editors of the Bremisches Unterhaltungsblatt, however, perceived the poem’s irony directed against Der Bremer Stadtbote and reprinted it with appropriate comments.
In this volume the poem is given according to the Bremisches Unterhaltungsblatt since the Publishers do not possess a copy of Der Bremer Stadtbote.
3 As can be seen from Engels’ letter to his sister Marie of March 12, 1839 (see this volume, pp. 419-20), this poem was sent to Der Bremer Stadtbote in a fuller version. The publication of Th. Hildebrandt’s poem Book Wisdom was mentioned in the Bremer Wöchentliche Nachrichten No. 36, 2. Beilage, S. 2, for March 25, 1839. However, the Publishers do not possess a copy of Der Bremer Stadtbote containing this poem.
4 “Letters from Wuppertal” is Engels’ first journalistic work with which he started his contributions to the Telegraph für Deutschland, a progressive Hamburg journal published by the Young Germany literary group. In November 1839 Engels’ articles began to appear there under the pseudonym of Oswald (first S. Oswald, then Friedrich Oswald).
The “Letters” evoked a lively response in Barmen and Elberfeld, two neighbouring towns situated in the Wupper valley (in 1930 they merged to form one town, Wuppertal). Wilhelm Blank, a friend of Engels’, wrote to Wilhelm Graeber on May 24, 1839, that all copies of the journal containing the article had been bought up immediately. The Wuppertal philistines were furious with the anonymous author (many believed that the article had been written by some local celebrity, the poet Ferdinand Freiligrath in particular). For the reaction of the Wuppertal bourgeois to the article see also Engels’ letter to Wilhelm Graeber written about April 28-30, 1839.
5 Friends of Light — a religious trend opposed to pietism (see Note 7), which dominated in the official Lutheran Church. This opposition was one of the expressions of the dissatisfaction of the German bourgeois with Germany’s monarchic regime, based on the estates system, in the 1830s and 1840s.
6 After 1817, when the Lutherans were united with the Reformists (Calvinists) in a compulsory union, its opponents, the Old Lutherans, split away to form a separate trend defending the “true” Lutheran Church.
7 This refers to pietism, a trend in the Lutheran Church that emerged in Germany in the 17th century. Distinguished by extreme mysticism, it rejected rites and attached special importance to personal religious experience.
8 An allusion to the dispute in 1075-76 between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the two protagonists in the struggle for supremacy between ecclesiastical and temporal power.
9 After the Vienna Congress (1814-15), many members of the student gymnastic associations, which emerged in the course of the struggle against Napoleonic rule, opposed the reaction of the monarchist landowners and called for the unification of Germany. On October 18, 1817, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Reformation and the fourth anniversary of the battle of Leipzig, the German students organised the Wartburg festival, which turned into a demonstration against the Metternich regime. In 1819, the student opposition and other free-thinking intellectuals were accused of “demagogy” by the Karlsbad Conference of Ministers of the Chief German States and subjected to reprisals.
10 Hermann (Arminiusy — chief of the Cherusci and other German tribes which defeated the Romans in the Teutoburg Woods (9 A. D.).
11 Evangelisch Kirchen-Zeitung Nos. 76-80, September 22-October 6, 1838.
12 Engels is referring to the review of J. Ch. F. Winkler’s book Harfenklänge printed in the Telegraph für Deutschland No. 208 in December 1838 under the title “Zeichen der Zeit”.
13 Barmen and Elberfeld were incorporated in the Kingdom of Prussia along with the other territories of the former Dukedom of Berg by decision of the Vienna Congress of 1814-15 and became parts of her Rhine Province.
14 Köster’s article entitled “Kurze Darstellung der Dkhtungsarten” was published in the Neunter Bericht über die höhere Stadtschule in Barmen, Barmen, 1837.
15 F. Haase’s review “Übersicht über 9 lateinische Grammatiken” was printed in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung Nos. 65-70, August 1838, Jena and Leipzig, Ergänzungsblätter.
16 J. C. H. Clausen’s “Pindaros der Lyriker” was published in the Programm des Gymnasium Elberfeld, 1834.
17 Rektoratsschulen was the name given to elementary five-class schools in the Rhine Province and Westphalia.
18 Young Germany (Junges Deutschland) — a literary group that emerged in Germany in the 1830s and was under the influence of Heinrich Heine and Ludwig Börne. In their fiction and journalistic works, the writers of this group (also known as Young Literature), Gutzkow, Wienbarg, Mundt, Laube, Jung and others, expressed the opposition sentiments of the petty bourgeois and intellectuals who advocated freedom of conscience and the press, the introduction of a constitution, the emancipation of women, and so on. Their political views were vague and inconsistent; many of them soon became ordinary liberals.
For the demgogues see Note 9.
19 Engels is referring to the owners of the Barmen trading company J. P. von Eynern & S6hne, where Ferdinand Freiligrath worked as a clerk in 1837-39.
20 Engels is referring to the following reviews: Dr. F. Dingelstedt, “Ferdinand Freiligrath. Ein Literaturbild”, published in the jahrbuch der Literatur, 1. jg., Hamburg, 1839, and Moritz Carrière, “Gedichte von Ferdinand Freiligrath, Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1838”, published in the Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Kritik No. 8, January 1839, Berlin.
21 Allusions to the folk-tale Die Unkenkönigin (The Frog Queen) can be found in Freiligrath’s poem Schwalbenmärchen and to the tale Schneewittchen (Snow-White) in his poem Meerfahrt.
Below Engels mentions Freiligrath’s poems printed in the following publications: Freiligrath, Gedichte, Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1838; Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter in the Rheinisches Odeon. Hg. v. I. Hub, F. Freifigrath u. A. Schnezler, 1. jg., Coblenz, 1836; Freifigrath, Der ausgewanderte Dichter (Bruchstlache eines unvolleneten Cyklus). Sechs Gedichte ohne besondere Überschriften, published in the Rheinisches Odeon 2. jg., Diasseldorf, 1838; Freiligrath, Der ausgewanderte Dichter. Weitere Bruchstücke. Fünf Gedichte ohne einzeine Uberschriften, published in the Morgenblatt für gebildete Stäne No. 218, September 10, 1836.
22 A reference to the second instalment of Freiligrath’s cycle of poems Der ausgewandeu Dichter, published in the Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände No. 218, September 10, 1836 (see Note 21).
23 Engels gives this ironical name, Montanus Eremita (mountain hermit), to Vincenz Zuccalmaglio, a German writer who under the pen-name of Montanus published, ü 1836, the book: Die Vorzeit der Länder Cleve-Mark, Jülich-Berg und Westphalen.
24 Engels is referring to the following publication: Johann Pol, Gedichte, 1. Teil, Geistliche Gesänge und Lieder, 2. Teil, Vemischte Gedichte, Heedfeld, 1837.
25 In this poem Engels expressed his attitude to the weekly Der Bremer Stadbote, to which for fun he had sent several months in succession his poems (including To the Enemies, see this volume, p. 5) under the signature of Theodor Hildebrand, passing himself off as its supporter. This poem is also quoted, with minor stylistic changes, in Engels’ letter to Wilhelm Graeber written about April 28-30, 1839.
26 Expressing the attitude of the local bourgeoisie to Engels’ “Letters from Wuppertal”, the Elberfelder Zeitung on April 12, 1839, published an article by Martin Runkel, its editor, sharply attacking the “Letters” and their author. The “Open Letter to Dr. Runkel” was Engels’ reply to this article.
The Elberfelder Zeitung published the “Open Letter” with the following footnote: “We found this article in our premises yesterday without knowing who had sent it in. We are printing it word for word since we wish to be impartial but, for our part, we would note that we shall defend our generally expressed statements in detail only if the Wuppertal letter-writer names himself, just as we have done.”
27 An allusion to Martin Runkel’s poem Zu Grabbe’s Bildniss printed in the Rheinisches Odeon, 2. jg., Düsseldorf, 1838.
For the Young Germany writers see Note 18.
28 This item was published in the Telegraph für Deutschland in the “Kleine Chronik” section. Engels also wrote about the sermon in question by F. W. Krummacher in his letter to Wilhelm Graeber on April 30,1839.
29 These are the following publications: Volksbücher, hrsg. v. G. 0. Marbach, Leipzig, 1838-39; Deutsche Volksbücher nach den ächtesten Ausgaben hergestellt v. Dr. Karl Simrock, Berlin, 1839; and Deutsche Volksbücher, neu gereimt v. K. Simrock, Berlin, 1839.
30 Besides the above-mentioned Marbach edition, the following publications are referred to here: Der hörneree Siegfried. Eine wunderschöne Historie von dem gehörnten Siegfried. Was wunderliche Ebentheuer dieser theure Ritter ausgestanden, sehr denkwürdig und mit Lust zu lose, Cöln (nd.), and Buch der schönten Geschichten und Sagen für Alt und Jung wiedrerzühlt von Gustav Schwab, 2 Teile, Stuttgart, 1836-37.
31 The publication referred to is Leben und Thaten des grossen Helden Heinrich des Löwen, Henog zu Brautuchweig, Einbeck (n.d.).
32 On December 10, 1835, the Federal Assembly banned the works by writers of the Young Germany group (see Note 18). Some of them, such as Gutzkow’s Wally, die Zweifierin raised the question of women’s emancipation.
The Federal Assembly (Diet) of the German Confederation (1815-66) consisted of representatives of the German states and was a pillar of the conservative monarchical order in Germany.
33 An allusion to Tieck’s comedy Kaiser Octavianus which was based on a German popular book of the same name and published in Ludwig Tieck’s Schriften Bd. 1, Berlin, 1828.
34 Gottfried von Strassburg’s poem Tristan und Isolde was written in the early 13th century.
35 Die neue Bibel and Das junge Palästina are the titles of the parts of Karl Beck’s collection of poems Nächte. Gepanzerk Lieder, which appeared in Leipzig in 1838.
36 In his article “Der Schwabenspiegel” (in the Jahrbuch der Literatur, 1. jg., Hamburg, 1839), Heine criticised the “Swabian poetical school” which comprised a number of poets and literary critics representative of late romanticism, including Ludwig Uhland, Justinus Kerner, Gustav Schwab, Wolfgang Menzel and Gustav Pfizer.
37 Song of Ludwig — a poem by an unknown medieval poet written in the late 9th century in the Franconian dialect. It glorifies the victory of Ludwig Ill, King of the Western Franks, over the Normans in 881.
38 A reference to Gustav Kühne’s book Weibliche und männliche Charaktere, 2 Teile, Leipzig, 1838; and to his article “Deutsche Lyük. Karl Beck, Ferdinand Freiligrath” published anonymously in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt Nos. 223 and 224, November 13 and 15, 1838.
39 Engels is referring to the following passage from Ludolf Wienbarg’s article “Ludwig Uhland als Dramatiker”, included in his book Die Dramatiker der jetztzeit, 1. Heft, Altona, 1839: “Gustav Pfizer has spoken in and out and round about on the character and talent of Uhland, as a pupil about his teacher, as a friend about his friend and not a word about Uhland the dramatist, What should one conclude from this? Simply that a certain younger writer is right in calling the latter mediocre. The pamphlet by Pfizer which I have in mind appeared about two years ago. It compares Uhland with Rfickert, or rather, it weighs the talents of the two. Let us say it in passing, rather like a grocer”.
Pfizer’s pamphlet Uhland und Rückert. Ein kritischer Versueh wag printed in 1837.
40 Beck’s poem Schlaf wohll included in his collection Stille Lieder was originally published in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt No. 126, June 30, 1838.
41 Act I of Beck’s Saul was published in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt Nos. 216-1 9 for November 4, 5, 7 and 8, 1839. On November 25, the Allgemeine Theater-Chronik (No. 143) printed a review by J. P. Lyser entitled “Episoden. Carl Beck als Dramatiker”, while the Telegraph für Deutschland, in its “Kleine Chronik” section, published an anonymous review of Act 1 with a note by Karl Gutzkow.
42 A reference to Gutzkow’s tragedy König Saul, which appeared in print shortly before the publication of Act 1 of Beck’s tragedy Saul.
43 In its issue No. 203, immediately following Engels’ article, the Telegraph für Deutschland printed an article about Beck by Gutzkow entitled “Ergenzung” (“Supplement”) (the end of the article was published in No. 204 under the title “Karl Beck”). In this article Gutzkow subjected Beck’s Stille Lieder to even sharper criticism, emphasising the “childish nature” of his poetry.
44 A reference to the bourgeois revolution of July 1830 in France, the main events of which took place between July 27 and August 2.
45 The Second Silesian School — a literary trend in Germany in the second half of the 17th century that expressed the sentiments of the feudal nobility. Its main exponents were Christian Hofmannswaldau and Daniel Lohenstein.
46 Engels is referring to the following publications: Gesammette Werke des Grafen August von Platen. In Einem Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1839; and Gedichte am dem ungedmaten Nachlasse des Grafen August von PlatenHallermünde. Als Anhang zu den bei Cotta erschienenen itedichten Platem, Strassburg, 1839.
47 Pentarchy — Europe’s political system in the period of the Restoration. It was based on the supremacy of the five Great Powers, England, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia.
48 This is a translation into German of the poem A La invención de La imprenta by Manuel José Quintana, a Spanish poet, politician and supporter of the 18th-century French Enlightenment. The poem was first published in Madrid in 1803 in Quintana’s book Poesias. Engels’ translation was published together with the original in the Gutenbergs-Album issued on the occasion of the quatercentenary of the invention of printing (the official date of the invention is 1440). The anniversary was widely celebrated in Germany in June 1840.
49 Hegelings was a pejorative name for the followers of the Hegelian school coined by their opponent Heinrich Leo, the historian and journalist. In 1838 he published in Hane a pamphlet entitled Die Hegelingen. Actenstücke und Belege zu der S.g. Denunciation der ewigen Wahr which fiercely attacked the Young Hegelians.
50 In his Kampf und Sieg Franz Carl Joel Jacoby extolled the Basques for their support of the Carlists in Spain and the struggle waged against the liberals by the ultramontane clergy in Belgium, in particular the intrigues of the Belgian Jesuit Order which he called the “Belgian nightingale”.
Carlists — an absolutist clerical group in Spain that supported Don Carlos, brother of Ferdinand VII, in his claims to the Spanish throne. The Civil War of 1833-40 unleashed by the Carlists (known as the First Carlist War) was in fact a clash between the Catholic feudal and the liberal bourgeois elements in Spain and ended with the defeat of the Carlists.
51 This article appears to have been written in connection with rumours about the proposed suspension of the Zeitung für den Deutschen Adel, which started publication in January 1840. However, the newspaper continued to appear until 1844.
52 This refers to the attacks by Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran Church, on the Catholic Church and papism in which he relied on the original Greek texts of the Gospels (hence Engels’ comparison of them to “Greek fire”). On October 31, 1517, the beginning of the Reformation in Germany, Luther posted up on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg his 95 Theses refuting certain dogmas of medieval Catholic faith and containing the fundamentals of Lutheranism. An important place in his subsequent activities was occupied by the translation into German and corresponding interpretation of the New and the Old Testament. He completed his translation of the Bible in 1534.
53 Engels is quoting from the “Ankfindigung und Einladung zur Subscription auf die mit dem 1. januar 1840 erscheinende Zeitung für den Deutschen Adel”, published in the Sprecher oder Rheinisch-Westphälischer Anzeiger No. 69, August 28, 1839, and other papers.
54 An allusion to the leading article by Fouqué, editor of the Zeitung für den Deutschen Adel, published in its first issue on January 1, 1840, under the title “Vorwort an unsere Leser”.
55 A reference to Kant’s book Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf, Königsberg, 1795.
56 This work consists of two articles. Engels published them in the Mitternachtzeitung für gebildete Leser, a liberal newspaper that appeared in Brunswick, because he wanted to express his views freely on Karl Gutzkow and the Young Germany group (see Note 18), something he could not do in Gutzkow’s Telegraph für Deutschland. Engels apparently intended to continue the series by dealing with other aspects of the German literary scene in the late 1830s and the early 1840s, but was forced to cease contributing to the Miternachtzeitung because of his differences with its editor, Eduard Brinckmeier (Engels mentions them in his letter to Levin Schücking of July 2, 1840; see this volume, p. 496).
57 Gutzkow’s article “Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. 1830-1838” contained a criticism of German literature of that period. It was published in the first and only issue of the jahrbuch der Literatur, which appeared in Hamburg in 1839.
58 The première of Gutzkow’s tragedy Richard Savage oder: Der Sohn einer Mutter took place on July 15, 1839, in Frankfurt am Main. Originally it was printed privately under the pen-name of Leonhard Falk. It appeared under the author’s real name in Leipzig in 1842 in his Dramatische Werke, Bd. 1.
59 Gutzkow’s tragedy König Saul was printed in Hamburg in 1839 as a separate book.
60 A reference to Gutzkow’s Marino Falieri and Hamlet in Wittenberg published in a collection of his unfinished writings entitled Skizzenbuch, Cassel and Leipzig, 1839.
61 The scene in question is from Gutzkow’s Wally, die Zweiflerin, Book Two.
62 In the preface to his book Die Dramatiker der jetztzeit (see Note 39) Wienbarg wrote: “I shall begin with Uhland because I see in this misunderstood, original and simple dramatist, so childlike in his manhood, to a certain extent the pure, unaffected type of German dramatist”.
63 Engels is referring to the anonymous article “Moderne Romane” in the Rheinische Jahrbuch für Kunst und Poesie, 1. jrg., Köln, 1840, which reviewed Gutzkow’s novel Blasedow und seine Sohne, printed in Stuttgart in 1838, and other works by contemporary writers.
64 Griseldis, a drama by Friedrich Halm (the pen-name of Ernst Münch-Bellinghausen), was staged in Vienna in 1835 and was a great success. However, when it was published in 1837 it was sharply criticised.
65 After the première of Gutzkow’s Richard Savage in Stuttgart, the local weekly Deutscher Courier (No. 44, November 3, 1839) carried a review of it entitled “Erste Vorstellung von Richard Savage, oder der Sohn einer Mutter, Trauerspiel in 5 Aufzügen von Karl Gutzkow”.
66 The première of Werner, oder Herz und Welt took place in Hamburg on February 21, 1840. The play was published in Gutzkow’s Dramatische Werke, Bd. 1, Leipzig, 1842.
67 One of the reasons why Engels wrote this article, “Modern Polemics”, the second in his series Modern Literary Life, was the publication in the Telegraph für Deutschland (No. 3, 1840) of the article “Haben wir einen modernen Styl?” by Ludwig Wihl, a representative of the Young Germany group. Below Engels refers to this article.
68 This refers to the satirical comedy by Creizenach, Der schwäbische Apoll, published in 1839, which poked fun at the Swabian school (see Note 36).
Beck’s article “Literatur in Ungarn” was printed in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt in September 1837 (Nos. 173-81).
69 An allusion to the ban in 1835 on works by writers of the Young Germany movement (see Note 32).
70 Mundt has no work by this title. In all probability Engels is referring to his book Charaktere und Situationen. Vier Bücher Novellen, Shizzen, Wanderungen auf Reisen und durch die neue Literatur, 2 Teile, Wismar, 1837.
71 In the second issue of his Altona journal Freihafen for 1838, Mundt published an article entitled “Lebenserinnerungen von Münch”, reviewing the memoirs of the German historian and publicist Ernst Münch-Bellinghausen which appeared in Karlsruhe in 1836-38.
72 Gutzkow’s essays Literatische Elfenschicksale. Ein Mädchen ohne Anspielung, directed against Mundt, were printed in the Telegraph für Deutschland in February (Nos. 31, 32, 35 and 36) and April (Nos. 65-68) 1838. The next year they were included in Gutzkow’s Skizzenbuch under the title Die literarischen Elfen, Ein Märchen ohne Atupielung.
73 Engels is referring to Deutschlands jüngste Literatur- und Kulturepoche, a work by the German writer and journalist Hermann Marggraff that appeared in Leipzig in 1838.
74 This article was published anonymously in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt (Nos. 192-93) for October 1-2, 1838; Kühne sharply criticised Gutzkow’s literary work and his novels Seraphine and Blasedow und seine Söhne.
75 Heine’s article “Der Schwabenspiegel” was published in the jahrbuch der Literatur (1839) in distorted form. in a special statement published in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt on February 8, 1839, Heine renounced his authorship.
76 Under the press laws in the states of the German Confederation, only books exceeding 20 printed sheets were not liable to preliminary censorship.
77 The article criticising Gutzkow’s Richard Savage was published in Kühne’s Zeitung für die elegante Welt (No. 135) on July 13, 1839, under the title “Richard Savage, oder: grosse Geister begegnen sich”.
Ludwig Wihl’s declaration (Zeitung für die elegante Welt No. 102, May 28, 1839) was directed against Heine. The same issue contained a mock reply by Kühne signed Hektor, jagähund bei Hoffmann und Campe in Hamburg. On April 18-20, 1839, Heine had published in Kühne’s newspaper, under the title “Schriftstellernäten”, an open letter to Julius Campe, publisher of the Jahrbuch der Literatur, accusing Wihl of distorting his article “Der Schwabenspiegel”, and calling him Campe’s hound (Jagähund).
78 The dispute between Beck and Gutzkow started after the latter had published in the Telegraph für Deutschland No. 190 (November 1839), in the “Kleine Chronik” section, a note drawing attention to the resemblance, suggestive of imitation, between Beck’s Saul and Gutzkow’s König Saul. Beck replied with a sharply-worded declaration in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt of November 25, 1839. Concerning Gutzkow’s “Supplement”, written later to Engels’ critical article “Karl Beck” (published in the Telegraph für Deutschland), see Note 43.
79 This poem was published in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt on February 8, 1838.
80 Thiersch’s song Ich bin ein Preusse was published in the book: Lieder und Gedichte des Dr. Bernhard Thiersch, von seinen Freunden in und bei Halberstadt für sich herausgegeben, Halberstadt, 1833.
81 Lot’s wife was changed into a pillar of salt for having looked back regretfully at the condemned cities of Sodom and Gomorrah after God had warned Lot to flee from them with his family (Genesis 19).
82 The Calvinist Synod, which met in Dordrecht (Holland) from November 13, 1618, to May 9, 1619, condemned the Arminian sect for its non-conformist views and reasserted strictly Calvinist dogmas.
83 This refers to the second issue of the book by Ferdinand Freiligrath and Levin Schücking, Das malerische und romantische Westphalen, published in Barmen and Leipzig in 1840, some time after the publication of this article. The first issue appeared in 1839.
84 The copy of the above-mentioned book with the dedication “In memory of Münster” (“Andenken an Münster”) was presented to Engels during his travels round Westphalia in May 1840 by the writer Levin Schücking (see Engels’ letter to him of June 18, 1840; this volume, pp. 494-96).
Annette Elisabeth von Droste-Hülshoff’s book Gedichte came out in Münster in 1838 under the initials D. H.
85 The review bore the title “Richard Savage in Leipzig. Correspondenz” and was published in Nos. 95, 97-99 of the Hallische Jahrbücher für deutsche Wissenschaft und Kunst for April 20, 22-24, 1840.
86 The Gutenberg festival — the quater-centenary of the invention of printing (see Note 48).
87 The Customs Union (Zollverein) of German states was set up in 1834. The member states (originally numbering eighteen) established a common customs frontier. Prussia played the leading role in the Union. The Hanseatic towns of Bremen, Lübeck and Hamburg were not members of this Union.
88 Here and below Engels plays on the titles of the following works by the Spanish dramatist Calderón: Mantible Bridge, Doctor of His Honour, The Daughter of the Air, April-and-May Morning, The Constant Prince and Life Is a Dream.
89 This report was printed in the Morgenblatt für gebildete Leser in the summer of 1841, a year after it was written. As can be seen from Engels’ letter to his sister Marie of July 7-9, 1840 (see this volume, pp. 498-500), he made an outing to Bremerhaven on July 5, 1840. It is evident from the report that it was written immediately after the outing.
Bremerhaven-an independent town in North-West Germany, Bremen’s outer harbour in the mouth of the Weser. In 1939 it became part of Wesermünde.
90 Bremen, the capital of an ecclesiastic dukedom in the early Middle Ages and one of the leading Hanseatic ports in the 13th century, was declared a free imperial town in 1646, but later repeatedly came under the rule of various neighbouring foreign and German princes. It resumed the status of a free town by the Final Act of the Vienna Congress in 1815.
91 Patrimonial court were feudal courts based on the landowner’s right to try and punish his peasants. They were not finally abolished in Germany until 1877.
92 The “Native Americans” party emerged in the U.S.A. in 1835. It advocated privileges for persons horn in the United States. Under its pressure the period of permanent residence in the country for immigrants wishing to acquire U. S. citizenship was increased from 7 to 21 years.
93 This refers to the struggle by the rising bourgeoisie of Bremen to abolish the oligarchic system of government by the old merchant aristocracy. Self-government was not introduced in Bremen until April 1849, during the German revolution. It was abolished in 1854 and power again passed to 150 patrician merchant families.
94 Rationalism here means the trend in Protestant German theology which enjoyed a considerable following in the 18th and the early 19th century. The rationalists sought to combine theology with philosophy and to prove that “divine truths” could be understood by reason.
95 The Song of Anno, a poem written in the Central German dialect in the late 11th or the early 12th century in praise of Archbishop Anno of Cologne, subsequently canonised.
96 Castra vetera (ancient camp) — an ancient Roman military station, situated on the left bank of the Rhine, where the dry of Xanten later grew up.
97 For the demagogues see Note 9. The persecution of the demagogues increased in the 1830s, after the July revolution in France, which had a strong impact on the German states.
98 Engels wrote this article following the publication, in Leipzig in 1840, of Arndt’s book Erinnerungen aus dem äusseren Leben. The editors of the Telegraph für Deutschland provided the name of the author, F. Oswald (Engels’ pen-name), with an asterisk referring the reader to the following footnote: “A much discussed publication, reviewed by the Telegraph.”
99 Engels is comparing Arndt to Eckart, a hero from medieval German tales, who in the Tannhäuser legend stands on guard at Venusberg and warns those approaching of the danger of Venus’ charms.
100 The Constitution of 1812, adopted in the interests of the liberal nobility and the liberal bourgeoisie, limited the king’s power by diets and did away with certain survivals of feudalism. The return to power of the feudal and clerical forces after the country’s liberation from Napoleon’s rule led, in 1814, to the repeal of this constitution, which became the banner of the liberal constitutionalist movement in Spain and other European countries.
101 This refers to the congresses of the Holy Alliance (founded by the Vienna Congress on September 26, 1815) held in Aachen (1818), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821) and Verona (1822), at which the European monarchs and their ministers worked out measures for protecting “legitimist” regimes restored after the victory over Napoleon and for suppressing revolutionary and national liberation movements.
102 In 1804, in France and subsequently some countries in Western and South Western Europe which were dependent on Napoleon (Italy, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Westphalia, Belgium and others), a Civil Code (Code Napoleon) was introduced instead of the archaic private law based largely on pandects, part of the Roman Code drawn up in 528-34 under Justinian I, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.
103 The Hallische Jahrbücher für deutsche Wissenschaft und Kunst Nos. 281 and 282, for November 23 and 24, 1840, carried Arnold Ruge’s review of Florencourt’s book Politische-kirchliche und literarische Zustände in Deutschland. Ein journalistischer Beitrag zu den jahren 1838 und 1839, Leipzig, 1840. The review was entitled “Friedrich von Florencourt und die Kategorieen der politischen Praxis”.
104 The Burschenschaften (fraternities) were German student organisations that arose in the course of liberation war against Napoleon. They advocated German unification, but Right-wing nationalistic views were also current among them.
105 The historical school of law — a trend in German historiography and jurisprudence in the late 18th century. The representatives of this school, Gustav Hugo, Friedrich Karl von Savigny and others, sought to justify the privileges of the nobility and feudal institutions by referring to the inviolability of historical traditions.
106 This refers to the London Convention concluded on July 15, 1840, between England, Russia, Austria and Prussia, on. the one hand, and Turkey, on the other, on rendering military aid to the Turkish Sultan against the Egyptian Pasha Mohammed Ali, who was supported by France.
107 See Note 47.
108 This poem was written on the occasion of the transfer, in 1840, of Napoleon 118 remains from St. Helena to Paris.
109 In Greek mythology, the nymph Arethusa, daughter of Nereus and Doris, pursued by the river-god Alpheus fled, by swimming over the sea or crossing the sea bed, to Sicily where she turned into a spring. Several other springs in ancient Greece bore the name of Arethusa.
110 ‘Positive philosophy’ — a mystical religious trend (represented by Christian Hermann Weisse, Immanuel Hermann Fichte junior, Franz Xaver von Baader, Anton Günther, and Schelling in his late period) which criticised Hegel’s philosophy from the right. The supporters of this trend sought to subordinate philosophy to religion by declaring divine revelation to be the only source of “positive” knowledge, and labelled as “negative” any philosophy which proceeded from rational knowledge.
111 Bremen’s basic laws dated back to the Middle Ages: the Tafel (Table) was drawn up in 1433 and the Neue Eintracht (New Concord) in 1534.
112 This folk epic was published in Lübeck in 1498 in the Low German — dialect (Reyneke Vos).
113 Engels is referring to Reinhold Köstlin’s article “Die deutschen Dichter und ihr Publikum”, published in the journal Europa. Chronik der gebildeten Welt, Bd. 1, Stuttgart, 1840.
114 The words “apris moi Le déluge” (“after me the deluge”) are attributed to Louis XV of France. They were also quoted by Frederick II of Prussia, in a letter to Prince Heinrich of Prussia dated October 18, 1782.
The defeat of the Prussian troops by Napoleon in the battle of Jena on October 14, 1806, led to Prussia’s surrender.
115 On May 31, 1840, Prussia marked the centenary of Frederick II’s ascent to the throne. By the interregnum of twenty years Engels means the period between 1786, the year of Frederick II’s death, and 1806, when the Prussian troops were routed at Jena.
116 This essay describes Engels’ impressions of his travels in Switzerland and Italy in mid-May 1841. He started from Barmen, to which he had returned in the middle of March 1841 after his almost three-year stay in Bremen. ‘ne essay was not completed. Part I was evidently to he followed by Part II, but it did not appear, probably because the Athenäum, the Young Hegelian weekly in which this article was printed, was banned in late December 1841.
117 In 1839 the radical government of the canton of Zurich offered David Strauss a professorship at Zurich University, which caused a sharp conflict between the radicals and conservative-clerical circles. On September 6, 1839, Strauss’ opponents, headed by Bernhard Hirzel, a priest from the village of Pfäffikon (Engels dubbed his followers “Pfäffikon guardians of Zion”, i.e., guardians of the orthodox faith), staged an armed demonstration in Zurich. But even before the demonstration took place the government was compelled to withdraw the invitation and later resigned.
118 Engels is quoting Petrarch’s 261st sonnet from his cycle Canzoniere (“In visa e in morte di Madonna Laura”) in the following German translation, possibly his own:
119 In the Holy Roman Empire (which comprised Germany, Austria, part of Italy, Bohemia, Burgundy, the Netherlands and other countries, and existed from 962 to 1806) the Emperor was elected, according to the Golden Bull of 1356, by the seven most powerful princes.
120 This article opens a series of Engels’ writings directed against Schelling. By this time Schelling had abandoned many rationalist elements of his former views and had become a prophet of the mystical religious “positive philosophy” (see Note 110). He was invited to Berlin by Frederick William IV of Prussia, as a counterweight to the Hegelian school, particularly the Young Hegelians.
On November 15, 1941, Schelling started his course of lectures at Berlin University. Engels attended them as a non-matriculated student. He had come to Berlin from Barmen in the latter half of September 1841 and did military training there in an artillery brigade until August 1842.
Excerpts from Schelling’s lectures which continued until March 18, 1842, are quoted in Engels’ works from his own notes. Only a small part of these lectures were printed at the time (Schelling’s Verlesungen in Berlin, Darstellung und Kritik der Hauptpunkte derselben, mit besonderer Beziehung auf das Verhältniss zwischen Chistenthum und Philosophie von Dr. J. Frauenstadt, Berlin, 1842), the greater part being published only after the author’s death in his Complete Works. See F. W. Schelling, Philosophie der Offenbarung. Simmtliche Werke, II Abt., Bd. I-IV, Stuttgart und Augsburg, 1856-1861.
121 This pamphlet is Engels’ major work directed against Schelling’s mystical religious concepts. It was written at the same time as Schelling was lecturing at Berlin University and is mainly a critique of the opening lectures of Schelling’s course.
The pamphlet was published anonymously (it was not until the summer of 1842, in an article against Jung which he signed Friedrich Oswald, that Engels confirmed his authorship; see this volume, p. 295) and soon attracted the attention of various public circles. Schelling’s followers described Engels’ criticism as “absurd attacks” (see the Jahrbuch der deutschen Universitäten, II, Leipzig, 1842, S. 22), while the Young Hegelians acclaimed the pamphlet. The Deutsche Jahrbücher, a Young Hegelian journal, published a special article on the pamphlet (in Nos. 126-28, May 28, 30-31, 1842) by its editor, Arnold Ruge, which noted the author’s spirit and lucidity in his criticism of Schelling’s views. When Ruge learned later that the pamphlet was written by Engels he wrote to him inviting him to contribute to the journal and addressing him as a “Doctor” (see Engels’ reply to Ruge of June 15, 1842).
122 Engels is referring to the following publication: G. F. W. Hegel, Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe durch einen Verein von Freunden des Verewigten. 19 Bücher in 23 Bänden, Berlin, 1831-1845. By 1841 almost all the books had been published except for 7 and 18. In 1887 Briefe van und an H., hrsg. von K. Hegel, appeared as the 19th and last book.
123 A reference to Strauss’ work Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet, Rd. 1-2, which was published in Tubingen in 1835-36.
124 Engels is presumably quoting here from Cuvier’s book Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe, Paris, 1840, p. 53.
125 The Temple of Fortuna primigenia, an ancient Roman deity embodying creative power, was at Praeneste (the ancient name for the town of Palestrina), east of Rome.
126 The Holy Grail. According to medieval legend, this was a precious cup possessing miraculous powers.
127 Engels’ pamphlet Schelling, Philosopher in Christ was written, following his Schelling and Revelation, in response to the continued attacks on Hegel’s philosophy and progressive philosophical trends made by Schelling in his Berlin lectures from the standpoint of religious mysticism.
The conservative press sharply criticised the author: the pietist Elberfelder Zeitung for May 18, 1842, described him as a “young, frivolous scribbler”, while the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung accused him of “cynicism” (No. 139, May 15, 1842). The Rheinische Zeitung, published with the active co-operation of Young Hegelians, came out in defence of the pamphlet (in No. 138, May 18, and No. 157, June 6, 1842), as did several other progressive German periodicals. Among other things it praised the pamphlet’s original satirical form. The author, it wrote on May 18, 1842, had imitated the pietist tone very skilfully.
128 Pelagianism (after the Celtic monk Pelagius)-a Christian trend hostile to the official church and widespread in the Mediterranean countries in the early 5th century. The Pelagians affirmed the freedom of man’s will.
Socinianism (after the Italian theologian Faustus Socinus) — a religious doctrine widespread in Poland in the late 16th and the early 17th century, and later in certain other European countries. Its followers were critical of the dogmas of the official church and like the Pelagians affirmed the freedom of man’s will.
For rationalism see Note 94.
129 The books of the Sibyls, — a collection of oracles attributed to the legendary prophetess Sibyl. They were used in ardent Rome for official fortune-telling when danger threatened the state. At the time of the Roman Empire the Jews and Christians also had Sibylline books.
130 See Note 18.
131 This was the first article written by Engels for the Rheinische Zeitung, an opposition newspaper to which he contributed until the end of 1842. Engels’ articles were marked with a special sign ‘X’, as were articles written by the newspaper’s other leading correspondents. Some of his articles were signed F. 0. (Friedrich Oswald, Engels’ main pseudonym).
Soon after the publication of Engels’ first article Marx also began to contribute to the Rheinische Zeitung (his article “Debates on Freedom of the Press” was published in May 1842). After moving to Cologne in October 1842, he became its editor and held the post until March 17, 1843.
132 The events mentioned here took place in 1837 after Ernst August, the new King of Hanover, abrogated the moderately liberal constitution of 1833. Hanover’s liberal circles strove to have it reintroduced. Their demand found expression in a protest by seven professors at G6ttingen University (Albrecht, Dahlmann, Gervinus, jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Ewald and Wilhelm Weber), for which they were dismissed from theirposts. jacob Grimm, Dahlmann and Gervinus were made to leave the country.
133 See Note 32.
134 In the autumn of 1841, Bruno Bauer, one of the leaders of the Young Hegelians, was suspended from teaching at Bonn University by Eichhorn, the Prussian Minister of Religious Worship, Education and Medicine. In March 1842, he was dismissed from his post as lecturer in theology on account of his atheistic views and opposition speeches. Bauer’s dismissal evoked sharp protests from radical and liberal intellectuals.
For Hegelings see Note 49.
135 Lectures given by Philipp Konrad Marheineke in Berlin University were published in 1842-43 in two books: Ph. Marheineke, Einleitung in die öffentlichen Vorselungen über die Bedeutung der Hegetschen Philosophie in der christlichen Theologie, Berlin, 1842; Ph. Marheineke, Zur Kitik der Schellingschen Offenbarungsphilosophie, Berlin, 1843. In the latter book the author mentions Engels’ anonymous pamphlet Schelling und die Offenbarung (Schelling and Revelation). In quoting Marheineke’s lectures and the lectures given by Leopold Henning, Engels used the notes which he made during the lectures.
136 This article is marked with the figure I in the Rheinische Zeitung. Presumably Engels wanted to continue it, but this intention did not materialise.
137 The great festivals in Athens, in honour of Athena, the tutelary goddess of the city. The Greater Panathenaea were celebrated with especial magnificence in the third year of each Olympiad and were accompanied by contests of poets and musicians. In other years the festival was known as the Lesser Panathenaea.
138 The Federal Act was part of the Final Act of the Vienna Congress. It was signed on June 8, 1815, and proclaimed the German Confederation, which originally comprised 34 independent states and 4 free cities. The Federal Act intensified the political disunity of Germany and preserved the absolutist feudal regime in the German states.
139 A reference to a review of Johann Michael Leupoldt’s Geschichte der Gesundheit und der Krankheiten (Erlangen, 1842) by Heinrich Leo, an opponent of the Hegelian philosophy, who called Hegel’s adherents by the contemptuous name of “Hegelings” (see Note 49). This review was published in the Evangelische Kirchen-Zeitung Nos. 36 and 37, May 4 and 7, 1842. The quotations given by Engels are from No. 36, except for the last one, which he took from No. 37.
140 Engels appears to be referring to the revolts against the July monarchy, which occurred in a number of industrial centres in France in the 1830s. In November 1831 the weavers of Lyons rose in a revolt which was followed, in June 1832, by an armed uprising of the Paris workers led by the petty-bourgeois republicans. A second revolt of the Lyons workers broke out in April 1834 and was supported by armed struggle under republican slogans in Paris, Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand and other towns. Both revolts in Lyons were an important landmark in the history of the proletariat’s struggle for liberation and marked a step forward in the independent class movement of the proletariat.
141 This article about Jung’s book marked Engels’ final break with the Young Germany literary group (see Note 18), whose political and ideological views he had begun to question earlier. When he moved to Berlin in September 1841 and made contact with the Young Hegelians he became increasingly convinced that political half-heartedness and hostility to philosophical radicalism of the Young Germany movement made it incapable of becoming the exponent of progressive ideas and the champion of consistent struggle against outdated institutions. In December 1841, he ceased contributing to Gutzkow’s journal, telegraph für Deutschland, and later decided publicly to dissociate himself from the Young Germany group and to subject the weak aspects of their outlook and literary activity to open criticism. This he did in the Deutsche Jahrbücher, a journal edited by the Young Hegelian Arnold Ruge.
In reply to Engels’ criticism Jung wrote a scornful article entitled “Ein Bonbon für den kleinen Oswald, meinen Gegner in den Deutschen Jahrbücher.” (Königsberger Literatur-Blatt No. 42, July 20, 1842).
142 Engels is hinting at the similarity between Jung’s ideological views and the mysticism of Schelling and other exponents of “positive philosophy” (see Note 110).
143 A reference to Arnold Ruge’s review of Jung’s book, Königsberg in Preussen und die Extreme des dortigen Pietismus, published in 1840. The review, entitled “Die Restauration des Christentums”, appeared in the Deutsche Jahrbücher Nos. 153-55, December 27-29, 1841, that is, after the journal had changed its title. (From July 1841 Ruge’s journal Hallische Jahrbücher appeared under the title of Deutsche Jahrbücher.) Engels uses the old title.
144 Nothing learnt, nothing forgotten. This phrase is commonly thought to have been coined by Talleyrand in reference to the Bourbons. Its origin, however, goes back to Admiral de Panat who, in 1796, said about the Royalists: “Personne n'a su ni rien oublier ni rien prendre (Nobody has been able to forget anything or learn anything).”
145 A reference to Schelling’s preface to the German edition of Victor Cousin’s (Über französische und deutsche Philosophie (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1834). In discussing Cousin’s attitude to Hegel, Schelling completely ignored Hegel’s role in the development of German and world philosophy. See p. XXIII.
146 Eduard Meyen’s review of Jung’s Vorlesungen über die moderne Literatur der Deutschen appeared in the Rheinische Zeitung Nos. 149-51, May 29-31, 1842.
147 An allusion to Jung’s intention to become a preacher after graduating from the theological faculty, an intention which did not materialise.
148 In late 1841, the editors of the Athenäum, a Young Hegelian journal, gave a reception in Berlin in honour of Karl Theodor Welcker, a deputy of the Baden Provincial Diet and member of the liberal opposition in Germany. The reception was used as a pretext for suppressing the journal in December of that year.
149 Engels is referring to the censorship instruction issued by the Prussian Government on December 24, 1841, and published in the semiofficial Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Zeitung on January 14, 1842. In word the instruction disapproved of the restrictions imposed on literary activity, but in fact it preserved and even tightened government control over the press under the cover of phrases about liberal and moderate censorship.
Marx criticised the instruction in his article “Comments on the Latest Prussian Censorship Instruction” (see present edition, Vol. 1, pp. 109-31).
150 Engels would seem to have in mind Ludwig Uhland, Paul Pfizer, Friedrich Römer and Gustav Duvernoy, prominent leaders of the liberal opposition in the Württemberg Provincial Diet which was re-elected in 1833 after being dissolved the year before.
151 In 1841 the Baden Chamber of Deputies was dissolved by Grand Duke Leopold on account of its conflict with the Baden Government over the latter’s refusal to grant two state officials leave for executing their functions as deputies. The Chamber did not resume its work until after new elections held in January 1842.
152 During the 1841-42 elections Itzstein was elected to the Second Chamber of the Baden Provincial Diet not from the Schwetzingen constituency, whose deputy he had been for many years, but from another one.
153 Engels is referring to the article “Aufsätze über inländische Gegenstände. XVI. Ein Rückblick”, which appeared in the Spenersche Zeitung Nos. 137-38, June 16 and 17, 1842, and was marked with two asterisks. He calls its author “our asterisk man” and makes a play on the words Ein Rückblick (a review).
154 See Note 149.
155 In the Rheinische Zeitung this article was printed slightly abridged and revised by the editors. In this volume it is published in its original form, according to Engels’ manuscript. The most important discrepancies between the manuscript and the newspaper version are given in the footnotes.
156 Promulgated in 1794, the Prussian Law reflected the backwardness of feudal Prussia in the sphere of law and the judiciary. In his article Engels quotes excerpts from the Prussian Law from the publication Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preussischen Staaten Berlin, 1794, Teil II, Titel 20.
157 Engels is referring to Johann Jacoby, author of the anonymous pamphlet Vier Fragen beantwortet von einem Ostpreussen, Mannheim, 1841, in which he criticised the Prussian state system and called for a constitution in Prussia. This pamphlet resulted in legal proceedings against its author. Although in its verdict of April 20, 1842, the Berlin court acquitted Jacoby of high treason, he was nevertheless sentenced to two and a half years of imprisonment for disrespectful criticism of the laws of the land and lése-majesti. It was only the Senate of Appeal of the Supreme Court that unconditionally acquitted Jacoby in its ruling of January 20, 1843.
In 1842, during the judicial inquiry, Jacoby published a pamphlet in Switzerland entitled Meine weitere Vertheidigung wider die gegen mich erhobene Beschuldigung der Majestätsbeleidigung und des frechen, unehrerbietigen Tadels des Landesgesetzes, Zürich und Winterthur, 1842. Engels is quoting both pamphlets by Jacoby.
158 Gesetz-Sammiung für die Königlichen Preussischen Staaten, Berlin, 1819.
159 See Note 149.
160 This poem is a parody on the struggle between the Young Hegelians and the conservative opponents of the Hegelian philosophy (Sack and others) who took part in the slander campaign against Bruno Bauer. ‘ne poem was written as a protest against Bruno Bauer’s dismissal from Bonn University in late March 1842 (see Note 134). Engels wrote it together with Bruno’s brother Edgar. The poem was widely commented on in the German and Swiss press. Its publication was announced in the radical Zurich paper Schweizischer Republikaner on December 9, 1842 (No. 98). Excerpts from it were reprinted in several Leipzig periodicals, among them Friekugeln No. 52, December 30, 1842. Comments on it appeared in the Hamburger Literarische und Kritische Blätter (No. 220, December 19, 1842) and the Hamburger Neue Zeitung (No. 303, December 31, 1842).
161 Engels is referring to the fact that, under the pressure of clerical and conservative circles, the government of the canton of Zulich cancelled its invitation to David Strauss to lecture at Zurich University in 1839 (see Note 117).
162 An allusion to Bruno Bauer’s transfer as university lecturer from Berlin to Bonn in 1839.
163 See Note 110.
164 “The Free"-the Berlin group of Young Hegelians which was formed in the first half of 1842 and was led by Edgar Bauer, Eduard Meyen, Ludwig Buhl and Max Stirner (pseudonym of Caspar Schmidt). Its members advocated radical and atheistic views and condemned the half-heartedness of liberalism.
The fact that “The Free” lacked any positive programme and ignored the realities of political struggle soon led to differences between them and the representatives of the revolutionary-democratic wing of the German opposition movement. A sharp conflict arose between “The Free” and Marx in the autumn — of 1842, after Marx had become editor of the Rheinische Zeitung (see present edition, Vol. 1, pp. 393-95).
During his stay in Berlin Engels associated closely with “The Free” but, unlike many of them, he held that it was necessary to go beyond purely atheistic propaganda and take part in the actual struggle for political liberties and democracy. Engels’ revolutionary-democratic convictions, which found expression in the satirical poem The Insolently Threatened Yet Miraculously Rescued Bible, together with his developing materialistic outlook, led to his parting company with “The Free” and the Young Hegelian trend in general.
165 An ironical allusion to the decisions of the Federal Diet (see Note 32), directed against the opposition movement in Germany (in particular against radical journalism and literature). ‘ne Federal Diet assembled in the free city of Frankfurt am Main.
166 See Note 49.
167 See Note 164.
168 On March 18, 1842, when Schelling finished his lectures on the “philosophy of revelation”, Berlin students organised a torchlight procession in the Leipziger Strasse, where the philosopher lived.
169 The Commissions of the Estates in the Landtags (provincial diets), to which Engels is referring here, were instituted in Prussia in June 1842. Elected by the Landtags from their deputies according to the estates principle, they formed a single advisory body known as the “United Commissions”, which the government intended to convene in Berlin on October 18, 1842. With the help of this body, which was a mockery of a representative institution, Frederick William IV hoped to enforce new taxes and obtain a loan.
170 Valhalla (from the name given in Norse mythology to the abode of the souls of slain warriors)-a huge building near Regensburg erected in 1841 by Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. Busts of many famous Germans were collected there.
Walhalla’s Genossen, geschildert durch König Ludwig den Ersten von Bayern, dem Gründer Walhalla’s was published in Munich in 1842; it contained biographies of Germans whose busts were exhibited in Valhalla.
171 The problem of centralisation was discussed in the Rheinische Zeitung on several occasions. An article by Moses Hess, entitled “Deutschland und Frankreich in Bezug auf die Centralisationsfrage”, appeared in the paper’s supplement on May 17, 1842. The author discussed the problem from an abstract, nihilist point of view, which prompted Marx to enter into a polemic with him. Marx, however, did not finish the article he planned. Its beginning exists in manuscript (see present edition, Vol. 1, pp. 182-83).
On May 29, 1842, the Rheinische Zeitung began publishing excerpts from De la Centralisation, a pamphlet by Louis Cormenin which appeared in Paris in 1842 under the pseudonym of Timon. Engels used this occasion to express his views on the issue and on West-European liberalism in general.
172 Huguenot Wars — the religious wars in France between the Catholics and Protestant Calvinists (the Huguenots). They lasted, with intermissions, from 1562 to 1594 and resulted in the consolidation of royal power, whose mainstay was the Catholic Church. During these wars Paris was the stronghold of Catholicism, and the southern provinces of France were the centre of the Huguenot movement.
173 A representative body in medieval France. It consisted of representatives of the three estates of clergy, nobles and commons and sanctioned the, levying of taxes and money subsidies to the king. Under the absolutist regime the states-general were not convened for 175 years, from 1614. They met in May 1789, at the time of the maturing bourgeois revolution, and on June 17 were transformed by the deputies of the third estate into a National Assembly, which proclaimed itself a Constituent Assembly on July 9 and became the supreme organ of revolutionary France.
174 Engels wrote this article for the radical monthly Der deutsche Bote aus der Schweiz which Georg Herwegh planned to publish in Zurich in 1842 in place of a journal appearing there under the same name. Marx was also invited to contribute, but the new journal did not materialise and the articles intended for it were published in the summer of 1843 as a collection entitled Einundzwanzig Bogen aus der Schweiz.
175 In 1841 the government of Frederick William IV granted the right to establish their own church to the Old Lutherans, the faction opposing the 1817 compulsory union between the Lutherans and the Reformists (Calvinists) (see Note 6).
176 In 1837, the Archbishop of Cologne was arrested and accused of high treason for his refusal to submit to the demands of Frederick William III, King of Prussia. This arrest led to the conflict known as the “ecclesiastical discord” or “Cologne discord”. At its root lay the controversy over the religion of children born into mixed Catholic and Protestant families. The conflict came to an end in 1841, under Frederick William IV, when the Prussian Government gave in to the Catholic Church.
177 Provincial diets (Landtags) were instituted in Prussia in 1823. They were composed of the heads of princely families and representatives of the nobility, the towns and the rural communities. The estates principle of representation, coupled with a system of election based on a high tax and property qualification, ensured the predominance of the nobility in the Landtags. The jurisdiction of the provincial diets was limited to matters of local economy and administration. They could also express an opinion on government bills submitted for discussion.
178 Engels is referring to the solemn promises given by Frederick William IV in 1840 when he accepted the oath of allegiance from the deputations of various Prussian provinces and towns, Königsberg, Breslau and others; the King said he would “concern himself with the welfare of all estates and religions”.
179 This article was the first one sent by Engels to the Rheinische Zeitung from England.
After finishing his military service as a volunteer, Engels returned from Berlin to Barmen about October 10, 1842. In the latter half of November he was sent to England to study commerce at a cotton mill in Manchester which was owned by a firm of which his father was a partner. On his way from Berlin to Barmen and again before his departure to England Engels visited the editorial office of the Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne to discuss his future work on the newspaper. During his second visit to Cologne, at the end of November 1842, Engels met Marx who was the editor of the Rheinische Zeitung at the time. This first personal encounter was somewhat cool since Marx disagreed strongly with the Berlin group of “The Free” to which Engels then belonged. This, however, did not prevent him from forming a high opinion of Engels as a prospective English correspondent of the newspaper. Engels sent his first item from England immediately after his arrival there.
180 The People’s Charter containing the demands of the Chartists was published on May 8, 1838, as a Bill to be submitted to Parliament. It consisted of six points: universal suffrage (for men of 21 and over), annual parliaments, vote by ballot, equal electoral areas, no property qualifications for candidates for Parliament, and payment for M.P.s.
181 These laws, passed in 1651 and subsequent years, forbade the transportation of English goods in foreign vessels; they were repealed in 1849.
182 Engels is referring to a wave of strikes which in August 1842 swept over several industrial districts of England, including Lancashire and Yorkshire. In some areas the strikers had armed clashes with troops and police.
183 See Note 105.
184 The Com Laws (first adopted in England as far back as the 15th century) introduced high import tariffs on agricultural produce in order to maintain high prices on the home market. In 1815 the import of foreign grain was prohibited as long as its price in England was below 80s. per quarter (according to the 1822 Act-below 70s. per quarter). In 1828, a sliding-scale of duties was introduced according to which import tariffs on grain were raised -h- its prices on the home market fell and lowered when the price of grain went up. In 1838 the Manchester factory owners Cobden and Bright founded the Anti-Corn Law League, which demanded the lifting of the corn tariffs and urged unlimited freedom of trade for the purpose of weakening the economic and political power of the landed aristocracy and reducing workers’ wages. The struggle between the industrial bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy over the Corn Laws ended in 1846 with their repeal.
185 See Note 182.
186 The Reform Bill, enacted on June 7, 1832, by reforming the basis of parliamentary representation, effectively placed political power in the hands of the industrial capitalists and their middle-class followers. No electoral rights were given to the workers and small property owners, who were the real driving force of the reform movement.
Catholic emancipation — the lifting by the English Parliament in 1829 of restrictions on the rights of Catholics. The Catholics, most of whom were Irish, were granted the right to stand for election to Parliament and to hold certain government offices. Simultaneously, the property qualification, was raised fivefold.
For the struggle to abolish the Corn Laws see Note 184.
187 Engels did not carry out his intention at the time, but subsequently the struggle for the repeal of the Corn Laws in England was a frequent theme of his journalistic articles and major works.
188 Most of the extant letters by the young Engels (to his sister Marie and his school-friends, the brothers Friedrich and Wilhelm Graeber, and other people) were written in Bremen. Between July 1838 and March 1841 Engels worked there as a clerk at a large trading house belonging to Consul Leupold. In his spare time he improved his education and engaged in literary and journalistic work. .
189 A reference to the pamphlet Jacob Grimm über seine Entlassung (published in Basle in 1838) written in connection with the dismissal, in 1837, of seven liberal-minded professors from Göttingen University (see Note 132).
For the Cologne affair or “Cologne discord” see Note 176.
190 Ibis part of the letter is written in rhymed prose and Engels jokingly calls it “my Makamas”, alluding to the picaresque -novel in Arabic, Persian and Jewish literature of the Middle Ages.
191 See Note 18.
192 Engels is referring to Karl Gutzkow’s review of Ahasver, a poem by Julius Mosen. The review was printed in the Telegraph für Deutschland No. 124, August 1838.
193 A reference to Theodor Creizenach’s article, “Gutzkow über Ahasver”, published in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt No. 189, September 27, 1838.
194 A reference to a collection of ballads by Eduard Duller, published in Munich in 1831 under the tide Die Wittetsbacher, marry of these ballads were included in a German reader compiled by G. Hüllstett, Sammlung ausgewähiter Stücke aus den Werken deutscher Prosaiker und Dichter, zum Erklären und mündlichen Vortragen für die unteren und mittleren Klassen von Gymnasien, 2 Teile, Düsseldorf, 1830-1831.
195 Engels has in mind Eduard Dufler’s introduction to Grabbe’s play Die Hermansschlacht.
196 Engels’ letter to Wilhelm Graeber mentioned here has not come to light.
197 See Note 12.
198 The issue of the newspaper Der Bremer Stadtbote in which this letter by Engels was published has not come to light.
199 Wolfgang Menzel’s review of Wally, die Zweiflerin, a novel by Karl Gutzkow, was published in the Literatur-Blatt Nos. 93 and 94 for September 11 and 14, 1835, and accused Gutzkow of holding immoral and blasphemous views. This review was one of the pretexts used by the Prussian Government for banning on November 14, 1835, the works by the writers of the Young Germany movement. On December 10, a decision to this effect was adopted by the Federal Diet (see Note 32).
200 See Note 18.
201 A reference to Karl Gutzkow’s critical article “Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. 1830-1838”, published in 1839 (see Note 57).
202 See Note 36.
203 A reference to a publishing house in Cologne called after Pierre Marteau, a fictitious publisher under whose trademark books and pamphlets in French,
Dutch and German were printed in the 17th-19th centuries.
204 Engels is presumably referring to a book by F. Marlow (the pseudonym of the poet Hermann Ludwig Wolfram), Faust. Ein dramatisches Gedicht in drei Abschnitten, published in Leipzig in 1839.
Raupach was the author of many philistine plays on historical subiects.
205 In his article “Über den Charakter des Wilhelm Tell in Schillers Drama”, which appeared in the Dramaturgische Blätter, Ludwig Börne sharply criticised Schiller’s hero, calling him a downright philistine who was more like a petty bourgeois than a “bold mountaineer”.
206 The March 1839 issue of the Athenium für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Leben, a journal published in Nuremberg, gave the following appraisal of Engels’ “Letters from Wuppertal”: “In several issues of the Telegraph for March of this year we find a really true picture of religious life in Elberfeld and Barmen. Krummacher is depicted very authentically in a few characteristic strokes.”
207 See Note 49.
208 See Note 176.
209 See Note 117.
210 See Note 99.
211 Engels is referring to the decision of the Federal Diet to ban works by the writers of the Young Germany movement (see Note 32 and Note 199). Karl Gutzkow’s novel Wally, die Zweiflerin was one of the pretexts for this decision and also for arresting and prosecuting the author. Gutzkow was arrested in late November 1835, and on January 13, 1836, sentenced to one month’s imprisonment for “blasphemous views, disrespect for the Christian faith and the Church and depicting immoral situations”.
212 For Börne’s essay on Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell see Note 205. It was evidently about this time that Engels began translating works by Shelley, who was one of his favourite poets. In 1840, he consulted the radical German writers Levin Schücking and Hermann Pütmann on the preparation and publication of a collection of Shelley’s poems (see this volume, pp. 494-95).
Engels’ translations have not come to light.
213 Professor Eduard Cans died on May 5, 1839, and was buried in Berlin. He supported the Hegelian school, and his popularity with the students aroused the concern of the Prussian Government.
214 On pp. 147-62 of Volume 3 of Deutschland und die Deutschen, published in Altona in 1840, Beurmann gives a description of Barmen and Elberfeld (Wuppertal) that is reminiscent in many respects of Engels’ “Letters from Wuppertal”.
215 Engels is referring to the German translation of Roman Soltyk’s book La Pologne.
Précis historique, politique et militaire de sa révolution, T. I-II, Paris, 1833. This translation appeared in Stuttgart in 1834 under two titles: Polen, geographisch und historisch geschildm. Mit einer volistindigen Geschichte der jahre 1830 und 1831. Von einem Augenzeugen and Polen und seine Helden im letzten Freiheitshample. Nebst einem hurzen Abriss der poinischen Geschichte seit ihrem Beginne bis zum jahre 1830 von dem Grafen Soltyk.
216 In his Odysseus Redivivus, a work which has not come to light, Engels apparently described one of the heroes of the national liberation struggle waged by the Greeks against Turkish rule in 1821-25.
Engels sympathised deeply with the struggle of the Greek people for their freedom even when he was quite young. This is evident from his unfinished Pirate Tale which he wrote while still at school.
217 Engels is quoting a parody on a poem by the 18th-century German writer Count Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg in which an old Swabian knight is speaking to his son (Sohn da hast Du meinen Speer).
218 Engels is referring to the book Darlegung der Haupt-Resultate aus den wegen der revolutionären Complotte der neueren Zeit in Deutschland geführten Untersuchungen. Auf den Zeitabschnitt mit Ende juli 1838, Frankfurt am Main.
This book contained documents of the central investigation commission of the German Confederation in Frankfurt am Main, which inquired into the activities of the “demagogues”, an opposition movement involving students and people from other social strata (see Note 9).
219 Engels is referring to the first article in David Strauss’ collection Charakteristiken und Kritiken. Eine Sammlung zerstreuter Aufsütze aus den Gebieten der Theologie, Anthropologie und Aesthetik, Leipzig, 1839. The article is entitled “Schleiermacher und Daub in ihrer Bedeutung fiar die Theologie unsrer Zeit”.
220 See Note 216.
221 The article attacking Darstellung und Kritik des modernen Pietismus, a book by the Young Hegehan Dr. Christian Mürklin, was published in the Evangelische Kirchen-Zeitung (Nos. 1-8, January 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22 and 25, 1840) under the title “Vorwort”.
222 Parsees — members of a religious sect in India and Iran deifying fire, air, water and earth; adherents of Zoroastrianism.
Libertines-members of a pantheistic sect in France and Switzerland in the middle of the 16th century; they were democratic in nature and fought against Calvin and his followers, but were defeated.
223 Engels is referring to the first, sixth and seventh articles by David Strauss in his collection Charakteristiken und Kritiken: I. “Schleiermacher und Daub in ihrer Bedeutung für die Theologie unsrer Zeit”; VI. “Kerner, Geschichten Besessener neuerer Zeit”; VII. “Kerner, Eine Erscheinung aus dem Nachtgebiete der Natur......
224 A reference to the article “Vorwort des Herausgebers zum zehnten jahrgange”, published in the Literarischer Anzeiger für christliche Theologie und Wissenschaft überhaupt Nos. 1 and 2, 1840.
225 A reference to the marriage feast at Cana at which Christ turned water into wine (St. John, Ch. 2).
226 A reference to Friedrich Mallet’s article “Vorwort” in the Bremer Kirchenbote Nos. 1 and 2, January 12 and 19, 1840.
227 Rulemann Friedrich Eylert, court preacher and confidant of Frederick William III, made this speech on January 19, 1840, in the Rittersaal at the royal palace in Berlin. It was published in the Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Zeitung No. 20, January 20, 1840.
228 During the war against Napoleon, Frederick William III, King of Prussia, recognised the Spanish Constitution of 1812 (see Note 100). In December 1822, however, the Verona Congress of the Holy Alliance adopted a decision, sponsored by the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the Prussian King, sanctioning an armed intervention by France against revolutionary Spain. On April 7, 1823, French troops invaded Spain, the absolute power of Ferdinand VI1 was restored and the 1812 Constitution again abrogated (it was first declared null and void by the clerical and aristocratic circles in May 1814 but then restored during the second Spanish revolution of 1820-23).
229 Carbonari (from carbonaro — a coal man) — members of secret conspiratorial societies in Italy and France in the opening decades of the 18th century. In Italy their aim was national liberation and the unification of the country, and certain political reforms; in France, the overthrow of the Bourbons.
230 Engels is speaking about the dedication in a volume of poems by Annette Elisabeth von Droste-Hülshoff, which he received as a present from Levin Schücking when visiting Münster (see Note 84).
231 Engels is referring to Levin Schücking’s review of poems by Annette Elisabeth von Droste-Hülshoff, which was printed in the Telegraph für Deutschland No. 170, October 1838.
232 See Note 212.
233 In one of the sections of the article entitled “Tagebuch aus Berlin”, which appeared in the Telegraph für Deutschland in June and July 1840, Karl Gutzkow attacked the Hallische Jahrbücher, a journal published by the Young Hegelians (see issue No. 97, June 1840).
234 A reference to the following books by Hermann Püttmann: Die Düsse über Malerschute und ihre Leistungen seit der Errichtung des Kuiutvereines im jahre 1829, Leipzig, 1839, and Chatterton, Barmen, 1840.
235 Engels is referring to Coleridge’s poems translated into German by Levin Schücking.
236 In the article mentioned here Engels criticised the writings of the Young Germany literary group and condemned the unprincipled dissension within it. He did not break with this group, however, until a much later date, and contributed to Gutzkow’s Telegraph für Deutschland until the end of 1841.
237 The Blätter zur Kunde der Literatur des Auslands for June 7, 1840, contained Schücking’s translations of two poems by Shelley and three by Coleridge.
238 Music to the words of the Catholic hymn, Stabat mater dolorosa, was set by many composers, including Pergolese, Palestrina and Rossini.
239 See Note 49.
240 The poem by Robert Prutz to which Engels is, referring was published as a separate publication in Leipzig in 1840.
241 In late March 1841 Engels returned to his parents in Barmen after finishing his term of service at the Bremen office of Heinrich Leupold’s trading firm.
242 Engels wrote to his sister Marie from Bremen on March 8, 1841, about his intention to make a journey to Italy (see this volume, p. 529), but he did not go there until the middle of May. On the way he visited Basle and Zurich and then crossed the Alps at Splügen. His travel impressions are described in the unfinished essay “Wanderings in Lombardy” (see this volume, pp. 170-80).
243 Engels decided to go to Berlin for a term of military training as a volunteer in an artillery brigade, and also to attend lectures at Berlin University and make closer contacts with radical scientists and writers.
Engels’ subsequent letters to Marie were sent from Berlin, where he arrived in the latter half of September 1841.
244 Karl Werder’s tragedy Columbus was first performed on January 7, 1842, at the Royal Opera in Berlin. Excerpts from Beethoven’s symphonies were played before the curtain went up and between the acts.
245 Engels’ term of military service expired in early October 1842.
246 A reference to Jung’s reply to Engels’ article “Alexander Jung, ‘Vorlesungen über die moderne Literatur der Deutschen'”. Jung’s reply was printed in the Königsberger Literatur-Blatt No. 42, July 20, 1842, under the ironical title of “Ein Bonbon for den kleinen Oswald, meinen Gegner in den Deutschen Jahrbücher’ (see Note 141).
247 Argonauts (Greek mythology) -the heroes who sailed with Jason in the Argo to Colchis in quest of the Golden Fleece guarded by the dragon.
248 Engels wrote this poem in Greek and read it at his school’s public celebrations in Elberfeld on September 15, 1837. The theme was taken from the Greek myth about the war waged by Argos against Thebes. The campaign was led by Polynices, son of King Oedipus, against his brother Eteocies, who had usurped power in Thebes. Aeschylus’ tragedy Seven against Thebes was based on this myth.
249 A reference to a school report from the Elberfeld gymnasium, which Engels entered in October 1834. Prior to this he attended the Barmen municipal school.
250 Engels received this reference in September 1837 when he had to leave the top form of the Elberfeld gymnasium in compliance with the wishes of his father, who sent him to study commerce at the Barmen office of his firm; in June 1838, Engels went to Bremen for the same purpose.