Table Of ContentA brilliant examination of Marx’s life and ideas illuminated
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by revelations from the uncensored Marx-Engels letters.
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THE RED PRUSSIAN
THE RED PRUSSIAN
LEOPOLD SCHWARZSCHILD
niversarl dj^aY
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GROSSET 8c DUNLAP
NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS
Under the title: The Red Prussian, TAe Life and Legend of Karl Marx
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN
ANY FORM WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS
Sol
i 4-7
BY ARRANGEMENT WITH CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY MARGARET WING
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Oft utf
To my wife,
whose unerring criticism, stimulating sug
gestions and constant encouragement have
contributed so much to every page of this
book.
15342
PREFACE
had to be found for the age in which we live, we
f a name
I
might safely call it the Marxian era. For, in one way or
another, the most important facts of our time lead back to
one man—Karl Marx. It will hardly be disputed that it is he
who is manifested in the very existence of Soviet Russia, and
particularly in the Soviet methods. Even the orthodox Marxists,
who regard the influence of personalities on the course of history
in general as negligible, and that of “objective forces” as decisive,
make an exception in this case. Without Marx there would have
been no Lenin, without Lenin no communist Russia. But, indi
rectly, Marx is also responsible for all the other totalitarian
states, since all of them, rivals of Soviet Russia though they may
be, are at the same time imitations or variations of the Soviet
model. And after all, it is because of Marx that the rest of the
world has for years been obliged to sacrifice one after another
of its liberal traditions to the necessity for self-preservation. There
can be no doubt that our whole life would be very different if
Marx had never lived.
“The tree is known by his fruit.” Practically all the previous
biographies of Marx were written many years ago, before any
fruit had ripened. The biographers of those days—admirers and
believers—were convinced that this fruit could only prove bene
ficent, and they viewed their subject in the light of this anticipated
blessing. But the picture which is presented to us in the light of the
actual effects of Marx and Marxism has little in common with the
fictions of the old biographers. Features now emerge which had
formerly been overlooked; while others which were pure inven
tion disappear. If the present book gives an interpretation of
Marx which differs vastly from the conventional version, it is
because the fruit which makes known the tree has in the meantime
ripened and assumed tangible form.
And there is another reason why it is possible for this book
vn
PREFACE
to reach beyond the previous biographies. In recent times a body
of material has been made available which was not at the dis
posal of the earlier writers—the complete correspondence of Marx
and Engels. It is true that a collection of these letters was pub
lished shortly before the first World War by the German Socialist
party. But this collection, as it turned out later, was deliberately
and carefully purged of everything which could place Marx in
an unfavorable light. Hundreds of letters were omitted, in count
less others whole sentences and even paragraphs were cut out,
while in hundreds of others compromising expressions were
changed. It is hard to understand what prompted the Marx-
Engels Institute in Moscow to supersede this piously falsified
collection with a complete unvarnished edition. Apparently the
mental and moral schism between Soviet Russia and the rest of
the world had grown so deep that the editors were not even
conscious that they were doing a poor service to the memory of
their hero. However that may be, these letters, which over a
period of forty years passed between the two pioneers of com
munism, in which they voiced their most intimate thoughts and
related their most secret activities—these letters we now have at
our disposal. They reveal to us, instead of the legendary, the
true Marx. There is scarcely any important historical figure about
whose character we have even approximately such exhaustive
and authentic information as we now have—thanks to these four
volumes—about the character of Marx. Amidst the turmoil and
cares of the Thirties this amazing compilation, published in
German, attracted practically no attention, and the four volumes
disappeared without a ripple in the depths of the libraries. It
is a privilege to bring them to light.
It may be added that this book makes no assertion, relates
no episode, and emphasizes no trait in Marx’s character without
clinching the point by means of authentic quotations, and in
forming the reader where these quotations may be verified.
L. S.
New York, February, 1947.
• • •
Vlll
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Chapter Page
I. THE BRAIN OF HIS ANCESTORS I
II. THE FRUSTRATED POET 16
m. THE ALL-POWERFUL “it” 30
IV. DOWN WITH SOCIALISM! 46
V. LONG LIVE SOCIALISM! 69
VI. THE ECONOMIC ABYSS 86
vn. OUR THEORY I I 7
VUI. THE FANFARE 137
IX. THE BANNER OF THE GAULS 163
X. THE FALSE FLAG l8o
XI. WHERE IS YOUR PROOF? 217
XII. TWO CHAPTERS 234
xm. “baron izzy” 267
XIV. THE THREE LABORS OF HERCULES 289
XV. INTERMEZZO 318
XVI. THE LAST BATTLE 346
XVH. ON THE SHELF 393
REFERENCES 408
INDEX 41 I
1X
THE BRAIN OF HIS ANCESTORS
H M , the lawyer, was baptized in the
hen erschel arx
W
autumn of 1816,1 the people of Trier were a trifle
shocked. Countless Jews in Western Europe were at
that time making their way from the temple to the church. In
those optimistic days it seemed the best way of getting finally rid
of those prejudices which were, fortunately, already on the wane.
For the most part, people rejoiced at every conversion. This
particular one, however, was not entirely relished either by the
Jews or the Christians in Trier.
After all, Herschel Marx belonged to the family which had
given Trier its rabbis for a hundred and fifty years. At the
moment, his brother held office; before that it had been his
father; before him his grandfather on his mother’s side, and still
further back, his great-grandfather and his great-great-grand-
father. Moreover, long before the forefathers of Herschel Marx
had become the almost hereditary shepherds of the flock in Trier,
they had been rabbis in other cities. For many centuries not one
of his ancestors had practised any other profession. Congregations
in far distant lands had tried to lure them into their midst, and
many of them had been true spiritual princes in Israel. Those
who knew of him spoke with awe and reverence of Josef ben
Gerson Cohen, who had been the rabbi of Cracow towards the
end of the 16th century. And they spoke with even more bated
breath of Meir Katzenellenbogen, who died in 1565 as rabbi of
Padua, and whose fame extended far beyond the confines of his
synagogue. The great university of Padua counted him among
1 Marx-Chronik. Fall 1816.
THE RED PRUSSIAN
the most illustrious minds of his day, and hung his portrait in
the great hall.2
There was another strange thing about this conversion. The
year before his baptism, Herschel Marx had married, but appar
ently he had not been able to see eye to eye with his young
wife on the question of religion. She was Henriette Pressburger
from Nimwegen, in Holland; she, too, was the product of count
less generations of rabbis; and she, like her husband, was not
really devoted to the faith of her fathers. But, on the other hand,
she felt just as little attracted to the religion which she would
have had to espouse in its place, and so she refused to follow her
husband into the Christian church. What, then, was the Marxes’
real position, and how would they bring up their children, the
first of whom was obviously on the way? Somehow the situation
was not as simple as the good people of Trier would have liked
it to be.
But the people of Trier, Jews and Christians alike, did not
consider themselves their brothers’ keepers. They had always
been willing to live and let live, and, in recent times, tolerance
had become the password of the more progressive spirits. Let
well enough alone, was their motto.
Over the little town hung the scent of the grape-vines which
were cultivated for miles up and down the river. The grapes
of the Mosel valley belonged, together with those of the Rhine,
Burgundy^ Bordeaux and Champagne, to the Big Five of the
wine aristocracy. Mosel wines had long been held in the highest
esteem as far afield as the courts of London and Petersburg; re
cently orders had even come in from that new country, America.
Wine was not only the business of the people of Trier; it had also
had its share in forming their character. For rich and poor alike,
wine was both their daily drinking-water and the crowning glory
of their festive hours. Everyone in Trier could distinguish the
kinds of grapes and the vintages with his eyes shut. Lovingly, yet
critically, they drank their golden wines between meals and with
meals, and they insisted that their food should be of the same fine
3 Bernhard Wachstein: Die Abstammung von Karl Marx (In: Fest-
skrift i Anleding af Professor D. Simonson, Kjobnhavn, 1923).
2
