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A brilliant examination of Marx’s life and ideas illuminated • - * • w* «. % • by revelations from the uncensored Marx-Engels letters. Jfylarx ^ I at THE RED PRUSSIAN THE RED PRUSSIAN LEOPOLD SCHWARZSCHILD niversarl dj^aY e 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-grandfather. 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