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 University of Illinois Library 
 
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FERDINAND 
 LASSALLE 
 
 ^s a novelistic subject 
 of Friedrich Spiel hagen 
 
 Submitted to the Faculty of tke 
 Graduate ScKool of the Uni- 
 versity of Penns3>lvaiua in par- 
 tial fulfilment of tKe require- 
 ments for the degree of Doctor 
 of PKilosopKy 
 
 By 
 ADOLF SCHUMACHER 
 
 ^ 
 

 PRINTBD BT 
 
 ADTBBTISBB-REFDBLICiJI 
 
 ANNAPOUa, MD. 
 

 ^^^.. 
 
 \.-J 
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In his attempt to depict, by means of the novel, 
 the social and political thoughts which pervaded 
 Prussia-Germany during the middle of the past 
 century, Friedrich Spielhagen would have failed in 
 his poetical theories, had he passed by the great 
 exponent of a socialist movement which set in at 
 that time. Indeed, for some of his novels he has 
 drawn to a great extent from the life and works of 
 Ferdinand Lassalle. 
 
 However, the writer of ''Zeitromane" was led 
 also by the desire to influence his time, and conse- 
 quently, his ethical idealism and political stand- 
 point put him to oppose Lassalle by novelistic 
 means. 
 
 Therefore, in presenting the material which the 
 life and works of the founder of German social 
 democracy have furnished for the literary activity 
 of Spielhagen, and which in part is contained in a 
 study "Ferdinand Lassalle im deutschen Zeitro- 
 tC^. man, ' ' submitted by me to the Faculty of thel&rad- 
 
 "^"^ uate School of the University of Pennsylvania in 
 
 partial fulfilment of the requirements for the de- 
 gree of Doctor of Philosophy, a statistical form has 
 been deemed less interesting than an arrangement 
 from viewpoints, suggested by the agitatorial ef- 
 forts of both the Democrat and the novelist. 
 
 A. S. 
 University of Pennsylvania, 
 October, 1910. 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In Friedrich Spielhagen's novel, "Die von Hohenstein," of 
 1863, Bernhardt Miinzer declares at the close of his great plea, 
 that he would console himself over his-exit from the political 
 scene with the hope that the genius of the German people in 
 their attempt to solve their great pblitical and social problems 
 might discover, by experimenting with him and his friends, the 
 saving means for the generations to come, and with the thought, 
 also, that the stone rejected by the builder had, after all, become 
 a corner-stone of the State of the future. Thoughts of this kind, 
 no doubt, were often in the mind of Ferdinand Lassalle when, 
 during the last momentous years of his life, he sat, figuratively 
 and literally, in the dock. They found expression the same year 
 in a passage of his Frankfurt speech of May 19, in which he 
 voices his firm belief in his being some day vindicated before the 
 court of history, and in the advent of a time that would see es- 
 tablished the state institutions for which he was struggling. Too 
 impatient to wait for the natural development of conditions, 
 which he correctly foresaw to be those of the future, he expected 
 them to be realized during his life. His untimely death did not 
 permit him to rejoice even over the unification of Germany (with 
 the exclusion of Austria) and the introduction of xmiversal 
 suffrage, the two chief points of his political program, for which, 
 as the only possible basis for the social betterment of the prole- 
 tariat, he had been working with his whole energy. Nor can 
 it be said that his personal, passionate entreaties influenced the 
 Iron Chancellor to execute a few years later the program of the 
 philosopher-agitator at those decisive points of both foreign and 
 domestic policies.^ But he has a preponderant share in the start 
 of the German social democratic movement. He is the man who 
 grasped and made real the fertile thought when the time came 
 by staking his whole personality. He thus has become the 
 comer-stone to which Miinzer claims title. His ideas are a vital 
 forc« in the social life of modern Germanv.^ 
 
 1 Georg Brandes, Ferdinand Lassalle. Lelpsig 1889. p. 4. 
 
 2 Bembard Harms, Ferdinand Lassalle und seine Bedeutung fiir die deutsohe 
 Sozialdemokratia Jena 1909. p. 81 f. 
 
Before entering the political arena Lassalle was very happily 
 characterized by Heinrich Heine as a genuine son of the new 
 time, who, not given to the modesty with which the older genera- 
 tion had idiotically idled on, wants to put himself forward amidst 
 the actual world.^ The "wonder-child" of A. von Humboldt 
 was a man of practical realism, who, rather than being satisfied 
 with the ideas and dreams of "Young Germany," employed his 
 wide knowledge, extraordinary energy and "glowing" patriot- 
 ism (?) in the attempt to solve the most important political and 
 social problems of his time. A democrat by nature, he was per- 
 meated by the thought of Karl Marx, like him a disciple of 
 Hegel, that democracy could maintain its hold and rise into 
 power solely through a connection with the material interests of 
 society. This meant, after the realization of the national aspira- 
 tions, the championship of the social demands of the working 
 classes in order to hitch the progress of oppressed mankind to 
 the wagon of the democrats' political lust for power. Since 
 1848 Lassalle was the first in Prussia-Germany to start in this 
 direction at a time when German unification was being prepared 
 without any participation by democracy. Only as a democratic 
 politician striving for power did he become a socialist. Excluded 
 by his social standing, race, and political past from an official 
 position which might have placed at his disposal the forces of the 
 Prussian State for the amelioration of the conditions of the 
 working classes, he founded a socialist party essentially national 
 — for Lassalle 's is the German type of socialistic movements — 
 in order to obtain those means which, to his mind, created the 
 possibility of realizing his economic plans. As a socialist he has 
 produced nothing original. But as a politician, as an agitator, 
 as the greatest demagogue German history has known, he has 
 made his greatest personal contribution; it was he, who, at an 
 opportune moment, which but for him might have been lost, start- 
 ed for social democracy in Prussia a political movement which 
 accorded with the innermost trait of his active personality, domi- 
 nating aristocracy, and which raised questions that have been, 
 so far, only partially answered. The problems he pointed out 
 will tax severely the ingenuity of many generations, and his 
 spirit dominate the future for a long time to come,^ or, to quote 
 the opinion of the novelist who will be the object of our study : 
 
 1 Letter to Vamhageu von Bnse of Jan. 3, 1846. 
 
 2 Brandos, 1. c. p. 174. 
 
" (Lassalle) hat sich einen Platz in der Weltgeschichte erobert, 
 den ihm seine argsten Feinde lassen miissen . . , der riicksichts- 
 und skrupellos Handelnde, hat die Welt — die deutsche wenig- 
 stens — ^in eine Bewegung gesetzt, zu der die Revolution von 1848 
 sich verhalt wie die Windwelle zur Grundwelle; in eine Bewe- 
 gung, die heute nicht nur fortdauert, sondem erst jetzt beginnt, 
 ihre machtige Tiefe und Kraft an den Tag zu legen, und deren 
 Ende kein Verstand der Verstandigen abzusehen vermag."^ 
 
 In his autobiography also, Spielhagen expresses his interest in 
 the personality of Lassalle. While a student in the University of 
 Bonn he went to Cologne to attend the trial, August 5-11, 1848, 
 and heard the eloquent plea of the Democrat whose great future 
 was yet before him. He was captivated by his personality, as 
 Heine had been a short time before, and became one of his most 
 ardent admirers.^ Since those days the psychological problem, 
 Lassalle, kept the interest of the novelist alive. 
 
 At the time of this trial, however, Spielhagen himself could 
 not have foreseen its importance for the future writer of 
 "Zeitromane." Although following the events of 1848-49 with 
 the keenest interest and understanding, he took no part in the 
 revolutionary actions of his fellow-students. But when heybe- 
 oame conscious of the aim of his literary work as a poetical 
 reproduction of the whole of modem life in a form and light, 
 such as the classical poets used for their time,^ and when cir- 
 cumstances brought him, during his days at Hanover, into 
 friendly relation with the most prominent members of the 
 Nationalverein and, a few years later in Berlin, with the leaders 
 of the Fortschrittspartei, he learned to know politics as the 
 efforts to work and to think to the best of one's power for the 
 y/elfare of all, and his poetical work, his novels on the modem 
 life of his country, received the stamp of a pronounced political 
 purpose. 
 
 What Lassalle was in the field of politics, Spielhagen became 
 in the domain of letters, a great agitator,* a poet Representative 
 of the people for whose most sacred and highest interests he 
 henceforth worked honestly and conscientiously.^ Studying the 
 
 1 F. Spielhagen, Finder und Erfinder. I. p. 276 f. 
 
 t F. Spielhagen, Frelgeboren. p. 287. 
 
 3 Hans Hennlng, P. Spielhagen. Leipzig 1910. p. 50. 
 
 * ?A.??* Meyer. Die deutsche Literatur dee neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Berlin 
 
 1910. II. p. 82. 
 5 Hennlng, 1. c. p. 186 ; 133. Cp. p. 46. 
 
8 
 
 tendencies of his time he depicts all evils of partisanship with 
 the greatest frankness. When he became the editor of the 
 "Deutsche Wochenschrif t, " in 1862, he published in this weekly 
 his literary credo, that he would not forget the high dignity of 
 poetry and make political capital out of it. The object of all 
 art, he said in conscious accord with Hamlet's address to the 
 players, is to let Nature look in a mirror, and show Virtue her 
 own traits and Disgrace her own picture, and the age and the 
 body of the time the image of their forms. Only that poet has 
 lived for all times who has satisfied the best of his time when he 
 combines a full understanding of the tendencies of the present 
 with the warmest sympathy for everything that fills it ; when he 
 sets his mind on belonging to no party but the party of the 
 good, true and beautiful.^ From the standpoint of this credo 
 Spielhagen looks at the history of his time, not as an historian 
 who judges its events with the coldest objectivity, but as a son 
 of his time who feels compelled to interfere and fight for his 
 ideals. As Lassalle turns from the dreams of the drawing-room 
 heroes of Young Germany to become a man of action, so the 
 novelist frees himself from the pessimism and materialism of 
 the time of his youth by embracing the belief in the possibility 
 of healing the ailments of his time- and, in contrast with the 
 herd-like feeling of his contemporaries, gives expression in his 
 works to his own strong individuality. He treats of those ideas 
 which flow through the national body and stir up the mind and 
 passions of the individual, and opposes them, when necessary, 
 with those which he believes will be wholesome for all. 
 
 With the exception of a few articles on political questions,' 
 Spielhagen uses the novel as the medium of his agitation. The 
 novel, according to his ' ' Neue Beitrage zur Theorie und Technik 
 der Epik und Dramatik," must, like the epic poems of Homer, 
 draw a world-picture in which the acting persons are exclusively 
 characterized by their words and actions, if it intends to be in 
 artistic value the equal of the drama which since the time of 
 Aristotle has been taken to represent the height of poetry. In 
 order to bring on the scene persons full of life, the poet, just 
 like the artist or the sculptor, should use models to which the 
 fire of his imagination must give an artistic form.* 
 
 1 HenniQg, 1. c. p. 186 ; 133. Cp. p. 46. 
 
 2 Zlemssen, F. S. Breslau 1880. p. 14 £E. 
 
 3 Spielhagen, Am Wege. Cp. Hennlng, 1. c. p. 134. 
 
 4 Hennlng, 1. c. p. 162 ; cp. pp. 126 ; 46. 
 
I / 
 
 How far Spielhagen has attained his aim and successfully 
 proved by practice the correctness of his theory does not con- 
 cern us here. At all events, he has followed up his theory, and 
 in drawing a picture of the Prussian-German world with its 
 political and social tendencies as he saw them, has used the great 
 democratic exponent of revolutionary and socialistic thoughts 
 as a model for the hero of two of his novels. Besides, Lassalle 
 was a personality which attracted because of his powerful and 
 original intellect, not to speak of his attainments in the realm of 
 learning. We meet the man who stood at the beginning of Ger- 
 man social democracy still in Spielhagen 's last novel of 1900, 
 " Freigeboren. " The heroine of this novel, "free-born," intel- 
 lectual and noble-minded, emancipated in the best sense of the 
 word, a free-thinker in religious and political matters, follows 
 with passionate interest the conflict between the Prussian 
 Government of 1862 and the Opposition (p. 278) ; she is in 
 favor of a strong army which will call Austria to account and 
 establish German unity; and in contrast, therefore, Mdth her 
 surrounding company (p. z85) she takes the part of Lassalle, 
 to whom her husband, as a member of the Progressionists, is 
 naturally opposed. We see and hear Lassalle and understand 
 her admiration for his great intellectual gifts (pp. 287, 290, 293) 
 and political activity, his championship of the people's rights, 
 or rather the rights of mankind — for he puts realizable justice in 
 the place of Christ's love (p. 289), but we see also how correct 
 is her judgment of his moral character (p. 291). We have 
 here essentially a repetition of what Spielhagen says about 
 Lassalle in his autobiography^ and the picture he has drawn is 
 remarkably in agreement with that which Herman Oneken has 
 given us.^ Here we have the historical person. The novelist 
 makes use of him to show that all ailments and wounds which 
 spring from our nature can not be healed but through this very 
 same nature; that we learn to resign ourselves to find in the 
 world of our thoughts the only treasure of which we can not be 
 deprived, and to bring all forces which slumber in us to the high- 
 est possible development. Lassalle is but a subordinate figure in 
 this novel. 
 
 It is different with the other novels. There it is the hero who 
 
 1 Finder und Brflnder, I. p. 276-281. 
 
 2 H. Oncken, Lassalle. Stuttgart 1904. 
 
10 
 
 is more or less modelled on Lassalle^ and the drawing depends 
 both on the tendencies of the novels and the time of their compo- 
 sition. The latter has caused a difference in presenting the life- 
 work of the hero, although the two novels, in a certain sense, 
 form but two chapters of one and the same story. "Die von 
 Hohenstein" appeared in 1863, "In Reih und Glied"^ in 1866. 
 But the year 1862 signifies a turning point in the life of Lassalle. 
 In April of 1862 he opened his campaign of agitation among the 
 working people. "Die von Hohenstein" can, therefore, show 
 only in a very small measure traces of the most important activ- 
 ity of Lassalle, his agitation proper for the social improvement 
 of the fourth estate, which took place mainly during the two 
 last years of his life, and the large number of writings and 
 speeches which explain his views on the labor question, a num- 
 ber which, considering the short space of time in which they 
 were composed or rendered, is marvelous. Compared with this 
 extraordinary activity the time before 1862 appears but a period 
 of general preparation, and its reflection in DvH gives, conse- 
 quently, a much more indefinite picture historically than that 
 which the last period of Lassalle 's life has produced in IRuG. 
 Moreover, it was a theoretic-SBsthetic and practical-poetical prin- 
 ciple of the novelist never to bring into his works persons who 
 were living at the time of writing. For this very same reason, 
 he confesses at the time of the eightieth birthday of Prince 
 Bismark, that he never introduced into his novels the man whom, 
 next to Luther and Goethe, he considers to be the greatest Ger- 
 man, although he could not avoid making some allusions to him 
 in novels treating events of the present times,^ and this principle 
 accounts partly, no doubt, for the less definite picture he has 
 drawn of Lassalle in DvH. 
 
 In spite of all differences in detail, however, as the types of 
 one novel correspond almost exactly with those of the other ; as 
 the social background of the second is but the continuation of 
 the first, so it is the same hero who takes part in, or leads the 
 struggle for the solution of the great social problems of his time 
 as the poet conceives them to be. And this hero reminds one of 
 
 1 Hellmuth Mieike, Der deutsche Roman des 19. Jahrhunderts. Braunschweig 
 1898. p. 294. Henning, 1. c. p. 44 ; 163 : 188. 
 
 2 Referred to as DvH and IRuO resp. in the following. 
 
 3 Egbert Miiller, Bismarck im Urteil seiner Zeitgenossen. Berlin 1895 ; Hea- 
 ning, 1. c. p. 217-8. 
 
11 
 
 • 
 
 Lassalle in so many details of personal appearance, character 
 and mind, actions and speech, and incidents of life, evidently 
 suggested by the historical agitator, which would make it an 
 easy task to prove that Spielhagen modelled the figures of 
 Bernhardt Miinzer and Leo Gutmann after the great Democrat 
 even if such were not known to be a- fact. 
 
 Here the novelist uses phrases which, in similar wording, are 
 found in Lassalle ; e. g., the latter says in his first great speech 
 before the court : ' ' Auch mein Blick, meine Herren, war seit je 
 vorzugsweise auf die allgemeinen Fragen und Angelegenheiten 
 gerichtet . . ."^ and Leo (I 525)^: "Mein Blick war von 
 Jugend auf unverwandt auf die offentlichen Interessen gerich- 
 tet." Miinzer, too, in his great plea utters thoughts of Lassalle 
 in about the same words.* In a number of passages, expressions, 
 to which Lassalle has given almost the form of winged words, 
 are put into the mouths of other persons. The point of Archi- 
 medes is a favorite of his, and the story of the Greek philosopher 
 and the Roman soldier he recites at a dramatic moment in liis 
 speech, ' ' Die Wissenschaf t und die Arbeiter, ' '^ while Leo is told 
 (I 324; II 507) to find this point in order to lift the world in 
 his sense off its hinges. The "Seiden der Gewalt" become the 
 "Seiden des Prinzen" ("Assisenrede," p. 48; IRuG II 549), 
 the dreadful suffering of the duchess of Praslin, which Lassalle 
 so dramatically mentions in his " Assisenrede, "^ is put into 
 relation with an event in DvH which causes the greatest excite- 
 ment (525). Other passages, very differently worded, express, 
 after all, the same thoughts ; e. g., Lassalle contrasts with dema- 
 gogic skill the workmen and the bourgeois : ' ' Unter dieser win- 
 zigen Handvoll Leute (of the well-to-do) windet sich in stum- 
 mer unaussprechlicher Qual in wimmelnder Zahl das unbeniit- 
 telte Volk . . . produziert alles, was uns das Leben ver- 
 schont ..." and Leo, looking from the top of the hiU down 
 to the mills (II 275), asks: "Fiir wen arbeiten die da . . .? 
 fiir ihre Kinder, die mit einem Stiick trocknen Brodes zu Bett 
 
 1 Figures after Leo or Miinzer, respectively, refer to tlie edition of 1895 of 
 IRuG and DvH. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 249. The data of Lassalle's life having been taken to a great- 
 er extent from Oncken's authoritative and comprehensive biography, refer- 
 ences will be made to this source only at important points or where it differs 
 from others. Because of its being also easier of access it will be referred to 
 in case it contains such passages from Lassalle's works as may be under dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 3 Brandes. 1. c. p. 16 ; 17. Oncken, 1. c. p. 50. 
 
 4 Cp. below p. 69. 
 
12 
 
 gegangen sind? fiir ihre Weiber, die wenn sie nicht eben in die- 
 ser Holle an irgend eine Maschine geschmiedet sind, zu Hanse 
 sitzen und Wasche stopfen? oder arbeiten sie fiir den Mann da 
 oben, der die Kunst versteht, aus den Sehweisstropfen dieser 
 Aermsten den deliziosesten Champagner zu destillieren . . . ?"^ 
 Again, incidents of Lassalle's life serve to complete the narra- 
 tion of Spielhagen. In DvH (21) one of the representative 
 props of the kingdom by the grace of God is offended because 
 some young men of the working class travelling on the same boat 
 cheer Schleswig-Holstein and the future German republic. This 
 cheer is received as an insult, and reminds one in the context of 
 the novel, of the insults which Frederic William IV suffered in 
 Diisseldorf in August, 1848, and which were for a long time 
 imputed to the machinations of LasseUe. The little scrap of 
 paper which Tusky leaves at Leo's house (II 463) makes the 
 reader think of the short note Marx sent Lassalle in September, 
 1861.^ The great liberty enjoyed during his short imprisonment 
 by Leo, who, for years, has been implicated in high treason affairs 
 like Lassalle (I 54), recalls that of the latter after his speech at 
 Neuss (II 121). Antonie von Hohenstein tries to persuade 
 Miinzer to take a trip with her to the Orient (462) to draw him 
 away from politics, and Leo, too, is advised to take such a trip ; 
 Lassalle did so in September, 1856. The great reception which 
 Leo is given on his arrival at Tuchheim by the working people 
 who have come from afar to greet him as the man who is going 
 to free them from their wretchedness (II 317) is a picture of Las- 
 salle 's triumphal tour in the Rhenish provinces during the spring 
 of 1864.^ Always noble-minded and never petty — ' * Das schickt 
 sich nicht ' '* — the great Democrat considers money for what it is 
 worth. As an independent man of means and of refined taste, 
 he lived in a way which surpassed the average mode of life of the 
 Berliners at that time. He kept a house furnished luxuriously 
 and his Liberal adversaries often mocked at the leader of the 
 workmen because of his expensive habits. This is no doubt re- 
 flected in the depicting of the luxurious home of Leo (I 353; 
 II 325) and the fondness of the Democrat for visiting beautiful 
 public houses in the evening (I 313). He, too, scandalizes his 
 
 1 "Die indirekte Steuer" ; Oncken, 1. c p. 363. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 231. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 404. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 392 ; 403. Cp. below p. 108. 
 
13 
 
 Liberal opponents by his love of luxury (I 353). But to Leo 
 money is rubbish (II 325 ; 465 ; 497), as it was to Lassalle. 
 
 Other happenings of the latter 's life can be pointed out as 
 being reflected in these novels when we take into account Spiel- 
 liagen's habit, especially in his earliest works, of denoting his- 
 torical persons by names resembling their real ones,^ and employ 
 this as a key for finding the names of persons used as models 
 and their connection with the great agitator. LassaUe's name 
 itself would seem to have furnished those of the heroes of the 
 novels under consideration. Thus we surmise Ferdinond became 
 Bernhordt and Zassalle Leo,^ Ferdinand Lassalle being, so to 
 speak, the common root of Bernhardt Miinzer, the hero of DvH 
 and Leo Gutmann, that of IRuG. The countess Sophie Hatz- 
 feldt, who was the dominant influence, the fate of LassaUe's life 
 and whom he declares, as late at July, 1864, to be necessary to 
 his existence, appears as Antome von Hohenstein in DvH, and 
 it seems to us that after the same principle the name Hohenstein 
 springs from the combination of H(atzfeldt and Sch)6nstein. 
 The latter was an estate of the Hatzfeldts oh the Rhine, the 
 farmers of which, in November, 1848, were urged by Lassalle to 
 take up arms when, as he expected, a new outbreak of the revolu- 
 tion should take place. Appearing as Rheineck* in DvH, it 
 allows Miinzer and his friends, under the protection of Antonie, 
 to pursue their revolutionary plans. Although, according to the 
 Almanach de Gotha, Hohenstein is part of the princely family 
 name of Sayn-Witgenstein, our assumption seems to be sup- 
 ported by the fact that Miinzer fights against the principle repre- 
 sented by the Hohensteins as Lassalle does against that of the 
 Hatzfeldts.* Of other names occurring in the novels only that of 
 Ferdinand Lippert need here be mentioned. We recognize in 
 him the Indentanturrat Fabrtce, who, after having in vain 
 challenged Lassalle, attacked him unexpectedly in the Tiergarten 
 at Berlin in May, 1858, and met with a very successful defense 
 on his part. Ferdinand's attack on Leo (I 532-35) occurs under 
 similar circumstances and with the same results. 
 
 LassaUe's personality itself is easily recognized in those of our 
 heroes. Besides being the model for many traits in the drawing 
 
 iHenning, 1. c. p. 211-12. 
 
 2 Cp., however, below p. 105. 
 
 3 Cp. below p. 29 ff. 
 
 * The name of a castle on the left bank of the Rhine between Bonn and Coblenz. 
 
14 
 
 of the intellectual and moral natures of Miinzer^ and Leo, hia 
 outward appearance has served the novelist. Especially in the 
 description of the face, both novelist and biographers agree if 
 we disregard the little difference that Leo has brown eyes instead 
 of the dark blue eyes of Lassalle and Miinzer.^ Oncken describes 
 the head of Lassalle as that of Goethe translated into the Semitic 
 (p. 341), in "Freigeboren" (p. 290), it is the head of Caesar, 
 and to others the agitator looked the personification of defiance 
 but as carrying so much energy on his face that it would have 
 surprised nobody if he had conquered a throne.^ So Miinzer's 
 haughty imperious eyes accord with his face, behind the forehead 
 of which "his kingdom" lies (166) ; they are filled with his great 
 mind and courage (298). From Leo's forehead shine forth the 
 marks of great original thoughts (I 265) ; like Lassalle, he 
 attracts attention because he looks different from others, some- 
 thing beyond the ordinary, which greatly commands respect, lies 
 in his face (I 316; 68). But poetical considerations have, 
 caused the novelist to ascribe to his heroes figures which one is 
 apt to fancy the leaders of men should have. Lassalle, accord- 
 ing to a police description of 1848, was only 5 feet 6 inches tall 
 and of a slender figure. The heroine of " Freigeboren " (290) 
 speaks of his height although she qualifies it by slenderness. 
 Miinzer has a mighty form, broad shoulders and a high-arched 
 chest, so that one would have liked to imagine him at the head 
 of a troop impelled to throw themselves irresistibly upon the 
 hostile batteries (298).* Leo, too, has a powerful physique. It is, 
 however, not strong enough to carry the burden of his work and 
 must be fortified by medicaments, just as Lassalle 's vigorous 
 nature, always mistreated, needed frequent refreshing. His 
 voice, too, has for the same reason been changed into the soft 
 low voices of Miinzer^ and Leo. For the voice of the historical 
 
 1 But also the personality and life of J. G. Kinkel have furnished the author 
 material for his novel. When Spielhagen and his friend, Carl Schurz, wer^ 
 attending the University of Bonn, Kinkel held the chair of literature. The 
 Intimate relation which sprung up between Kinkel and Schurz is reflected in 
 the friendship of Miinzer and Wolfgang von Hohenstein. Cp. below p. 39 ; 55. 
 
 2 Miinzer wears a black beard. Carl Schurz says in his Lebenserinnerungen, 
 Berlin, of Kinkel : "Unter seiner von schwarzem Haupthaar beschattetea 
 Stim leuchtete eln paar dunkler Augen hervor, deren Feuer selbst durch eine 
 Brille nicht gedampft wurde. Mund und Kinn waren von einem schwarzea 
 Vollbart umrahmt." 
 
 3 Brandes, 1. c. p. 11. 
 
 4 Schurz, 1. c. "Kinkel war ein auffallend schoner Mann, von regelmassigen 
 Gesichtsziigen und von herkulischem Korperbau, iiber 6 Fuss gross, strotzend 
 
 yon Kraft." 
 
 5 Schurz, 1. c. "Kinkel besass eine wundervolle Stlmme, zugleich stark und 
 weich, hoch und tief, gewaltig und riihrend in ihren Tonen, schmeicheind wie 
 die Flote und scbmetternd wie die Posaune, als umfasste sie alle Register der 
 Orgel." 
 
15 
 
 agitator was in every-day speech high pitched and shrill; he 
 stammered also slightly. When he appeared in public these 
 defects, however, were not noticeable, his voice sounding strong 
 and beautiful.^ 
 
 But there are also many diversities both in the drawing of 
 character and in the narration. We have remarked on Spiel- 
 hagen's understanding of his poetical office. He did not assume 
 the role of the historian when he undertook to write novels on 
 the modern life of his country. The novelist is to him a poet 
 and a preacher, a pedagogue, an agitator. Consequently the 
 poetical conception is with him in many, if not aU, instances com- 
 bined with the purpose, the "Tendenz." Beside historical facts 
 or a series of historical events, clearly and chronologically ren-; 
 dered in our novels, others are found arranged in conflict with 
 chronology or intermingled with fiction. ViThile the sickness of- 
 the king and the Southern war, for example, are placed at the 
 close of Leo's career, they stand historically a;t the beginning, of 
 -Lassalle's epochal political activity. Leo's duel, which was to 
 put an end to his, and the accompanying circumstances furnish a 
 good example for the way in which the novelist blends in some 
 cases facts with fiction. Spielhagen makes use of Lassalle's duel 
 in all its details. But the narration of Leo's presents a very 
 different picture. The parts, so to speak, of this tragedy are' 
 completely changed. Ferdinand challenges Leo principally be- 
 cause he considers him his successful rival in the affection of the 
 girl he loves and thus plays the part of Lassalle. But Leo cares 
 nothing for her nor has he the passion for his fiancee which the 
 historical Democrat felt for Helene von Donniges, who, of semi- 
 Jewish extraction, in her way of thinking and willing, in her 
 passion — she would speak of Lassalle as "Mein Adler," which 
 term is also used in IRuG I 512 ; II 106 — and in her fickleness 
 is evidently the model for the drawing of Emma von Sonnen- 
 stein. The passion to which Lassalle gives expression in his let- 
 ters to his friends and the Countess Hatzfeldt and which he 
 proved by his actions is refiected in LeO's love for Silvia 
 (II 550). This flames up like that of Lassalle and makes him 
 forget to care for the success of his political work and future. 
 With Lassalle the thoughts of his new party, just formed, politics 
 and studies pale. His mind is concentrated on finding the means 
 
 1 "Frelgeboren," p. 290 ; Brandes, 1. c. p. 93. 
 
16 
 
 to recapture the girl who has given him up, and Leo's whole 
 aims are directed to win his cousin when she has refused him. 
 When Lassalle at last sees that all his efforts are in vain his love- 
 madness and vanity turn into the only feeling he can have now 
 because of his nature, the desire to revenge himself on his suc- 
 cessful rival, and Leo, after Silvia's death, has this same feeling 
 in a pronounced way. He is also sure, like Lassalle, that he shall 
 kill his adversary, but, nevertheless, he enters the duel — one of 
 the seconds is Baron von Kerkow (II 608), who may correspond 
 to Colonel Riistow, who assisted Lassalle in his duel — like the 
 latter to whom the words of Miinzer about himself would seem 
 to apply — a remarkable prophesy on the part of Spielhagen — 
 namely, that he wished in an honorable and fixting way to leave 
 this world, because of the unhappiness in his heart and the in- 
 ability to subdue the storm he had aroused (574-75).^ Some 
 other minor correspondences and differences in the narration of 
 this duel, showing how the author combined facts and fiction, 
 must be passed by here. 
 
 On the other hand, where it would seem as though the novelist 
 gave fiction pure and simple, instead of historical facts, a closer 
 examination may prove that it is but a poetical dress covering 
 actions and thoughts of Lassalle. This is, for instance, the case 
 in Leo's position towards the king and his alliance with the 
 representative of the church. 
 
 The greatest differences are found naturally where the purpose 
 of the novelist required a change of the historical data. While the 
 intellectual qualities of Lassalle could be fittingly introduced in 
 the novels, whether by making him an author — ^Miinzer has writ- 
 ten books (118) and poems^ and Leo's pamphlets will occupy our 
 attention more fully — or as possessed of the gift of a "stupend- 
 ous" presence of mind and quickness of repartee — Leo (II 132; 
 142, etc.) ; Miinzer (316-17, etc.) — the moral traits of his charac- 
 ter have found in parts a different expression. Again, for the 
 same reason, thoughts or speeches of Lassalle have in Spiel- 
 hagen some times an aspect under which they were not ut- 
 tered actually, or they are assigned purposes by which Lassalle 
 was not governed. It is evident that the novelist intended these 
 changes, for he shows even here his remarkable intimacy with 
 
 1 Cp. Brandes, 1. c. p. 171. 
 
 2 Kinkel was also a poet. Cp. below p. 163. 
 
17 
 
 Lassalle's life and political activity. The more the political- 
 social work of the great Democrat is in question, the greater are 
 the differences between Spielhagen's narration and history. 
 
 An examination into the correspondences and discrepancies 
 existing between the novels and the political-social work of 
 Lassalle, therefore, must lead to a better understanding of the 
 purpose of Spielhagen in writing these novels. For these novels 
 mean after all the author's balancing accounts with Lassalle ; they 
 are his agitation for the means he has to propose for the solution 
 of the social problems in opposition to him. Such an examina- 
 tion has also a practical value. There was a time when these two 
 great agitators stood rather low in the estimation of the majority 
 of their German fellow-citizens after their first great successes. 
 When we put in the place of the shibboleth ' ' The living Lassalle 
 against the dead Schulze-Delitzsch, " under which J. B. von 
 Schweitzer continued the work of the great socialistic Democrat, 
 the cry "The living Lassalle against the dead Marx," which is 
 more frequently uttered in Germany today — on February 8, 
 1911, for the first time in the Reichstag, the national attitude of 
 some social democrats was proved by the fact that their repre- 
 sentatives in the budget committee did not vote against an in- 
 crease of the army, an act which strict partisans of Marx would 
 never have performed — we can point out also the evident fact 
 that Spielhagen today again finds a juster appreciation. Not 
 only have those younger talents who in the eighties and nineties 
 of the past century pronounced themselves the literary adver- 
 saries of our novelist learned from him in many points, but a 
 large number among them frankly admit their indebtedness to 
 him for what he taught them in literary art. The present gen- 
 eration is ready to judge rightly his great and many merits.^ 
 
 In examining Lassalle's political-social activity as it appears 
 in DvH and IRuG, however, in showing its correspondences and 
 differences and giving, as the case may be, the explanation for 
 the latter, it will not always be possible, unless the wording war- 
 rants it, to state with absolute certainty that all correspondences 
 which appear to have their sources in the works of Lassalle have 
 actually been drawn from them. Many thoughts are found in 
 Lassalle's words and in the novels which had been uttered be- 
 fore him and were the common property of his time.^ In some 
 
 1 Hennlng. 1. c. p. 163 ; 207-8. 
 «Cp. e. g. Oncken, 1. c. p. 224-26. 
 
18 
 
 eases we shall be surprised to see that Spielhagen by dint of a 
 remarkable gift of divination or because of first-hand informa- 
 tion, has recorded thoughts of the great Democrat before they 
 were published or discovered by historians of a later date, and 
 that he expresses as motives for certain actions forces which over 
 against older opinions are aflSrmed by the newest investigations. 
 In a few eases we piust be satisfied with merely pointing out cer- 
 tain parallels. 
 
The Political Life and Works of Ferdinand 
 
 L,assalle as a Source for ^^Die von Ho- 
 
 henstein' and ^*In Reih und Glied,'' 
 
 Influences Determining the Cabeers op 
 Lassall£, Munzeb and Leo. 
 
 1. 
 
 Hermann Oneken in writing the biography of Lassalle starts 
 out from the principle that Tie time of youth in which a person- 
 ality develops in unrestrained naturalness offers the key for the 
 understanding of the later man of letters or politics, inasmuch 
 as it contains those general and lastingly active premises, every- 
 thing which depends on extraction, moral-intellectual pre-dispo- 
 sition, the influence of family and bringing up, on the political 
 atmosphere of the State and public sentiment, in fact, the whole 
 sum of influences under which an individual is formed. Forty 
 years before the biographer of Lassalle undertook his work, 
 Spielhagen gave on the same principle, especially in the case of 
 Leo, an admirable drawing of the influences which determined 
 the development of our two heroes in their youthful years and 
 spurred them on to devote their lives to the cause of their peo- 
 ple. If, roughly speaking, we can say that certain dominant 
 traits in Lassalle 's intellectual-moral make-up, the wrongs and 
 injustice of social conditions which he himself suffers or sees 
 others undergo, and socialistic teachings have led him to that 
 political activity which was to secure his prominent position in 
 history, the very same influences are quite fully reflected in the 
 novels, though not in the same degree, in each of the two princi- 
 pal figures. While Miinzer is compelled, because of his own 
 sufferings and the bad social conditions of the majority of his 
 fellow-men, to attempt the uplift of his people, it is, less Leo's 
 own misery than some pronounced traits of his character and the 
 
20 
 
 influence of persons with whom he comes into contact that 
 determine his career. But in respect to intellect, temperament 
 and character Miinzer and Leo are the alter-egos of Lassalle 
 wherever Spielhagen's tendency or poetical requirements did 
 not necessitate some different drawing. 
 
 2. 
 
 Heinrich Heine, in his letter to Vamhagen von Ense, men- 
 tioned above, praises the young Lassalle, who had just made his 
 first trip to Paris, for his eminent intellectual gifts, for the most 
 thorough learning, most extensive knowledge, greatest sagacity, 
 and the richest talent for expression that he ever found. How 
 rightly the poet judged the young student, both the learned 
 works and smaller writings of the adult sufficiently attest. Las- 
 salle was endowed with abilities which even in branches where 
 he was but an autodidact surpassed by far those of the average 
 specialist. With his great gifts of intelligence and learning was 
 combined an eloquence that charmed every one.^ Even Bismarck 
 could not throw off this charm of Lassalle 's personality; he 
 declared in the Reichstag September, 1878, that he always re- 
 gretted the end of his interviews with this "so energetic and 
 intelligent" man although they lasted for hours.^ The same 
 gifts are Miinzer 's and Leo's. Miinzer is extraordinarily 
 talented, a savant and a speaker who carries every one with hira 
 (66; 481),"' and Leo, whose father, unable to understand the 
 world, studies himself blind that his son may acquire the greatest 
 knowledge, is so "awfully" learned that, young as he is, he is 
 ready to be promoted to the highest class of the Gymnasium at 
 any time (15). He is expected to accomplish something great 
 in life (I 25), and makes good when he enters on his political 
 career by impressing the people because of his surpassing knowl- 
 edge and manners of the world (I 280; 365). He is endowed 
 with a keen penetrating mind, a clear understanding and an 
 always active brain (I 13; 103). A master of language, the boy 
 knows how to shape his words so finely and pointedly that it is 
 diflScult to get the better of him (I 185), a gift of Lassalle 's 
 
 1 Freigeboren, p. 290. 
 
 2 Harms, 1. c. p. 72 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 342 ; 349. 
 
 3 So was Kinkel. Cp. the account of his plea in Scburz's Lebenserinnerungen, 
 
 and below p. 69 notes 4 and 5. 
 
21 
 
 which his adversaries in politics or at his trials sufficiently ex- 
 perienced. Leo learns easily, for he is a genius (I 49; 51). 
 
 But, precocious scholar that he is, he studies because he knows 
 that knowledge is power (I 30), and only a means to attain some 
 ends. This corresponds exactly with Lassalle's attitude toward 
 learning. It is true, no man ever had a deeper, more unselfish 
 and enthusiastic interest in learning and literature than he. 
 But at the same time he was made for that learning which stands 
 in the service of progress and revolts against everything that is 
 supported only by authority,^ and he saw in the possession of 
 this learning a key which might open him the road to power. 
 His love of power, which manifested itself from an early date, 
 when he lorded it over the members of his family^, to the last 
 moments of his life when he writes that it is an absolute necessity 
 with him that whoever stand near him be merged into his will,^ 
 in union with a deep passion for glory and honor, with the desire 
 to be admired and praised, with a mania for display, sought a 
 field when he became a man. All his strength and weakness were 
 concentrated in the impetuous longing to rise above the common 
 crowd and to stake his all for the highest. Fame. Bismarck 
 later testified to the largeness of the ambition which, like fire, 
 consumed Lassalle. It was a thirst for fame which, with all 
 positive efforts, must always think of itself and create a noisy 
 mise en scene. But despite this unpleasant admixture it was the 
 ambition of a great personality, ^ which manifested itself also in 
 Lassalle's study of Heraclitus. In the Greek philosopher he 
 found the herald of fame which only the best of mortals prefer 
 to all other things. But Heraclitus, in whose nature there was 
 storm," was also, because of this very same trait congenial to 
 LassaUe, the impetuous apostle of the present time, as Brandes 
 calls him, and his "glowing" heart, passionate soul, proud and 
 fiery temper are also Miinzer's. Miinzer, always striving, con- 
 tending, is driven by ambition and the thought of that happiness 
 and reward which are found in the thousandfold applause with 
 which a grateful people leads its tribune from the forum into 
 the senate (151) ; and the passionate, impetuous Leo who has 
 the ambition to do great things (I 11) has in his career nothing 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 12 ; 11 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 424. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 103. 
 
 *^7"V°Bd^Il"443^^*^ Herakleitos des Dunklen von Ephesos. Berlin. 185T, 
 
22 
 
 to lose but the fame among his contemporaries and posterity, 
 fame which the poet (Heraclitus?) calls the highest of all earth- 
 ly goods (II 488). Proud and haughty (18), feeling in early 
 youth like a man (I 12) who knows what he is doing (I 147) 
 and shows more intelligence and energy than most men ( I 147 ) , 
 he cctobines this passionate hunger for recognition (I 109) with 
 the lust for power, but in contrast to that of Lassalle it is a long- 
 ing for power which has been planted in him by the tyrannic 
 hand of his father, who has brought him up to become rich and 
 powerful, to drive before him the rabble of village boys like a 
 flock of sheep (I 29). 
 
 For reaching the goal of his ambition, Lassalle was well pro- 
 vided with a pronounced self-reliance, a belief in the power of 
 his mind to overcome all obstacles, with a restless impulse to act, 
 a want of consideration which attacks the goal without fearing 
 an}'^ resistance or shunning any means, ^ with a will that seemed 
 to seek the greatest difficulties only to remove them from his 
 path^ and a tenacity which resisted to the uttermost any effort to 
 drive him from ground on which he once had put his foot.^ A 
 man of iron will Miinzer is, too, who shows an indefatigable 
 energy in living for his work (276-77; 460) ; he is conscious of 
 the power of his mind; the only forces with which he rules are 
 those of the kingdom which lies behind his forehead, between the 
 narrow waUs of his skull (166). He feels in himself also the 
 necessity and impulse to act and work upon a large scale (410), 
 and to urge his friends to do likewise (124). He wishes for 
 danger that he may rush into it (278), against the advice of 
 his circumspect friends. Miinzer 's desire to work on a large 
 scale is shared by Leo (I 11). He does not want to acquire 
 knowledge for himself. He wants to use it in the interest of 
 others ; he wants to become learned to teach, strong to help, and 
 wise to counsel others. He has, to accomplish this, Lassalle 's 
 energy which could gain anything by using his enormous in- 
 tellectual powers ad hoc^ He knows his strong personality and 
 is, like his prototype, not impressed forcibly by any haughty 
 looks (I 367) ; he feels an unlimited power within him, it seems 
 to him as if he has only to will to move mountains. As his 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 11 ; 24 ; 30 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 23 ; 93. 
 
 2 P. A. Liange, Die Arbeiterfrage. 1879. p. 248. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 371. 
 
23 
 
 father is going to die ere long he must make his way alone 
 through this world ; he wants it — and he will accomplish it ; not 
 for himself, for he does not think of himself. He has the will 
 to learn English and to inure himself to the great sun-heat to be 
 endured when he shall prea6h the gospel among the heathen in 
 the desert (I 11; 10; 57). For he has the intention to become 
 a preacher of the Lord and to proclaim the message of joy and 
 peace, eternal peace. What he does is only a means to this great 
 end. He would like to be the Pope or, at least, the general of 
 the Jesuits, in order to do on a large scale what others do on a 
 small one and in detail (I 11). What the boy promised iie 
 fulfills in the days of manhood. His energy compels him to en- 
 dure the hardships of the weather (I 351), to go resolutely on to 
 reach the high aims he seeks, and to remove vigorously the 
 obstacles from his path or to turn them skillfully (I 299). In 
 this desire to work for the great public a reflection may be found 
 of Lassalle's individuality which prevented him, like Miinzer 
 (732), from becoming the shy scholar, who with complacent smile 
 declares his study to be his world, or from seeing in learning and 
 scientific work his only true purpose of life, and made him strive 
 for an influential position of his own in a great, practical-political, 
 reformative activity. Passionate, imperious, like Miinzer (164), 
 a kind of titanic nature for whom combat is the native element,^ 
 Ijassalle believed himself to be called to be one of the spiritual 
 leaders of his nation, one of those great reformers who, by pro- 
 claiming and disseminating new ideas, bring about great revolu- 
 tions, great progresses, new epochs in the history of the world.^ 
 
 3. 
 
 A man of the moral-intellectual nature of Lassalle might be 
 expected to turn his activities in the direction where he could 
 find relief for his own dissatisfaction with the social conditions 
 imder which he lived. Free from the miserable cares of the 
 poor, he was the child of a race which had been emancipated only 
 in a certain measure in consequence of the enlightment of the 
 eighteenth century. Common equality of men, depending 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 431. 
 
 2 Harms, 1. c. p. 12. 
 
24 
 
 neither on religious creed or descent, nor social standing, as real- 
 ized through the French revolution, had been carried in the 
 train of the victories of Napoleon into German countries and 
 was partly retained there after the fall of the French empire. 
 When, during the Restauration, the old historic forces of state, 
 society and church again became effective, and in Prussia 
 especially. Romanticism sat on the throne and publicly showed in 
 unroyal invectives its hostility to tlie Jews^, their emancipation 
 produced sharp contrasts within the social body, above all in the 
 East whence Lassalle had come. The tendencies of the half or 
 wholly emancipated Jews opposed themselves as negative and 
 decomposing forces to the strengthened historical forces which, 
 in return, took a more hostile attitude toward Jewish emancipa- 
 tion. These Jews became atheistic and materialistic, and politi- 
 cally preferred, and strove for, a cosmopolitism which succeeded 
 better in a Napoleonic world-empire than in a world of people 
 who had been fortified by a national uprising. Their most ad- 
 vanced elements became radicals. They worked for an improve- 
 ment of their social conditions in connection with the Liberal 
 parties of opposition to whom their efforts were sympathetic as a 
 part of the general bourgeois struggle for freedom from what had 
 remained of feudal institutions and police tutelage, and they 
 hoped for the influence of the French July revolution upon the 
 German States and for the complete emancipation of the Jews 
 who, in Prussia, v/ere still excluded from official state, academic 
 and school positions. Their common Conservative opponents, 
 however, insisted on the Christian character of the State and 
 found their support in that instinct of hostility towards the 
 Jews which pervaded the large masses as well as many of the 
 most intellectual of the Prussian upper classes. 
 
 This attitude of the Conservatives, especially that of the 
 "Junkers," who looked down on the Jew with sovereign con- 
 tempt,^ is excusable in that the many social evils in city and 
 country showed the Jew in a different light than that which the 
 Liberals assumed. There had been hardly any social emancipa- 
 tion, especially in the East. Here the Jews had not adapted 
 themselves to the intellectual and moral culture of their christian- 
 
 1 Th. Ziegler, Die geistigen und sozialen Stromungen des 19. Jahrhuaderts, 
 Berlin 1910. p. 550. 
 
 2 Ziegler, 1. c. p. 557. 
 
25 
 
 German surroundings and were, under their thin varnish of 
 German nationality, not more advanced than their Russian rela- 
 tives. They were- still given to usury and cheating, to money, 
 and were under the influence of everything which presupposes 
 such occupation, to use words of Marx from 1843. It is from this 
 sphere tliat Lassalle came, his family standing still very low in 
 German civilization. The more, however, the progressive Jews 
 took part in the general economic and cultural rise of the middle 
 class, in a word became Germanized, the more keenly they felt 
 the pressure of social disrespect from which they could not 
 emancipate tliemselves equally quick, and it was only natural 
 that from among them should come the large number of recruits 
 who worked for the revolution of 1848.^ How deeply Lassalle 
 himself felt the pressure of public hostility to the ^ews and 
 suffered under this social injustice is evident from the confession 
 found in the diary of the boy of 14. He writes : "I could risk 
 my life to rescue the Jews from their oppressive conditions. I 
 should not fear even the scaffold if I could make them an 
 esteemed people again. It is always my favorite idea, with arms 
 in my hands at the head of the Jews to make them independent. * ' 
 It is easy to see that such pronounced Jewish wishes and 
 thoughts were not conducive to smoothing Lassalle 's path at 
 school. Indeed, his Jewish character and manners made him, 
 despite his talents, very much disliked by everybody while at- 
 tending the Gymnasium at Breslau, his native city. The jeering 
 hints at his descent made him disgusted with school. He did 
 everything to escape this "horrible" position. He made up his 
 mind to become a merchant, but with ^he firm determination to 
 devote himself more to the Muses than to business ; to think more 
 of liberty than of the prices of the goods ; to curse more violently 
 the dogs of aristocrats who rob man of his first and highest good 
 than competition which spoils the prices. "Aber beim Ver- 
 wiinschen," he writes, "soils nicht bleiben." He changes to a 
 commercial school at Leipzig, but here he has the same experi- 
 ences. He is on the worst terms possible with teachers, students 
 and even with the people in his boarding-house; and that for 
 the very same reasons. 
 
 J Oncken, 1. c. p. 4-11. 
 
■■^ 
 
 26 
 
 But here in Leipzig a new period of Lassalle's development 
 sets in. He continues his cursing of the Christians and expresses 
 his belief in the nearness of the time when the Jews will advance 
 by shedding the blood of their enemies. He swears eternal 
 hatred against teachers and classmates who have become his 
 adversaries. But it is here at Leipzig that Lassalle, without giv- 
 ing up thinking and feeling as a Jew, strips off, because of his 
 distance from the Jewish atmosphere of Breslau, the most pro- 
 nounced traits of the Jew. He begins to acquire German culture, 
 and his thoughts are, as a matter of course, guided by the writ- 
 ings of those German-Jewish authors who in literature and poli- 
 tics gave the true expression to the general feeling of opposition. 
 It is in Leipzig that Lassalle, during the summer of 1840, absorbs 
 the radical thoughts of the time by reading Heine and Borne and 
 thus furnishes his own thoughts with a much more definite con- 
 tent. His slumbering, political instincts are feverishly awak- 
 ened, and his diary is filled now with bloody tirades against 
 princes and tyrants and aristocrats. While they express a pure 
 genuine feeling they voice a passionate opposition to any kind of 
 oppression which he himself feels in the barriers erected by his 
 descent. He intends to become a journalist in order to send forth, 
 like Leo, from Paris, the land of Liberty, as did Borne, the word 
 to all nations, and all princes shall chatter with their teeth and 
 see their time has come . . . with the thrones prejudices must 
 break . . . Such pronounced revolutionary republican senti- 
 ments are sometimes in conflict with strong leanings toward 
 aristocracy, however. He writes July 19, 1841 : 
 
 "Ware ich als Prinz oder Fiirst geboren, ich wiirde mit Leib 
 und Leben Aristokrat sein. So aber, da ich bloss ein schlichter 
 Biirgersohn bin, werde ich seinerzeit Demokrat sein." But four 
 weeks later he adds : ' ' Aber nein, ich will, obwohl ich auch dazu 
 Talent hatte, kein feiger Hofschranze werden. Ich will den Vol- 
 kern die Freiheit verkiinden, und soUte ich auch im Versuche 
 untergehen.^ Ich schwore es bei Gott under den Stemen, und 
 Fluch mir, wenn ich je meinem Schwur untreu werde." 
 
 A short time before this was entered in his diary, Lassalle had 
 an interview with his father to obtain his permission for pre- 
 paring himself for a journalistic career at the University of his 
 
 1 Cp. below p. 47 ; 104. 
 
27 
 
 home city. "For now is the time in which one fights for the 
 holiest objects of mankind." When his father expresses his 
 grief at his son, the only hope of his parents, becoming a martyr, 
 he answers : 
 
 "Wenn jeder so sprache, so feig sich zuriickzoge, wann wiirde 
 dann ein Kampfer aufstehen? Warura soil ich gerade znm 
 Marty rer werden? Weil Gott mir die Stimme in die Brust 
 gelegt, die mich aufruft zum Kampfe, weil Gott mir die Kraft 
 gegeben, ich fiihle es, die mich befahigt zum Kampfe. Weil ich 
 fiir einen edlen Zweck kampfen und leiden kann. Weil ich Gott 
 um die Kraft, die er mir zu bestimmten Zwecken gegeben, nicht 
 betriigen will. Weil ich mit einem Wort nicht anders kann. Der 
 Vater will mich studieren lassen und wehrt mir die heilige 
 durchwehende Idee, die er Liberalismus nennt. Als wenn nicht 
 gerade sie es ware, die mich zum Studium treibt, sie, um die ich 
 kampfen will, und ohne die ich lieber geblieben ware, was ich 
 bin. " It is clear that this confession in his diary shows Lassalle 
 at this period of his development as none but a partisan of the 
 large Old Liberalism which contained in its folds everything 
 which meant freedom of mankind.^ 
 
 Still more important factors entered Lassalle 's life after his 
 return to Breslau, where, in the shortest time and with the 
 greatest energy, he prepared himself for the University. The 
 political life of the city was anything but quiet. The city gov- 
 ernment had, in the provincial House of Representatives, recom- 
 mended a summoning of imperial estates, but the king on a visit 
 to Breslau had declared that no power on earth could force him 
 to give his consent. The oppositional temper of the people was in- 
 creased by an economic distress of an extent so far unheard of in 
 Prussia, which was setting in in Silesia. The dreadful misery in 
 the homes of working men in the casemates of Breslau became 
 public concern, and the hunger and want of the Silesian weavers, 
 which was to lead in April, 1844, to a bloody uprising, showed 
 that the forces of old Prussia failed almost completely in the face 
 of new social questions. What till then had been only personal 
 opposition to the structure of society from the viewpoint of a 
 Burpressed and despised race, was broadened into a deeper un- 
 derstanding of, and interest in, general economic conditions on 
 
 1 Harms, 1. c. p. 18. 
 
28 
 
 the part of Lassalle. It gave the background for all his insur- 
 gent temper, which, after having for the first time experienced 
 the conservative forces of the State (when it was about to ex- 
 clude him from taking the "Abiturientenexamen" on account of 
 his having voiced very radical opinions in his German essay), 
 was to find new nourishment on his entering the University and 
 becoming a member of a Burschenschaft. This students' club 
 was very radical. Social questions were frequently discussed, 
 although without prejudice and class-hatred. To the time of 
 his membership in this Burschenschaft Lassalle later traced his 
 first socialistic views. 
 
 A still greater factor, however, was to lay its hold on him in 
 his University days. He came under the influence of that mind 
 which was to shape his whole thinking to the last of his life. The 
 philosophy of Hegel and the radical consequences for science and 
 politics which his disciples drew from the teachings of their 
 master gave Lassalle 's public activity its character. The mastery 
 of Hegelian dialectics, although it plunged him from one self- 
 deception into another and represented to him a world existing 
 only in his thoughts, gave him at the same time his firm belief in 
 himself and an infinite strength for the political contest even 
 when this was hopeless, as during the last years of his life. It 
 was of a nature to invite Lassalle to shape actual conditions 
 rationally by dint of his thoughts, and influence, consequently, 
 the political life of the present. But Hegel's philosophy 
 furnished him also the spiritual contents for the emancipation 
 of the working classes.^ 
 
 A political and philosophical radical, like the other Jung- 
 hegelians, the most pitiless critic of all conditions existing in 
 state and society, Lassalle, after having concluded his studies 
 in Berlin, was thinking of applying for admission as Privatdozent 
 in the University when he saw all human rights violated in the 
 plight of a stranger, the Countess Hatzfeldt. By nature made 
 to live and act on a large scale. Destiny takes hold of him and 
 throws him into the arena of public life, as Miinzer says of him- 
 self (410). Lassalle recognizes in this case no individual casual 
 event, but a general fate; behind this " individuelles Los und 
 Leiden, welches sq innig es ein individueller Fall nur immer 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 24-25 ; 436 ; 100. 
 
29 
 
 vennag, gleich einem Mikrokosmos, das allgemeine Leiden, die zu 
 Grabe gehende Misere und Unterdriiekung in sieh abspiegelt," 
 the abused rights of humanity. He sees in this affair general 
 points of view and principles embodied ; he believes that there is 
 a large number of other unfortunate ones who sigh under the 
 same or similar miseries. He says to himself that the countess 
 is a victim of her station in life ; that only one (her husband) in 
 the haughty position of a prince and millionaire could dare com- 
 mit without fear such misdeeds, such wrongs to society in its 
 moral depth ; what power false pretense is, ' ' welche f urchtbaren 
 Gegner Rang, Einfluss und Reichtum sind und sie nur stets 
 AUianzen finden in den Reihen der Biireaukratie. ' '^ He searches 
 for the social cause of the wrong and directs his attacks against 
 the cause. He decides upon opposing truth to false pretense, 
 right to class-distinction, the power of mind to that of money. 
 And since youth, "wie sehr auch unsere' Zeit die des Egoismus 
 sein mag, doch zu alien Zeiten das Alter der Uneigenniitzigkeit, 
 der Begeisterung und Aufopferungsfahigkeit gewesen ist und 
 sein wird,"^ he follows the impulse of confronting power with 
 inherent right and rushes into the fight. for his ideals. 
 
 4. 
 
 It is, then, Lassalle's o\^^l suffering under a social differentia- 
 tion on account of his being the child of a race which was still felt 
 to be foreign matter in the national body, his acquaintance with 
 the sufferings of others for reasons which sprang also out of 
 class-distinction or bad economic conditions, and lastly, the 
 studies and socialistic influences which he underwent that 
 shaped his intellectual-moral qualities, eager to find a field for 
 action in that direction which should make him the eminent 
 factor he is in the political-social development of Modern 
 Germany. When we separate the poetical expression from the 
 underlying thoughts we find that Spielhagen gives the same 
 social causes for determining the public activities of Miinzer and 
 Leo. 
 
 It is no race antipathy, for Miinzer is a Catholic in a pre- 
 ponderatingly Catholic country, but his birth in the very lowest 
 
30 
 
 stratum of society both financially and culturally which lies at 
 the bottom of his political development. While Lassalle, as the 
 son of a well-to-do merchant, was at least materially protected 
 against the hardships of life, Miinzer's parents were poor wine- 
 growers (on the Eifel plateau?) who passed their lives sighing 
 under the burden of heavy baskets in which they had to carry 
 loam up to the terraces of the jagged Schieferberg that yields 
 every second or third year a small harvest of miserable grapes. 
 They died of hunger and sorrow (166) and Miinzer himself 
 would have suffered the same fate if the priest of the nearest 
 village — the only true priest he ever knew — had not taken charge 
 of him like a father and shared with him his scanty bread and 
 scanty learning. When he could teach the boy nothing more 
 he sent him (to Koln?^) to school with a blessing and the part- 
 ing words that he would fare well if he always remained pious 
 and industrious. In the city Miinzer becomes the butt of his 
 schoolmates who are economically better situated; the elegant 
 Junkers and well-fed sons of merchants mock at him, they call 
 him the " Eifel- wolf , " because he is so haggard and hollow- 
 eyed and his clothes threadbare and patched. Thus class-dis- 
 tinctions as the outward expression of an unjust differentiation 
 of society lie as heavily on Miinzer as they lay on Lassalle. At 
 times he feels very ' ' wolfish ; ' ' human society appears to him as 
 a large, fat, stupid flock which he hates with the grim hatred of 
 a wolf hungry for revenge. 
 
 His economic misery causes him to leave piety to itself and 
 pay more attention to industry, and in observing the bad actions 
 of men after he has lost his belief in the existence of a God or a 
 devil, whom he might hold responsible for their wicked actions, 
 he says to himself that if men are bad through themselves they 
 can be good through themselves, and if they are not good, the 
 cause of human wickedness may be found and must be sought 
 in deeply hidden sores of state and society, for the existence of 
 which not the individual who shares in them unwittingly and 
 against his will, but mankind collectively is responsible (167). 
 And these sores he sees in the division of the people of the 
 century into two very unequal parts, in the many called and the 
 few selected, in the knowing and the ignorant, in priest and 
 
 1 Below p. 40. 
 
31 
 
 laity. Relinquishing all happiness so far as he is concerned, he 
 takes, like Lassalle, a holy oath to devote himself to the greatest 
 and noblest task of closing the dark and frightful gap which 
 opens in the midst of us like that legendary abyss in the Roman 
 Forum and which, like this, can only then be filled up when we 
 throw our most precious treasures into it; when we use our 
 noblest powers of mind and heart to reconcile men and make 
 what, after all, is still the exclusive property of a few, the com- 
 mon property of all (167-68) . 
 
 Lassalle, too, has applied this legendary abyss to social ques- 
 tions when, in his historic drama, "Franz von Sikkingen" 
 (Berlin, 1859), he voices through the mouth of Ulrich von Hut- 
 ten his opinion that the gap which rends the century can be 
 closed only by the best men throwing their lives into it/ Evi- 
 dently this drama had quite an influence on Spielhagen when 
 he wrote DvH as will be shown later, and when we consider a 
 passage in a speech of Lassalle of January 16, 1863, held, there- 
 fore, before the publication of DvH, in which he says : 
 
 "Sind Sie so sicher, dass nie wieder eine politische Erschiit- 
 terung zuriickkehren wird ? WoUen Sie dann wieder Leben und 
 Eigentum in der Hand (of thoughtless and ignorant agitators 
 as in the spring of 1848) wissen? Wenn nicht, so danken Sie 
 den Mannern, die sich der Arbeit gewidmet haben, jenen 
 Abgrund auszufiillen, welcher wissenschaftliches Denken und 
 wissenschaftliche Sprache von dem Volke trennt, — danken Sie 
 jenen Mannern, welche auf Kosten ihrer eigenen geistigen 
 Anstrengungen eine Arbeit iibernommen haben, deren Resultate 
 dann Ihnen alien und jedem einzelnen von Ihnen zugute kom- 
 men ! Speisen Sie diese Manner auf dem Prytaneion — und stel- 
 len Sie sie nicht unter Anklage," it would seem that Spielhagen 
 was influenced by Lassalle^ to represent Miinzer in the beginning 
 of his career as intent on closing the gap between the knowing 
 and the ignorant rather than between rich and poor, as both the 
 drama and the passage just quoted have more intellectual ethical 
 aims than economic ones. It is only in Miinzer 's later develop- 
 ment that his socialistic aims become manifest. , 
 
 1 Brandes 1. c. p. 75. 
 
 2 "Die Wissenschaft und die Arbeiter." Zurich 1863. p. 24. Oacken, 1 c p 
 251. Cp. a similar passage in "Die indlrekte Steuer und die Lage der 'ar- 
 beitenden Klassen," Oncken. p. 365. This speech, however, was delivwed only 
 
 Oct. 12. 1863. 
 
32 
 
 In order to heal the sores of state and society Miinzer be- 
 comes a revolutionary agitator. He has surely heart enough to 
 be touched by the pictures of poverty and misery which daily 
 meet his eyes, and to be tortured by the hoarse voices of hunger 
 and sorrow which resounded even around his cradle (730-31). 
 Yet he knows nothing of such a deep love as to the last^ bound 
 Lassalle and the members of his family to one another and is 
 driven to better social conditions less by noble enthusiasm and 
 love for his fellow-men than is his prototype, even if the latter 
 had some additional motives. He applies himself not from love 
 of knowledge and power, like Lassalle, but principally from 
 ambition which makes him bear hunger and the mockery of his 
 schoolmates; he perseveres from the wish to become omniscient, 
 to have the power to revenge himself for this mockery, and in his 
 political activity he is led by the interest of the physician in the 
 patient. His love for his fellow-man does not spring from his 
 heart but from his mind and reason (168). In spite of his needy 
 financial condition (44) he lives henceforth for the realization 
 of his ''Idea" — as a Hegelian like Lassalle.'- 
 
 In comparison with Miinzer, poverty and actual suffering 
 through overbearing social classes, economically better situated, 
 play hardly any role in determining the political career of Leo, 
 although he and his cat did sometimes vie with one another in 
 hungering (I 33). It is chiefly the sphere of his family and 
 social intercourse with others which exercise a deciding influence 
 in this respect. Spielhagen has given a very poetical description 
 of Leo's youth. The passionate, gifted boy grows up under the 
 tyrannical hand of his father whose many projects have never 
 brought him success (I 15 ; 26 ; 29 ) and who wants his son to 
 attain where he has failed. He loves Leo and tyrannizes over 
 him unwittingly and unintentionally (I 47 ) . But the son is not 
 aware of the love his father bears him after all. He has not the 
 feeling towards him which reminds Lassalle, even a month before 
 his death, of the time when he was on the Rigi with his parents, 
 * ' with my most faithful friend of all, my poor father who is gone 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 237 ; 422. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 28. Kinkel, too, speaks of the "Idee." Cp. the account of his^ 
 
 plea In Schurz's Lebenserinnerungen. 
 
I^V^T^V- 
 
 33 
 
 now, " as he writes to the countess July 22, 1864, and when torn 
 by passions he misses the mild, warning, consoling voice of a 
 mother (I 184). ► He is left to himself and his thoughts; for he 
 believes himself not understood by his relatives and still he hun- 
 gers for love and recognition. So he becomes a lonely, serious 
 and taciturn boy, which is in direct contrast to Lassalle.^ For 
 the great Democrat belongs among those great men who have, 
 during their whole lives, something boyish about them, and his 
 "Lassen Sie uns Cypernwein trinken und schone Madchen 
 klissen ' '- was not merely a rhetorical phrase at his trial, October 
 12, 1863. As Miinzer is described as avoiding rather than seeking 
 company in spite of his ardent temper and his longing for. com- 
 munication (378), so Leo is said to feel no need of friendship,^ 
 intimate communication, cheerful intercourse or love (I 351). 
 He is different from others and accustomed to be alone and,, 
 therefore, wants to be alone (I 316). He feels himself a 
 stranger among his own people, even when he defends their 
 honor (I 31; 252; 94). 
 
 So it would seem as if the novelist had given here a picture 
 of the youth of his hero in complete disagreement with his model. 
 But after all, if we consider that Lassalle would very likely not 
 have become the historical figure of so many incongruities in 
 his personality, had he sprung from a different sphere — for, as 
 Oncken rightly remarks, the great men of Germany have come 
 from other homes — then Spielhagen's poetical picture is not so 
 far from truth as it might seem. For the roots of Leo's fail- 
 ings, as we shall observe later, lie essentially not only in the in- 
 fluences which the atmosphere of his immediate family effected 
 on the formation of his character, but the conditions of his home 
 cause him also to seek one field after another for his talents 
 which will have room for action, and bring him at last under the 
 power of that man who, as the mind of Hegel led Lassalle on 
 his radical way, becomes Leo's instructor in political science. 
 Moreover, the intermediate steps leading to Leo's susceptibility 
 for this most determining i^nfluence were apparently suggested 
 to the novelist by Lassalle 's uevelopment. Leo, not having found 
 that love and recognition for which he craves, is seized by a de- 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 12. 
 
 ^ ^/Vr^r^'^'o^ ^?^"^J^' ^^- .Oncken, 1. c. p. 365. Cp. Harms. 1. c. p. 80; IRuG 
 comp^iy. ? 149^° Oncken's account of G. Keller's meeting Lassalle and his 
 
34 
 
 sire to sanctify himself for the great work for which he knows 
 he has been created (I 109) ; he seeks to attain this sanctifica- 
 tion by courting solitude, or in community with souls who are 
 of his mind, or by a life given over to the study of good books 
 (I 110). His disappointment begins when he does not receive 
 the visible sign as proof of his being called to the great mission 
 for which he has been praying in church. He feels deserted by 
 God and, like Miinzer, seeks consolation by applying himself 
 more zealously to his work (I 112-13). But he ends by losing 
 his religious belief altogether when he has come under the bad in- 
 fluence of the heartless sophistical minister who preaches love 
 but does not live by it, the sweetness of Christian faith but has 
 none of it. For the minister who later occupies one of the high- 
 est church positions thinks that this faith is not for those who 
 see through the true connection of things but for the rabble, 
 because it is the best means to preserve the natural and divine 
 law that the strong and wise and intelligent shall rule the weak 
 and ignorant and stupid ( I 115 ) . A radical change takes place 
 in Leo, who henceforth considers paradise only a beautiful child- 
 ish dream, and this change puts him into a receptive state for 
 the new songs of social revolution. It seems that all this is but 
 the poetical expression of Lassalle's fervent Judaism which 
 urges him to take up arms for his race, of his coming under the 
 influence of advanced German-Jewish writers with their atheism 
 and materialism which allowed him as a young man of 20 to tell 
 Heine that he was an atheist,^ and lastly, of his development 
 under socialistic influences during his student days at the Uni- 
 versity of Breslau. 
 
 For this coming under socialistic influences, this entering the 
 service of the "Idea" (I 193)^ is also the meaning of Tusky in 
 the life of Leo. Wliat the latter has lost through the hypocriti- 
 cal preacher, an ideal object for his life, he gains through him, 
 the "Damon des armen Volkes, dessen Jahrhunderte langer 
 Schrei nach Brot und wieder nach Brot, Jahrhunderte lang ver- 
 haUt ist" (I 155). Tusky suffers with the misery of life 
 (I 131), he hates the race of nobles who live on vanity and 
 selfishness and resemble the thistles that claim the whole 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 14. 
 
 ■2 Cp. above p. 2S ; ?.: 
 
35 
 
 ground for themselves. The nobility is to blame for the dire 
 poverty that causes aU the suJffering in his family and village 
 (I 132). In savage times the warrior caste became the highest 
 and at last suppressed the whole people so successfully that only 
 a few have kept the memory of their being of the same material 
 as the nobleman. What the nobility as the propertied classes 
 give in food and clothes to the slaves who serve them, is only the 
 interest on the capital which they have taken from them. They 
 have caused all the misery which essentially lies in the difference 
 existing between the possessing and not-possessing, between the 
 rich and poor, a difference which is much greater than that of 
 religion or race, and can be effaced only by making the rich re- 
 turn the capital they have (I 134). When there will be no 
 wealth there will be no poverty. This was the intention of 
 Christ; but with pious wishes nothing will be accomplished. 
 Earthly means will have to be used (I 165). For the Govern- 
 ment, too, and the church do nothing for all the wretchedness 
 but beiug the expression of a wise despotism they enslave body 
 and soul, and the Liberals are unable to alleviate the economic 
 suffering. Their charity plays are some of the plasters with 
 which they attempt to close up the purulent wound (I 190) and 
 their soup, sick and other societies are the meager instalment 
 payments which will not cancel the gigantic debt which has 
 accumulated in the course of so many centuries ( I 195 ) . 
 
 Tusky recognizes in Leo a character with talents which may 
 serve well his ends of a practical solution of the social questions. 
 He feels that his young friend is called to do great things and 
 that his temperament is ready for action in that direction 
 (I 196; 194). He will proclaim a new gospel to those who hun- 
 ger for that justice which gives every one his due and does not 
 wait patiently till the loveless rich are pleased to become charit- 
 able, but knows how to take with firm hand where and when it is 
 necessary (I 155). He acquaints Leo with social questions by 
 giving him newspapers and pamphlets (I 141) to read and the 
 latter sees now that it is a dreadful state of affairs when the 
 nobleman eats lamprey from golden dishes and the peasant can 
 be glad when he has salt with his dry bread ; when the game in 
 the forests and in the fields, which God has created for all men, 
 belongs only to one person, while others have the permission to 
 
36 
 
 fatten it with the sweat of their brows for the table of my Lord. 
 Tusky informs Leo also on the slaughter 'of the peasants which 
 took place here in their country during the sixteenth century, 
 to rid him of his belief in the good in human nature and to initi- 
 ate him in the great struggle between the rich and the poor which 
 will last as long as this difference shall exist (I 149-50). He 
 impresses Leo deeply by his instruction and arouses in him the 
 desire to die for the sake of liberty (I 152). But Tusky wants 
 Leo to live for this sacred aim. For the memory of the peasant 
 wars is not extinguished among the people of the villages. Tus- 
 ky, with the aid of the Bundschuh, the sign on the flag around 
 which the peasants of the sixteenth century gathered to fight 
 against knights and priests, still known among the villagers, tries 
 to awaken among them also the memory of their strength which 
 they might use to become free, and he works for a revolution, a 
 task which he has pledged his life to fulfill because all mankind 
 is involved in it (I 155). Leo is also shown the wretched life 
 which the villagers live from among whom Tusky comes, a life 
 which makes beggars and thieves and creates sickness and ignor- 
 ance (I 157-59). His eyes are opened to the sad conditions 
 around him. What he has been thinking to be his own mis- 
 fortune he learns to recognize as the sad plight of a whole class, 
 a whole people (I 135). He sees that time has other problems 
 to solve than the composing of poems (I 144). Tusky has 
 rescued him from the labyrinth of his wretched doubts (I 156), 
 he has told Leo of the bravery of the heroes of the peasant wars 
 who sacrificed themselves for the freedom of their people. Leo 
 resolves on devoting himself to the study of the serious questions 
 of the time, to find out the real causes of the frightful wounds 
 with which the body of the State suffers and to discover the 
 remedies even if they should consist in fire and iron (I 145).^ 
 Likewise, in the manner of Lassalle,^ he takes an oath to be faith- 
 ful until death to the interest of the poor (I 155). 
 
 1 Cp. Lassalle's expressions of violence below p. 79. 
 
 2 Above p. 26. 
 
37 
 
 Cidui 
 
 II. 
 
 Bernhardt Munzer, the Revolutionist. 
 
 X 
 
 \ 
 
 1. 
 
 Spielhagen, as Brandes justly remarks, was led by a right feel- 
 ing and an admirable thought in making Leo grow up with ac- 
 counts of the German peasant wars. These revolutionary move- 
 ments played a prominent role in the ideas of the radical demo- 
 crats of 1848, who, however, must not be confounded with the 
 oppositional constitutional party. Although not active political- 
 ly, Spielhagen, during his stay at Bonn, no doubt, became ac- 
 quainted with the opinions of the Eadicals as they were voiced in 
 the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung," especially by Karl Marx and 
 Friedrich Engels. Lassalle, too, was deeply interested in those 
 revolutionary movements of the sixteenth century; he studied 
 them thoroughly, and his historical drama, "Franz von Sikkin- 
 gen," was one of the results of these studies. It was pointed 
 out above (p. 7; 9) that Spielhagen followed with interest every- 
 thing relating to Lassalle — he attended even court trials at Ber- 
 lin of the Democrat of which he gives an example in "Freige- 
 boren," (p. 296) — and it was also shown above (p. 31) that he 
 described Miinzer as devoting himself to his work with thoughts 
 that correspond almost literally with those of Hutten, the figure 
 of the drama, whom its author, as he writes later,^ has made the 
 mirror of his soul. The novelist must have been well informed 
 also concerning Lassalle 's opinion on the peasant wars. 
 
 There are a number of reminiscences of these wars in DvH. 
 Bernhardt Munzer is compared to his unfortunate namesake, 
 Thomas Miinzer. Like this leader of the peasants, he has worked 
 himself through the trash of scholastic learning to the religion 
 of liberty (44), and although a Catholic by birth and education 
 (66), is an enemy of every dogma. In his great plea he re- 
 proaches with the failure of the revolution the weaklings and 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 116. 
 
38 
 
 cowards, these drones of society, who, as early as three centuries 
 ago, did nothing but look on while the nobility with fire and 
 sword suppressed the most rightful insurrection the world ever 
 saw when the unfortunate slave, bound to the soil, rose in fierce 
 wrath against his noble torturer (733). Many thoughts of 
 Thomas Miinzer are uttered in the novel by progressive liberal 
 persons. He had very little regard for the rites of the Catholic 
 Church and attacked all vital points of the Christian faith. Al- 
 most like a modem pantheist he saw in reason the real revela- 
 tion, in faith but the commencement of life of reason in man. 
 Through faith of such a nature man, even a heathen, becomes 
 godlike and is saved. He believed that heaven is not to be found 
 in the hereafter but the kingdom of God must be erected here on 
 this earth. Christ, he said, was a man like us, and there is no 
 devil but the evil lust and desires of man (Cp. DvH 67-68; 70; 
 302; 646, etc.). In agreement with these religious views stands 
 his social program, a society without class-distinction, without 
 the right of inheritance and without a government alien to the 
 members of the social body. It is also, with the exception of the 
 second point, the program of Bernhardt Miinzer. He fights for a 
 republic and against the ruling classes because, privileged as 
 they are, they pass lightly over the miseries of narrow, oppressive 
 conditions (411) instead of bringing about a social and political 
 reform. They do nothing to help against poverty and wretched- 
 ness (730-31) and permit the callous hand to be exposed to the 
 inclemency of the weather (734). They withhold from the poor 
 the inheritance which is their due and prevent the gospel of 
 salvation from being realized here on this earth, from which all 
 our joys and sorrows spring and which is our fatherland in every 
 sense (300). They want to preserve the old folly, the power of 
 unprogressive religious faith and the old privileges which make 
 equality and brotherhood among men an object of mockery and 
 derision. Bernhardt Miinzer 's program is, when we consider 
 that the religious and social views of Thomas, as given above, 
 were expressed in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, consequently 
 also that of the Radicals of 1848.^ 
 
 But it would seem that the novel DvH contains also some other 
 matter which reminds us of Lassalle 's drama more directly than 
 
 1 Fr. Bngels, Der deutsche Bauernkrieg. Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Heft 5 ; 6. 
 pp. 21 ff. 
 
39 
 
 those already mentioned. Miinzer's friend and follower Wolf- 
 gang reflects at the sight of the Eberburg (sic) on the eyes filled 
 with enthusiasm which centuries ago looked from the battlements 
 of the castle into the future which now has become the present 
 (633), and in the first act of Lassalle's drama, Hutten on his 
 flight finds shelter in the Ebernburg, the "home of justice," the 
 castle of Sikkingen, and the two friends of political and spiritual 
 freedom are united, while in the closing scenes Hutten takes 
 charge of winning the knight over to join the peasants in their 
 uprising, i. e. of making use of the democratic forces just as 
 W^olfgang and his party of revolutionists do at the close of the 
 novel. Such a weighty point as this for the influence of the 
 drama on the novel seems to be also the creation of the ethical 
 tigure of the poor, yet, after all, so rich, schoolmaster Balthasar. 
 His namesake in the drama, who is the keenest politician in the 
 book, warns Sikkingen against the attempt to deceive the enemy 
 and counsels him to show his own banner unfurled if he would 
 vanquish. So also the schoolmaster speaks against deceiving the 
 children by teaching a false religion and believes it better to 
 teach that there is no God whom they can offend but Humanity, 
 which they offend by not loving and helping it (67-68). He has 
 overcome the tempter in himself just as the figure in the drama 
 is created by Lassalle to overcome the knightly old Adam in Sik- 
 kingen, as the author expresses it.^ 
 
 We are prompted, therefore, to ask. Has Spielhagen in describ- 
 ing the class struggle in his novel DvH been influenced by the 
 opinion of the radical democrats who saw in the revolution of 
 1848 a counterpart of the revolutionary movements of the Refor- 
 mation time, and does he owe anything to Lassalle's interpreta- 
 tion of these movements as it has found expression in his drama ? 
 
 2. 
 
 In its idea the novel DvH continues Spielhagen 's "Problem- 
 Jitische Naturen" which in closing depicts the Berlin street fights 
 of March 18, 1848 ; it gives an echo of 1848 and the South German 
 revolution of 1849. The novelist takes his readers to the Rhine- 
 lands, the center of the political movements he relates. Rhein- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 126. 
 
40 
 
 stadt may stand for Koln, because the city is said to have a large 
 cathedral (82) which would remind the reader of Cologne, and 
 consequently, the Rheinstadtisehe Zeitung would appear to take 
 the place of the Cologne Gazette (549). Some historic scenes, 
 which were acted in Bonn, therefore, have been transferred to 
 Cologne.^ 
 
 The novelist pictures a political-social struggle of progressive 
 elements with the reactionary-conservative who, after the March 
 revolution of 1848, are again gaining the ascendency. If he had 
 not characterized the nobility and military, the ruling classes in 
 DvH, equally unjustly in other works one might be tempted to 
 say that he intended to illustrate the opinion which Lassalle later 
 voiced in his " Arbeiterprogramm " (p. 25) concerning the upper 
 classes. The great Democrat becomes there a great demagogue, 
 who, in order to flatter the working classes, raises against the up- 
 per strata of society accusations of such sweeping extent as to, be 
 absolutely untrue. For rather than opposing daily for their own 
 interest everything which is good and great, they have shown 
 over and over again in the course of history that they knew how 
 to put their class interest aside for the sake of the commonweal. 
 Also Lassalle 's assertion of the immorality of the well-to-do 
 classes as a logical result of their station in life is inexcusable.* 
 At all events, Spielhagen agrees with the Democrat in his charac- 
 terization of the upper classes in his novel DvH (cp. 312).^ 
 
 The conservative-reactionary elements are represented by 
 types from the nobility, the military class and the church, higher 
 officials of the government and some men who join them in the 
 interest of their career (313). They are, as a matter of course, 
 monarchists, props of throne and altar. The officers of the army 
 are men of noble birth and combine, therefore, two factors mak- 
 ing for reaction. Their business is unconditional subordination 
 to, and blind swearing by, the paragraphs of the army regula- 
 tions and the infallibility of the war-lord. He who acts other- 
 wise is a bad officer, disgraces his corps, and must, therefore, be 
 cashiered (453). The wish and order of the war-lord are the 
 soldier's rule of conduct in action and refraining from action. 
 He is responsible to no one in the world but to the war-lord and 
 
 1 Cp. below p. 50. Note 1. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 220 ; 369. Brandes, 1. c. p. 154. 
 
 3 His characterization of Reaction is to a great extent confirmed by Ziegler, 
 Stromungen, etc. p. 283 f. 
 
 ^ 
 
41 
 
 has no other thought than to live and die for throne and altar, 
 these two most sacred things, as his fathers did before him 
 (559-60). Any opposition to the orders and commands of the 
 most gracious king and lord is considered by the military an act 
 of perfidy and treason which requires the quick use of the 
 sword. Democratic ideas are in the eyes of these pretorians the 
 heresies of men who have forgotten God and broken the oath 
 they have taken. These props of throne and altar are opposed 
 to the damned democrats and communists, a rabble that ought to 
 be shot down with cannon balls rather than to be treated as a 
 party with which it is advisable to negotiate (30). Even the 
 efforts to establish a constitutional State appear to them a hum- 
 bug as such a state will have no duration (28). Mere songs of 
 Liberty and a cheer for Schleswig-Holstein or a future German 
 i-epublic provoke their anger (21). 
 
 Whoever outside of the military has conservative tendencies 
 belongs to the Constitutional Club. It is composed of all who do 
 not want revolution, and its members range from the strictly 
 conservative royalists to the Liberal bourgeois, whose second 
 word is Constitution (32). Higher officials of the administration 
 have joined this Club as a good policy. For they do not believe 
 in a government by parliament and consider the whole move- 
 ment an unnatural product imported from France and main- 
 tained only by a few restless minds. German unity is to them 
 only a dream (31). They know that the Germans, in spite of the 
 presence of a few republicans, are loyal monarchists and will not 
 lay hands on their kings. They believe, too, that the Radicals, 
 mostly empty hot-headed fellows, cannot replace the worn wheels 
 of the State-machine, but may use for their purpose the legal 
 institutions and means as they find them (302). They w^ant a 
 united, mighty, free Germany and the welfare of the fatherland 
 but in its narrower (Prussian) meaning. However, this can not 
 be gained rashly (301). 
 
 At the side of these conservative-reactionists stands the higher 
 middle class, the more or less reactionary bourgeois (540), al- 
 though Liberalism had been in vogue with them before the 
 revolution (103) . After the 18th of March they show themselves 
 enemies of progress, and will have nothing to do with the revolu- 
 tion (127), being opposed to French conditions in Germany 
 
42 
 
 (209). They are in the majority manufacturers (578) and rely 
 on the magnificent army and the most high war-lord for protec- 
 tion against the radical democrats (580), urging the use of 
 arms or of bloodshed, if needed, for the suppression of any revolt 
 or for extinguishing the flame of revolution (576). For, al- 
 though belonging to the props of throne and altar, most of them 
 are cowards (133; 578; 580), and leave that job for the brave 
 army to do, the mainstay of throne and altar and the domestic 
 hearth in time of danger (136). The Liberal bourgeois are in 
 the minority. They have a better understanding of the signs of 
 the time and see that the only way to peace is to allow the demo- 
 crats their due share in the public business, thus preventing with- 
 out use of force a new bloody uprising (207-8; 578). They 
 champion a frank and honest acception of the revolution and its 
 consequences over-against a reaction which might re-establish the 
 evils of the ante-March days (209). 
 
 As the majority of these people are politically, so they are in 
 respect to economic questions and the social demands of the pro- 
 gressive democrats, the representatives of the lower middle class 
 and workingmen. The nobility and the military are the ruling 
 classes par excellence — ^the higher middle class taking only a 
 secondary position in DvH. They form a narrow-minded caste, 
 proud of their descent and exclusive, terming as plebeians the 
 classes socially beneath them (95; 102; 348). As the main sup- 
 porters of throne and altar they receive from these two powers 
 help when needed. Not only does the radical priest believe that 
 aristocracy must needs exist because a natural law demands the 
 government of the bad by the better (416; 433), but the most 
 reverend Prince of the church joins the king in the opinion 
 that the criminal belonging to a noble family which has furnished 
 the country with many high officers of the army and of govern- 
 ment should be declared innocent by the court (548). The king, 
 for the same reason, pays from his private purse the debts of 
 certain nobles, since these can not be expected to bear alone the 
 consequences of their frivolity like common men (96). This 
 ruling class has the enviable privilege of disregarding the 
 miseries of economic conditions under which others carry their 
 best forces to their graves (411). If their own financial affairs 
 are not of the best their social position compels them to sacrifice 
 
^> 43 
 
 themselves with body and soul to the idol of a false conception 
 of honor (95) or makes it possible for them to maintain in every- 
 way the appearance of respectability (203). The personification 
 of the grossest selfishness, they believe that everything is their 
 due and that they are not born to labor (587). The differentia- 
 tion of the social body into classes is considered a most natural 
 thing which cannot be changed either by a levelling religion or 
 by a revolution, and the result of this natural law is that since 
 the beginning of the world the lowest stratum of a people, though 
 wretchedly fed, has always been working for the upper classes. 
 He who has the power has also the right and is a fool if he allow 
 himself to be robbed of this power (51-3) . A social class like this 
 has, of course, not the least understanding for the ideas of liberty 
 and human brotherhood. The democratic efforts of the progress- 
 ive elements they deem social Utopias (334), the dreams of eccen- 
 tric heads who do not know what they really want, or the 
 machinations of ambitious people who intend to fish in troubled 
 waters. Every one of such a wild crowd is deemed by them an 
 object of contempt (208). The untenable and dissolute theories 
 of socialistic and communistic benefactors can never help the 
 proletariat (31). The constitutional bourgeois are not much 
 more interested in the economic welfare of the working people. 
 They admit that the laborer's condition is not as good as it might 
 be, but they are sure of an improvement if he will only keep 
 quiet and not create disturbances which turn everything topsy- 
 turvy. They warn the workman against the members of the 
 Democratic Club who want to fish only in troubled waters and 
 do not care a snap for the working class (130). For the pro- 
 gressive elements, too, have formed a political club. 
 
 In contrast with the egotism and selfishness of the ruling 
 classes the representatives of the progressive part of the people 
 are led by high ideals for which they stand without fear (372). 
 They believe in the freedom and brotherhood of men because the 
 wisest and best have postulated fellowship as the ideal of the 
 human race (772; 372). Thus in Balthasar the high ethical 
 idealism of the novelist is so pronounced that the poor school- 
 master is judged a Diogenes by his more active friend instead of 
 the wished intermediate between the Greek philosopher and 
 Alexander, he is termed an anvil which lacks the cruel force of 
 
^'« 
 
 44 
 
 the hammer (71). They acknowledge the dignity of human na- 
 ture (185) and in standing for fellowship believe in a solidarity 
 of all human virtues which demands a social structure built on 
 the principles of right and justice (44; 372; 665). For the in- 
 dividual's power is very limited. Only in community with 
 others has man an assurance of success (767), and only in love 
 can he find salvation (67). 
 
 With these ideals the existing conditions of state and society 
 are found by the democrats to be in complete disagreement. It 
 is a society in which one person unscrupulously draws profit 
 from the other to attain ends which, when attained, prove worth- 
 less ; a State in which free men who desire to grant to others what 
 they demand for themselves are of no use, but which shamefully 
 abuses its great means in order to perpetuate the power of in- 
 dividuals (542). The State is the domain of the princes and 
 their followers, the nobility and military. These privileged 
 classes cause the deep sore of the existing social conditions ; they 
 represent arrogance and injustice (333), social customs and state 
 institutions which have long been overcome by the progress of 
 civilization (551). The whole existing system holds the entire 
 modern development in contumely and merely because it exists 
 is not logical. For only absurdity has erected barriers between 
 the individual classes of human society (772), divided natural 
 kinds of vocation into unnatural castes which seclude themselves 
 from one another and of which the privileged ones, negligently 
 and cruelly, repulse the rise in the world of those who have been 
 suppressed for centuries, preventing against the current of the 
 times (410) millions of human beings from a natural develop- 
 ment of their forces (543). The present time, however, requires 
 rational conditions in respect to all classes of society (646) be- 
 cause now the various spheres of life are intimately connected 
 with, and overlap, one another (362). But the ruling classes 
 live in a region into which never a ray of true humanity and 
 true fellowship has fallen (209). Their exclusive family and 
 caste pride remains an obstacle to the freedom of mankind 
 (502), and the unnatural division of men into unnatural social 
 classes has created the idol of appearances, to please which every- 
 thing untrue and unjust is done (543), and the poor man leads 
 a life which at no time allows him to realize the dignity of his 
 
45 
 
 nature (542). It never occurs to these ruling classes that it is 
 their fault when attempts are made to change the social condi- 
 tions ; and that it is they principally who have caused the exist- 
 ing evils (671). Being haughty, they have but selfish interests; 
 like flames they live by robbery (338). By means of refined 
 customs and a choice language most of them conceal their mental 
 shallowness (351-2). They are non-entities (362) and yet. they 
 rule, and conduct themselves in a proud domineering way, un- 
 worthy of good citizenship. The higher officials act arbitrarily in 
 discharging their duties or hide their bureaucratic-despotic con- 
 victions behind hypocritical friendliness, while politically they 
 are time-servers ; the younger men and women combine with their 
 arrogance and insolence open libertinism and the army officers 
 are brutal and uncivil (529) . No other class is separated through 
 a deeper gap from the rest of the social body than the mili- 
 tary (333). In this class especially, mediaeval traditions and 
 absurd harmful prejudices are alive. Here predominate petty 
 tyranny, narrow-minded pedantry, superannuated, aristocratic 
 manners (589). Champions of a faulty conception of honor the 
 army officers exercise a sad trade in a sad unintellectual way 
 (365), and not distinguished by a good education they prevent 
 any fresh breath of science or life from entering (475). Between 
 the spirit of the times and the spirit which is being cultivated 
 in the military class there is no reconciliation possible (453). Its 
 spirit mocks at the entire modern development and is consid- 
 ered by all intelligent people as the main obstacle to a favorable 
 issue of the revolution (557) as well, as the main cause which 
 brought about the revolution and subsequent riots (174). Free- 
 thinking members are ousted and a patriotic frankness that lays 
 bare the defects of the country's army is forbidden. He who 
 belongs to the array becomes gradually imbued with the spirit 
 of cohorts of violence (452), while many of the officers do not 
 understand their business as well as some simple fellow who has 
 brains in his head (612). 
 
 Such interpretation being given to the state of society, the 
 progressive elements, the democrats, firm in their convictions 
 whatever may be the consequences (372; 451-2), work for the 
 realization of their ideals. At a time of such harsh contrasts 
 they believe a complete adjustment imperative. They will not 
 
46 
 
 rest till Reaction is vanquished (592). They strive to free them- 
 selves from the fetters of false social conditions which they have 
 completely outgrown, in order to live and to act, to speak and 
 to work, as their hearts bid them (551). They rebel against the 
 tormenting humiliations of free-bom souls who, under degrading 
 circumstances, work themselves sore in their struggle to be the 
 doers of their deeds (607). They fight for the establishment of 
 freedom, equality and fellowship among men, for a state and 
 society in which right takes the place of might (448), and they 
 struggle, not only for themselves, but for the freeing of the 
 nations. For freedom, bom in the soul (618), stands uppermost 
 in their minds because they love reason (452; 543), it is for this 
 good cause that they have entered upon a fight to the finish 
 (634). Freedom for all, liowever, can be guaranteed only by a 
 democratic republic. The republican idea is identical with the 
 genius of humanity, and like it, immortal. All great and good 
 things ever done in this world have sprung from this source and 
 will always spring from it (565). In a democratic republic no 
 class distinction can exist, the military, made progressive in drill 
 and science, will be changed from monarchical pretorians into 
 the people's servants (359; 361; 443), and the tutelage by the 
 State, which has been draining the whole vitality of the people, 
 will cease (499-500). 
 
 While thus the ideals and aims of the democrats are pre-emi- 
 nently of an ethical-political nature, economic questions appear 
 in the field and seek an answer through Dr. Bernhardt Miinzer 
 and his followers. 
 
 3. 
 
 In DvH among the leaders of the Rhenish democrats who 
 differ very much in their political ideas, Miinzer holds a promi- 
 nent position. He stands, as a high government official says, at 
 the head of the radicals who would like to eradicate everything, 
 root and branch, in order to build their Utopias on a tabula rasa 
 (32). In the eyes of reactionaries he is a well-known demagogue 
 (170), a notorious fellow (173) who, as attorney of the rabble, 
 meddles with everything which does not concern him (174) and 
 voices damned communistic ideas (178) — as long as he does not 
 receive enough money to draw him over to the side of throne 
 and altar (174). He is president of the Democratic Club, and 
 
47 
 
 whatever his fault may be, he will live for his "Idea," even if 
 he should perish in view of the promised land (412). Just so, 
 Lassalle, in a famous love-letter of 1860, considers this possibility 
 and in his Ronsdorf speech of May, 1864, i. e., after the publica- 
 tion of DvH — proof for the excellent information which the 
 novelist had concerning Lassalle — ^he exclaims that he had not 
 taken hold of the banner of the labor movement without exactly 
 knowing the personal ruin it might mean,^ thus affirming, a few 
 months before his death, what he had entered in his diary July 
 19, 1841.^ But while the real meaning of Miinzer's idea becomes 
 clear only toward the close of his political activity he works at 
 this time after March (of 1848) by speech and deed as partisan 
 of the revolution. Since he was compelled to resign his profes- 
 sorship at a Gymnasium^ because his Liberalism had come into 
 conflict with the principles of the State, he has been using in the 
 newspapers "what the bureaucrats and viri obscuri were pleased 
 to call a sharp pen" (41). After the declaration in France of 
 the republic of liberty, equality and fellowship, after the return 
 of hope to the hearts of the people on the Rhine where bonfires 
 are lighted on the hills by night and the ships are dressed with 
 flags (49-50), and after the voluntary grant by the (Prussian) 
 king (120; 303) of all demands, Miinzer remains dissatisfied with 
 the concessions made by the Government. 
 
 A forceful speaker, he takes part in the embittered campaign 
 for electing Representatives for the assemblies in Mainstadt 
 (German Parliament at Frankfurt o/M) and the capital 
 (National Assembly at Berlin) in April, 1848 (32; 69), and 
 works for a continuation of the revolution (124) which in the 
 South (Baden) has failed in its contest with organized reaction. 
 By demanding, in union with his democratic friends, the 
 promised arming of the people, he stirs up again the political 
 life in Rheinstadt which causes a constant beating of the general 
 and keeps the military ready at their posts (27) . The bourgeois 
 city government, however, relying on the citizen's guard and 
 the army, resist (211), and Miinzer finds little support among 
 the masses (122-28; 147-48). The radical paper, of which he is 
 the editor, loses most of its subscribers. The reactionary ele- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 190 ; 411. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 26. 
 
 3 Max Stlrner's removal from office? Kinkel gave his last lecture at the Uni- 
 versity of Bonn at 5 p. m. and took leave from his wife and children in the 
 evening to join the revolutionary forces. Cp. Schurz, 1. c. 
 
48 
 
 ments regain gradually their strength. Miinzer complains that, 
 owing to the slackness of the democrats, they are again strong 
 enough to suppress them by force (277) and it seems to him that 
 the revolution died in March and that they are now simply lay- 
 ing out a corpse (278). His urgent appeals to take up arms 
 find no response from his friends because they recognize that 
 the democrats occupy a forlorn position. The revolution had 
 broken out too suddenly and had found them unprepared. The 
 nobility, the military, the government officials have for the most 
 part recovered from their fright and arm themselves quietly ; the 
 bourgeois cry for peace at any price, and in the masses proper 
 the democrats have no ground on which they can build with 
 certainty. The revolutionary movement is in the descent and ere 
 long the countershock of reaction against the shock of the revo- 
 lution will be felt (286). 
 
 Miinzer 's friends are glad that he is going to leave for the 
 Constituent Assembly in the capital to which he has been elected 
 by his many friends among the workmen (373) , deeming it a field 
 for his activity which will suit him better than writing for the 
 newspapers (287). In the Constituent Assembly Miinzer places 
 himself at the head of the extremists. He becomes thereby in the 
 eyes of his democratic friends an enemy to the common-weal, an 
 enemy the more dangerous, the greater his talents, the fierier his 
 mind, the more captivating the power of his speech and the 
 charm of his personality (481), and a breach opens between 
 them which is to lead to a complete rupture and deprive him of 
 the support of the more moderate democrats with their many 
 adherers (478/9). A newspaper campaign is soon started 
 against Miinzer (482), for he has renounced the economic princi- 
 ples of the democratic party and preaches in his last pamphlets 
 the grossest socialistic doctrines; moreover, he has set his mind 
 on turning the German political movement into a European, or 
 even a cosmopolitan one and is negotiating with Italian, French 
 and Slavonic republicans (500). 
 
 The Assembly having been dismissed in the beginning of the 
 following winter (Nov. 1848) reaction sets in openly and the 
 sword rules. The situation is a desperate one; Reaction has 
 almost finished weaving her net and the giant "Revolution" 
 lies on the ground, the people have been taken their arms, and 
 their mouths are closed (499). More arrests are made now dur- 
 
49 
 
 ing one evening than formerly during a week, the rabble of bur- 
 ghers have now time to study ethics as some young army officers 
 call it (444), they are not allowed to congregate in the streets, 
 even in pairs (447/8). Miinzer deliberates with his friends 
 whether they should rise or give in entirely (459) ; he is in de- 
 spair because no one will act and their cause loses ground every 
 day without their stirring themselves to repulse the enemy, 
 (Lasalle's activity and speeches in Diisseldorf Nov. 13, in Neuss 
 Nov. 21, 1848?). He is shown the uselessness of an uprising be- 
 cause as long as the democrats have not the necessary power in 
 their hands to overthrow their enemy at the first attack, it will 
 always be unsuccessful. In politics the successful use of power 
 decides and the mainstay of Eeaction, the army, is still unbroken. 
 It was bad enough, as Lassalle, too, says^, that in March when 
 the democrats had the power in their hands they did not 
 make better use of their favorable situation, remove the reaction- 
 ary officers, make the rest take oath on the new Constitution and 
 democratize the whole army from the highest generals down to 
 the youngest recruit (471; 477). The people cannot disarm the 
 army (473). In the new elections Miinzer is beaten and the 
 "reds" are said to have tried to make the conservatives believe 
 that he did not wish to be re-elected (517). The Democratic 
 Club is now composed for the most part of violent, passionate 
 men in blouses and with uncouth fists whom an oath binds to 
 one another, and who without their leader are perplexed and 
 helpless (562/3). 
 
 When the new Assembly has been again sent home and when 
 that House, in which greatness and happiness was expected to be 
 returned to the waiting nation, breaks up (Frankfurt Parliament), 
 everywhere the flames of revolution break forth, fed by the storm 
 which is drawing near from the South (Baden) in the spring 
 (of 1849). The tocsin resounds in cities thrown into turmoil 
 by fights behind the barricades (550/51). Miinzer calls a meet- 
 ing of his Club to deliberate in the spirit of harmony and fellow- 
 ship upon what steps ought to be taken in view of the present 
 conditions and the events occurring in their immediate neighbor- 
 hood. His former democratic friends who, since his falling 
 away from the principles of the party, have kept him at a dis- 
 tance appear, too, at this meeting and warn the people against 
 
 1 "Ueber Verfassungswesen" ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 212-13. 
 
■^ 
 
 50 
 
 taking up arms for a new empire, the romantic spectre which has 
 heen taken from the lumber-room in Frankfurt and brought 
 into the light of the 19th century, for an imperial Constitution 
 made of mere compromises. For the only question can be 
 whether or not to fight for a purely democratic republic ; and the 
 latter is at this moment the only thing to do. A republican up- 
 rising is under the present circumstances a hopeless and, there- 
 fore, ridiculous enterprise (565/67). A year ago, in the first roar 
 of enthusiasm it was different. Today the mighty remember their 
 might, and the rich their riches, and the cowards their coward- 
 ice, there is no hope of success, and he who tries to awake this 
 hope deceives himself and others; he is no hero but a daring 
 gambler (568). But the present members of the Democratic 
 Club, fanatic partisans of Miinzer, mostly proletarians, carry 
 the day. They declare that they have no time to wait till roasted 
 doves fly into their mouths. They hunger with their wives and 
 children and drink when their stomachs are empty. This starva- 
 tion must end because they, too, are human beings (569) : ''Down 
 with nobility and church, aristocrats and hypocrits!" Miinzer *s 
 party have become almost a secret society, they have statutes 
 and take an oath at being admitted. They propose striking se- 
 cret blows that their opponents may have no time to recover and 
 the province may fall into their hands, and then in union with 
 the South declaring the republic for the West (570). At last 
 they agree to procure themselves arms,^ move to a nearby city 
 where the revolution has been successful for the moment and if 
 it should be impossible to maintain themselves there, to join the 
 revolutionary army in the South (573). The moderate demo- 
 crats withdraw openly from the radicals; they will belong no 
 longer to a party which can discuss even for a moment such 
 mad, bloodthirsty and wholly impractical plans (571). 
 
 Miinzer in following the plan decided on, supported only by 
 a few, and these in the majority, the most violent characters who 
 are led by personal hatred of the nobility or by the desire to 
 enrich themselves (573), ruffians who do not shrink from doing 
 violence even to women, does not meet with success and joins 
 the Southern army. But the operations very soon appear to him 
 
 1 Munzer's Club, his speeches in the "Romer," the decision to procure arms 
 and the ill success of the expedition reflect apparently the speeches in the 
 "Romer" at Bonn of Kinkel, the acknowledged democratic leader, and the 
 plan of the democrats to storm the royal armory at Siegburg near Bonn, In 
 order to arm the landwehr in May, 1849. Cp. C. Schurz, 1. c. 
 
51 
 
 A foolish campaign for a romantic Constitution. Socialistic 
 ideas have gained the upper hand in him. For some time he has 
 been thinking of leading the workmen and proletariat in the 
 cities and in the country to a war of extinction against the ruling 
 classes and of procuring the workmen the control of the State 
 (646). In June and July (of 1849) the revolutionary army 
 which Miinzer has joined is pressed hard by the regular. He 
 sees that the revolution has failed. He feels he can only fertilize 
 with his blood the ground from which perhaps in a future time 
 the fruit of a better liberty shall rise than is now possible in the 
 shade of 36 thrones, which one dares not touch and innumerable 
 churches which still are respected as sanctuaries (667). It is 
 the fault of the lower middle class that the revolution has mis- 
 carried (666). The bourgeois will henceforth rule. But Miin- 
 zer consoles himself with the thought that after all the rapacious 
 democrats have the credit of giving Tyranny respect for the im- 
 mortal rabble which results in concessions benefitting also the 
 middle classes ( 733 ) . He falls into the hands of his enemies and 
 is first condemned to die as a revolutionist, but then pardoned to 
 life imprisonment.^ His friends attempting to free him, he falls 
 a victim of personal hatred. 
 
 While Miinzer has changed from the partisan, he seemed to be 
 (170), to the ethical-political aims of his democratic friends, into 
 a socialistic revolutionist, the latter develop into that kind of 
 Liberals who under the name of Progressionists,^ were to become 
 the antagonists of Bismarck and Lassalle. Guided by the im- 
 mortal ideal of a free brotherly mankind, they work quietly after 
 the revolution has failed, for spreading the great thought of the 
 solidarity of all human interests (772). But for the time being, 
 they want to establish, first of all, German national unity and are 
 therefore opposed to Miinzer 's international activity. German 
 unity is out of the question if his ideas should be realized (500). 
 The poor schoolmaster Balthasar, who like Lassalle 's Balthasar, 
 the mediator between Knights and democratic forces,^ sees far 
 into the future, declares that Miinzer 's attempt to secure the 
 
 ^ w'*f^^ ^''^'^®'- Miinzer's joining, in company with his friend and former pupil, 
 Wolfgang von Hohenstein, the Southern revolutionary army, his capture by 
 the Prussian regulars and life imprisonment reflect Kinkel's and Schurz's 
 P'ght into the Palatine to join the Revolutionists, the capture of Kinkel by 
 the Prussians and his life imprisonment. Cp. C. Schurz, 1. c. 
 
 2 The democratic party of 1848 sprung from the Liberals, who, in opposition to 
 It, were henceforth called Old Liberals. From the latter the Progressionists 
 separated as the radical Liberals in 1861. 
 
 s Oncken, 1. c. p. 120. 
 
?i 
 
 52 
 
 working classes the ruling position in the State would be the 
 equivalent of placing these classes simply where the nobility and 
 the other privileged classes stand now. Conditions would only 
 be different but not better. He believes in a state of society 
 where no one rules but Reason (646) and learns during the revo- 
 lution that the realm of peace cannot be established by violent 
 means, for the archenemy of man, selfishness, can be overcome 
 only by love. So long as love does not rule, all revolutions are 
 but convulsions which show the progress of the sickness and not 
 the recovery (645). The more practical Peter Schmitz con- 
 siders the socialistic republicans the worst enemies to freedom. 
 They work to his mind against the self-education of the people 
 by advocating State tutelage which so far has been only harmful. 
 But he is also opposed to revolutionary convulsions which only 
 throttle men more tightly. The material with which a republic 
 is to be erected must first be prepared by making the people 
 morally and physically strong. He sees his task henceforth in 
 teaching the great principle of educating one's self to be able to 
 shape one's existence more worthy of man materially and ethi- 
 cally and to preach everywhere the first and last command of 
 political ethics, Help thyself (500). He, too, like all young 
 reformers, once thought it possible to heal all wounds of society 
 with the wand of socialism and communism, and, indeed, the 
 founders of all humane religions have thought thus and still we 
 are not in paradise. Such paradise is the dream of primitive 
 innocence as well as that of posthumous general fellowship. The 
 world of the democrats must be built on other principles, those 
 of right, justice and the solidarity of interests (544). And so 
 Schmitz, a genius in economics, establishes an admirable system 
 of Trust, Savings and Co-operative Societies for which he is 
 given very willingly the necessary capital. For on the strong 
 shoulders of this man rests truly a part of the future, not only 
 of Germany, but of Europe, nay of the whole world (767). 
 
 In the social struggle, then, portrayed in DvH, at first all de- 
 grees of democracy are united in the attempt to break the power, 
 held by the privileged classes and the bourgeois in the affairs 
 of the State, and shape the policies more liberally. The novel is, 
 indeed, a bloody satire on the influence of the hated hypocrits. 
 Junkers and Reactionary party^ who in the opinion of tne 
 
 1 Henning, 1. c. p. 114. 
 
53 
 
 Liberals of the sixties of last century thought less of their duties 
 than of their rights and of regaining their ruling position in 
 Prussia. Spielhagen, together with the Liberal Representatives, 
 saw in the demand by the Government of an army re-organiza- 
 tion in 1862 only the desire of the nobility or rather the Junkers 
 either to change the Constitution with a reactionary purpose or 
 to bring about a return to an absolute monarchy. Therefore he 
 felt it to be the duty of a good patriot to fight against the privi- 
 leged classes just as Baron von Stein and among others Schulze- 
 Delitzsch, too, had done.^ 
 
 That the latter has stood model for the drawing of Peter 
 Schmitz is indicated by his name and proved by some expres- 
 sions and his economic ideas which remind one of Schulze.^ 
 Without any really scientific training in economics he was 
 brought like Schmitz through practice to the study of social 
 questions. He carried the ideal of the Liberal view of State and 
 world, the individual's right to his own opinion and responsi- 
 bility, from the political and legal sphere into econondcs and 
 tried to make the workman economically independent by keeping 
 alive the trades and the artisan without capital in a general 
 union against the capital class. During the stir of the labor 
 movement in the winter of 1862/3 he like Schmitz warned the 
 working classes against the seductions of socialism.^ But the 
 preservation of the artisan class did not touch the labor question 
 which Lassalle like Miinzer sought to solve and thus the great 
 Democrat became Schulze's antagonist in economics. He re- 
 proaches him in his Arbeiterlesebuch* for his middle class ideas 
 of which Schmitz is the representative in DvH, and Schulze 
 preaches like Schmitz that the labor question is not a political 
 but an economical one, that it cannot be answered by the State 
 but only by the individual, namely through self-help, discipline, 
 increased education and solidarity on condition of absolute poli- 
 tical liberty.'^ 
 
 1 Henning, 1. c. p. 131; 164. 
 
 2 Cp. "Ihr taabt die Gewalt; wir haben das Recht ; wir wollen sehen, wer es am. 
 langsten treibt" (448) ; and Schulze's words with which he concludes his 
 "Kapitel zu einem deutschen Arbeiterkatechismus" : "Dort (with Lassalle) 
 Redensarten, hier Kapital und Bildung, wir wollen sehen, wer das Peld be- 
 halt," to which Lassalle answers in his Frankfurt speech of May 19, 1863 : 
 "Dort Redensarten und Kapital ; wir werden sehen, wer es am langsten aus- 
 hSlt." Cp. Oncken, 1. c. p. 288 ; 318. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 378. 
 •* Oncken, 1. c. p.. 312. 
 
 8 Cp. "Kapitel zu einem deutschen Arbeiterkatechismus" ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 286. 
 
54 
 
 The schism, then, which was to open between the Progression- 
 ist Liberals of the sixties and Lassalle and which will occupy 
 more fully our attention in considering the work of Leo in IRuG, 
 finds its reflection in the separation of the moderate democrats 
 from the socialist Miinzer in the course of the general struggle 
 for freedom from the sway of the privileged classes during the 
 revolution of 1848/49. But the novelist, beside putting it almost 
 a decade earlier than it actually took place (765), gives the 
 political parties in DvH an alignment in respect to their tenden- 
 cies, strength and extent throughout Prussia-Germany which is 
 not entirely borne out by history. 
 
 It must be conceded that, discounting the tendency of the 
 novel which has caused the representatives of the ruling classes 
 to appear as the embodiment of all vices, and those of the strug- 
 gling democrats, excepting their radical socialistic adherers, as 
 the personifications of all virtues, the social and political ten- 
 dencies portrayed in DvH form a part of those which were held 
 by Germans of the revolutionary period. The revolution of 1848 
 was the result of a social disarrangement which was in progress 
 especially in the West and South of Germany and of efforts foi" 
 unity and a Constitution. The individual had not secured politi- 
 cal liberty and a proper share in the affairs of the State in con- 
 sequence of the Restauration, nor had the whole nation been 
 united in one strong State, but the different States firmly es- 
 tablished sought to preserve the old conditions with the aid of 
 police and bureaucracy. The movement affords a complex pic- 
 ture of idealistic and materialistic currents which fluctuated 
 promiscuously. The direct object was a liberal Constitution. 
 The individual social groups sought to make themselves felt po- 
 litically and to secure their political position by a new statute. 
 In so far the fight for a Constitution contained also something of 
 class struggles but they were never definitely defined and were 
 frequently accompanied by ideological moments, the desire for 
 a democratic satisfaction of individual rights. The second ob- 
 ject of the fight was the creation of a united fatherland above 
 the single States. It had a stronger ideological moment. Of 
 course, it was expected that this empire would be governed also 
 
oo 
 
 by the constitutional joint administration of the people but how 
 far this share in the government should go and how the relation 
 of the empire to the individual States would shape itself was a 
 moot-case. There were all degrees of thinkers from partisans 
 of a constitutional empire, or a confederation governed by a 
 directory, down to advocates of a pure unitarian parliamentary 
 monarchy or, with greater consequence, of a unitarian State on a 
 democratic republican basis. The most decided demands of 
 those who were fighting for a liberal Constitution as well as 
 those who worked for a unitarian State agreed in the idea of the 
 sovereignty of the people.^ So the revolution of 1848 was above 
 anything else a political struggle, and although the democrats 
 in DvH hold freedom and a liberal Constitution possible only in 
 a unitarian, democratic republic for whole Germany as against 
 the privileged classes, who believe in a monarchy, the novelist 
 lias given a true if one-sided picture of the political struggle. 
 
 It is different when we compare the combatants and ask to 
 which social classes they belong and whether their class struggle 
 is borne out by history. The democrats in DvH are recruited 
 from the lower middle class of the Rhenish provinces, only two 
 of the nobility appearing among them. One is evidently mod- 
 elled after Carl Schurz^ — he frees Miinzer as Schurz his friend 
 Kinkel, and his flight through the mountains to join the revolu- 
 tionary army reflects Spielhagen's trip with Schurz over the 
 same territory before the latter joined the Southern revolution- 
 ary forces. This nobleman belongs to them by family relation 
 and inclination while the other^ is a democrat only in policy and 
 succumbs in the conflict between his democratic and aristocratic 
 impulses. But the historical supporters of the German revolu- 
 tion of 1848 did not belong to any definite social class. It is 
 true that in those provinces where the movement for German 
 unity started because they had been under Napoleonic influences 
 and where the democratic adjustment of society had made vast 
 strides, reactionary legislation was more keenly felt than in 
 those parts of Germany where the people and the dynasty had 
 been coalescing for a long time. Therefore, the Rhenish pro- 
 vinces offered a favorable ground for revolutionary movements. 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 56-57. 
 
 2 Henning, 1. c. p. 42. Cp. above p. 51 note 1. 
 
 3 Cp. about Major v. Degenfeldt, below p. 66. 
 
56 
 
 But their supporters were not exclusively the middle class, nor 
 the whole middle class. They were the best intellectual forces of 
 the nation, the thousands who had studied in the universities, 
 no small parts of the nobility who could not withstand the power 
 of the new ideas, together with the artisans and workmen who 
 stood behind the middle class and longed for a social better- 
 ment. So there were marshalled against the old regime people 
 of all classes, from the proletarian to the heights of intellectual 
 education, higher officials, the ruling classes and even thrones. 
 Indeed, men of the most advanced West German middle class like 
 Camphausen and Hansemann, in union with liberal aristocrats 
 and higher officials, took hold of the reins which had almost fallen 
 from the hands of the monarch3^' 
 
 On the other hand, Spielhagen draws a true picture, if we 
 leave aside for a moment the bourgeoisie or upper middle class, 
 in making the middle class and the workingmen, who have not 
 yet separated politically, the heart of the army attacking the old 
 regime and attributing to them ideal and material motives- in an 
 equal measure. For while the historical middle class had become 
 stronger economically, and could now be identified with German 
 culture, none of these ideal and material factors can be con- 
 sidered primary, they were only complementing and furthering 
 each other. This class like that of the novelist is eager to become 
 of age economically and politically and will bear no longer the 
 pressure of bureaucratic tutelage. In breaking with the old 
 forms, they in their totality come in for political consideration, 
 or, in their higher strata, even for control of State affairs, as in 
 France and Belgium, and their claims could be satisfied in the 
 form of a parliamentary monarchy. From the very small class 
 of the propertied burghers the lower middle class was graded 
 almost imperceptibly to the class of industrial workmen. A po- 
 litical division of the classes such as France under the control of 
 the bourgeoisie had brought about from 1830 to 1848 hardly ex- 
 isted anywhere in Germany. Here they had made common cause 
 in the revolution.- Spielhagen is also historical when he tells 
 of a division in the middle class, taking place in the course of 
 1848, for after the victory it was a question how to adjust the 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 58-59. 
 
 2 Oncken, I. c. p. 59-60 ; 228. 
 
m-'^ 
 
 57 
 
 ^ 
 
 new order, especially in industrial districts as in the Rhenish 
 provinces, where a propertied class of manufacturers and a class 
 of industrial workmen gradually found themselves in a social 
 contrast. Here the revolutionary movements produced a fourth 
 independent estate. At first they appeared still as followers of 
 the great array enlisted in the service of others nor in the further 
 progress of the movements were they sharply separated from 
 the lower stratum of the lower middle class but they became 
 gradually more conscious of their class interests and strove for 
 radical exclusive aims. The political ends of the middle class, 
 the national aspirations of the ideologists offered no inducements 
 to this fourth estate. They were gradually replaced by purely 
 democratic aims in combination with socialistic ideas which went 
 far beyond the narrow horizon of the middle class republicans. 
 But after all, these new powers meant very little for the whole 
 in 1848. The German revolution cannot be considered from the 
 viewpoint of a contrast between bourgeoisie and proletariat.^ 
 And it is here that Spielhagen's narrative becomes unhistorical. 
 He portrays the partisans of these socialistic tendencies as repre- 
 sentatives of the most outspoken hatred of nobility, church and 
 capitaP and as widely separated at last from the moderate 
 democrats. Spielhagen exaggerates greatly in making a class 
 struggle out of a political contest without actual economic aims. 
 The position of the bourgeoisie in DvH is still less borne out 
 by history. In fact it corresponds with the opinion of the radi- 
 cals of the Rhenish provinces, like Marx, Engels and Lassalle. 
 Marx having at once returned from his exile to Cologne after the 
 outbreak of the revolution, issued and edited in union with Fr. 
 Engels and others, among them the poet Freiligrath, the "Neue 
 Rheinische Zeitung," a paper which represented the beginning 
 of the socialistic labor movement with inexorable consequence 
 and wildest fanaticism.^ Marx and his friends had published 
 in 1847 the " Kommunistische Manifest," in which, among other 
 points, modern history was declared to be the history of the 
 struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat. It was from this 
 view point that the Neue Rheinische Zeitung considered the Ger- 
 man revolution. As in France bourgeoisie and proletariat 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 59-60 ; 228. 
 
 ^ Cp. above p. 50. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 61-63. 
 
58 
 
 fought in union against the crown, the last feudal halo which 
 covered the rule of the bourgeoisie, and in consequence of the 
 February revolution the bourgeois despotism was consummated, 
 making necessary a decisive battle between the two forces left 
 alone on the field, so the German March revolution was judged to 
 have been brought about chiefly in the interest of the bour- 
 geoisie^ and also resulted in leaving only these two forces in the 
 field who must now come to terms. In considering the result of 
 the German revolution, Marx finds on the one hand the permis- 
 sion to arm the people, the right of forming associations, the de 
 facto obtained sovereignty of the people, on the other, the re- 
 tention of the monarchy and the ministry Camphausen-Hanse- 
 mann, i. e. the government by the representatives of the bour- 
 geoisie. But the bourgeoisie sighing for the period when it had 
 ruled without being responsible and had had a scape-goat whom 
 the proletariat could strike as often as it wished to hit the bour- 
 geois,^ anti-revolutionary at all times and fearing the people, i. e. 
 the workmen and the democratic lower middle class, now con- 
 eluded with Reaction an alliance offensive and defensive.^ This 
 is on the whole the position which DvH attributes to the bour- 
 geoisie^ and just as Marx and his friends — among them Las- 
 salle^ — from the view point of modern history as the history of 
 class struggles, transferred such a struggle from France to Ger- 
 man soil and measured with decided bias the course of the en- 
 tirely different German conditions,* so Spielhagen, too, makes 
 the German bourgeoisie, contrary to history, the props of throne 
 and altar because they fear the fourth estate. In ascribing such 
 a position to the bourgeoisie after the outbreak of the revolu- 
 tion, Marx, like his disciple Lassalle, saw in the ' ' Vereinbarungs- 
 theorie", i. e. in the arbitration between Absolutism and Liber- 
 alism for which the Constituent Assembly had been convened, a 
 disavowal of the revolution and the sovereignty of the people.* 
 Notwithstanding his belief in the necessity of a decisive battle 
 between bourgeoisie and the proletariat, he still counted, as Miin- 
 zer does, on the radical democrats of the middle class for his 
 practical agitation, intended to lead the revolutionary move- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 61-63. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 41. 
 
 3 Arbelterprogramm ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 228. 
 * Oncken, 1. c. p. 62-63. 
 
59 
 
 ments in the direction of communism.^ He knew there was as 
 yet no class feeling among the workmen as such. This is shown 
 in a letter to Marx by Lassalle of June, 1852, in which the latter 
 speaks of the confused elements from which a primitive labor 
 party had to be organized in 1848, whereas they now begin grad- 
 ually to be conscious of their identity as a class and to develop 
 its consequences theoretically.^ 
 
 From the position which Spielhagen in agreement with Marx 
 gives to the bourgeoisie in DvH in relation to the privileged 
 classes a clearer light will now also fall on the attitude of the 
 bourgeoisie towards the radicals in the novel. The men of 
 1848/49 sought in the succeeding decade an historical solution 
 of the problems, with which they had grappled for two years. 
 They studied in the time of leisure the revolutionary period of 
 the Reformation in order to find there proofs for the correctness 
 of their political thoughts and historical reasons for their con- 
 victions. Every political party found itself again among the 
 contrasts of the past and heard in the struggle of the present 
 their echo.^ The Neue Rheinische Zeitung voiced the opinion of 
 the radical democrats also on this subject. In the beginning of the 
 revolutionary movements of the Reformation all oppositional ele- 
 ments, the moderate reform party of the Lutheran burghers and 
 the revolutionary party of peasants and plebeians, in which lat- 
 ter the demands of Thomas Miinzer were the most radical, were 
 united in their fight against the conservative-Catholic party. But 
 when the peasants and plebeians led by Luther's calls against 
 the priests and by his Sermon on Christian Freedom, set about 
 to rise against their oppressors, he did not hesitate one moment 
 to throw aside the popular elements of the movement and to 
 join the classes of the conservative burghers, nobles and princes. 
 In the same way the bourgeois parties, who, even up to 1847, had 
 been revolutionary, had called themselves socialists and dreamed 
 of the emancipation of the workingmen, turned away from the 
 popular elements and preached in the Prussian National Assem- 
 bly of 1848, the passive resistance and peaceful development in- 
 stead of opposing the coup d'etat of November with force. 
 Through their wavering between radicalism and conservatism 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 62-63. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 83. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 144. 
 
60 
 
 and through all kinds of attempts to negotiate and compromise 
 they reminded the disappointed radicals of the actions of Luther 
 and his friends, and the pitiful result which is called the Augs- 
 burg Confession. Furthermore, as Luther when the rising of the 
 revolutionists reached over into Protestant territory and the 
 " spiessbiirgerliche ", the philistine, movement grew too much 
 for him, forgot all previous enmity and allied himself with 
 princes and pope against the murderous and robber-like gangs 
 of peasants, who he said should not be treated with any false 
 compassion, so the bourgeoisie who had been socialistic and phil- 
 anthropic turned reactionary when, after the days of March, 
 1848, the proletariat came to harvest the fruits of its victory. 
 The rebels were shot down or sent to jail in the name of a 
 religion which in its origin was nothing but pure communism. 
 So the bourgeois followed in the steps of Luther who, by his 
 Bible translation, had taught the insurgents to distinguish be- 
 tween primitive and feudalized Christianity, and then with the 
 same Bible had thundered against them the claim of a govern- 
 ment established by God, nay, in the same way, sanctioned the 
 princely character by the grace of God, the passive resistance, 
 even serfdom, and thus denied his whole revolt against the 
 worldly and ecclesiastic authorities. Miinzer, the plebeian revolu- 
 tionist, had become in his eyes an instrument of the devil as 
 shown by his letter "Against the Rebellious Spirit," addressed 
 to the Princes of Saxony; he asks these to step in and drive 
 Miinzer from their lands. In like manner the Liberal bourgeoisie 
 denied their past and were found on the side of Reaction during 
 the critical period of the revolution of 1848/49.^ 
 
 It would seem that this expose by the radical democrats of the 
 attitude of the bourgeoisie towards the conservative-reactionary 
 classes and the description of how the former turned away from 
 the masses, advocated forceful means for the suppression of 
 rebellious inclinations and refused demands which they had 
 promised to grant — it is of no consequence that in DvH the 
 permission to arm the people apparently depends only on the 
 city government while historically the Prussian Government was 
 this factor^ — gives a full explanation for Spielhagen's arrang- 
 
 1 Fr. Engels, Der deutsche Bauernkrieg. Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Helt 5. 6. 
 p. 21 ff. ; cp. also Brandes, 1. c. p. 117 ff. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 58. 
 
61 
 
 ing his parties and attributing to them tendencies of a more 
 social nature than history allows. This expose, too, may have led 
 the novelist to call his hero Miinzer, and as he gives him the 
 Christian name Bernhardt=Ferdinand^ we can look for some 
 influence of Lassalle, too, in this connection.^ Indeed, while the 
 marshalling of the struggling parties and their aims depends on 
 the general view of the revolution as it was held by the radical 
 democrats, the influence of Lassalle is not without bearing on 
 the reason why the revolution of 1848/49 was doomed to be a 
 failure, another idea, evidently with intention, exemplified in 
 DvH. 
 
 5 
 
 Lassalle, although very intimatelj^ associated with Marx and 
 his friends during the revolutionary time, and seeing also, as we 
 have pointed out, in modern history the history of class strug- 
 gles, does not agree with them as to the meaning of the peasant 
 wars as revolutionary movements. He observes that the peas- 
 ants, still bound by the ideas of the middle ages, made landed 
 property the condition for participation in government and 
 succeeded in their demand for representation by the free farmer 
 and knightly landholder against the princes whose territorial 
 position because of its inherent idea of a sovereignty independent 
 of landed property, contained the revolutionary moment.^ It 
 never occurred to them that man as such could be entitled to 
 share in the government. He points out that the Reformation, 
 measured by the standard of free humanity must give the palm 
 to the Renaissance, for this movement which started the Re- 
 formation is filled with a freer and more liberal humane enthu- 
 siasm than the Reformation proper. This interpretation, ex- 
 pressed in the preface to his drama, explains why an ethical 
 and political reform was made its subject and Sikkingen its 
 hero.* 
 
 Indeed, it would seem as though Lassalle were, after all, in- 
 fluenced very little by ]\Iarx's teaching that modern history is 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 13. 
 
 2 It Is interesting to note that Lassalle once thought of writing a libretto for 
 an opera, on Thomas Miinzer for instance, in the interest of his agitation. 
 Cp. Oncken, 1. c. p. 421. 
 
 3 Arbeiterprogramm ; Oncken, 1 c. p. 215. 
 
 4 Brandes, 1. c. p. 124. 
 
62 
 
 the history of class struggles. His knights and peasants by no 
 means bear the typical traits nor do they represent the interests of 
 their classes.^ The ideal of a united Germany without princes and 
 with freedom of thought holds a pre-eminent position in the 
 drama, the social movements of the Reformation occupy only a 
 secondary place. Sikkingen — it matters not- here whether the 
 historical person could be the hero of such a drama as Lassalle*s 
 (he resembles Degenfeldt, cp. below p. 66), for not on his efforts 
 nor on that of the other knights rested the progress of German 
 history but on the territorial princes^ — fights for religious or 
 general intellectual freedom and for the unification of Germany. 
 He opposes the ecclesiastic spirit, any slavery whatsoever, and 
 territorialism, the German princes.^ 
 
 The preference for this ethical and political ideal to the social 
 question of the peasants is the main reason for Marx's and En- 
 gel's adverse criticism of the drama. ^ It is different in respect 
 to its speculative idea on which Lassalle wrote an essay for his 
 friends in London, Marx, Engels and Freiligrath.* He starts 
 from the question, What are the causes for the failure of most 
 revolutions ? and finds the last cause as true Hegelian in a formal 
 dialectical antithesis. The eternal strength of all ruling classes, 
 he says, who defend an existing order, consists in the undeceiva- 
 ble complete understanding of their class interests which already 
 in power and perfected has taken hold of every member; the 
 eternal weakness of ever\^ justified revolutionary idea which 
 struggles for its realization lies in the lack of such a conscious- 
 ness on the part of the individual members of the classes con- 
 cerned. Their principle has not yet been realized, and conse- 
 quently they lack organization of the means at their disposal. 
 The strength of every revolution depends on enthusiasm, i. e. on 
 overlooking the finite means for its realization and the difficul- 
 ties which oppose it. But the moment arrives for operating 
 with, and depending on, the means at hand. Then it may ap- 
 pear as a triumph of surpassing realistic sagacity on the part 
 of revolutionary leaders to conceal the true ends of the move- 
 ment and, by means of this deception of the ruling classes or, 
 even by using them, to gain the possibility for organizing new 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 128. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 126 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 124 ; 127. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 122. 
 
63 
 
 forces. But enthusiasm in coming to terms with the finite has in- 
 stead of realizing itself, discarded its principle, the revolutionary 
 idea ; it must succumb. Most revolutions which have failed have 
 failed because of the inner necessity of this dialectic contradic- 
 tion, prudence. And Lassalle's Sikkingen having failed for this 
 very same reason, Marx could acknowledge that this tragic col- 
 lision was exactly that which justly brought about the failure 
 of the revolutionary party of 1848/49.^ In this dialectic contra- 
 diction lies the secret of the strength of the extreme parties in 
 revolutions, and moreover, the secret why the instinct of the 
 masses ordinarily succeeds better than the intelligence of the 
 educated. Individuals can be deceived; classes never. Every 
 compromising act abandons its principle; for every aim, as 
 Hegel already saw and Sikkingen makes clear to Hutten, can be 
 attained only by means in accord with its own inner nature. 
 Therefore, revolutionary ends can never be realized through 
 diplomatic means. On the contrary, revolutions can be made 
 only with the masses and their passionate devotion because they 
 cannot conceive of compromising but demand the extreme, the 
 whole, the direct. Thence the practical superiority of the ab- 
 stract idealist and the inferiority of those who diplomatize or 
 ' ' listen mit der Idee ' ', i. e. believe that they can reach revolution- 
 ary aims through diplomatic means, and consequently succumb. 
 In this deceiving or bargaining with the idea lies the tragic guilt 
 of Sikkingen, a guilt not only intellectual but also moral. With- 
 out relinquishing his revolutionary aims in the least, he deceives 
 the idea in respect to execution, while Luther, for instance, re- 
 fused any compromise on points which he considered paramount. 
 Sikkingen instead of appealing to the principles and allowing 
 their revolutionary force to act makes the historical idea and the 
 national cause dependent on the success of an enterprise which 
 he carefully divests of its general validity under the cloak of ac- 
 cident. Therefore, he himself fails through a concatenation of 
 accidents.^ 
 
 It may be impossible, without any other evidence, to prove 
 that this dialectic idea, to which Lassalle puts the tragic story of 
 his Sikkingen, is intended to be also the idea of the struggle in 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 123. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 124. 
 
G4 
 
 DvH, but a remarkable similarity is obvious. To be sure, we 
 can not substitute Miinzer for Sikkingen. In his desire, as Las- 
 salle writes in the preface to his drama, to drive once more the 
 great current of culture and civilization of the German Renais- 
 sance and Reformation through the veins of the people, he wants 
 to make those greatest and mightiest destinies which rule the 
 welfare of the whole public mind the subject of his drama, and 
 it was of course technical reasons that required him to make an 
 individual, Sikkingen, the instrument for this aim. But in a 
 novel the masses can be brought on the stage, and so Miinzer, 
 although in a large measure the hero of DvH, is only one among 
 the many who take part in the revolution; the more so since 
 Spielhagen believes that the hero of a novel must not march at 
 the head of the phalanx nor be too active because by such a posi- 
 tion he absorbs too much of the interest of the reader to the dis- 
 advantage of the other figures.^ Miinzer and his radical friends 
 form only a small portion of the masses who are up in revolu- 
 tion against the privileged classes. 
 
 It is true that in a certain measure, he, too, illustrates Lasal- 
 le's view on the causes for the failure of revolutions. He lives 
 and works with an enthusiasm that places its cause above the 
 interests of family and friends (165; 652; 125; 151; 276/7) for 
 the realization of his idea of justice to which the social misery 
 from which he has sprung has given a socialistic-communistic 
 character. But instead of openly and from the start appealing 
 to this principle, for tv,-enty years he champions freedom and 
 unity of his fatherland (666) on the side of the democrats, takes 
 part in realizing the compromise between the old regime and the 
 forces raised by the revolution and deceives thus his ' ' idea. ' ' But 
 he deceives himself too. In trying to organize revolution he finds 
 no support among the masses, he and his followers have no cla&s 
 interest as the}^ differ very much in feeling and thoughts (568). 
 His joining the revolutionary army, which fights for an imperial 
 Constitution while he secretly aims at the establishment of a 
 social republic, is the climax of his deceiving the "idea." He 
 acts in manifest contradiction to his principles (650), does not 
 testify for truth and champions a false principle (566) ; he must 
 
 1 F. Spielhagen, Neue Beitrage zur Theorie und Technik der Epik und Drama- 
 tik. p. 208 f. 
 
65 
 
 succumb. But he offends his principle of justice also by his love 
 affair which has a greater share than his political conduct in his 
 desertion of his revolutionary idea. He is not the man to bring 
 about that justice for which he fights. 
 
 The complete similarity of the tragic revolutionary idea rests 
 with the democrats in DvH as a whole. The different classes 
 having been fully characterized above, it suffices to state this 
 similarity briefly. All the members of the nobility and military 
 in DvH with one exception form a caste who see their position 
 warranted by reason of a natural law (20). They rule by dint 
 of a class principle that permeates each member and by strength 
 of the army which is theirs. The people in arms will always be 
 stronger than the people without arms (473). They are strong 
 because of their consciousness of strength based on the solidarity 
 of interests and comradeship which flatter even the proletarian 
 in arms. For the military institution gives him a position in 
 life while outside of it he remains always the proletarian pure 
 and simple, and it makes him insusceptible, too, to the siren songs 
 of liberty, equality and fellowship (472). In contrast with such 
 a ruling class the progressive democrats are bound to fail in 
 their revolution. Differing very much in their political ideas 
 they have no class feeling, and their means are not sufficiently 
 oi^anized. The revolution came too soon for them (286) and 
 then the people deceived the revolutionary idea by compromis- 
 ing with the Government which necessarily must lead to reac- 
 tion. They have used prudence, Lassalle's dialectical contra- 
 diction, instead of realizing the revolutionary principle which 
 was possible in the first soar of enthusiasm (567). There is no 
 enthusiasm left among the masses, a successful issue of the revo- 
 lution is out of question, and Spielhagen's spokesmen instead 
 of making compromises with the ruling classes have learned, like 
 Lassalle's Sikkingen, to trust the force of their ideas and spread 
 them to all homes to prepare the changes which they deem neces- 
 sary for the social body.^ 
 
 That the novelist, however, has recognized Lassalle's formal 
 revolutionary idea underlying his drama or has even known of 
 his correspondence with his London friends on this inatter, and 
 has intentionally based his own subject on the same formal idea. 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 52. 
 
66 
 
 seems to become a certainty if Marx's objection to Sikkingen as 
 the bearer of a revolutionary idea, which otherwise found his ap- 
 proval, be taken into account. In Marx's opinion Sikkingen is not 
 the proper person to represent the dramatic principle of a tragic 
 collision. He is no revolutionary hero nor can he be the hero of 
 such a drama because in the main he represents a reactionary 
 interest. Nor could he do otherwise. He did not fail because 
 of his prudence but because as a knight and representative of a 
 class going to ruin he revolted against the existing conditions; 
 he was revolutionary only in his imagination and divested of 
 his peculiar qualities nothing is left of him but — Gotz, "the 
 miserable fellow."^ 
 
 Such a Sikkingen as Marx conceived him to have been ap- 
 pears also in DvH. Major von Degenfeldt — a name well 
 known in the history of the Baden revolution — seems partly 
 to have been modelled after the former Prussian military 
 officer, Wilhelm Riistow, who had taken part in Garibaldi's 
 expedition and was living at Ziirich when he became a friend 
 of Lassalle's during the latter 's journey to Switzerland and 
 Italy, in the summer of 1861. Riistow was an energetic and in- 
 telligent man who like Degenfeldt (DvH 474) was no radical 
 party politician by profession, but considered revolution from a 
 purely military view point as a kind of normal state and held 
 his strategical abilities always in readiness for such enter- 
 prises.^ He was one of the seconds in the duel which was to 
 lead to Lassalle's death^ and appears evidently under the name 
 of Baron von Kerkow, in the same capacity in IRuG (II 608).* 
 While Degenfeldt has been given Riistow 's strategical gifts and 
 political radicalism he represents also some radical opinions of 
 Fichte-Lassalle, who do not object to a despot's ruling for a 
 while if he succeed in educating his people for liberty (DvH 
 359; 473).^ But in most other respects, in the principal traits 
 of his character, the revolutionary officer of noble rank is the 
 exact counterpart of Marx's Sikkingen. His deep insight into 
 the defects of the superannuated system has led him into the con- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 125. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 149. 
 
 3 Brandes, 1. c. p. 169. 
 
 4 Cp. above p. 16. 
 
 5 Lassalle's "Fichtes polltlsches Vermachtnis und die neueste Qegenwart" 1860. 
 Cp. Oncken, 1. c. p. 156. Cp. below p. 74. 
 
67 
 
 test ; he is a revolutionist in his mind but not in his heart, fancy, 
 passion, nor in his blood and nerves (662). In these he is still 
 the aristocrat for whom there is no real equality of men (661). 
 He belongs after all to the ruling classes against which he, as 
 democrat in mind, fights, and succumbs as a romanticist who does 
 not belong in the modern world. 
 
 Miinzer, we conclude, devotes his life to a task, which Hutten- 
 Lassalle has set, in a contest with the ruling classes or powers, 
 based on Lasalle's formal revolutionary idea. It remains for us 
 to examine how far his political activity, aims and means for 
 their attainment correspond with those of the historical revo- 
 lutionist. 
 
 6. 
 
 Owing to Spielhagen's disinclination to introduce contem- 
 poraneous people into his novels^ only a few details of Miinzer 's 
 life remind of Lasalle's. Having made the acquaintance of the 
 Countess Hatzfeldt, January, 1846, Lassalle betook himself to the 
 Rhine the next summer to begin the legal contest with her hus- 
 band. On the Rhine he became the disciple of Karl Marx and 
 the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and the partisan of the social-dem- 
 ocratic republic. The German revolution means also for him the 
 time of political apprenticeship. On the experience which he 
 had at that period of his life his convictions are based ; from 
 them spring both the principal thoughts of his theoretical works, 
 as ' * Sikkingen ' ', for example, and his practical achievement, the 
 labor agitation. He was working in the interest of radical demo- 
 cracy when just at the outbreak of the French revolution he was 
 arrested in connection with the famous theft, Aug. 20, 1846, of a 
 valise of the mistress of Count Hatzfeldt, in which documents 
 detrimental to the cause of her lover were supposed to be, and 
 was held for trial till his impressive " Kassettenrede "^ of Aug. 
 11, 1848, brought about his acquittal. Thus when for the first 
 time democratic ideas showed their power in Germany the man 
 who from his early youth had felt a feverish impulse for politi- 
 cal action was condemned to idleness as far as the revolution was 
 concerned. He was at liberty only from this date to Nov. 22, 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 10. 
 
 2 Preigeboren, p. 287-88. 
 
68 
 
 1848, and could not, therefore, take part in the outbreak of 
 March, nor, as Miinzer does, in the second revolution of May and 
 June, 1849. Neither did he find the opportunity the latter had 
 of political activity in any parliament and assembly or in the 
 publication of a newspaper.^ ' 
 
 But during the two months he was at liberty he devoted him- 
 self to the revolutionary cause with all his energy. When the 
 Prussian Reaction set in in Nov. 1848, he sent out a call to arms 
 like Miinzer; indeed, he had before this done everything possi- 
 ble to prepare the people for a rising in arms. In a speech at Neuss 
 Nov. 21, he urged them once more to arm and break forth as 
 soon as the sign would be given from Diisseldorf , Lassalle 's place 
 of residence at that time, together with the start of the expected 
 revolt in Silesia. But the next day he was arrested on the accu- 
 sation of having incited the people to arm against the king and 
 held for trial till May 6, 1849, when, as a result of his famous 
 "Assisenrede," which had been published in print before the 
 trial began and which he was not allowed to deliver in court, he 
 was acquitted, but further held till July 5, 1849, for the lesser 
 crime of having incited the people to resist by force State officers. 
 He was thus kept away from the scene of historical events, and 
 when he was once more free the revolution had been suppressed 
 everywhere, the leaders were dead, captured or abroad, the old 
 powers again firmly established. It was, after all, a happy fate 
 which befell Lassalle. He could remain in his native country, 
 from which he did not become estranged as so many others. 
 
 Beside the strenuous effort of Miinzer to bring about the arm- 
 ing of the people and to advance the cause of the revolution, it 
 may be said that in the eyes of the military reactionary, he ap- 
 pears, as Lassalle was characterized by the police of Diisseldorf, 
 to be a man of extraordinary mental gifts, charming eloquence, 
 indefatigable activity, exaggerated ideas of liberty, great fixity 
 of purpose, a wide circle of acquaintances, very clever conduct 
 and enabled by the large means of his client to be the chief 
 leader of the "reds" in the Rhenish provinces (DvH 298; 306; 
 307 ; 266 ; 268 ; 274 ; 124-5 ; 278, etc.) .- When he calls himself in 
 his great plea the agitator, the prompter, the ringleader (730) or 
 is characterized as such by others (170; 174, etc.) it again agrees 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 54. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 82. 
 
69 
 
 completely with a police report of 1852 on Lassalle : ' ' His plan is 
 to awaken and nourish in the workmen discontent with their 
 economic conditions and to persuade them that the republican 
 sj'Stem will and must remove their distress. "^ 
 
 Especially Miinzer's great plea reminds one of Lasalle's fa- 
 mous "Assisenrede, " "a dialectic masterpiece in which the great 
 Democrat with demagogic eloquence builds up a forceful accusa- 
 tion and thunders with fulminating blows of a club against the 
 violation of the Constitution and the robbing of the people."^ 
 In Miinzer's plea Spielhagen has given us an example of the 
 wonderful speeches of the agitator Lasalle. The latter himself 
 has explained their practical composition as resulting from the 
 desire to give them a scientific character and easy intelligibility, 
 so that they could impress by dint of their popularity the great 
 majority of the uneducated, and in \'irtue of their scientific 
 depth the elite among the most highly educated.' Barring the 
 scientific character which Spielhagen had to omit in this case 
 Miinzer's great speech has the plastic form and definiteness 
 which Lassalle used and it complies also with the requirements of 
 the agitator in its ability to impress both the uneducated and 
 the educated. But there are also some thoughts common to both 
 speeches. Both Miinzer and Lassalle proclaim themselves par- 
 tisans of a social republic, consider it their duty to espouse one 
 side and stake blood and property in times of political excite- 
 ment, in contrast to all those who forget their duties, not seeing 
 tte danger into which their indifference places them, and think 
 their achievement a shining example of patriotism which de- 
 serves a reward rather than punishment (DvH 735; 732; 733).* 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 82. 
 
 2 "Meine Assisenrede, etc. "Diisseldorf 1849. Harms, 1. c. p. 24 ; cp. Oncken, 
 1. c. p. 74. 
 
 3 Der Hochverratsprozess wider F. Lassalle, etc. Berlin, 1864. p. 33. Der 
 Prozess, etc. zii Diisseldorf. Frankfurt a-M. 1864. p. 21. 
 
 * Oncken, 1. c. p. 67 ; 71-74. But Lassalle claims reward also in other speeches ; 
 cp. above p. 31. It is evident, however, that Miinzer's plea was written 
 also, perhaps even to a greater extent, under the influence of the speech which 
 Kinkel delivered when he was tried in Cologne, April, 1850, for having taken 
 part in an attempt to seize the royal armory at Siegburg in the interest of the 
 revolution. Miinzer not only stands accused of a very similar undertaking, 
 but uses in his plea thoughts which Kinkel uttered before the court. The lat- 
 ter calls himself a socialist since his heart has always been with the poor and 
 oppressed. As a socialist he is also a democrat. He considers the democratic 
 State the only sure remedy for economic misery, and declares the unity of the 
 fatherland to be the political aim of the German revolution. Having obtained 
 democratic institutions in 1848 the people not only have the right but also the 
 duty to defend, as one man and with all weapons possible, such institutions, 
 and, therefore, he has not hesitated to join men without education and of 
 doubtful reputation in order to uphold the democratic cause. But the people 
 have given up their struggle and have deserted their leaders. Yet for his en- 
 deavors to protect the democratic Constitution he demands a crown as reward. 
 Cp. Schurz's Lebenserinnerungen. 
 
70 
 
 The impression of Miinzer's plea is such (735) as the court 
 feared Lassalle's speech would create^ when it forbade its de- 
 livery. 
 
 There are a few minor points in which the political activities 
 of Lassalle and Miinzer agree: Just as Lasalle's house and 
 purse during his stay on the Rhine stood always open to political 
 fugitives and impoverished democrats,^ so Miinzer supports his 
 poor party friends whenever he can (119) ; as the great Demo- 
 crat showed very early the remarkable gift of ability to impress 
 the masses and often found admiration, devotion and uncondi- 
 tional obedience with the working people although in his whole 
 life he was on intimate terms with only one talented workman 
 of the Rhinelands,^ so Miinzer has an extraordinary influence 
 over his adherers, even the most violent ones (155; 131; 165), 
 and his resignation and contempt for the crowd for whom he 
 sacrifices everything (149; 165) correspond with what Lassalle 
 felt and thought in his experiences with the workingmen.-^ 
 Miinzer's grinding activity (44) and feverish working in the in- 
 terest of his cause reflects almost literally that of which Lasalle 
 wrote in a letter to Riistow, Feb. 9, 1862, and his praise of the 
 blessing of industry (266; 268; 274) the words of Lasalle. con- 
 tained in a letter of Oct. 10, 1861, to the revolutionary poet 
 Herwegh.* As Lassalle's "glowing soul is full of impatience 
 over the slow development of events" as he said himself in 
 another letter, so Miinzer is always urging his friends to act as 
 we have pointed out. Lastly as the historical Democrat received 
 in his work a more than friendly assistance from the Countess 
 Hatzfeldt, so Miinzer stands in close relation to a noble woman 
 who becomes also his fate and helps his cause for love of him 
 but makes his work harder, too, by injuring his reputation with 
 friends and foes ( 421-22 ; 501 ) .^ 
 
 1 Cp. also Schurz's account of the impression which Kinkel's plea made. 
 
 2 "Die Feste, die Presse und der Frankfurter Abgeordnetentag," Diisseldorf. 
 
 3 Oncken, I. c. p. 85-86. Cp. also the note on p. 121 below. 
 
 4 0ncken, 1. c. p. 191-2; 359. 
 
 5 Oncken, 1. c. p. 43 ; 47. Freigeboren, p. 287. 
 
71 
 
 < 
 
 While the restricted participation by Lassalle in the German 
 
 revolution, and the limited space of time in which the events 
 related in DvH take place necessitated a drawing of Miinzer's 
 political activity differently from that of his prototype, aside 
 from the novelist's practice mentioned above, a more complete 
 agreement may be looked for in their aims and the means for 
 their attainments. 
 
 Miinzer considers the existing social misery from almost the 
 same viewpoint as Thomas Miinzer^ and starts in his political 
 activity from the idea of justice. The sum of happiness in which 
 mankind must share is very small and everyone can receive his 
 modest portion only if he listens to reason and claims no more 
 than what he likes to grant his fellowmen. This discernment 
 which realizes itself in deeds of modesty and renunciation is 
 called Justice (165), and its purport demands that what is still 
 the exclusive property of a few become the property of all (168). 
 Miinzer, therefore, is opposed to those who want to be something 
 different from others and do nothing to overcome their individ- 
 ual selfish desires (426) and works that right and justice be 
 established both politically and economically. The wretched 
 shall here on earth receive their inheritance and shall be given 
 no longer smooth words and beautiful phrases to eat and to 
 drink (302). But like the youthful Lassalle seeing in the exist- 
 ing government the personification of despotic selfishness and 
 arbitrariness because it takes Might for Right and has neither the 
 will nor the power to bring the revolution to completion, and 
 ascribing to only a few members of the ruling classes the desire 
 to further the welfare of the fatherland and a free powerful 
 fatherland at that, Miinzer in his fight for the rights of man 
 is also a partisan of the radical democrats of 1848. He combines 
 mth the ideal of the Renaissance also those ideas of the rights of 
 man of the French revolution which sprung from it. For be- 
 side brotherhood and equality freedom must be secured for his 
 people (416), but as Spielhagen says of the conception of free- 
 dom for which the German revolutionists fought : 
 
 "Die gutmiitige, idealistische, glaubige, kopflose Revolution, 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 38. 
 
72 
 
 in der keiner etwas anderes als Freiheit woUte, wenn er auch 
 
 um Lebens und Sterbens willen nicht hatte sagen konnen, was 
 
 er so reeht darunter verstehe,"^ 
 so the idea of freedom is not definitely expressed in the 
 novel; it now seems to denote political liberty, now again it di- 
 rectly means personal freedom, a freedom which allows the in- 
 dividual to live as he will, if thereby none of his fellowmen suf- 
 fers (155). 
 
 Miinzer is the typical representative of the South German revo- 
 lutionist, inspired by the ideals of the French revolution; he 
 even addresses a partisan by: Citizen Unkel (569),^ and Lassalle, 
 besides being wont to take with predilection his ideas from the 
 development of France^ — for outside of Hegel he lives in the 
 ideas of 1789 — stood with his whole nature for the democratic 
 standpoint of the rights of man.'' His honest compassion for those 
 on whom he saw an outrage to such rights committed, was point- 
 ed out above. He preserved during his whole life his sympathy 
 with the hard lot of the working people and proletarian, which 
 gave him the ideal of his youth, to help the feeble and oppressed, 
 to assist in their fight against slavery and victimizing, to share 
 the task of leading mankind to higher forms of existence.* 
 
 This can be brought about only by interpreting the ethical aim 
 of the State more correctly than the privileged classes do ; by not 
 letting the State serve selfish purposes but by considering it the 
 ethical unit which has the function to perfect the development 
 of the human race into freedom. For ''die Geschichte ist ein 
 Kampf mit der Natur, mit dem Blende, der Unwissenheit, der 
 Armut, der Machtlosigkeit und somit der Unfreiheit aller Art, 
 in der wir uns befanden, als das Menschengeschlecht im Anfange 
 der Geschichte auftrat. Die fortschreitende Besiegung dieser 
 Machtlosigkeit — das ist die Entwicklung der Freiheit, welche 
 die Geschichte darstellt. ' ' The State is the union of individuals 
 in an ethical totality, a union which increases millionfold the 
 forces of all individuals included in this union, and multiplies 
 millionfold those forces which would stand at the disposal of all 
 as individuals. The purpose of the State is to enable the individ- 
 
 1 Am Wege, p. 288. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 227 ; 436. 
 
 3 Prelgeboren, p. 289. 
 
 4 Harms, 1. c. p. 61. 
 
 5 Unkel=rUnger, Scliurz's friond? Cp. Lebenserinnerungen. 
 
73 
 
 uals to reach through this union such a level of existence as they 
 could not reach as individuals ; to enable them ' ' eine Summe von 
 Bildung, Macht und Freiheit zu erlangen, die ihnen samtlich als 
 einzelnen unersteiglich ware."^ Therefore, the individual must 
 be merged into the State as the highest ethical totality. This 
 surrender to the interest of all is Lasalle's firmest conviction in 
 politics. Since his earliest youth he had seen morals and right 
 embodied in the State. The enthusiasm for this idea, his faith 
 in the mission of the State as the promoter of right and civiliza- 
 tion, not onlj^ as protector pervades all his writings.^ He finds 
 in the exacter understanding of the idea of State the source ' ' aus 
 der alle in diesem Jahrhundert gemachten Fortschritte stammen 
 und weiter stammen werden. ' '^ Studying Heraclitus of Ephesos 
 he has as disciple of Hegel the satisfaction of finding that the 
 Greek philosopher agrees with his master in the stricter concep- 
 tion of State. For Heraclitus' Ethics contains the eternal basic 
 thought of the ethical, the devotion to the common-weal, which 
 is nothing but an agreement with Hegel 's philosophy of State.* 
 
 This is the devotion which Miinzer demands of the individual 
 (384) and the resulting understanding of the idea of State. It 
 has been pointed out that therein lies the reason for his separa- 
 tion from his democratic friends as it brought about the enmity 
 between Lassalle and the Progressionists of the sixties.^ But 
 although Lassalle and Miinzer value the idea of State more 
 highly than do their former political friends, a difference must 
 be noted in their estimation of political liberty in relation to 
 German unity. 
 
 It can not surprise one to find Lassalle placing the unity of 
 his fatherland above political liberty. His drama is a glowing 
 plea for an intimate union of all Germans. Its subject has an 
 eminently political tendency. Sikkingen tries to persuade the 
 emperor to bring with the help of the nation the Reformation to 
 a successful close and to subdue the princes. Failing in this 
 endeavor he sets himself about to break the power of the prin- 
 ces, the real enemies of the empire and common liberty. Even 
 
 1 Arbeiterprogramm ; Harms, 1. c. p. 35-36. 
 
 a Brandes, 1. c. p. 21. 
 
 3 System der erworbenen Recite. Leipzig, 1861. I. p. 47. 
 
 * Die Philosophie Herakleitos, etc. H. p. 437 ; 459. 
 
 ^ Cp. above p. 52-54. 
 
•^3^' 
 
 74 
 
 the hope for a Protestant emperor at the head of all Germany is 
 voiced. For as Franz von Sikkingen exclaims : 
 
 **Es streicht nicht mehr der Luftzug der Geschichte 
 Durch solche Landparzellen. " 
 
 As in Lassalle's drama, so it is in his pamphlet "Der italien- 
 ische Krieg und die Aufgabe Preussens; eine Stimme aus der 
 Demokratie," also of 1859, that he demands a union of all Ger- 
 mans under a centralized government. He points out that Aus- 
 tria had been the main obstacle for bringing about German unity 
 in the revolution of 1848/49. He advises Prussia to make use of 
 the favorable moment of her adversary's weakness, to expel 
 Austria from the Confederation, separate Schleswig-Holstein en- 
 tirely from Denmark, unite all German races and to proclaim 
 at last the German empire. "With emphasis he exclaims: "An 
 dem Tage, wo Oesterreich vemichtet ist, ist Deutschland kon- 
 stituiert." In his "Fichtes politisches Vermachtnis und die 
 neueste Gegenwart"^ and in his speech in honor of Fichte, May 
 19, 1862, the admirer of the revolutionary genius of the Great 
 Frederic^ declares it to be the highest and most important task 
 of the present time to establish a German centralized State under 
 the leadership of Prussia, and places the question of political 
 liberty behind that of unity. He attributes to those who want a 
 hereditary, monarchical, united Germany a higher degree of in- 
 telligence and political truthfulness than to the German repub- 
 lican federalists.^ While all these utterances show that Lassalle 
 after having learned during the fifties that playing revolution 
 did not amount to much, had made up his mind to work for a 
 social change within the existing State, they are the natural con- 
 sequences of his Hegelian understanding of the idea of State and 
 spring from thoughts he held from the time he came under the 
 influence of this mind. 
 
 How far this estimate of the idea of State has also a leaning 
 towards Monarchy will occupy our attention in studying Leo's 
 political activity. In its relation to political liberty it stands 
 paramount. Political liberty as liberty in itself, Lassalle believes 
 firmly, cannot establish a social order in which everybody is 
 given the indispensable basis for his personal advancement, eco- 
 
 1 Wallsrode's demokratiscbe Studien. Hamburg 1860. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 145-6. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 157. 
 
75 
 
 nomic security. Only when a social interest is placed behind 
 liberty, can liberty have any importance and become an induce- 
 ment for the bourgeois or citizen. This was according to Las- 
 salle the case with the French re"\^ution of 1789. It was a revo- 
 lution in which the modem middle class overturned the old 
 feudal society. Under Napoleon they fought against feudal 
 Europe for the landed property taken from the emigrants, for 
 the abolition of the existing monopolies, for freedom of competi- 
 tion. The question was how to break the yoke of feudal pro- 
 duction in industry and agriculture and secure respect for the 
 liberty of capital.^ For such aims the bourgeoisie had energy 
 and was filled with enthusiasm. Mere political liberty, on the 
 other hand, is not important enough for the bourgeois and can 
 never inspire him to make sacrifices.^ For this reason Lassalle 
 later placed the social interest of the working classes as a motive 
 behind the acquisition of political liberty. 
 
 With Miinzer liberty holds the first place although he, too, 
 wants to see the fatherland united. He hopes for better condi- 
 tions than the large number of thrones and the multitudes of 
 churches for the present allow (667) but this hope is rather for 
 liberty which can be secured by abolishing those two institu- 
 tions than for unity which is possible only by their destruction. 
 In all his utterances (45; 416; 666) as in those of his radical 
 friends (573) liberty stands first and he speaks in the same 
 breath of the liberty of Europe (411). The revolutionary con- 
 spirators, led by him, have the watch-word "Liberty" and 
 "Death" (574). This difference between Lassalle and Miinzer, 
 equivalent also to that between Spielhagen's spokesman in DvH 
 and Miinzer in this point,^ it may be said in passing, corresponds 
 with that which existed between Mons, the step-brother of the 
 novelist, who, at a time when the Nationalverein was not yet 
 thought of, frankly demanded the unity of Germany under the 
 lead of Prussia, and Spielhagen, who in 1847, professed only 
 that liberty which might be realized in a republic* It would 
 not be difficult to find some correspondences also in the charac- 
 ters of Miinzer and the novelist as he was at that time. 
 
 1 Cp. below p. 119 ; 132. 
 
 2 Der italieniscbe Krieg, etc., p. 54. Arbeiterlesebueb. Frankfurt 1863, p. 63-65. 
 Cp. Oncken, 1. c. p. 320-21 ; Brandes, 1. c. p. 81 ff. 
 
 3 Cp. above p. 51. 
 ♦Henning, 1. c. p. 20-21. 
 
76 
 
 Beside the difference in the estimation of liberty in relation 
 to German unity, that in respect to the equality of men is quite 
 pronounced. However, as this question holds a prominent place 
 in the labor movement of Leo-Lassalle it suffices here to say that 
 Lassalle always fought for equal political rights for the work- 
 men, and not for social equality. When he, like Miinzer, worked 
 for putting them into power he was far from thinking of a war 
 of extermination against the ruling classes, as the other is said 
 to do (646 ; 500) . According to Lassalle, the period of the fourth 
 estate began in 1848, they want to make their principle the 
 ruling principle of society. In this estate is contained no germ 
 for the growth of new privileges because it is the last and outer- 
 most social class, and therefore, synonymous with all mankind. 
 Their liberty is that of the whole human race and their rule the 
 rule of all.^ Lassalle does not intend to start a separate move- 
 ment with the working classes but to raise the democratic banner 
 in general.^ In the endeavor to realize the ethical idea of State 
 which always leads him he works for the adjustment of all op- 
 positions in the social strata.^ From conviction and by virtue of 
 his political principles a trufe democrat, Lassalle was a consis- 
 tent and victorious defender of universal and direct suffrage, the 
 champion of a kind of government by the masses which history 
 never saw before.* 
 
 8 
 
 Which now is the form of State in which the ideas of liberty 
 and unity are to be realized ? In order to attain his aims Miin- 
 zer will blow up the structure of modern society, externally so 
 stately and internally so wormeaten (731), abolish the State as 
 governed by the police and erect a single German social republic 
 (386; 731; 735). As time passes, his aims become international. 
 He wants to change the German national movement into a 
 European, even a cosmopolitan and enters into lively negotia- 
 tions with republicans of other countries (500). 
 
 Such aims were far from Lassalle 's mind. They must rather 
 be ascribed to Karl Marx. He was international and thought 
 
 1 Arbeiterprogramm. Onckeo, 1. c. p. 219-20. 
 
 2 Arbeiterlesebucb, May 19, 1863. Oncken, 1. c. p. 321. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 252. 
 
 4 Brandes, I. c. p. 29. 
 
77 
 
 of the whole world at once. He believed equal social rights pro- 
 curable only in a social democratic republic, free from religion, 
 and his ideal was a confederation of European republics. Las- 
 saUe, on the other hand, thought only of Germany and in a cer- 
 tain sense of Prussia alone. It may be that Miinzer's inter- 
 nationalism is a reflection of Lassalle's revolutionism which 
 manifested itself still in 1861 during his journey in Switzer- 
 land and Italy, when he went so far as to call on Garibaldi in 
 Caprera in the interest of Liberty.^ But he reminds his master 
 Marx : " Do not forget that you are a German revolutionist and 
 that you want and must work for Germany" in Febr. 1860, and 
 is the champion of nationality as one of the forces of the cen- 
 tury while Marx treated with contempt national contrasts and 
 national states.^ 
 
 Moreover, Lassalle was by nature a personality with the im- 
 pulse to act. He always felt as a politician who had to set to 
 work in the State into which he had been born, and against 
 vfhich he never cherished the hatred of the exile. It is anyway 
 questionable whether he was a champion pure and simple of a re- 
 publican form of State. The conflict of his revolutionary republi- 
 canism with his strong leanings towards aristocracy which ap- 
 pears also in Miinzer was pointed out above.^ While the latter, 
 however, never vacillates in respect to the form in which he works 
 to erect his State, Lassalle was always given to inner struggles 
 and conflicts concerning his position in relation to monarchy. 
 To judge by the numerous utterances contained in his early 
 speeches, writings and letters, he must have been a confirmed re- 
 publican, yet just as early indications are found which speak for 
 the contrary. Republican by feeling, it was natural that the 
 events of 1848/49, the period of Reaction, the Constitutional 
 Conflict and not the least, his intimate association with the radi- 
 cal wing of the democratic party should have strengthened his 
 leanings towards a more liberal form of State. His decided feel- 
 ing for justice in union with a spirit of contradiction and op- 
 position, which often led him blindly, made him see in the acts 
 of Frederic William IV nothing but absolutistie arbitrariness 
 with the purpose of robbing the people of their rights acquired 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 150. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 144. 
 
 3 Cp. above p. 26. 
 
78 
 
 by the revolution. Well versed in French history he knew to 
 what dangers political liberties were exposed because of des- 
 potic desires of the kings by the Grace of God. On the other 
 hand, Lassalle was, as we have seen, an enthusiastic worshipper 
 of the Hegelian idea of State in respect to Prussia-Germany. He 
 could see only in the Prussian State the reality of an ethical will, 
 or in Prussia alone that State in which the ethical will could be 
 realized. His hope for a united German empire, too, has been 
 pointed out. It may be said that in some of his writings he 
 pleaded for this unity. Though for the greater part of his life 
 the ideal of a united, republican Germany attracted him like 
 Bismarck, who confessed to have sometimes believed the republic 
 to be the most sensible form of State, many facts taught Lassalle 
 that a republic in itself by no means warranted that ideal State 
 he was striving for, and led him to the belief that only monarchy 
 could take care of the interests of the whole people.^ He had 
 also a deeper understanding of the historical forces of religion 
 and national ideas than his radical friends and saw in the con- 
 ditions which confronted him no obstacles for the beginning of a 
 change. He had very early become convinced that for a long 
 time yet he would have to reckon with the idea of monarchy. 
 He, therefore, often said he was asking the State only for its lit- 
 tle finger. Eminently practical he was always ready to com- 
 promise with, and to lean on, the ruling powers. The repubUean 
 form of State had thus for him not that importance it had for 
 Miinzer, and consequently a difference in the choice of means 
 which both employed in the pursuit of their aims is to be stated. 
 
 Miinzer has "wie die Personifikation des dumpfen GroUes, 
 der heimlichen Erbitterung, der namenlosen Leiden, sie, die 
 Sklaven der Armut und der Unwissenheit, sie, von denen keiner 
 sich zum Widerstande gegen den Druck und den Stoss eines 
 armlichen Geschieks emporgerafft, das furchtbare Wort: Revo- 
 lution buchstabieren und lesen lassen, durch wohl gesetzte 
 Reden aus ihrer Apathie aufgeriittelt und auf geschreckt " 
 (729). When after the first storm of the revolution the ruling 
 classes have picked up courage and Reaction feels itself again in 
 power the means Miinzer has in mind take more and more the 
 
 1 Harms, 1. c. p. 73-74 ; cp. below p. 149. 
 
79 
 
 shape of violence. Like Lassalle^ he has become convinced that 
 political questions are essentially questions of "Who has the 
 greater power ? " ; questions which can never be answered by sen- 
 timental policies, such as he with his democratic friends until then 
 have advised and used. He has decided to carry his ideas through 
 by any, even the most extreme means (391). Iron must heal what 
 medicaments have been unable to cure and many a pyre must 
 bum before the choke-damp of the State ruled by the police shall 
 be so purified that a free breast can breathe in it. The art of 
 healing the sores of the State with the medicaments of gradual 
 reforms will soon be exhausted, and then the ultima ratio of 
 kings will be also the ultima ratio of the people (412).^ The 
 rights of humanity in one hand and the sword in the other, only 
 in this way will liberty make its way through the nations. For 
 the dull souls of priests and the haughty hearts of aristocrats 
 cannot at once beat for liberty and become without transition en- 
 thusiastic for brotherhood. Might is still considered right, and 
 therefore right must be mightier than might (45) ; a burgher 
 army must be created that the people in arms can be disarmed 
 and the sores of the State be healed (412). 
 
 Such vigorous speech was often uttered by Lasalle. He was 
 well persuaded of the impotence of ideal right if not maintained 
 by practical minds and strong wills that knew how to choose the 
 right means and measures for its realization. The revolution of 
 1848/49 in which right miserably succumbed because of ideal- 
 istic dread of any other weapon than that of the word, had 
 taught him the weakness of this weapon. He belonged to a new 
 generation who had learned to give their ideals a sound armor 
 and a strong sword.^ His drama is full of expressions indicative 
 of his esteem of might and force as the props of right. Years be- 
 fore the blood and iron of Bismarck, Lassalle appealed to the 
 "eherne Lose", iron is to him "der Gott des Mannes", **die 
 Zauberrute, die seine Wiinsche in Erf iillung schlagt, " " der letzte 
 Hort, der in Verzweiflungsnacht ihm strahlt", "seiner Freiheit 
 hoehstes Pfand", and among his bellicose expressions appears 
 also Miinzer's ultima ratio (412).* It is one of the main traits of 
 
 1 Cp. below p. 80-82. 
 
 2 Cp. below p. 79. 
 
 3 Brandes, 1. c. p. 42 : 39 ; 44. 
 
 4 Arbeiterlesebuch May 19, 1863 : Oncken, 1. c. p. 320. 
 
80 
 
 his character, the impulse to act and to give practical proof of 
 his powers, which always breaks forth. As a young man of 23 he 
 reproaches the National Assembly with having only passively re- 
 sisted the coup d 'etat of Nov. 1848, in exclaiming : ' ' Der passive 
 Widerstand ist der innere Wille ohne aussere Tat, ' '^ and in view 
 of the lack of energy and blunted power of the Liberal parties 
 over against Reaction, his praises of iron as the God of man 
 can surprise nobody. He has the deepest esteem for real power, 
 and his Hutten exalts as passionately as perhaps only Heinrich 
 von Treitschke did, to quote Oncken, war as a force in the history 
 of the world furthering civilization. Everything great in his- 
 tory has been and will be brought about by the sword, and: 
 
 "Est ist die Macht das grosste Gut des Himmels, 
 
 Wenn man sie nutzt f iir einen grossen Zweck. ' ' 
 This accords in sound with the music which Bismarck had in 
 mind to compose for solving the question of German unity.* 
 
 No doubt, Lassalle goes sometimes too far in the use of ex- 
 pressions of force.^ He who intended to influence the working- 
 men ethically also could be expected to teach the masses that the 
 power of the mind stood much higher than the strength of the 
 fist.* That he did not do so, may find its explanation in the fact 
 that from the beginning of his political work the men of the 
 French Convention had been his ideals, and might and its pos- 
 session gradually became to him everything. 
 
 But this does not mean that Lassalle earnestly thought of em- 
 ploying brutal force as it is Miinzer 's intention. Right and Might 
 are the two poles around which the star Lassalle revolved and 
 the main activity of his political mind was the consideration of 
 how Might and Right stand to each other." This problem was 
 deeply implanted in him during the German revolution. The 
 rights of the people, universal suffrage included, successfully ex- 
 pressed by this movement have been violated by the Prussian 
 Constitution and the imposed suffrage of 1849/59 ; Might, there- 
 fore, rules in the State. Lassalle took this problem up again 
 during the Prussian conflict in 1862 and with a thorough under- 
 standing of political realities could hold it up against the Liber- 
 
 1 Assisenrede, p. 34. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 130. 
 
 3Cp. e. g. "Was nun?" p. 28. 
 * Brandes, 1. c. p. 155. 
 6 Brandes, 1. c. p. 38. 
 
81 
 
 als who thought of settling it by fighting it out as a formal legal 
 question, by asserting that the Progressionists did not stand on 
 the ground of right but on its violation.^ 
 
 Lassalle works for Right having the necessary Might as sup- 
 port, and Might not acting without Right. In " Freigeboren " 
 (292) he says, that his and Bismarck's principal maxim is: Might 
 goes before Right, but while the Premier's is a brutal de facto, 
 his is de facto and de jure. Right, he believes, is the greatest 
 Might and will in the end carry the day. The secured rights of 
 the people which in the last instance coincide with the rights of 
 man are to his mind the necessary condition for the lofty build- 
 ing which Bismarck is going to erect. Right must be the ade- 
 quate expression of Might. During the Conflict Lassalle declares 
 in Berlin, April 16, 1862, that the Constitution of a country, if 
 it is to be its fundamental law, must be an active force which 
 makes, by virtue of necessity, all other laws and legal institutions 
 what they are. This active force is identical with the actually ex- 
 isting conditions of power ; they determine all laws and legal in- 
 stitutions in such a way that they can be no other than they ac- 
 tually are. When these actual conditions of power find expression 
 in writing they become law and legal institutions. Questions of 
 Right are questions of Might as Miinzer, too, says (147; 391).^ 
 The actual constitution of a country exists only in the actually 
 existing condition of power, found in the country.^ Lassalle 
 voices these thoughts in order that the Constitution of Prussia 
 be the expression of the actual conditions of power existing in 
 this country. His speech is an historical investigation. He does 
 not think of advising his audience the use of brutal force for 
 giving expression to the actual conditions of power. Rather, he 
 was compelled by the misunderstanding which his speech caused 
 among his adversaries, who interpreted it as demanding that 
 Might go before Right, to declare in his pamphlet "Macht und 
 Recht" that for Right to go before Might was his own ethical 
 standpoint and wish. But while Right should go before Might, 
 jVIight goes in reality before Right until Right has gathered suf- 
 ficient Might behind itself to shatter the Might of wrong. The 
 history of Prussian Constitution has in his opinion consisted in 
 
 1 Hochverratsprozess ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 402, cp. p. 70. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 79. 
 
 3 "Ueber Verfassungswesen" ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 211 ff. 
 
82 
 
 a series of violations of the law, and in the Prussian State no- 
 body is entitled to speak of Right but the old and true demo- 
 crats. They alone have clung to Right and never lowered them- 
 selves to compromises with Might.^ The imposed Constitution of 
 1849/51 being the expression of Might over against Right, Las- 
 salle continued the attitude he took in his Assisenrede in refusing 
 to take part on this legal basis in the political life of the New 
 Era. 
 
 Such an understanding of the idea of Right sufficiently de- 
 fends Lassalle against the accusation by the Liberals of thinking 
 of putting Might in the place of Right. Indeed, the firm belief 
 in the victory of Right over Might which as early as 1848 was 
 voiced in his " Kassettenrede " as a warm youthful enthusiasm 
 rising from his innermost souF and which caused him to re- 
 proach the Government with drawing Right from the mouths of 
 the cannons and considering soldiers and rifles reasons, while he 
 insists that the sword is never the Right,^ has never allowed him 
 to forget that he wanted to be the champion of Right against 
 Might. 
 
 The difference in the meaning with which Lassalle and Miin- 
 zer speak of the use of strong measures becomes more manifest 
 when we consider the two as revolutionists. 
 
 Miinzer wants to receive his inheritance here on earth, not 
 leaving it to time to bring about the necessary reforms (302), 
 and is ready to break the privileges of the ruling classes, even by 
 a war of extermination (650). He fights for his social theories, 
 for realizing his idea of a new world (412) and tries to organize 
 (125) and bring the social revolution (666) to a successful close 
 (302). He wants to blow the sparks into a mighty flame (676) 
 and takes up arms for a social, at least a republican, cause (666). 
 
 Very likely Lasalle, too, would have been carried away by 
 his "glowing soul" to join his friends in their revolutionary 
 rising in 1848/49 if good luck had not kept him behind prison 
 walls at the critical moments. He was by nature a revolutionist 
 and in his youth, as his diary shows, this was equivalent to hav- 
 ing revolutionary tendencies, in the ordinary sense of the word, 
 
 r 
 
 1 Macbt und Recht. Otfenes Seadscbreiben. Ziiricb 1863. Oncken, 1. c p. 
 244 ff. 
 
 2 Brandes, I. c. p. 21. 
 
 3 Assisenrede, p. 16; 26; 48. Arbeiterprogramm, p. 8, etc. 
 
83 
 
 against absolutism and nobility/ After the failure of the Ger- 
 man revolution he works to keep up the fire of radical agitation 
 among the working classes in Diisseldorf, to awaken in them a 
 class spirit so that as he writes to Marx, June, 1852, the next 
 revolution should find them a more compact and conscious ma- 
 terial than they were in 1848/49. As a revolutionist, too, he 
 writes his Sikkingen and his * ' System der erworbenen Rechte ; ' ' 
 for the starting point of these two works is the German revolution 
 and their aim the desire to forge the theoretical weapons for a 
 new revolution.^ But Lassalle soon learns to know that, as he 
 writes Marx in 1860, playing revolution with the working peo- 
 ple is of no use. Neither practical nor theoretical results can be 
 shown in this respect, although he has done his best to spread 
 among them culture and the consciousness of their class inter- 
 ests. He is always in hopes that foreign events may give an im- 
 petus to a new revolutionary outbreak in Germany, but as he is 
 disappointed in this, he becomes more and more aware that his- 
 torical ideas, like religion and monarchy, are still actual reali- 
 ties. And so it comes, that large parts of his revolutionary 
 Sikkingen already appear to be the work of the Liberal-demo- 
 cratic unitarian who with a deep respect for historical ideas, still 
 representing actual realities, wishes for the absorption of the 
 smaller States and thus voices the desire dominant even in the 
 camp of democrats that Prussia might become the leader of all 
 German races in a new empire. 
 
 How far Lassalle would have gone to meet the monarchy is, 
 because of his early death, impossible to state precisely.^ At 
 all events, the word revolution has in his later development for 
 Mm a different meaning on the whole than for Miinzer. It is 
 true, that self-interest compelled him at his trials to deny most 
 vigorously ordinary revolutionary imputations and some allow- 
 ances must be made for certain utterances of his on this point.* 
 But after all, when he as early as 1849 confesses to be a revo- 
 lutionist by principle,^ and repeats this assertion frequently in 
 later years,® there is nothing to be found in his writings, speeches 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 26 ; Harms, 1. c. p. 29. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 166 ; 178-79. 
 
 3 Cp. below p. 146. 
 
 ■♦ Oncken. 1. c. p. 369. 
 5 Assisenrede, p. 32 ; 49. 
 
 « Arbeiterprogramm, p. 7 ; An die Arbeiter Berlins, p. 13 ; Hochverratsprozess. 
 p. 12 ; Die Wissenschaft und die Arbeiter, P< 14, etc. 
 
84 
 
 or actions that would cause one to interpret the word revolution- 
 ist in Lassalle's mouth by anything else than social evolutionist. 
 
 To be sure, he believes that a political revolution, under certain 
 circumstances, is preferable to a legal reform which may re- 
 quire centuries to be brought about while a revolution leads 
 quickly and vigorously to a practical result.^ But being con- 
 vinced of a coming revolution which he says will either occur 
 in full lawfulness, and with all the blessings of peace, if the 
 Government is wise enough to decide early on its introduction^ — 
 or approach within some period under all convulsions of violent 
 force with wildly waving hair and iron sandals on her feet, he 
 has taken up the task to teach the working classes to improve 
 conditions reasonably and change only their "chemical func- 
 tions" when the coming revolution shall set in.'^ 
 
 And then, a revolution can be accomplished in deep peace. 
 Revolution is to Lassalle a change which puts a new principle in 
 the place of that existing ; reform on the other hand means the 
 preservation of the existing principle and its development to 
 milder or more consequent and juster demands. A reform can 
 be accomplished by insurrection and bloodshed. The horrible 
 German peasant wars were the attempt at a reform by force of 
 arms ; the invention of the cotton spinning machine of 1775 and 
 the peaceful development of modern industry are gigantic revo- 
 lutions.* 
 
 Moreover, a revolution can be successful only when it is the 
 intended expression of a condition of things which exists al- 
 ready in fact. Lasalle, therefore, even when he called himself 
 before the court in May, 1849, a decided partisan of a social- 
 democratic republic, could truthfully say that in his speech at 
 Neuss he had warned his audience against proclaiming a repub- 
 lic because such an act would to his mind be a treason to the 
 common cause, and would throw the apple of discord among the 
 people who must marshall themselves about the offended law 
 (the dissolution of the National Assembly without any right, 
 etc.),'^ while the proletarian at that time wanted nothing but 
 
 1 Arbeiterprogramm ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 225 ; cp. Leo I 296. 
 
 2 Cp. Leo I 395 ; 509. 
 
 3 Die Indirekte Steuer und die Lage der arbeitendeu Klassen ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 
 369. 
 
 •* Arbeiterprogramm ; Die Wissenschaf t und die Arbeiter ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 225 ; 
 5 Assisenrede, p. 29 ; 4 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 65. 
 
85 
 
 to help the middle class protect their liberties, rights and laws. 
 For the time to realize his ideals in a social republic had not yet 
 come; their fulfillment belonged to the future. But Lassalle be- 
 lieves in revolutions. The law is only the expression and the writ- 
 ten will of the social body. When the need of the social body has 
 changed, then the old code belongs to the museum of history ; in 
 its place steps the new image of the present.^ The same opinion 
 is repeated 1862, no one can make a revolution; one can but give 
 external recognition and a consequent execution to a revolution 
 whicli has already taken place in the actual conditions.^ Every 
 revolution has been made in the hearts of society months before it 
 comes to life under volleys.'' 
 
 It sounds honest when Lassalle mocks at those who on hearing 
 the word revolution at once think of "brandished pitchforks"* 
 or when he, one of whose best and greatest traits was the worship 
 of the achievements of German thinkers and poets, becomes in- 
 dignant at the imputation of his being an ordinary revolutionist 
 and exclaims: 
 
 "Wie? Es hat sich jemand in einem faustischen Triebe mit 
 der zahesten, ernsten Miihe durchgearbeitet von der Philosophic 
 der Griechen und dem roraisehen Recht durch die verschieden- 
 sten Facher historischer Wissenschaft bis zur modernen Na- 
 tionalokonomie und Statistik, und Sie konnen im Emste 
 glauben, er wolle diese ganze lange Bildung damit beschliessen, 
 dem Proletarier eine Brandfaekel in die Hand zu driicken? 
 Wie? Hat man so wenig Kenntnis und Einsieht in die sitti- 
 gende Macht der "Wissenschaft, dass man dies auch nur fiir 
 moglicli halten kann?'"^ It seems hard to agree with Oncken 
 (370), when he also in this passage sees an expression of Las- 
 salle 's denying in his self-interest before the court any practical- 
 political element in his speech to the Berlin workmen. 
 
 A revolutionist Lassalle remained to the last of his days, but, 
 in contrast with Miinzer, an ethical Hegelian aim qualifies his 
 activity. The revolutionary socialist — he calls himself such in 
 a letter of Jan., 1862 — considers with Lothar Bucher the possi- 
 
 1 Assisenrede ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 71. 
 
 2 Arbeiterprogramm ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 216. 
 ■i Assisenrede, Oncken, 1. c. p. 71. 
 
 < Die Wiysenschaft und die Arbeiter ; Oncken. 1. c. p. 251-52. 
 
 ^ ilie indirekte Steuer und die Lage der arbeitenden Klassen, p. 117 ; Oncken, 
 
 1 f- n 370 
 
 1. c. p. 370. 
 
"'-■H^pfjJBJIp- 
 
 86 
 
 bility of overthrowing the existing conditions in Germany. They 
 agree that a change of society is the sine qua non for a revolu- 
 tionary victory. Lassalle shows to the future right hand of Bis- 
 marck that his social program has an ethical content, endowed 
 with the force to create out of itself a new society, to see the 
 political form as its formal consequence and to become the basis 
 of a new ethics.^ Changing political forms without establishing 
 a new principle of an ethical nature, appears to Lassalle neither 
 philosophical nor revolutionary, and his principle is Hegel's con- 
 ception of revolution which is equivalent to social evolution.^ Tt 
 explains Lassalle 's further political conduct as well as proves the 
 great difference existing between him and Miinzer, 
 
 There was originally nothing antimonarchical in Lassalle 's la- 
 bor movement ; indeed, years after his death his followers would 
 rather vote for a Conservative Representative than for a Radical. 
 During the most passionate agitation and the most vehement per- 
 secution by the bourgeois, Lassalle never gave his party the slight- 
 est hint to make practical use of his theory of succession. In his 
 historical investigations he had come to the conclusion that such 
 a right of succession is but the title of the social bodj^ to the tes- 
 tator's estate, devolved on the heir.- In spite of this there is no 
 passage in Lassalle 's writings or speeches that could be inter- 
 preted to be so much as a wink to his friends to change social 
 conditions by a revolution and abolish private property as a theft 
 to the common- weal. '^ His economic writings contain some utter- 
 ances which say there is the indisputable right to make that pro- 
 perty of the future which has not yet been created the property 
 of labor through a new form of production, but he exempts capi- 
 tal in existence since it has been produced in legal accord with 
 existing conditions.^ 
 
 We have arrived at the end of our comparison of the political 
 activities of Lassalle and Miinzer. We have seen that both agree- 
 ing in many points of character and talents are driven by similar 
 influences to the desire of changing and improving the existing 
 social conditions. Miinzer attempts the realization of his ideas, 
 with a social-political struggle of Germany in the background, 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 200 ; 203. 
 
 2 System der erworbenen Rechte ; Brandes, 1. c. p. 49-69. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 183. 
 
 4 Brandes, 1. o. p. 136. 
 
87 
 
 which appears to be builded on the formal revolutionary idea 
 underlying Lassalle's historical drama "Franz von SikMngen." 
 Both fight for the rights of man against the ruling classes and 
 demand the devotion of the individual to the State as the highest 
 ethical union and totality ; but they estimate the ideas of liberty 
 and jinity of the fatherland differently, A united fatherland 
 seems to Lassalle more important and desirable as offering the 
 exclusive possibility for the development of liberty than liberty 
 itself, while Miinzer fights in the first place for liberty. There 
 are essential differences in their aims and the means they advo- 
 cate for their attainment. Miinzer becomes gradually an inter- 
 national republican, who by an armed revolution wants to estab- 
 lish the equality of all ; he may be called a composite picture of 
 some radical exponents^ of a socialistic current starting during 
 the German revolution, and a Lassalle of pre-epochal days. 
 Lassalle, on the other hand, thinking first of Prussia-Germany 
 in his political activity, has tendencies which can come to terms 
 with monarchy. From a vivid sense for what right means he is 
 revolutionist by principle, i. e., in the scientific meaning of the 
 word. In fact, he works for a more rapid social evolution and 
 fights only for political equality of the working classes and the 
 proletariat. The external political activities of Miinzer and 
 Lassalle agree only in some minor points. 
 
 1 Like Marx and Kinkel. 
 
88 
 
 III. 
 
 Leo Gutmann, the Socialist. 
 1. 
 
 Miinzer holds the lower middle class responsible for the failure 
 of the revolution. They have betrayed the proletariat to the 
 bourgeois who, with material favors, have bought the protec- 
 tion of the nobility. But he foresees also that the bourgeois will 
 tire of paying tribute to the ruling class and, in union with the 
 lower middle class and the proletariat, will take from them the 
 control of the State, trample under their feet at the moment of 
 victory the stupid dwarfs who have fought their battles, and 
 rule henceforth alone, almighty on their thrones of money bags 
 (666). In DvH it was chiefly the noble class that denied the 
 proletarian an existence worthy of man, in IRuG — the severity 
 of social differentiation is universally felt only in the period pre- 
 ceding the revolution (I 71; 124) — it is the bourgeois party, 
 the party of almighty capital, against which Leo Gutmann is 
 to fight in the interest of the proletariat (II 177). 
 
 Leo has found an alluring field for his activity through the 
 socialistic influence of Tusky\ who, however, does not take him 
 entirely into his confidence (I 212) and conceals from him the 
 dire consequences of his teachings of liberty and equality (I 221). 
 Wlien the revolt which has been fostered by his friend (I 167; 
 170; 174) breaks out at last, Leo is only an onlooker, and this 
 becomes quite important for his future. He is caused to ask him- 
 self whether his teacher is the right hero to bring about the lib- 
 eration of the people. The role Tusky plays in the revolutionary 
 rising against the worldly masters, military and church author- 
 ity and tradition (I 171 ; 173 ; 175; 178) fills him with doubt 
 (I 212; 215; 220-21) and the horrors of forceful suppression dis- 
 gust him. Still he follows Tusky when he must flee (I 228). For 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 34. 
 
89 
 
 among all people he esteems and loves him most (I 222; 229), 
 and Tusky, his best friend (I 514), has as long as he has lived, 
 loved no one so well as Leo (I 193). Both continue abroad their 
 revolutionary work as Lassalle and Marx did in the Rhenish pro- 
 vinces, and their further relation to one another reminds one 
 strongly of that which existed between these historical persons. 
 
 As Lassalle became acquainted with Marx only after having 
 taken up his residence on the Rhine^ so Tusky, a man like a force 
 of nature, must be considered the personification of the radical 
 socialistic tendencies with which Lassalle became acquainted in 
 Breslau, blended with the influence w^hich Karl Marx afterwards 
 exercised on hira.- 
 
 It is said that the character of Tusky has been drawn from the 
 physician, Dr. Friedrich Kuschke, who became Spielhagen's 
 friend during his residence in Leipzig 1854-1860.^ But if the 
 chronological statements are taken into account, Tusky and his 
 revolutionary activity up to his flight are evidently only the poet- 
 ical pictures of Lassalle 's earliest acquaintance with social ques- 
 tions. Of course, it is not to be expected that a novel should be 
 chronologicalh^ exact. Spielhagen fixes for obvious reasons the 
 time of Leo 's main activity several years earlier than that of Las- 
 salle 's actually took place as we shall presently see. In the sarhe 
 way he had attributed to Schmitz in DvH progressionist thoughts 
 which Schultze-Delitzsch uttered at a considerably later time.* 
 IRuG begins with events which occur about 30 years after the 
 great war (of Liberation) (I 16 ; 19 ; 39), i. e., in the fall of 1843. 
 The following year Leo is 17 (I 116; 163). His birthday is in 
 spring, consequently he was born in the spring of 1825, corre- 
 sponding to Lassalle 's birth on April 11, 1825. The revolt nour- 
 ished by Tusky, breaks out in December, 1844 (I 240), and about 
 three months later the French resp. German revolution of 1848 
 occurs. The scenery in which the novelist takes us is Thuringia,^ 
 one of the sites of the revolutionary events is Tuchheim. His 
 father was the oldest son of a forester in Tuchheim in the Alt- 
 mark and generations of his ancestors had followed this profes- 
 sion.'' It is obvious that this familv history has contributed to 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 67. 
 
 ^Cp. Tusky's characterization I 187-89; 207; 219; 230-31. 
 
 •J Henning 1. c. p. 85. 
 
 * Cp. above p. 53. 
 
 3 Henning, 1. c. p. 19 ; 1 ; 19. 
 
90 
 
 the description of the forester family in the Tuehheim of IRuG. 
 It would seem, however, that Spielhagen chose this name from 
 the following incident, which plays quite a role in Lassalle's po- 
 litical activity. A weaver deputation of Wiiste-Giersdorf in Sile- 
 sia, after an audience with King William I in 1854, received 
 through Bismarck's intercession some money from his private 
 purse for an industrial enterprise on which the description of 
 Leo 's socialistic experiments apparently is based. Although Las- 
 salle had nothing to do with this case, he made use of the success 
 of the deputation in his Ronsdorf speech of May 23, 1864 by de- 
 claring that his labor agitation had influenced the king to 
 promise the workmen in the ''Tuchfabriken"^ owned by the Pro- 
 gressionist Representative Reichenheim a State regulation of the 
 labor question. From the "Tuch (fabriken" of Reichen) heim 
 to Tuehheim appears to be a short step in Spielhagen 's manner 
 of giving names. At all events, this deputation hails from that 
 district in Silesia where in the spring of 1844 the weavers pre- 
 pared their uprising, ' ' the blood- judgment ' ' which a few months 
 later was suppressed with great bloodshed. Following his prin- 
 ciple of using models the novelist places this revolutionary event 
 in the forest of Thuringia, the beautiful country which he loved 
 from the moment he saw it.^ Tuskj^'s revolt is, then, but the 
 poetical expression of the rising of the Silesian weavers. Lassalle 
 was just leaving for Berlin when it was being prepared, but it 
 had acquainted him with its problems of social distress.* So Leo 
 is only a spectator in the revolt which his friend has aroused. 
 
 But while Leo has already been informed by his teacher of the 
 great gap existing between the rich and the poor and of the 
 power of capital, it was only after the rising of the Silesian 
 weavers that Marx impressed it on Lassalle. For it was Marx, 
 who saw clearly in its very beginning the difference between the 
 bourgeois and proletarian, that taught his disciple the impor- 
 tance of the working classes and introduced to him the doctrines 
 of socialism. Leo is enormously indebted to Tusky (I 514; 222). 
 But in the charmed circle of the latter he is only an impetuous 
 youth without clear aims, and this corresponds fully to the social- 
 ism of the younger Lassalle. It was of a purely Utopian kind. 
 
 1 Henning, 1. c. p. 19. 
 
 2 Brandes, 1. c. p. 161. 
 
 3 Oncken, I. c. p. 31. 
 
91 
 
 At the time of the German revolution, Lassalle was not thinking 
 of any differentiation of the third estate and when he spoke of 
 the rights of man or of the people he had the whole burgherclass 
 in mind and was not aiming to secure for the working class, as 
 such, political liberty and social uplift. Marx and his partisans, 
 on the other hand, recognized the particular interests of the pro- 
 letariat within a capitalistic-industrial society which began to 
 develop in Germany after the revolution of 1848. They imme- 
 diately set about to realize the ideas of communism. 
 
 He led Lassalle gradually into the science of pure and unadul- 
 terated socialism. It was especially Marx's "Kritik der politis- 
 chen Oekonomie" of 1857 which showed Lassalle the importance 
 of the fourth estate and convinced him that the organization of 
 the masses would convert the proletariat into a mighty force.^ 
 That is why he originally intended to start his agitation in union 
 with Marx. He felt deeply the superiority of the latter in every- 
 thing which was connected with economics. Gradually, however, 
 their relation became less intimate. It does not seem as if Marx 
 appreciated his passionate young fellow-combatant during the 
 revolution-, as Tusky does, however, and during his subsequent 
 exile^ he writes only when he wishes for something, and does not 
 comply with any request made by Lassalle. It is the latter who 
 always makes the advances. He looks up to the former and 
 adapts himself, however, without any surrender of views. He is 
 in sympathy with the hardships of the exile, and lends him 
 money, but Marx does not return his friendly feeling. He is 
 even more susceptible to the gossip of fugitives than confidence 
 in a friend should have allowed.* It was Marx's fault that their 
 correspondence came to an end in the fall of 1855, and only in 
 the spring of 1857 did Lassalle, after his return to Berlin, re- 
 sume it. 
 
 During these two years Lassalle 's life took a decided turn. The 
 legal combat with Count Hatzfeldt had ended successfully in 
 1854. The amateur lawyer received henceforth a yearly income 
 of 4000 thalers and could now devote himself to his learned 
 studies. There was at that time no possibility of realizing his poli- 
 
 1 Harms, 1. c. p. 29-30. 
 - Oncken, I. c. p. 66 ; 391. 
 3 Cp. IRuG I 338. 
 
 * Tusky knows more about Leo than the latter suspects II 595 ; cp. also 
 Tusky's letter I 323. 
 
92 
 
 tical aspirations. The issue of the Crimean War destroyed all 
 hopes that it miglit lead to a European conflagration and Lassalle 
 was tired of playing revolution. He sought permission to return 
 to Berlin to finish his Heraclitus and was at last permitted to 
 do this under police control in the spring of 1857. After a short 
 intermission, in which he was compelled to leave Berlin by order 
 of the police, he was given by decree of the Prince regent in No- 
 vember, 1859, the liberty to take up his permanent residence in 
 the capital. 
 
 The next few years were the preparation for Lassalle 's com- 
 plete break with Marx. As early as October, 1849, he had writ- 
 ten the latter that to his mind no further combat would succeed 
 which should leave the social question in the background, and ap- 
 pear mainly as a national movement, or in the garb of 
 bourgeois republicanism. He sees the guaranty of the success of 
 the democratic ideas onl}^ in their union with social problems 
 and becomes convinced that the possibility of a purely "red" 
 uprising is very slight. Like Marx he is watching, therefore, the 
 development of European affairs as the condition for a possible 
 turn favorable to their aims. But foreign affairs proved to have 
 little influence on Germany. Lassalle had new hopes when in the 
 fall of 1857 the king fell sick and the progress of his ailment 
 made a lasting regency by the Prince of Prussia unavoidable. 
 This predicted a complete change in the inner affairs of Germany, 
 and consequently Lassalle kept quiet in order not to lose his 
 chance to return into the political arena at the moment of such a 
 changed Never having detached himself from the national State 
 as Marx had done, he could call to life a social democracy, the im- 
 mediate aims of which were to conquer his native State. ^ The 
 political content of his drama points to those aspirations which 
 were qualified by the changed constellation of the New Era.^ It 
 shows its author on the point of turning from a radical idealist 
 into a realistic politician, of becoming the revolutionist who 
 strives for his last aims within the existing State. Its decisive 
 problem, the ' ' deceiving of the idea, ' ' is deeply founded in Las- 
 salle 's own nature. It is not only the problem of all revolutions, 
 but of all practical politics which longs to cling to its principles 
 but in the actual world must compromise in their execution if it 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 106 ; 75 ; 112. 
 
93 
 
 wants to see results, and Lassalle, whose whole nature demands 
 actions, must attain something.^ He conceals his ultimate aims 
 and sides with Prussian unitarians.^ 
 
 He is very different from Marx in this respect. He wishes to 
 act as politician in the State in which he was born, and which, as 
 has been said above, he did not hate with the hatred of the exile. 
 He sacrifices some republican scrupulousness, which he deems 
 only formalities, and, supported by Alexander von Humboldt, 
 addresses a petition to the Prince regent June 15, 1858, for per- 
 mission to reside permanently in Berlin. He says nothing about 
 this petition to Llarx, and this is significant. Marx would never 
 have handed in such a request, because he felt wholly interna- 
 tional. He had long ago advanced to a conception of history that 
 knew of greater developments than national states.^ He con- 
 tinued working for a revolution like Tusky (II 596-97), while 
 Lassalle had become tire of such.^ 
 
 Besides their disagreement over Sikkingen, of which, too, we 
 have spoken-, that over the Italian war contributes further to 
 their separation. Lassalle wishes Prussia to remain neutral be- 
 cause lie fears that a fight against Napoleon will strengthen the 
 ties between the king and his people and prevent any revolution- 
 ary movements. Marx, on the other hand, wants to see Napoleon 
 crushed that the French republicans may breathe again and the 
 European hearth of revolution be kindled anew. From the 
 standpoint of European liberty he sees in Austria the less for- 
 midable obstacle ; Lassalle, from the standpoint of German unity, 
 considers that reactionary country the most dangerous adver- 
 sary. His teacher has lost all feeling for the imponderables of 
 the national State. With every turn the differences in their poli- 
 tical thinking become greater." 
 
 Agreeing in their social revolutionary convictions, it is sur- 
 prising to find that there are, after all, few of Marx's thoughts 
 to be found in the writings of Lassalle till 1862, in spite of his 
 admiration for his teacher's economic work of 1857. His thoughts 
 are busy with the problem of how to put their principles into 
 practice. He longs eagerly for the long deferred beginning of 
 practical movements as against theoretical activity.* Herein his 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 130-31 ; 146 ; 144 ; 88 ; 90-91. 
 
 - Cp. above p. 66. 
 
 3 Oncken, I. c. p. 142-43 ; 152-53 : 158. 
 
 * Letter to Engels, March 21, 1859 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 373. 
 
94 
 
 thoughts differ essentially from. Marx's. It results in personal 
 animosity. Marx sees in any transaction with other social groups 
 a weakening of their principles, while his disciple defends the 
 policy of uniting as far as possible with the related groups of the 
 democratic Left.^ 
 
 Nevertheless, when William I mounted the throne, January, 
 1861, and an act of pardon permitted former fugitives to return 
 to Prussia, Lassalle asked Marx to come to Berlin. Here, dur- 
 ing the contest for power of the different political groups of the 
 kingdom, he intended to take up again the action which, because 
 of the failure of the revolution of 1848, had been cut short on 
 the Rhine, and to tear a social and democratic labor movement 
 from the wing or even from the back of the Liberal parties^ by 
 establishing a paper like the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Marx 
 came for a short stay to Berlin in the spring of 1861.^ But, hav- 
 ing lost Prussian citizenship and not being permitted by the po- 
 lice to regain it, he was prevented from standing at the side of 
 Lassalle as either friend or foe when the latter opened his new 
 political activity of the next few years. In his place Lothar 
 Bucher came to exercise a good influence on Lassale. During his 
 exile in England he had learned that only real forces govern his- 
 torical developments. With this realism gained by experience, 
 he stood now at the side of the agitator's radical idealism and 
 helped it further along on its way to political realism. It was 
 with Bucher instead of Marx that Lassalle took counsel on his 
 next political plans, which put in an appearance in his speeches 
 "Ueber den besonderen Zusammenhang der gegenwartigen Ge- 
 schiehtsperiode mit der Idee des Arbeiterstandes" on April 12, 
 1862, published later under the head-title, "Arbeiterprogramm," 
 and * * Ueber Verf assungswesen, ' ' on the 16th. He had found his 
 way and was looking for assistance. He tried to win Marx, and a 
 complete rupture of their relations was the result. Their corre- 
 spondence in 1861 on Lassalle 's System der erworbenen Rechte, 
 which did not find the expected approval of Marx with his ma- 
 terialistic understanding of history, had put their friendship to 
 further trial. In July of that year Marx ceased to continue the 
 correspondence, with the exception of a short note in the follow- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 152-54. 
 
 2 Tusky's return II 459? Cp. the time of his short note to Leo as agreeing 
 with Marx's to Lassalle in Sept.. 1861, above p. 12, below p. 94. 
 
95 
 
 iiig September, and when, in June, Lassalle answered a letter of 
 his teacher, sent at the end of April, 1862, he could tell him with 
 a manifest satisfaction what he had accomplished in the mean- 
 time and announce his impending visit to the London Exposi- 
 tion. Here, in July and August, they saw each other for the last 
 time.^ It came to a complete political and personal rupture. 
 Marx disapproved the Arbeiterprogramm and refused to work 
 with its author. He saw that his disciple had wandered too far 
 from his teacher's ideas. Indeed, at the close of 1862 Lassalle 
 showed his complete change in theory and tactics by throwing a 
 bridge to Rodbertus, the first Prussian State socialist who be- 
 lieved in a strong autocratic power which best could solve the 
 social problem, and saw, therefore, in the regulation by the State 
 of all production the necessary panacea. The only point of im- 
 portance which separated them was universal suffrage, to which 
 Rodbertus was opposed. 
 
 Spielhagen's intimate knowledge of everything which relates 
 to Lassalle is again evident when we consider the utterance by 
 Marx on the cause of his rupture with his former disciple, made 
 in 1868, i. e., after IRuG had been published. Mark blames Las- 
 salle for having allowed himself to submit to the immediate poli- 
 tical circumstances. He made, Marx writes, his opposition against 
 a dwarf like Schulze-Delitzseh, State-help against self-help, the 
 center of his agitation ; he could do this for the sake of practic- 
 ability only and had to make concessions to the Prussian mon- 
 archy, the Prussian reaction or Feudal party and even to the 
 clerical. His common suffrage is a mistake, as France shows, and 
 in not seeking the actual basis for his agitation in the real ele- 
 ments of class movement, but prescribing a certain doctrinary 
 recipe for the course of the latter, he disavowed all natural con- 
 nection with the former revolutionary movement. This utter- 
 ance gives, also, proof for Lassalle 's invitation to Marx in Lon- 
 don to place himself in union with Lassalle at the head of the 
 new movement. But Marx refusing it, Lassalle alone and by his 
 own initiative, became the leader of the German social demo- 
 cratic movement.^ 
 
 As Leo's political activity after his choosing his own way will 
 prove to correspond, in many respects, with Marx's criticism just 
 
 1 TuBky returns to England after his visit in Berlin, II 598. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 233-34. 
 
96 J 
 
 given, so, too, all the steps leading to a separation of Tusky and 
 Leo can be found in Spielhagen's representation. 
 
 If we leave aside the friendship between Tusky and Leo, which 
 is more intimate than that which ever existed between Marx and 
 Lassalle and presumably must be considered a monument to 
 Spielhagen's friendship with his strange and unhappy friend, 
 Kuschke, whose life story underlies that of Konrad Wild in * ' Ul- -' 
 timo,"^ Leo's character is just as unlike that of his teacher as 
 was Lassalle 's unlike that of Marx. It was a matter of course 
 that he should outgrow the domination Tusky was exercising 
 over him. He begins to see that the latter and his kind start 
 from the principle that the old has simply to be overthrown in 
 order to permit the new to grow of its own accord, and believes 
 this is at the best the philosophy of Titans by which the cos- 
 mos will go to ruin. Tusky 's party, moreover, always deliber- 
 ates only questions of coups de main and makes no progress 
 since it operates with unorganized forces (I 323).- Leo, while 
 listening to plans which have been discussed a hundred times, 
 determines to make an attempt of his own in some other 
 way. He becomes a realistic politician by deciding to 
 employ disciplined forces for his aims. An act of amnesty al- 
 lows him to take up his residence in the capital. This love of the 
 fatherland on the part of Leo reflects Lassalle 's desire to work in 
 his native State, even if it cannot be said that be longed to live in 
 Berlin, the great city where the destinies of the German revolu- 
 tion wero to be decided. Though, like Leo, he had given all his 
 thoughts and efforts to the revolution, his energies were now con- 
 centrated entirely on his scientific work, as documents show over 
 against the older belief of which Spielhagen makes use.'^ This 
 love compels Leo to return from abroad. Only in the fatherland 
 can something good be done, and real liberty can go out to the 
 nations only from Germany. Leo has a high opinion of his coun- 
 trymen. The liberty which he has found in England, France and 
 the United States of America is not that libertj^ which must be 
 the lot of the Germans, for over there the people cannot trace 
 premises into consequences (I 295) . His studies are the sufferings 
 
 3 Finder und Erflnder. II. 353-65 ; Henning, 1. c. p. 85. 
 
 2 Cp. Lassalle'u opinion on the organization of the masses and transactions 
 with other related groups which already have been organized, above P- 
 91 ; 94. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 92. 
 
97 
 
 of mankind, especially those of his own nation. They are connect- 
 ed with the social evils which only a great political reform, perhaps 
 only a complete revolution, can heal (I 295) wherein an agree- 
 ment with Lassalle has to be stated.' But in spite of the separa- 
 tion which has now begun, Leo keeps up a kind of connection 
 with Tusky. Whenever he undertakes an important step he tries 
 to come to an understanding with his teacher as Lassalle in all 
 his actions allows himself to be strongly influenced by Marx's 
 opinions and, whenever he is about to lay his plans, examines 
 them from his master's standpoint, as his letters show and we 
 pointed out above. ^ 
 
 2. 
 
 In contrast with the political life of Miinzer that of Leo is 
 drawn almost wholly from the historical activity of the founder 
 of German social democracj'. Even where at the first glance dif- 
 ferences seem to exist they will at a closer examination appear 
 as poetical representations of thoughts or actions which Lassalle 
 expressed or performed. 
 
 Seven years after the revolution of March — about as long as 
 Lassalle was not permitted by the police to live in Berlin — 
 Leo returns to the capital, the city where the revolution took 
 place, the battlefield on which the destinies of his people will be 
 decided. That is why he has to come here, in contrast with Las- 
 salle, who, as has just been pointed out, had other interests which 
 urged him to seek permanent residence in Berlin. But Leo comes 
 with true Lassallean faith in himself, the faith which fixes the 
 limits to his ability only in his will.^ He is sure, as of his life, 
 that he is going to wield some day the power which he needs for 
 curing the sick people, the power of bestowing liberty on them 
 (I 296, cp. 265). He proposes to make his way, and this way 
 shall lead upward. For today,as well as thousands of years ago, 
 the destinies of nations lie in the hands of the mighty (I 271) . As 
 Lassalle expresses it when he answers Marx's statement, that the 
 fall of the reactionary Sikkingen was an historical-philosophic 
 necessity, the transforming and deciding efficacy of individual 
 resolutions, not the critical-philosophic view of history, is the 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 84. 
 
 2 Cp. also Harms, 1. c. p. 64. 
 
 3 0ncken, 1. c. p. 372. 
 
98 
 
 implicit supposition for revolutionary activity, the ground for a 
 great deed.'^ 
 
 After having satisfied the police (I 253) who were intent on 
 keeping all persons with bad political records away from the 
 capital, at the time of Lassalle's endeavor to be allowed to re- 
 turn to Berlin, Leo joins the Liberals. This conforms also to the 
 history of Lassalle, who, because of the success of his Heraclitus, 
 became a member of the Philosophic Society of Berlin November 
 28, 1857, and so entered into intercourse with people belonging 
 to tlie Liberal parties while he was led, through his publisher, 
 Franz Duncker, the proprietor of the "Volkszeitung," the pa- 
 per of the Berlin lower middle class, into contact with the demo- 
 cratic wing of the Liberals. It may be said in passing that the 
 heroine of " Freigeboren " being modelled on the wife of the 
 publisher,^ with whom Spielhagen was on terms of intimate 
 friendship, is, therefore, a good authority on Lassalle, which is 
 proved also by her agreement with Oncken.'' While the Demo- 
 crat was now prevented by police super%dsion from being active 
 politically after the completion of his Heraclitus and while the 
 working class, in addition, as yet without a class spirit, were 
 marching in the train of the democrats of the Volkszeitung, the 
 time was to come when he should take an attitude towards these 
 Liberals such as Leo takes. 
 
 The king, who, in order to be a god, lacks only that immortal- 
 ity which he might have secured by resolving to become the 
 father, the benefactor of his people, by placing himself under 
 their protection, proclaiming the republic, himself its president, 
 by accomplishing great deeds, a peaceful revolution such as the 
 world never saw (I 270), has been reigning four years, but has 
 only ruined the rich inheritance of the revolution and brought at 
 an enormous expense Reaction into the country (I 271). Leo 
 finds that the Liberals exhibit no energy in their fight against 
 Reaction such as he deems necessary, nor do they do anything for 
 the solution of the social problems. Instead of re-enforcing 
 themselves from those classes from which they themselves have 
 come, they lean on the cousin of the reigning king because in 
 their contest with the reactionary government they feel that they 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 125-26. 
 
 2 Henning, 1. c. p. 136. 
 
 3 Cp. abovp p. 9. 
 
99 
 
 lose the ground under their feet (I 312). So Lassalle reproaches 
 the Progressionists for coquetting with the princes.^ For Leo 
 stands on the side of the proletariat (I 494). He distrusts the 
 Liberalism of the prince and his friendship for the people in 
 which the Liberals believe. 
 
 Dissatisfied with the compromises the Liberal parties make 
 with the party of the prince, who antagonizes the Government, 
 Leo goes his own way. An open rupture, however, does not yet 
 take place, for he differs from the Liberals only in the choice of 
 means (I 350). He writes pamphlets on the social and political 
 questions with truly Lassallean vigor: Quod medicamenta non 
 sanant, ferrum sanat, etc. (I 296), and from a lofty viewpoint 
 and with a penetration unheard of in the trite doctrines of the 
 Liberals (I 282). The new House has convened (I 285). In a 
 waA^ that recalls to mind the famous theft of the valise in the 
 Hatzfeldt affair — Leo also acknowledges his moral complicity 
 as Lassalle was accused of it (I 454; 489)- — undeniable proofs 
 of the reactionar}^ disposition of the prince fall into the hands of 
 Leo. A letter of the prince, addressed to the archenemy of all 
 European liberty, shows its writer to be a decided antagonist of 
 all constitutional governments and a cynical scoffer at the aims 
 of the Liberal parties. As Lassalle endeavored to make the Pro- 
 gressionists decline any negotiation with the Reactionaries, so 
 Leo, with the help of this letter, does his best to separate the Lib- 
 erals from their protector, and to spur them to greater activity 
 (1368). 
 
 But informing them of the contents of the letter has not the 
 intended effect, and the gap that has opened between Leo and 
 the Liberals widens. He advocates " Staatssubvention " (I 349 — 
 Lassalle 's "Staatsintervention")^ in a (progressionist) work- 
 iiigmen's union or club, which, as might be expected, arouses bad 
 feeling among the Liberals, the enthusiastic champions of self- 
 help. They work harder to regain Leo, to save his great power 
 from error, perhaps from ruin (I 385), and, although the ideol- 
 ogists among them are opposed to making further concessions to 
 the party of. the prince (I 397), they do not meet Leo's demands 
 (I 398). He sees the approach of a social revolution which will 
 
 J "Die Feste, die Presse, etc." ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 336. 
 
 2 Brandes, 1. c. p. 15. Cp. above p. 67. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 312. 
 
100 
 
 be terrible because selfishness prevents the different parties from 
 preparing to break its force (I 395)/ and because where a deeper 
 understanding of social questions exists there is impotence or 
 fear (1395). 
 
 Against the Liberals, who do nothing but talk while the people 
 starve (I 398), Leo writes at the end of winter (I 405) a pamph- 
 let, "What they ought to be and what they are" (I 427), hoping 
 to rouse them from their lethargy and show them the futility of 
 their discussions (I 433). In this pamphlet we recognize Las- 
 salle's speech, "Ueber Verf assungswesen, " of April 16, 1862, in 
 which he calls on the unorganized forces of the Prussian social 
 body to enter with a democratic program into the fight of Might 
 against Right.- Leo's pamphlet creates the greatest sensation in 
 the political circles of the capital (I 416). No one before has 
 brandished with such mastery the lash of sarcasm.^ The capital- 
 ists see that Leo intends to make use of the labor question, which 
 at the present stands in the foreground, to push himself into tlie 
 highest political spheres, while he works openly against them as 
 the respresentatives of a moderate Liberalism, read}' for conces- 
 sions to the Government or the princely party (I 425). 
 
 But the pamphlet has, after all, just as little effect as the in- 
 formation given about the letter of the prince. Leo is now con- 
 vinced that the Liberals are not acting honestly towards the peo- 
 ple and sees that he must over-ride them (I 398). But his pamph- 
 let means an open quarrel with the Liberal party (I 425). Leo 
 sees that the pack have felt his lash,^ but he still determines to 
 chastize them with scorpions (I 427). In contrast with Tusky, 
 he plans, however, not only to tear down, but to build up. His 
 old teacher has warned him by letter against any attempt witli 
 the Liberals* or with the monarchy, although Leo, says lie, finds 
 here the power which he respects above all. Between these tv/o 
 on the one hand, and the revolutionary radicals on the other, no 
 alliance is possible. But Leo has learned (I 181) that he who 
 will accomplish something must also will the means (I 325) and 
 resolves, after his ill success with the Liberals, to make a trial 
 with the monarch V. 
 
 1 "Die indirekte Steuer, ets.," Oncken, 1. c. p. 3G9. Cp. above p. 84. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 214. 
 
 3 Preigeboren, p. 289 ; 288. 
 
 * Cp. above p. 94. Marx is opposed to transactions with related social groups, 
 over against Lassalle. 
 
101 
 
 Such a trial is all the more tempting as the labor question 
 stands in the foreground. While the House is in session (in the 
 same old humdrum way), disturbances break out in the spring 
 (of 1858) in the district of Tuchheim, where, after the rising of 
 1844, factories have been built. Leo sees that Tusky's friends 
 have well prepared the ground during the past years. He will 
 make use of these disturbances, for he sees that his time is ripe. 
 He now feels the power in him to give the movement that direc- 
 tion he pleases: "Anvil or hammer! there is no third way" 
 ( I 434) . Since nature and circumstances have made him a lonely 
 man, even as Lassalle counted himself among the "ohnehin so 
 Vereinsamten " who defend the poor^ so Leo will not march in 
 rank and file with the Liberals, but bring to life in his own way 
 what he first dreamt and then knew to be real (I 439 ; cp. I 542). 
 He does not want to come to an understanding with the ideolog- 
 ists, which he is asked to do in a rejoinder of the Liberals (I 433) , 
 a situation which reflects perhaps a judgment on Lassalle by the 
 democratic Volkszeitung of January, 1863." They fight their bat- 
 tles always in the pure ether of thought and their blows, there- 
 fore, are wont to strike the empty air. These, sentimentalists as 
 they are, intend to do great things, but allow themselves to be 
 turned from their paths by private considerations. The anguish 
 of soul with which he himself has successfully contended for lib- 
 erty gives him the right now with cold blood and a clear head to 
 employ his means for his great aim, whatever may be the oppo- 
 sition from these visionary, good souls. He knows what sad roles 
 these play in the rough world of pitiless realties (I 434). 
 
 Leo sends out a second pamphlet — a combination of Lassalle 's 
 Arbeiterprogramm and Offenes Antwortsehreiben — in which the 
 com7non man reads with surprise to what great things he is call- 
 ed (I 451). Hereby we are reminded of the words which Lassalle 
 addresses to the working people in his Arbeiterprogramm: "Die 
 liohe weltgeschichtliche Ehre (to be destined to have their princi- 
 ple the ruling principle of the whole social body) muss alle Ihre 
 Gredanken in Anspruch nehmen." This pamphlet causes the 
 government party to jubilate over the boldness with which Leo 
 has uncovered all defects of the Liberal parties, whereby again 
 
 1 Die indlrekte Steuer, etc. ; Kapital und Arbeit ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 356 ; 348 ; 
 cp. below p. 121. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 244. 
 
102 
 
 we are reminded of Lassalle, whose Offenes Antwortschreiben, 
 with its attacks on the Progressionists as the self-styled cham- 
 pions of the labor interests, called forth the joy of the Govern- 
 ment and the party of the *Zeitung (I 452). At the same time 
 the letter of the prince is published in foreign papers and shows 
 the man on whom the Liberals secretly have founded their hopes 
 to be a genuine reactionary, a despotic character (I 452). The 
 publication creates the greatest stir and consternation, and only 
 the young king is happy over the general confusion from which 
 he is in hopes to come forth as the savior of his people. Tt con- 
 tributes to make him curious to meet Leo. 
 
 Leo founds a new workingmen's union of his own, in which he 
 teaches his partisans the need of using the State in their behalf 
 (I 454), The strike in Tuchheim has been brought about by now 
 factory regulations of a rigorous character. In consequence of 
 the establishment of mills, the poverty which formerly was pre- 
 valent there and in the neighboring villages has taken another 
 still more disheartening form instead of decreasing. The mills 
 are prosperous, but the capitalists, the extortioners, lower the 
 wages (I 461-62). Leo stirs the fire to harm also in the eyes of 
 the rest of the nation, the Liberal parties among whom the capi- 
 talists occupy prominent positions (I 483). The Left decide to 
 make a motion in the House in the interest of labor in order to 
 regain the ground they have lost (I 500). In view of this pos- 
 sible help, and because of the writings of Leo, and his interces- 
 sion with the Baron von Tuchheim in urging him to declare pub- 
 licly that the regulations have been made by the capitalists — 
 the principal among them is the banker Sonnenstein=Leonor 
 Reichenheim V — against his will, the workmen in Tuchheim be- 
 lieve that there are still people left with hearts good to the poor. 
 As a result of the last general workingmen's meeting- they send 
 a deputation to the capital to win some more influential men, es- 
 pecially among the members of the House, since without help 
 they must either submit or use violence, as their resources are 
 exhausted. If they should learn that there could be no help at 
 that moment they are resolved to be satisfied, provided that they 
 are promised that their cause will be espoused earnestly, vigor- 
 ously and with all means possible (I 506). The deputation, how- 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 90 ; below p. 105. 
 
 2 Cp. below p. 104. 
 
103 
 
 ever, have seen that they need an intelligent, well-meaning man 
 to help them with counsel and deed in the large city and to be- 
 come, as it were, their attorney. They think at once of Leo, who 
 ])y his writings has shown them how close to his heart is the cause 
 of the laboring class, and, having grown up among them, is truly 
 their foreman (I 506). 
 
 We have already spoken of the deputation from the Silesian 
 weaving district, who had an audience with King William I in 
 May, 1864\ In Wiiste-Giersdorf in Silesia was a cotton mill 
 ^vhich had been the property of the State till 1848. It was then 
 sold cheaply to the Progressionist deputy Leonor Reichenheim 
 by the Liberal Minister, Hansemann, who, as Lassalle says in his 
 Ronsdorf speech of May 23, 1864, of course, found it incompat- 
 ible with the principles of Liberalism that the State should be a 
 manufacturer. The workingmen of that mill, he continues, con- 
 tend in their petition that they were always in comfortable cir- 
 cumstances and humanely treated so long as the mill was State 
 property, but that since 1858 they have come into such distress 
 that they have decided to send a petition and deputation to the 
 king.- As the deputation of Tuchheim comes in the spring (of 
 1858)^, we have here evidently the deputation from Reichenheim- 
 Wiiste-Giersdorf . But Spielhagen has combined with it a depu- 
 ration which came to Lassalle and helped him to make history. 
 
 The Silesian deputation knew nothing of his Arbeiterverein 
 and his writings when they turned to the king. But, as he him- 
 self says in his Ronsdorf speech, before they were admitted to an 
 audience, they addressed Lassalle also with the confession : ' ' Only 
 the State can help us — in the hands of the manufacturers we 
 are lost." Their petition to, and audience with, the king stood in 
 no connection with Lassalle 's agitation. But his Arbeiterpro- 
 gramm, with its magnificent defense of the all-embracing task 
 and duty of the modern State, his trials and speeches in his de- 
 fense had drawn the eyes of other workmen on him. What Las- 
 salle proclaimed was something different from the eternal song 
 of the Progressionists, who apparently saw no misery among the 
 labor classes. A German workingmen 's congress was being plan- 
 ned after the London Exhibition of 1862, but the project found 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 90. 
 
 2 Oncken. 1. c. p. 407. 
 
 3 Cp. in regard to chronology I 478 ; 506. 
 
m 
 
 104 
 
 no encouragement with the Progressionists of Berlin, where at a 
 meeting in November, representatives also of the Leipzig labor 
 interests appeared. Indeed, the Liberals were opposed to a poli- 
 tical emancipation of the workmen and treated accordingly the 
 representatives of the Leipzig labor classes when they again came 
 to Berlin in Jainiary. 1863. What the political leaders of the 
 Liberal parties failed to do Lassalle did. In his speech of Jan. 
 16, 1863, "Die Wissenschaft mid die Arbeiter," he had again un- 
 furled his flag. At the end of this month a friend led to him the 
 Leipzig representatives, who had applauded his Arbeiterpro- 
 gramm, and the result was that on Feb. 11, 1863, the Central 
 Committee of the Leipzig (Progressionist) Bildungsverein asked 
 him to express his opinion "iiber die Arbeiterbewegung und iiber 
 die Mittol, deren sie sich zu bedienen habe, um die Verbesserung 
 des Arbeiterstandes in politischer, materieller und geistiger Be- 
 ziehung zu erreichen, sowie besonders iiber den Wert der Asso- 
 ziationen fiir die gauze unbemittelte Volksklasse." Lassalle is- 
 sued March 1, 1863, his ''Offenes Antwortschreiben an das Zen- 
 tralkomitee zur Berufung eines allgemeinen deutschen Arbeiter- 
 kongresses zu Leipzig" (Ziirich 1863), and gave thus the im- 
 pulse to the founding of the Allgemeine deutsche Arbeiterverein 
 May 23, 1863. Over against the free individual associations 
 which tlie bourgeois, tlie Progressionists, believed to be the best 
 means for solving the social problems of the working classes, Las- 
 salle points out that State-help is ''das einzige Mittel, um die 
 materielle Lage des Arbeiterstandes zu verbesseren." It would 
 seem that the novelist intentionally speaks of a general working- 
 men's meeting in Tuchheim (I 506)^ in analogy with this gen- 
 eral German workingmen's congress to which Lassalle proposed 
 his means for the improvement of the labor classes, as Leo does 
 to the Tuchheim deputation. 
 
 The dream of his childhood and of his years of exile that he 
 might some day be asked to become the tribune of his people in 
 their fight against their oppressors has become true. He sees by 
 the request of his old friends that he has not worked in vain 
 ( I 507 ) . Lassalle, in a letter of September, 1860, states that he 
 has devoted, at the risk of his life,- his whole existence to a sacred 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 102. 
 
 2 Oneken, 1. c. p. 190 ; cp. above p. 26. 
 
.105 
 
 cause, tlie cause of the people, in its furthest consequences, affirm- 
 ing what he had written July 19, 1841, in his diary. Two years 
 later he could write that, having formed a new partj-- in Ger- 
 many which had a political importance and represented a foree,^ 
 he had not worked in vain since political interest had awaked 
 rgain in the hearts and the life of the people^. So Leo is con- 
 scious that he has not become faithless to the oath of his youth. 
 Therefore, he must tell the deputation that their welfare lies only 
 with the monarchy. He tries to convince them that the bour- 
 geois, the party of almighty capital and wicked, unrestrained ex- 
 tortion of the working classes is that part of the House in which 
 they put all tlieir hopes. It is not the powerless nobility nor the 
 crumbling church which resist their demands for an existence 
 worthy of man. Their tormentor and extortioner, the owner of 
 the mills in Tuchheim, the banker Sonnenstein, is a very influen- 
 tial member of the Liberal party (I 508). Leo singles out Son- 
 nenstein just as Lassalle had directed his attacks at Leonor Reich- 
 enheim, who used to speak eloquently in the House as the Repre- 
 sentative of the people, but behaved, like other manufacturers, 
 vern' unsoeiallj" in his mills at Wiiste-Giersdorf and dismissed 
 those of his workmen who had had the audience with the king in 
 Ma.v, 1864. The name Reichenheim would seem to be Jewish, and 
 Baron von Sonnenstein is of Jewish descent. Both having a cor- 
 responding position in history and in the novel, Leonor Reichen- 
 heim may be stated to have been the model for the drawing of 
 the banker Sonnenstein. Perhaps we may go a step further and 
 say that a part of his first name has furnished Spielhagen with 
 the name for his hero in IRuG, the more so, as "Leo" also re- 
 minds us of Lassalle, as we pointed out above'', and the whole 
 then may be a symbol expressing Lassalle fighting against capi- 
 talism as represented in Leonor Reichenheim. However this may 
 be, Leo tells the deputation that there are only two ways open to 
 them : a revolution from below which, because of being hopeless, 
 would only put them under a heavier yoke, or, as neither 
 the House nor the bourgeois party can or will help the working 
 class, the revolution from above, which springs from the power 
 destined to serve the people.* The king is the only one who by 
 
 J Oncken, 1. c. p. 234. 
 
 2 Ansprache an die Arbeiter Berlins of Oct., 1863 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 388. 
 
 '■' Cp. above p. 13. 
 
 * Cp. above p. 84 ; 100. 
 
106 
 
 breaking the fetters of capital can help the laboring class. The 
 monarchy has broken the yoke of feudalism; it must and can 
 break that of capitalism before it disappears from among the po- 
 litical formations and means of educating mankind/ A republi- 
 can tendency is spreading in Europe, but as natural, so political 
 formations develop according to strict laws and only gradually — 
 Lassalle's evolution.^ (I 510). If monarchy does not want to 
 help the workingman, he can have the recourse to revolution at 
 any time. Leo forsees that the House is going to do nothing for 
 the labor interests at the approaching meeting. If he mistakes 
 not, the deputation may return to counsel further with him. 
 
 Some time ago he had seen himself in his dreams as the ruler 
 of the ruler (I 431). The advice he has given the deputation has 
 spontaneously led him to a clearer understanding of his own fu- 
 ture conduct (I 511). He has decided to attempt to rescue the 
 modern "poor Konz" with the help of the monarchical State. 
 As Lassalle, by founding the Allgemeine deutsche Arbeiter- 
 verein, shows himself a realistic politician who rightly judges 
 the active forces of the State, and comes to terms with them by 
 taking them into his service, so Leo henceforth engages in purely 
 practical politics. He works to become in the shortest possible 
 time a power within the State as it is, for only with power can 
 the individual do much for the ailments of the State (I 296) ; 
 he struggles to compel the State to interest itself in the working 
 people and with all the means at his disposal, to imbue the rul- 
 ing powers with the idea of the labor question.^ 
 
 But this task is harder than he has imagined. He had begun, 
 with fire in his soul, his political activity after having ex- 
 perienced the dissatisfaction of Lassalle in 1861* of being con- 
 demned to inactivity, and now, after having formed his own 
 party, he meets with no success. He has the same experience as 
 Lassalle, who finds it the greatest difficulty in Progressionist 
 Berlin, to be heard by the workmen, and labors here in vain.^ 
 Lassalle's Berlin club had, in Dec. 1863, 200 members, the fol- 
 lowing February only 35, and is soon dissolved like Leo's 
 
 1 Cp. Degenfeldt-Fichte-Lassalle's demands for education by a despot for lib- 
 erty, above p. 66. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 84 ; 86. 
 
 3 Harms, 1. c. p. 61-63. 
 * Oncken, 1. c. p. 191. 
 
 5 Oncken, 1. c. p. 391. 
 
107 
 
 (I 545; II 345), and the progress of the Arbeiterverein was a 
 continual disappointment to its founder. In his belief in the 
 compelling force of the idea, he knew the labor question not so 
 much from practice as from books, and did not know nor live 
 with the workmen.^ He remained always the grand seignior. 
 He finds the apathy of the masses enough to drive him to de- 
 spair, forgetting that outside of his writings he had done little 
 for his agitation. Thus his calls for recruits, sent out into the 
 world at the expense of almost superhuman force, were lost or 
 met with very little success. His disappointment appears very 
 clearly reflected in Leo 's. 
 
 The vote of the House on the labor motion having been adverse, 
 Leo, to redeem the word with which he has pledged himself and 
 his future to the deputation from Tuchheim, does his best that 
 they might have an audience with the king. But he fails; his 
 indifferent friends do nothing for him, and his enemies make 
 the audience impossible (I 517-18; 540). The Liberal papers 
 condemn his role of protector in the matter of the labor deputa- 
 tion (I 539), as Lassalle's action of sending his Offenes Antwort- 
 schreiben was termed unheard of by the papers of the Progres- 
 sionists, and likewise the private character of Leo is placed un- 
 der suspicion (I 539). By some he is directly called an instru- 
 ment of reaction (I 543 ; cp. II 565), as Lassalle was said to stand 
 secretly in its service, in order to arouse the suspicion of the 
 working people against him. Leo has also the same cause for 
 complaint, which Lassalle voices a short time after the found- 
 ing of his workmen's union, when he says everything would be 
 better if the working people had done their duty, but his ene- 
 mies had been more active than his friends.^ 
 
 Leo is convinced now that the load, he intended to move, re- 
 
 > & 
 
 mams unmoved. The immense Avork he has done, during the 
 past weeks, has been to no purpose. He will attend yet a meet- 
 ing of his union which he has called, voice once more his convic- 
 tion that the poor, ignorant people cannot attain welfare and 
 education through their own strength and effort, and then leave 
 town. But he does not think of giving up politics altogether. 
 He is for the moment discouraged at not having the power for 
 
 1 Cp. Leo I 350 ; Preigeboren, p. 298. 
 
 2 Brandes, 1. c. p. 162. 
 
108 
 
 an effective public activitj'^, like Lassalle, who writes to the Coun- 
 tess Hatzfeldt, July 28, 1864 ; " . . . Ich wiinsche nichts sehn- 
 licher als die ganzc Politik los zu werden . . . Ich bin der Politik 
 miide und satt . . . Zwar, ich wiirde so leidenschaftlich wie je 
 fur sie entflamraen . . . wenn ich die Macht hatte oder ein 
 Mittel sahe sie zu erobern - ein sololies, das sich fiir mich schickt.^ 
 denn ohne hochste Macht lasst sich nichts machen?" Leo's 
 plans having miscarried in the capital, he feels he must use more 
 forceful means now from another center (cp. II 160-61). He 
 has attempted to make peace with his opponents, but now war 
 shall rage henceforth between him and the Liberals, the falsi- 
 fiers of truth ( I 543 ) . So he speaks at the meeting of his union, 
 in a Lassallean manner, of the right without truth which rules, 
 and uses likewise the means which Lassalle considers as simple, 
 as unfailing, the teaching of that which is (I 548).- His enemies 
 create a disturbance, Leo is arrested. 
 
 Through the intercession with the king by some relatives, he 
 is freed after three days — Lassalle, after a meeting of Nov. 2, 
 1863, had been broken up, was arrested when he delivered 
 another speech Nov. 22, 1863, and was freed on bail after three 
 days.^ Leo is then granted a meeting with the ruler* M'ho wants 
 to see the man who has aroused his interest by the publication of 
 the letter of the prince and has caused him delight at the discom- 
 fort of his hated cousin (II 73). Leo makes a deep impression on 
 him by proposing a Volkskonigtum, a kinghood based on the peo- 
 ple, as the best means for the solution of the existing social prob- 
 lems (II 136-37). The Radicals (Marx and friends?) have been 
 so much agitated over the labor question and yet make as little 
 progress as the Liberals, who likewise draw their strength only 
 from this ground. Both parties are the parasites with which the 
 State suffers. The physician, Leo, can remove them, that it may 
 gain an unhoped for strength. For ever since he has been able to 
 think, he has pondered over the solution of this task, and is sure 
 he has considered all its important points. The king must, 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 12. 
 
 2 "Was nun?'" Zurich 1863. Cp. below p. 128 ; 139. 
 ." Cp. Oncken, 1. c. p. 391. 
 
 4 Social democratic historians think that influential friends, perhaps the 
 Countess Hatzfeldt, brought about the meeting between Lassalle and Bis- 
 marck. The latter, however, has denied this, cf. Oncken 1. c. p. 322. It 
 would seem as if Spielhagen in creating these relatives who intercede for 
 Leo has thought of similar attempts to explain Lassalle's entering into 
 intercourse with Bismarck. But cp. below p.l41 S. 
 
109 
 
 under Leo 's guidance, take the labor problem into his own hands 
 (II 139). 
 
 Leo finds employment in the private office of the ruler, and is 
 enabled, by his purse, to buy the Tuchheim mills, and to try on 
 them his socialistic doctrines (II 251). Soon after, he writes an 
 expert opinion on the possibilitj^ and usefulness of establishing, 
 with the help of the State, similar institutions in all parts of the 
 country (II 320). So, also Lassalle endeavored to prove, in his 
 Frankfurt speech of May 17, 1863, the possibility of his 
 Produktivgenossenschaften or co-operative societies, the finan- 
 cing of which, to his mind, could be done with 100 million 
 thalers, a sum which the Prussian State might easily raise for 
 such a highly important purpose.^ Leo's next move is to win the 
 public over to his new doctrines (II 320), as the General German 
 Workingmen 's Union was to win public sentiment for its aim of 
 establishing common, equal, and direct suffrage in a legal and 
 peaceful way,- that the next House — he is said to have dictated 
 the message with which the last House was closed (II 220) — 
 might grant the means needed for opening similar institutions in 
 all parts of the country. 
 
 The king overwhelms him with evidences of his favor. But 
 Leo's position is considered very unsafe bj^ his friends, or by 
 those who hope to gain something by his present influence over 
 the ruler, because he has made many enemies, and the king can- 
 not be trusted on account of his inconstancy. The king is not the 
 rock on which Leo can build his church (II 378). This reminds 
 us of the words Lassalle addressed to the workmen in his Ar- 
 beiterprogramm : "Sie sind der Fels, auf welchem die Kirche 
 der GegenM'art gebaut werden soll."^ Leo desires no position in 
 the new Cabinet which is forming, because he does not wish to 
 be lost among the crowd. His ambition is not to enrich the 
 State by an official (II 283). But in order to be able to com- 
 mand — for the masses cannot govern themselves ; they must be 
 governed, but it would be hard for one individual to do this 
 (II 284) — he is advised to make sure of support from what- 
 ever source he can, above all, to march first in rank and file with 
 the army of officials (II 283), to build up family connections 
 
 1 Arbeiterlesebuch, Frankfurt, 1863 ; Oncken, 1. e. p. 315. 
 - Die indirekte Steuer, etc. Oncken, 1. c. p. 368. 
 3 Cp. below p. 133. 
 
■^r^m 
 
 110 
 
 (II 287), and to accept the patent of nobility the king offers 
 him (II 330). He is also asked, out of deference to the romantic 
 make-up of the king, to join the church (II 332). He perceives 
 the wisdom of these advices; he looks for a wife who can cloak 
 his low descent with her old nobility (II ^19). He becomes vice- 
 president of a church association composed of people of the 
 highest classes, after he has defended the cause of nobility and 
 church (II 356) ; he makes up his mind to accept the knight- 
 hood (II 346). 
 
 But all this is of no avail. Because of his position to the ques- 
 tion of how the kingdom should act in the war which has broken 
 out between a friendly power (Austria) and two Southern States 
 (Italy and France), Leo incurs a still greater enmit}' from the 
 princely party. They are ready to join the friendly power be- 
 cause they see that the moment has arrived to procure the king- 
 dom: that influential position which is its due, and to place after 
 a doubtlessly successful war, the prince on the throne, and make 
 him the protector of the German empire (II 417). Leo, on the 
 other hand, tries to dissuade the king from giving up neutrality, 
 and writes an expert opinion for him on the political situation 
 (II 465) — Lassalle's pamphlet "Der italieuische Krieg und die 
 Aufgabe Preussens, etc." The party of the prince does its best 
 to counteract his influence. That they may have their way, 
 Leo must fall. The complainants are too much for the king. He 
 calls his favorite, bidding him to quiet those who are dissatisfied 
 with the king's attitude at the defeat of the friendly power, the 
 news of which has just arrived (II 442). Leo endeavors to con- 
 vince the king that the only way to free himself of all troubles is : 
 Abolition of slavery, i. e. annihilation of the proletariat in the 
 free State of the future which, by connnand of the ruler, will at 
 once be made the present (II 487). Such a command would not 
 bring about a rising of all Europe against the king as the latter 
 fears. For the interests of the nations are in solidarity. Luther 
 broke with the hammer with which he nailed his theses to the 
 door of the court church at Wittenberg, the doors of all protest- 
 ant churches on the globe. Let the king speak the word for 
 which mankind has been waiting — and he has freed not only 
 Germany but the whole world. Such confidence was Lassalle's, 
 when he published his Offenes Antwortschreiben, as he confesses 
 
Ill 
 
 in a letter of March 8, 1863, He had hoped that it would have 
 an effect like those 95 theses which Luther once fastened to the 
 court church in Wittenberg.^ Leo declares himself ready and 
 able to form a new Cabinet. The king asks three days time .for 
 reflection, but no sooner has Leo left him than he makes peace 
 with the war party and drops his former favorite. The socialis- 
 tic experiments of the latter have failed ; violent acts and murder 
 take place in the mills. Leo, like Lassalle, falls in a duel, which 
 is more of a private than a political nature. 
 
 While thus the political activity of Leo appears at every de- 
 cisive step to be built upon, and also in the general chronological 
 order to agree with, the history of Lassalle 's life, there are a 
 number of correspondences to be found under the epic dress 
 with which the novelist has clothed them, especially in the ac- 
 tivity of Leo after his meeting the king. Some of them serve the 
 purpose of characterization rather than narration. While all of 
 them, because of their disconnection, might find the most fitting 
 place for their explanation in a commentary, we will consider 
 them here, by grouping them under the heads of Leo's position 
 towards the Liberal parties, his quest of means for improving the 
 economic conditions of the working classes, and lastly, his con- 
 nection with monarchy and church. 
 
 Leo turns away from the radical revolutionary propaganda 
 and, as champion of the proletariat, takes his position beside the 
 Liberal parties. He aims to imbue them with a new spirit and 
 then to bring about a coalition with the labor classes (I 323). It 
 is thus the Arbeiterangelegenheit, the labor question, to which 
 Leo's political activity is above all devoted. His relation to the 
 Liberals depends on their attitude toward this pressing ques- 
 tion. As the example of Lassalle has served for the description 
 of Leo's political activity, so his Progressionist adversaries have 
 stood model for the drawing of the Liberals in IRuG, in a quali- 
 fied sense, however. For although Spielhagen places the events of 
 his story only about five years earlier than Lassalle 's epoch- 
 making activity, and although the thoughts for which the Liber- 
 
 3 Harms, 1. c. p. 49 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 277. 
 
112 
 
 als of the sixties fought, had, in part, been active for centuries, 
 we hear nothing of the Prussian Constitutional Conflict over the 
 army bill introduced in the House of Representatives in 1860, a 
 conflict which was to create the Progressionist party, Lassalle's 
 chief political opponents. While the bill was favored by the 
 Liberals as an increase of Prussian power for international 
 emergencies, it meant at the same time, because of some of its 
 features, an immense strengthening of the power of the crown. 
 It represented also tendencies in contrast with those which were 
 developing in the House and among the people — a situation re- 
 flected, perhaps, in IRuG, in the opposition of the Liberals 
 to the conservative-reactionary tendencies of the princely 
 part.y. To escape from tliis dilemma the Liberals sought 
 to weaken the reactionary sides of the bill, and when they 
 dfd not succeed a group of them formed the Progressionist 
 party, distinguishing themselves henceforth from the Old- 
 Liberals, not by principle, but by their tactics and fixity of 
 purpose/ This difference Spielhagen seems to have transferred, 
 in a different sense, however, to Leo and his Liberal opponents, 
 who also differ from one another only in the choice of their 
 means, as we have seen. While the Old-Liberals tried to lead 
 the crown back into the moderate ways of the New Era, the Pro- 
 gressionists set their minds on subjecting the crown to the 
 House. That is, they sought to procure for Liberalism and the 
 middle class the leading position in a fight to the finish against 
 the ruling class, thus aiming to take hold again of the helm lost 
 in the fall of 1848, while placing the national interests in a 
 secondary position. But the king, who, as prince, like the middle 
 class, had been opposed to the reaction of the fifties, and in Oct. 
 1858, had lent a hand to a constitutional regime, could 
 not continue surrendering one piece after the other of the 
 power entailed upon him, he could not agree to the re- 
 moval of the strong props of the State organized in the army of 
 military and officials for all the love of freemen with their im- 
 perious claims in a share of government. The army bill only 
 exposed an opposition of long standing ; at the bottom of the 
 Conflict lay the political contest for power between crown and 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 51-53. 
 
113 ., 
 
 parliament.^ This Conflict of extraordinary historical import- 
 ance which outlived Lassalle gave him the occasion to throw the 
 workmen, a decisive factor, as he believed, into the balance, and 
 what interests us here especially, gave the Progressionists their 
 peculiar character as contrasted with Liberalism in general. 
 Furthermore, when Lassalle returned to Berlin, he found the 
 people very little "entmonarchisiert", as he writes, and without 
 class spirit, following the leadership of the middle class demo- 
 cracy; represented in the " Volkszeitung. "^ There was hardly 
 any labor question when he entered the political arena in April, 
 1862. When his historical importance has rightfully found its 
 reflection in Leo's raising this labor question, the novelist, both 
 in DvH and in IRuG, contrary to history, proceeds to apply the 
 economic problems of the workingmen to the whole country 
 in the manner of Marx and his friends. Spielhagen's 
 characterization of the Liberals, therefore, hardly presents 
 a complete picture of the adversaries of Lassalle and — Bis- 
 marck, nor were the ruling powers against which the so- 
 cialistic Democrat started his war, as soon as he could again be 
 active politically, the reactionary whom Leo finds upon his re- 
 turn to the capital. Reaction as actually opposed to the Pro- 
 gressionists is overdrawn in IRuG by party-political prejudice,^ 
 in that it does not appear as the expression of a Government 
 which was working to solve the German question. 
 
 At the head of the State, when Leo enters the political arena^ 
 stands a young, highly talented king, susceptible to new ideas 
 (II 164; 262), endowed with an incredibly vivid imagination 
 and of a vanity, which promises to make him the tool of any one 
 who knows how to persuade him to be a reformer (I 77). A 
 romanticist who would favor the reintroduction of the worship 
 of the saints (II 374), an enthusiast in art (II 89), religious, and 
 yet not free from moral failings (II 31 ; 536), inconstant, capric- 
 ious, full of contradictions (II 89; 81; 97), animated by the 
 vain desire to be the doer of his deeds (I 77), the spoil of the 
 combat between the spiritualist and the materialist in him 
 (II 81), he is the representative of the kingdom "by the grace 
 of God. ' ' Instead of bringing the revolution to a peaceful com- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 195 ff. 
 
 2 Oncken. 1. c. p. 154-55 ; 104. 
 8 Henning, 1. c. p. 198. . 
 
114 
 
 pletion, he has called reaction back into his country (I 270), be- 
 cause of the solidarity of dynastic interests (I 519). The arbi- 
 trariness of the police, the rule of bureaucratic satraps (I 257;- 
 253) deprive life and freedom of the necessary air (I 248-49). 
 The home is no longer the citizen's castle (II 205; 402). The 
 right of assembling is abolished (II 402) and the press laws are 
 applied against tendencies deemed dangerous to the community 
 or as revolting against divine and human regime (I 411; 434). 
 The king himself is not free from despotism, and sneers at the 
 constitutional State (II 25), with the state's attorney as the al- 
 mighty man, and at the paragraphs of the Constitution which re- 
 strict the liberty of royal actions (II 29). He mocks at his re- 
 sponsible ministers who, through lack of intelligence, will end 
 by bringing the so-called Constitution into such ill repute (II 30) 
 that the people will at last be glad to be ruled by the king him- 
 self. 
 
 Very little love exists between the ruler and his ministry on 
 the one hand, and his cousin and his party on the other (II 73;- 
 392). The prince who, to all appearances, will soon ascend the 
 throne, contends against the party of the responsible Government 
 for the deciding influence in the State. The organ of his party 
 is the reactionary *Zeitung (Kreuzzeitung) (II 93). He will not 
 interest himself in the labor question but leave it to the intelli- 
 gent king, for, once and for all, he will have nothing to do with 
 the rabble; he wants no government by the riffraff. He regrets 
 sufficiently to have made concessions to the Liberals (I 500). 
 
 While it is evident that the young king who dies in the eighth 
 year of his reign (II 603; 615) has been given many traits of 
 Frederick William IV, although the latter at the return to the 
 capital of Leo-Lassalle, was about 60 years of age, it is difficult 
 to recognize in his cousin the later emperor William I. It is true 
 he had been called the "Erzfeind aller Volksrechte", and had 
 attracted the hatred of a large part of the German people by 
 suppressing, at the head of an army, revolutionary risings in 
 1848-49. But later, in taking the reins of government, in Janu- 
 ary, 1859, he put an end to reaction, and inaugurated a Liberal 
 era, although continuing to be conservative and "altpreussiseh'*. 
 The prince in IRuG is reactionary, and Spielhagen for practical 
 
115 
 
 reasons, may not have dared to call him the archenemy of aXi 
 rights of the people, but depicts him only as being in correspond- 
 ence with the "archenemy of all European liberty" (I 368). 
 Possibly, the fact that a majority of the Prussian army, and even 
 at the bottom of his heart, the Prince-regent, William, himself, 
 favored a war with France in 1859, and the strengthening of the 
 army in the sixties find reflection in the eagerness for war of the 
 princely party, their excellent organization and their reckless of- 
 fensive attitude, as the Progressionists adversaries interpreted it 
 (II 518).^ But the characterization of the prince himself is far 
 from an accurate picture of William I; moreover, Spielhagen, 
 in modelling the prince on the later emperor would have broken 
 the principle of not introducing contemporaneous persons into 
 his novels. 
 
 For this same reason the novelist, although he felt a deep an- 
 tagonism against what appeared to him reaction, pure and sim- 
 ple, and even despotism in the new Premier of William's min- 
 istry, Bismarck, has not taken the latter as a model for the 
 Prime Minister in IRuG. Von Hey hates Leo, but Bismarck de- 
 clares Lassalle to have been one of the most intellectual and ami- 
 able men he knew, ambitious on a large scale, and energetic whom 
 he would have liked to have had for a neighbor.^ Leo, on the other 
 hand, finds in von Hey, who pursues only his own ends, no love 
 of mankind nor any glimmer of that which was and will be 
 (I 521; 517-18). But Lassalle had a ve^ different opinion of 
 Bismarck. I^ was a great admirer of the Iron Chancellor, 
 whose deep knowledge of constitutional matters he praises in 
 ''Was nun?"' and for whom he confesses to a friend to have 
 written his speech, "Die Feste, die Presse und der deutsche 
 Abgeordnetentag, etc." in Sept., 1863.* March 12, 1864, he 
 exclaims in public: " . . .so verkiinde ich Ihnen hier an 
 diesem feierlichen Orte: es wird vieUeicht kein Jahr vergehen 
 — und Herr von Bismarck hat die RoUe Robert Peels gespielt 
 und das allgemeine und direkte Wahlrecht oktroyiert ",^ and in 
 his Solingen speech of the same year, he says: "Er (Bismarck) 
 ist ein Mann, jene (the Progressionists) sind — alte Weiber."" 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 133. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 20 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 342. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 237. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 339. 
 
 5 Der Hochverratsprozess wider F. L. vor dem Staatsgerichtshofe zu Berlin, 
 etc. Berlin 1864 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 401. 
 
 « Oncken, 1. c. p. 336. 
 
116 
 
 Besides, Spielhagen well knew this admiration of Lassalle for 
 Bismarck. In " Freigeboren, " the great Democrat describes 
 with pleasure the terms on which he stands with Bismarck. He 
 sees in him his equal, perhaps at that time his only equal in Grer- 
 many (291) and applauds the Premier's army reorganization 
 with "fine", his scheme to oust Austria with "bravo" and his 
 eventual plan to establish a new German empire with "bravis- 
 simo" (293). The heroine of that novel, too, defends Bismarck. 
 He is right, she says, to break with the talkers of the Progres- 
 sionist party that his plans may not end like the Frankfurt 
 Parliament (285). As she is the spokesman of Spielhagen, it 
 may be said in this connection that the common reproach that the 
 novelist never respected the greatness of this national hero is ab- 
 solutely unfounded. Spielhagen has both, in poems and in some 
 novels, given expression to his feelings for the greatness of the 
 Iron Chancellor and enumerates him among the three greatest 
 Germans, as we have pointed out.^ This respect for the great 
 statesman, no doubt, prevented him from modelling Hey on him. 
 But if we follow the method used in his earliest works as a key, 
 we are led to the equation Hey=H (inckeld)ey, the President 
 of police of whose "white terreur" Lassalle speaks.- With Hin- 
 ckeldey he had an interview in Berlin in the spring of 1855, in 
 order to announce to him that he was going to memorialize the 
 Government for being permitted to reside again permanently in 
 the capital. In his petition, handed in thereafter, May 31, 1855, 
 Lassalle, it sounds almost ironical, seeks to win the favor of 
 Hinckeldey by holding out to him the prospect of a share in the 
 glory of his scientific work^ which he could finish only in Berlin. 
 Leo, by stirring his ambition and the promise of royal thanks, 
 tries to move Hey to receive the Tuchheim deputation (I 517-18). 
 Both petitions are denied with a few plain words (I 540). A 
 further proof that Hey was modelled on Hinckeldey may be 
 found in the duel in which his brother kills the Baron von Tuch- 
 heim (II 16), while Hinckeldy was one of the participants in a 
 famous encounter. He was shot by Hans von Rochow.^ This 
 would exactly correspond with Spielhagen 's novelistic treatment 
 of actual occurrences, as we have shown, in his use of Lassalle 's 
 duel.* 
 
 1 Am Wege, p. 84 ; Henning, 1. c. p. 215 t. ; 217. Cp. above p. 10. 
 
 2 Die Feste, etc., p. 3 ; cp. Brandes, 1. c. p 70. 
 
 3 Cp. Oncken, 1. e. i>. 90. 
 
 4 Cp. above p. 15-16. 
 
 » Cp. R. M. Meyer, 1. c. I p. 337. 
 
117 
 
 The reactionary ruling powers, represented by the king and his 
 government on the one hand, and by the prince and his follow- 
 ers on the other, are based on an upper stfi^um of society which, 
 in their morality and intellectuality (I 3087^40; 347; 294; 276;- 
 494, etc.), are a new edition of the upper classes, which Spiel- 
 hagen, in his party-political prejudice,^ painted in DvH. While 
 in this novel the representatives of the church are on the whole 
 irreproachable morally, those in IRuG preach of Christian love 
 and mercy, but live not by their words (I 56-57 ; 60 ; II 172, etc.) ■ 
 They use religion only as a means for governing the rabble 
 (I 115; 127, etc.), and are dishonest in money matters, and im- 
 moral in their relation to women (II 525). Notwithstanding, 
 they know in their famOtis sermons how to report much of the 
 deputies of the devil (I 351). This leads us to surmise that the 
 novelist has modelled Urhan, the Privy Counselor of the Con- 
 sistorial Court (if we leave aside his immoralities) on the court 
 preacher Hoffmann, who, under Frederick William IV, contin- 
 ued as an ally of reaction the work which the followers of the 
 famous orthodox theologian Hengstenberg had begun when, in 
 their fear to lose their influence with king and State, they sought 
 by apocalyptic pictures to exorcize the revolution as the work of 
 the devil.- Indeed, the novelist gives an historically unimpeach- 
 able picture of the reaction which preceded the New Era. 
 
 But he shows also that the world has changed and the people 
 with it (I 246). The revolution has not been in vain; there are 
 certain results which cannot be undone. The Liberals gather 
 their forces to overcome Reaction. If the restriction, above 
 mentioned (p. 111-113), is taken into account, Spielhagen has 
 given an excellent and true picture of Liberalism as it was when 
 it could breathe again in the New Era. The great spiritual-politi- 
 cal movement, sprung from the Renaissance, and nourished by 
 identical elements through the Reformation and the Aufklarung 
 as well as through revolutions outside of Germany, with its ethi- 
 cal contents and its ideal of an individual dependent on, and re- 
 sponsible only to, himself who lives with all his talents for his 
 own perfection and the welfare of mankind — ^this movement after 
 having been repelled for a short time by the failure of the revolu- 
 
 1 Cp. Henning, 1. c. p. 198. 
 
 2 Zlegler, 1. c. p. 290. 
 
118 
 
 tion of 1848-49, takes, since the beginning of the sixties, the shape 
 of a great current gradually increasing in extent and width. The 
 representatives of this Liberalism in IRuG oppose to dependence 
 and tutelage everywhere the independence and liberty of the in- 
 dividual. To realize their ideal of a free individual they strive 
 for the removal of the barriers set up to human thinking by all 
 Christian dogmas whatsoever, and attack the established churches 
 (I 305). They fight the viri obseuri (I 384) because these re- 
 proach them with having argued away their respect for God and 
 the king (II 527). They are heretics, some of whom form free 
 congregations (I 306). They revolt against the pressure exer- 
 cised on the independence of the individual by the absolutistie 
 or bureaucratic State. They deride the Government, which name 
 the brutal police rule has assumed (I 304). They take part in 
 building the house in which freemen shall live at the side of 
 freemen (I 306), and fight tyranny in any form and under aiiy 
 circumstances, whatsoever (I 415; II 218). They oppose every 
 social distinction established by historical, legal institutions, 
 national boundaries, and race. As the Progressionists had many 
 Jewish members among them,' so the chief representative of 
 Liberalism in IRuG is a Jew by birth, but stands on intimate 
 terms of friendship with Liberal people of the old nobility. With 
 them the dress does not make the man (II 394) ; they find that 
 members of the working classes are not more uninstrueted or of 
 meaner understanding than hundreds of the highest society. 
 Class distinctions dim the purest springs of happiness, the Lib- 
 erals contend, and therefore, they in their enlightment, see in 
 work the true patent of nobility which, in contrast with that ob- 
 tained by birth, can be won only by merit, and is not exclusive 
 but aspires to receive the whole human race into its ranks 
 (II 216). And lastly they are opposed to every obstacle to an 
 unfettered, economic activity. All these Liberal ideas, however, 
 were in vogue before the Progressionists engaged in their parlia- 
 mentary contest. Spielhagen combines with them in anticipa- 
 tion, if we leave aside his own ethical idealism and the exaggerat- 
 ed position which, for Leo's sake, he has given to the represen- 
 tative of capitalism, such economic principles of the Progres- 
 sionists as were to arouse the antagonism of Lassalle. Liberalism 
 
 1 Ziegler, 1. c. p. 552. 
 
119 
 
 met the economic tendencies of the middle class just at the time 
 this class was rising by the capitalistic development. It was 
 adapted to their needs when they thought to obtain political con- 
 trol after the dawn of the New Era. It combined with the eco- 
 nomic theories of the school of free trade, the free international 
 exchange of goods and an unhampered activity in all directions. 
 It combined also with the doctrines of the neutral position of the 
 State in regard to this harmonious play of economic forces, or of 
 the restriction of its functions to the protection of person and 
 property. All these economic ideals are shared in, and cham- 
 pioned by, the Liberals in IRuG (I 349-50), But because of Spiel- 
 hagen's siding with the Progressionists we learn nothing of the 
 weak points of Liberalism, its depreciation of the historical im- 
 portance of the functions of the State in its interior life ; its con- 
 niving at the social questions of the modern proletariat by in- 
 terpreting individual liberty, to speak with Lassalle, not as a 
 right for the individual in general, but as a right of the individ- 
 ual having capital ;^ its refusal to confess that its special ideals of 
 self-help were unable to cope with these social problems, and last- 
 ly its undervaluing of the historical imponderables of religious 
 matters which made it inept and unproductive in these as it had 
 become in economics. While it was the man whom the Progres- 
 sionists fought to the best of their abilities, Bismarck, who led 
 the Prussian State to create the empire, greatly desired by them, 
 and shaped it to meet their needs, it is to Lassalle principally 
 that the credit is due of having put the knife to two of the sore 
 points of Liberalism, its conception of State and its attitude to- 
 wards the social questions. As a man of action he thereby started 
 the emancipation of the workmen from the political and eco- 
 nomic tutelage of the middle class.^ 
 
 At the time when Lassalle prepares the way for the emancipa- 
 tion of the workmen, the Progressionists are the deciding factors 
 in Prussian politics. They hold the leading position in the Par- 
 liament. So the Liberals are the dominating party in the House 
 
 1 System der erworbenen Rechte ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 183-84. Cp. above p. 74-75. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 282. 
 
120 I 
 
 when Leo returns to the capital. Both Leo's and Lassalle's rela- 
 tion to these Liberals takes the same course. 
 
 Lassalle became aware that the Progressionist party was lack- 
 ing energy and ability as compared with the conservative and re- 
 actionary, and Leo is for the same reason disappointed in the 
 Liberals. Abroad he could not explain to himself the insuflfi- 
 ciency of the means the party employed, and the inconsistency 
 in their tactics. Now he knows it is the fault of the small men 
 who pretend to be their leaders (I 310). He believes that it is 
 nonsense in politics to separate person and things. These Liber- 
 als are wretched philistines whose horizon reaches no further 
 than to the end of their noses ; empty babblers who try to cover 
 under a confused mass of words their lack of original thoughts; 
 petty critics who in their pendantry stick at the dot over an i; 
 sly sophists who know what must be done, but from a thousand 
 sordid motives take care not to speak the truth ; ambitious place- 
 hunters who join the Opposition only to use it as a step-ladder to 
 a prominent position in the ministry of State ; sports who prefer 
 a good dinner to a good law ; puffed up money bags who give no 
 farthing for a liberty* by which their stock could fall half a 
 point.^ The whole party is a political Sodom without a single 
 Lot who deserves to be saved (I 311). Especially those among 
 them who are continually mixing politics with ethics drive Leo 
 to despair. He despises them for allowing themselves to be led 
 by their conscience. They are stubborn in their unbearable purity 
 (I 312), they want to keep their hands clean, with such phrases 
 they try to still their bad conscience { I 398 ) . Honest ideologists, 
 unpractical dreamers, they make splendid speeches on the rela- 
 tion of the good and beautiful and true, and have no strength to 
 accomplish anything. They are men without characters. But 
 there are no talents without characters; men without characters 
 cannot think logically and are subject to false conclusions 
 (I 387). The Liberals, therefore, are bad trustees of the spirit- 
 ual and material treasures of the nation. They admit the com- 
 pliment of foreigners that the Germans are a nation of thinkers, 
 but display, by not realizing the identity of thinking and acting, 
 their complete bankruptcy in energy. They will admit that com- 
 pliment until the genius of the German people shall once more 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 74. 
 
121 
 
 bring forth a man who understands the relation of Right and 
 Might somewhat differently, and makes a nation of acting peo- 
 ple out of this conglomeration of apathetic dreamers (I 388). In 
 these chosen of the nation the last spark of the sacred fire died 
 out long ago. They are a caste which once perhaps was needed 
 in the development of German civilization, but has now fully 
 outlived itself. It is arrogance for them to claim to be the bear- 
 ers of German culture. This treasure which lies buried in the 
 works of the great German poets and thinkers is too heavy, too 
 solid for such hands to lift it. They have cheated the poor de- 
 luded people out of its rich inheritance. Not the slightest trace 
 of the nobleness and majesty of their spiritual ancestors can be 
 found in these miserable epigones. They have nothing of the 
 comprehensive cosmopolitism of a Goethe, the ideal pathos of a 
 Schiller, the fighting courage of a Lessing, the Protestant de- 
 fiance of a Kant. 
 
 It is evident that the author in wording Leo's accusation that 
 the Liberals are not the bearers of German culture, has thought 
 of the "melancholic meditation" at the close of Lassalle's work 
 "Herr Bastiat-Schulze von Delitzsch, der okonomische Julian 
 oder Kapital und Arbeit" (Berlin, 1864). Here we read: 
 
 "Und diese absolute Versimplung des Biirgertums — in dem 
 Lande Lessings und Kants, Sehillers und Goethes, Fiehtes und 
 Kegels : Sind diese geistige Heroen wirklich nur wie ein Zug von 
 Kranichen iiber unseren Hauptern dahin gerauscht? 1st von 
 der immensen geistigen Arbeit, von der innerlichen Weltwende, 
 ■die sie voUbracht, nichts, gar nichts auf die Nation gekommen, 
 und besteht der deutsche Geist wirklich nur in einer Reihe 
 einsamer Individuen, welcher jeder das Erbteil seiner Vorgan- 
 ger treu iibemehmend, ihre Arbeit in bitterer Verachtung ihrer 
 Mitwelt fortsetzen?^ Welcher Fluch hat das Biirgertum enterbt, 
 dass von all den gewaltigen Kulturarbeiten, die in seiner Mitte 
 gesehahen, dass aus dieser ganzen Atmosphare von Bildung kein 
 
 1 This passage may have contributed to paint Leo as the solitary thinker, men- 
 tioned above p. 101, who lonesome goes through society because he has 
 found so few people earnestly striving to lift themselves over the common 
 crowd, the indolence and stupidity of which bring him often to despair 
 (I 293; 547), a society of fools which at a moment he sees the power he 
 so long has wished for at last in his reach loakes him shudder at the 
 thought that he must create a new world with them (I 459). I4usalla ex- 
 presses his contempt at his Progressionist contemporaries, among whom he 
 walks his lonely path persecuted by State and the Progressionist press, also 
 in "Die indirekte Steuer, etc." ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 365. 
 
122 
 
 einziger Tropfen befruchtenden Taues in sein immermehr ver- 
 trocknendes Gehim gef alien? . . . Der Burger feiert unseren 
 Denkern Feste/ weil er niemals ihre Werke gelesen ! Er wiirde 
 sie verbrennen, wenn er sie gelesen hatte . . . Er schwarmt fiir 
 Tinsere Dichter, weil er einige Verse von ihnen zitieren kann oder 
 dieses oder jenes Stiick von ihnen gesehen und gelesen, aber sich 
 niemals in ihre Weltanschauung hineingedaeht hat. ' '^ 
 
 As early as April, 1862, Lassalle had started to execute the 
 death sentence on the Liberal party by his pamphlet "Herr 
 Julian Schmidt, der Literarhistoriker. " It was directed against 
 ihe latter 's history of German Literature since the death of Les- 
 sing, against the person of the journalistic representative of the 
 Old-Liberals, but also against the whole Liberal party. The 
 pamphlet is the first shot in a political war in which the Liberals, 
 too, did not mind the waste of powder.^ Lassalle attacks in Julian 
 Schmidt, the defective education of the Liberals, his disordered 
 way of thinking, judging, his language, words which always leer 
 at thoughts, and yet are arranged only superficially, all the sins 
 of a hasty journalistic production ; but he desires also to hit the 
 Constitutional party, in as much as Juliam Schmidt in the man- 
 ner of a schoolmaster and with the want of intelligence, rebuked, 
 on the one hand, Romanticism and showed the intolerance of 
 prosaic Protestantism towards Catholicism, and manifested, on 
 the other, a deep antipathy against modern German philosophy, 
 especially Fichte and Hegel, with their radical thoughts. His 
 little-German Protestant, realistic-political soberness had at that 
 time a forbidding efPect, when it was made, in such an insufficient 
 way, the critical measure of everything beautjful and profound, 
 which German genius had produced in the past century. It 
 was this mock-intellectual tendency which Lassalle attacked. 
 It is one of the most attractive traits of his character that he 
 manifests his grateful relation to the intellectual heroes of Ger- 
 many. With a true ring he defends poets like Uhland, Platen and 
 Schiller, against the arrogant pedantry of this intolerable 
 journalism, and no less when he defends the radical Fichte 
 against a too Prussian interpretation, and his Hegel against this 
 
 1 Perhaps a reflection of this passage is contained in Urban 's arraignment of 
 the Liberal bourgeoisie for their shallow feasts (II 332) ; op. Die Feste, die 
 Presse, etc. ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 334. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 385 ; Brandes, 1. c. p. 30. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 210. 
 
123 
 
 sorrowful better-knowing of a philosophic dilettante.' But while 
 he is utterly blind in respect to the sum of culture and ability 
 and sublime idealism, after all characteristic of that generation, 
 he saw more justly their lack of generative faculty in polities, 
 harmful in the period of the foundation of the New Empire.^ 
 
 Beside the reproach of cultural inferiority, these defects in 
 matters political and social are also voiced in the description of 
 the Liberals from Leo's viewpoint. Here the relation of Might 
 and Right, which occupies such a prominent place in the ideas 
 of the historical Democrat f his accusation that the bourgeois care 
 nothing for political liberty as such,^ and that the Progression- 
 ists are "falsifiers of truth"; his Hegelian identification of 
 thinking and acting, and his claim that the period of the bour- 
 geoisie has gone by, which are yet to occupy our attention, all 
 are mixed with Spielhagen's ethical idealism which Leo at- 
 tacks in the ideologists of the novel. 
 
 While Leo will not reproach the Liberals with being neither 
 poets nor philosophers, he expects them to exhibit deeds in the 
 fields of politics as the time requires politicians, diplomats who 
 would be in these fields what those poets and philosophers were 
 in the purely spiritual spheres (I 392). So Lassalle casts into 
 the teeth of the leaders of the Liberal parties their mediocrity in 
 political and social matters. He finds that there is no possibility 
 of coming to an understanding with stupid (Progressionist) po- 
 liticians who see in the mere change of the political form some- 
 thing selfsubsisting and exhaustive.* To his mind they do not 
 know what the idea of the political means. In the preface to his 
 "System der erworbenen Rechte", he deems it necessary to em- 
 phasize for the benefit of the Liberal bourgeoisie that the con- 
 ception of acquired rights is the source of all further develop- 
 ment of society, and that where the Privatrechtliche, the civil 
 law matter, seems to become completely detached from the poli- 
 tical, it rather grows still more political, for then it becomes the 
 social element. With passion and animosity he reproaches his 
 Progressionist adversaries with their magnificent ignorance in 
 economic matters, especially when they accuse him of proclaim- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 209. 
 
 2 Oncken, I. c. p. 386. 
 
 8 Cp. above p. 80-81 ; 74-75. 
 
 * Letter to Lothar Bucher of Jan. 1862 ; Oncken, I. c. p. 202. 
 
124 
 
 ing new and unheard of assertions, e. g. on the iron, cruel law of 
 wages, and on indirect taxes. He shows that what he pro- 
 claims are scientific truths which, long accepted in the world of 
 learning, have for three hundred years found a place in text- 
 books.^ No doubt, Lassalle in his "Kapital und Arbeit" and eco- 
 nomic ideas is in every way superior to the economic Liberalism 
 of the time as especially represented by Sehulze-Delizsch, and 
 can mock rightfully at their ignorance in such matters. The pro- 
 gress of civilization is not due to their realizing their economic 
 ideas. It is the progress of industry and middle class produc- 
 tion, division of labor, concentration of capital in their hands be- 
 cause of great discoveries and inventions, the facilitation of 
 trade, the greater security of property which draw the triumphal 
 car of the bourgeoisie.- So Leo says that all progress in civiliza- 
 tion, the growth of the cities, railroads, telegraphs, and capital- 
 ism is not the result of the Liberal ideas but of the time which 
 has taken thought for the bourgeoisie (II 274-5). 
 
 Considering this low estimate of the moral and intellectual 
 qualities of the bourgeoisie in which Leo and Lassalle agree, it 
 can not surprise us to find them in revolt against the leadership 
 of the Liberals. Leo believes that all acquisitions of German cul- 
 ture would, in the most shameful way, be sold to the lowest bid- 
 der if one should follow Liberal leadership ; the German people 
 would be placed below the level of the other civilizations and 
 forced under the yoke of the most despicable materialism. But 
 these bourgeois are not the people. The sense of the Germans is 
 not yet dead. They are waiting for the prophet who shall inter- 
 pret to them the law which says that the low shall be raised and 
 the mighty lowered (I 393). 
 
 As Leo is this prophet, so is Lassalle. To him, too, the fourth 
 estate is the people, not the bourgeoisie.^ He predicts from the 
 domination of the fourth estate a flourishing period for morals, 
 culture and science such as history never saw. In possession of 
 power the fourth estate would, with free will and strictest logical 
 
 1 Die indirekte Steuer, etc. p. 95 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 361. 
 
 2 Arbeiterprogram, Oncken, 1. c. p. 216. 
 
 3 He understands by this term the upper middle-class citizen who, not satisfied 
 with the actual comforts of riches, makes capital the condition for participa- 
 tion in the control of the State, and has thus subjected the people to bis 
 privileged sway since the possession of capital is attended in Prussia by elec- 
 toral franchise and, therefore, participation in the control of the State. Ar- 
 beiterprogramm ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 218 ; cp. 360. 
 
125 
 
 consequence, bring about what so far has been gained only piece- 
 meal in the seantest outlines in a struggle with opposition, and 
 from this domination a flight of spirituality, the development of 
 a sum of happiness, culture, welfare and liberty would spring, 
 such as would be without example in the world's history.^ And 
 on the advancement of the working class on these lines Lassalle 
 has set his mind. In the Song to Learning, "die "Wissenschaft 
 und die Arbeiter", in which the genuine Lassalle, with his wor- 
 ship of all intellectual knowledge and scientific work, manifests 
 himself,^ he exclaims that, since he has breathed, he has resolved 
 to devote his life to the alliance of learning and the working 
 people. For only this alliance can engender new life in 
 European conditions.^ 
 
 In comparison with this people the Progressionist bourgeois 
 are, before the impatient mind of Lassalle, only insignificant men, 
 the embodiment of weakness and inability to act in political 
 and economic matters. Lassalle is the man of action. As a dis- 
 ciple of Hegel he devotes himself to pure science in order to in- 
 fluence politics, or seeks to realize in practical politics the postu- 
 lates of science, as Leo demands the identification of thinking 
 and acting (I 388).^ Lassalle 's originality lies in converting into 
 actions ideas which, for the most part, did not spring from his 
 mind, and his greatness consists in his quality of politician and 
 agitator. He finds, consequently, most fault with the lack of vigor 
 of the Liberals. The Progressionist House which, during the 
 Prussian Conflict, stands inactive on the ground of law, because 
 it does not want to unchain the power of the lowest social strata 
 and does not understand the aims of Bismarck's policies, he at- 
 tacks for not showing the necessary energy to embarrass the 
 energetic Government* and thus prepare the way for liberty.^ 
 He attempts to urge the Liberal parties to a greater resistance 
 to their resolute antagonist when he sees that they feel perfectly 
 powerless and are unable to do the least thing for the real de- 
 velopment of Liberal interests.** He blames them for allowing 
 themselves to be frightened by the threats of their opponents, 
 for not changing their tactics in their contests with the reac- 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 221. Cp. aboye p. 72 ; below p. 132. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 247 ; 250. 
 
 3 Cp. above p. 120. > 
 
 *Zur Arbeiterfrange ; Oncken, 1. /c. p. 294. 
 
 5 Die Feste, die Presse, etc. ; Oncxen, 1. c. p. 333. 
 
 « Oflenes Antwortschreiben ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 257-58. 
 
126 
 
 tionary Government, and carrying out their will defiantly/ He 
 reproaches them in his Frankfurt speech of May 19, 1863, with 
 that lack of energy which is afraid of the ultima ratio regum of 
 which Miinzer speaks, and in the Solingen speech above men- 
 tioned, he exclaims : 
 
 ' ' Die Fortschrittler liebaugeln mit den Fiirsten, um — Herm 
 von Bismarck bange zu machen ! Sie hoffen ihn einzuschiichtem 
 durch Kokettieren mit den deutschen Fiirsten. Das sind die 
 Mittel dieser Aermsten! Und wenn wir Flintenschiisse mit 
 Herrn von Bismarck wechselten, so wiirde die Gerechtigkeit 
 erfordern, noch wahrend der Salven einzugestehn : Er its ein 
 Mann, jene aber sind — alte Weiber. ' '- 
 
 When the Progressionists fear this ultima ratio regum — the 
 tyranny, exercised b}^ the nobility and other reactionary in DvH, 
 being now that of the Fortschrittler, a parallel may be cited 
 from Miinzer 's great plea expressing the same thoughts (733) : 
 
 "Dass Sie Ihr Haupt noch so frei erheben konnen, wie Sie es 
 tun, ist wahrlich nieht Ihr Yerdienst, es ist das Verdienst des 
 unsterblichen Gesindels,'* vor dem die Tyrannei mehr Respekt 
 hat, als sie sich merken lasst, von dem sie — . . .so viel nieder- 
 knallt, als sie irgend vermag, dem sie dann aber auch wieder 
 Konzessionen macht ' ' — it is not the fear of the Government 
 but rather that of the people. They fear the people more than 
 absolutism, and therefore, continue prostrating themselves, 
 whining at the feet of the throne, even if it rains kicks, declaring 
 that they will not give up hope,* and humiliate themselves by 
 compromises in order to get a slice of power through their trans- 
 actions with the Government instead of fighting for the people's 
 rights with all the might inherent in democracy.^ 
 
 Lassalle, therefore, fights with passion and energy against the 
 Liberal papers and the defects of their contributors.^ The 
 character of the Liberal press is to his mind a fatal symptom of 
 the decomposition of the party. Their capitalistic interests 
 which they themselves confess to be the reason for the cowardly 
 silence they keep before the press regulations made by the Gov- 
 
 1 Was nun? Cp. above p. 80. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 336. 
 
 3 Cp. above p. 51. 
 
 4 Arbeiterlesebuch ; Oucken, 1. c. p. 320. 
 
 5 Macht und Recbt ; Ansprache an die Arbeiter Berlins ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 245 ; 
 389. 
 
 6 Arbeiterleaebiich ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 316. 
 
127 
 
 ernment, after the premature adjournment of the Chamber, 
 and the compromises they make instead of taking forceful 
 measures at once, prove their whole weakness and immorality. 
 They try to demonstrate to, and impress on, the people these 
 purely business concessions as so many new viewpoints of the 
 general spirit, representing them as developments and whole- 
 some compromises of the life of the people. In so doing, they 
 poison the national mind through their stupendous ignorance, 
 uuscrupulousness, "eunuch-hatred" against everything which is 
 true and great in politics, art and science.^ 
 
 All petty diplomatic intrigues, all half measures and dissimu- 
 lation are to Lassalle an object of aversion.- In the debate held 
 at Frankfurt o/M in May, 1863, which, because of the non-ap- 
 pearance of his Progressionist opponent, Schulze-Delitzsch, be- 
 came a rather one-sided affair, Lassalle is called to order. He 
 answers in his defense that if he expresses himself without any 
 varnish, he does not become personal but rude, and continues : 
 
 ' ' Grob muss, kann und darf ich sein, und das werde ich Ihnen 
 beweisen. Grob muss jeder Vertreter einer grossen Sache sein 
 gegen alle solche, die sich falschend zwischen ihn und seinen 
 grossen Zweck werfen und ich bin entschlossen, mit geistigen 
 Keulenschlagen jeden zu Boden zu schlagen, der sich zwischen 
 Sie (the working people) und mich falschend drangt."^ From 
 the start of his agitation Lassalle had risen against dissimula- 
 tion. We have seen how this is connected with the underlying 
 idea of his ' ' Franz von Sikkingen. ' ' Franz exclaims : ' ' Mit der 
 Wahrheit ist kein Unterhandeln. " And Balthasar: "Wen 
 tauschest Du ? nicht Deine Feinde. ' ' 
 
 "Drum hiille stets vom Scheitel bis zu Sohle 
 Dich kiihn in Deines eignen Banners Farbe. 
 Dann probst Du aus dem ungeheuren Streit 
 Die ganze Triebkraft Deines wahren Bodens 
 Und stehst und fallst mit Deinem ganzen Konnen." 
 And in 1862, Lassalle reproaches the Progressionists, in his 
 sharp attack on the Volkzeitung, with their attempt to change 
 
 1 Die Feste, etc. ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 334-35 ; Brandes, 1. c. p. 98. 
 
 2 Was nun ? ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 240. 
 
 3 Arbeiterlesebuch, p. 15. His pamphlet '"Ansprache an die Arbelter Berlins" 
 of Oct. 1863, contains also a passionate polemic against the radical Berlin 
 newspapers Volkszeitung and Berliner Reform, read chiefly by the work- 
 ing class, on account of the false reports on his Solingen speech of Sept. 
 1863, the correction of which these papers refused to print. Cp. Oncken, 1. 
 c. p. 387, and below p. 139. 
 
128 
 
 the reactionary attitude of the Government by continually calling 
 it constitutional and thus persuading it to believe itself constitu- 
 tional. But, says he, all real success in life as well as in history, 
 can be obtained only by doing-the-thing-over-again, never by call- 
 ing a thing what it is not, i. e. by trying to change it by lies, dis- 
 simulation and compromises. Every great political action consists 
 in, and begins with, uttering that which is.^ The strongest 
 diplomacy is to him that which nee,ds no secrecy for its calcula- 
 tions because it is founded on iron necessity.^ 
 
 This whole list of sins committed, to Lassalle's mind, by the 
 Progressionists, their lack of energy and inability in political 
 and economic matters, their concessions to, and compromises 
 with, the powers that be, is found also with the Liberals with 
 whom Leo enters into war. Leo sees that the Liberals exhibit no 
 such energy against Reaction as" they should ; their concessions 
 and compromises are the signs of their weak knees and lack of 
 vigor (I 398). In transacting with the prince and his party, 
 they commit the folly of regarding him a Liberal — as Lassalle 
 reproaches the Progressionists with their blind confidence in 
 the New Era, in 1862^ as the cause of the Prussian Conflict — 
 while he really is a Reactionary of the first order, and has his 
 faithful following in the people of the Reactionary *Zeitung 
 (I 313). A majority of the Liberal party employ also the 
 diplomatic intrigues of which Lassalle accuses the Progression- 
 ists. They are the capitalists among the Liberals. They think 
 it is wise to lean toward the prince since he, in all probability, 
 will ascend the throne ere long, and then will remember that he 
 received favors from them at a time when he suffered from the 
 jealousy of the Cabinet (I 313). And lastly, the reproach which 
 Lassalle voices against his Progressionist opponents at Frank- 
 furt that, falsifying, they step between him and his great aims, 
 offers us the explanation of the predicate ''Counterfeiters of 
 truth," which Leo gives to his Liberal adversaries. He con- 
 cedes there are some members of the party who have the best 
 intentions with the laboring classes, but they are insignificant 
 men who have neither the intellectual power to penetrate to the 
 depth of the labor question — Lassalle contra Schulze-Delitzsch 
 
 1 Was nun? p. 24. Cp. Oncken, 1. c. p. 240-41 and above p. 108; and below 
 p. 139. 
 
 2 Hochverratsprozess, p. 44. 
 
 3 Was nun? ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 241. 
 
129 
 
 . — nor the moral strength to realize the little they have recog- 
 nized (I 508). But the Liberal party, as a whole, draws the veil 
 over the truth that the people starve, and great reforms are 
 necessary to cure the dreadful evils (I 398). The learned and 
 Pharisees, the wise and the scribes, the rich and mighty, close 
 their eyes and hearts to the misery about them (I 542). The 
 money bags and presumptious moralists are not willing to deal 
 honestly with the people. They are the parasites which cause 
 the whole body of the State to wither away (II 138), and the 
 most influential members of the Liberal party are the Baal 
 priests and worshippers of the golden calf (I 393), the tormen- 
 ters of the workmen whose helpless conditions they know 
 enough to draw profit from (I 481; 509). They are the 
 "Wahrheitsfalscher", the counterfe^^rs of truth, in denying 
 that there exists any misery among the laboring classes, and if 
 this misery can be grasped with hands, then it is to their minds 
 hut a temporary condition (I 234). 
 
 No sooner has Leo become convinced that the Liberals will do 
 nothing for all this misery than his endeavors are directed to- 
 wards doing the work he has in mind without them, and form- 
 ing his own party. So Lassalle, in the opening of his speech, 
 "Die Feste, die Presse und der Frankfurter Abgeordnetentag", 
 declares the slackness of conduct of the Progressionists and 
 their unwillingness to agree to improve the eonditions of the 
 working people, to have been the cause for his starting his own 
 movement.^ While the novelist has very fully illustrated the 
 intellectual and moral qualities of the parties at war, the strug- 
 gle of Leo does not occupy that space which would be due to a 
 description of Lassalle 's contest with the Progressionists. Of 
 all ^the points of dispute there appears plainly in IRuG only 
 the contrast of " Staatsintervention, " State subsidy, which 
 Lassalle advocates, and "Selbsthilfe", self-help, the shibboleth 
 of Liberal economics. But while the political stands rather in 
 the background, all main parallels can, nevertheless, be recog- 
 nized. 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 333 : 337. 
 
,,, 
 
 130 
 
 Leo makes preparations to come into the possession of that 
 power of which he always has dreamt, and Lassalle saw at 
 the time of the passionate election contest for the Pmssian 
 House of Representatives, in April, 1862, that the moment had 
 arrived for him to assume that leadership which had been the 
 dream of his youth, and to realize his ideals of social progress. 
 Under the influence of Marx he had become convinced that the 
 organization of the masses of the fourth estate would lead to a 
 mighty impulsive force of the proletariat.^ But his thoughts 
 went further, prompted by personal motives. Was there not 
 the greatest likelihood that he who should succeed in putting 
 himself at the head of the masses and in collecting them as 
 troups, who, in their devotion to their leader, would not fear 
 even death, might win for himself an immense personal power t 
 . . Would it not be possible to step into the arena as a political 
 reformer at the head of a great party and to enforce his will on 
 the ruling factors?^ What social questions ever had been in 
 Germany had, since 1848, completely disappeared from the 
 scene. The old democratic party existed no longer. Lassalle had 
 devoted himself more industriously to the study of political econ- 
 omy. Now, in the beginning of the sixties, he saw proposed for 
 the solution of the great social problems, means which, to his 
 mind, were entirely insufficient to remedy the state of distress 
 (or what he tried to demonstrate as such).^ He felt a deep com- 
 passion for the workmen. His social position and his past exclud- 
 ed him for ever from working as a dictator from above for his 
 ideas and the welfare of the people. The masses had been debar- 
 red from politics for 12 years. Lassalle saw that the disciplining 
 of the masses could procure him a direct influence on the Govern- 
 ment.* The scholar contended with the politician. The * * Arbei- 
 terfiihrer" who saw already the great party behind him, at the 
 moment when he conceived the idea, clearly carried the day. 
 
 The Liberal era had come to an end March 19, 1862, the 
 House had been adjourned, and a conservative Cabinet selected 
 from among higher State officials. The Progressionist party 
 called to arms for the safeguarding of the constitutional rights. 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 91. 
 
 2 Harms, 1. c. p. 29 f . 
 
 3 Arbeiterlesebuch ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 311. 
 
 4 Brandes, 1. c. p. 83 11. 
 
131 
 
 and the definite realization of a completely constitutional State 
 in Prussia. To decide between Government and Parliament, all 
 forces of the nation, even those of the lowest strata which had 
 been silent for a long time, had to be set in motion. Lassalle de- 
 livered, April 12, 1862, about a fortnight before the new elections, 
 in the (Progressionist) trades union of the Oranienburg suburb 
 of Berlin, the so-called machine-maker quarter, that speech 
 which was to become the starting point of the social democratic 
 movement in Germany: "Ueber den besonderen Zusammen- 
 hang der gegenwartigen Geschichtsperiode mit der Idee des 
 Arbeiterstandes, ' ' which later was published as a pamphlet with 
 the headtitle "Arbeiterprogramm". Four days later he spoke 
 "Ueber Verf assungswesen, " in a Berlin ward club. 
 
 As in today's social democracy, democracy and socialism, 
 originally sprung from different sources, are inseparable con- /^ 
 stituents of the party, so these two speeches of Lassalle, only in 
 connection with one another, give the right idea of what he was 
 about.^ But, since in IRuG the political stands in the back- 
 ground, the speech on Constitutional Matters is reflected in the 
 novel only very scantily, while in DvH the constitutional ques- 
 tions, determined by Lassalle as questions of Might in their ori- 
 gin and not those of Right, hold a prominent place. It is, there- 
 fore, for our purpose necessary to state only, that Lassalle in 
 this speech shows himself a realistic politician, who, in contrast 
 with the Liberal attitude to the Conflict as a point of law, sees in 
 the reorganization of the army and its political consequences, a 
 question of Might, pure and simple. As a consistent democrat 
 of 1848, he will not stand on the side of the Liberals in their at- 
 tempt to defend the Constitution. For this Constitution of Dec. 
 5^1848, was really an unlawful act, being in contradiction to the 
 actual means of power, retained by the king undiminished, 
 though he had made concessions, it is true. The lower middle 
 class, therefore — Lassalle tries to impress this on them — have 
 no interest whatever in the Prussian conflict as far as the Con- 
 stitution is concerned. But they must adopt the true democratic 
 program, and so Lassalle sends out to the unorganized masses 
 of society the war-cry to enter with this program into the fight 
 fcr power.2 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 211. 
 
 2 Oncken. 1. c. p. 214. 
 
132 
 
 More important for us is the Arbeiterprogramm. For here 
 these unorganized masses are to be imbued with the conviction 
 that they form an economically independent group of interests 
 who have nothing in common with the Liberals, and that they 
 represent the power of the future in ethical, spiritual and politi- 
 cal respects. The power of the nobility and church, says Lassalle, 
 was broken by the great French revolution of 1789, and the 
 bourgeoisie has taken their place. The bourgeoisie tries to 
 make the State serviceable to its ends, and throws the indirect 
 taxes, which, in reality, make the material existence of the State 
 possible, on the politically outlawed, while the bourgeois pay the 
 direct taxes which cover only a small part of public expenditure. 
 Thus they exercize political domination. But since Feb. 24, 
 1848, the fourth estate has begun to raise its principle to be the 
 principle of society, and to permeate with this all its institu- 
 tions. This fourth estate means the whole human race. Its 
 cause, therefore, is the cause of all mankind, its liberty the lib- 
 erty of mankind, its rule the rule of all. And then Lassalle 
 shows that the rule of the fourth estate will bring about the in- 
 tellectual, moral and cultural bloom mentioned above. The 
 domination of the fourth estate will also cause a different con- 
 ception of the ethical idea of State than the " nightwatchman 
 idea" of the bourgeoisie. For the Progressionists, seeing the 
 ethical end of the State exclusively in the protection of the in- 
 dividual and his property, the State is nothing but a watchman 
 whose only function is the prevention of robbery and burglary. 
 The ethical idea of the workmen estate, on the other hand, in- 
 tent on abolishing privileges, is this, that in a well ordered com- 
 monwealth the solidarity of interests, community and mutuality 
 of development must predominate, and a State which is placed 
 under the "idea" of the fourth estate will consequently, with 
 greatest clearness and perfect consciousness, make this ethical 
 nature of State its aim. "Die hohe weltgeschichtliche Ehre 
 dieser Bestimmung (that the working class is called to raise its 
 principle to be the ruling principle of the whole period) muss 
 alle Ihre Gedanken in Anspruch nehmen.^ Es ziemen Ihnen 
 nicht mehr die Lasten der Unterdriickten, noch die miissigen 
 Zerstreuungen der Gedankenlosen, noch selbst der harralose 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 76. 
 
133 
 
 Leiehtsinn der Unbedeutenden. Sie sind der Fels, auf welchem 
 die Kirehe der Gegenwart gebaut werden soU."^ The formal 
 means for obtaining this domination is the general and direct 
 suffrage. 
 
 At a moment when the crown was developing its greatest energy 
 to increase its power, and the Liberals were working for having 
 a greater share in the government, then, Lassalle announced 
 the claim of elements whose self-consciousness he must first 
 arouse, and showed them a route in the approaching constitu- 
 tional conflict which demanded a change of the State from the 
 bottom, and he had made up his mind to be their leader.^ The 
 political development in the Prussia of 1862, was not based on 
 an opposition between bourgeois and workmen.^ Lassalle ideal- 
 ized his agitatorial aim, not by spurring the massive covetousness 
 of the proletariat, or beginning over again the old play with 
 republican velleites, but by pointing out with the aid of great 
 historical periods as a background, the necessity of the new social 
 class with its own high ideals and deeper ethical title in innermost 
 connection with the State of the future/'' The weight of the 
 Arbeiterprogramm lies in this act of the political head. Lassalle 
 had rightly recognized a great and indisputable tendency of the 
 modern history of European civilized nations, and the event 
 consisted in his communicating this knowledge in concise and 
 pregnant form to the Prussian workmen, in order to awaken in 
 them the spirit of a social class and the consciousness of a politi- 
 cal power.- But the impression of these two speeches does not 
 seem to have been lasting. In the new elections the Progression- 
 ists became the indisputable masters of the House. The State, 
 however, understood their importance, calling Lassalle to ac- 
 count — nothing of his defense at the trial of Jan. 16, 1863, 
 "Die Wissenschaft und die Arbeiter", with the exception of a 
 few detached thoughts* is reflected in IRuG — and the flrst an- 
 swer came from the non-Prussian working people. The Leipzig 
 committee, of which mention has been made, turned to Lassalle 
 Feb., 1863. 
 
 Tlie new gospel which he proclaims in this Arbeiterprogramm 
 and his Offenes Antwortschreiben presently to be discussed, was, 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 109. 
 a Oncken, 1. c. p. 230 ; 229. 
 3 Cp. above p. 113 ; 57. 
 * Cp. above p. 31. 
 
no doubt, before Spielhagen's mind when he makes Leo voice 
 the need of "Staatssubvention" (=Lassalle's Staatsinterven- 
 tion^) in the (Liberal) workmen's union (I 350). Beside the 
 reference to State subsidy there are found various ideas which 
 Leo seems to have taken directly from the Arbeiterprogramm. 
 He says for instance: The future belongs to the workmen, for 
 it is not the class but mankind, who in them and with them con- 
 tend for an existence worthy of man (I 510). The workmen, 
 too, are to lift up their heads in liberty and be blessed by the 
 enjoyment of art (I 512). But now liberty which grants not 
 only the right but also the possibility of an existence worthy of 
 man, is withheld from the labor class. The capitalists hold back 
 such a right as is the workman's due, and, therefore, Right with- 
 out truth reigns in the State (I 548), 
 
 However, Spielhagen does not follow here the chronological 
 order of history, or keep the Arbeiterprogramm apart from the 
 Offenes Antwortschreiben. Leo founds his own workmen's union 
 in which he proclaims his new gospel before the Tuchheim depu- 
 tation apply to him, while Lassalle first meets the Leipzig com- 
 mittee, and after having voiced his ideas more fully in his Open 
 Letter than was required by the purpose of his Arbeiterpro- 
 gramm, brings about the formation of the AUgemeine deutsche 
 Arbeiterverein. But this change in chronology is of no conse- 
 quence, and the combination of the two works has an inner jus- 
 tification. Leo continues both in his Workmen's Union and with 
 the deputation along the way shown by Lassalle which is to 
 separate him completely from the Liberals and lead him to 
 join the factors of power existing in the State. He directs his 
 new Union to the State (I 454) and the deputation to that power 
 which, by destiny, is ordained to serve the people, for the bour- 
 geois, the party that lives only by exploiting the workmen, can 
 be conquered but by the royal power (I 509). 
 
 So far as to appeal to the royal power, in his Open Letter, how- 
 ever, Lassalle did not go. But it signified a balancing of ac- 
 counts with the Progressionist party. It was an action that af- 
 fected the whole German nation, by reviving, as with the touch 
 of a wand, and causing to reappear in a new political party, so- 
 cialism which, Lassalle writes half a year later, the German 
 
 1 Cp. below p. 136 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 312 ; 315. 
 
135 
 
 blockheads a la Schulze-Delitzsch, had been thinking dead for a 
 long time. The Offenes Antwortschreiben has become the 
 starting point of the present day German labor movement.^ The 
 workman, says Lassalle, can expect the realization of his legiti- 
 mate interests only through political liberty and in complete 
 independence from the Progressionist party whose appendage 
 he has been, and for whom he has formed so far only the "un- 
 selfish chorus and sounding board. ' ' The working class must con- 
 stitute themselves as an independent political party and make 
 universal and direct suffrage their rallying-words. The platform 
 most be to care for the legitimate interests of the working peo- 
 ple by Representatives of their own in the Chambers. This new 
 party is to join with the Progressionists only in such questions 
 in which a common interest is to be furthered, but it is to op- 
 pose them when they act against the interest of the workmen, 
 thus compelling them to a more energetic development and a 
 greater heed of the workmen's needs. In respect to the social 
 questions Lassalle concedes that savings-banks, charitable funds 
 and banks for the invalid and sick, are relatively valuable for 
 such individual workingmen as live or are reduced below the 
 normal standard of the working class, but they are not sufficient 
 to better the standard of the whole class and to raise them above 
 the existing conditions. The Schulze-Delitzsch organizations, 
 his loan and credit, raw products and consumers societies, are 
 all unable to cause a social betterment of the working class as 
 such. Especially the consumers-societies cannot help the work- 
 ing class as such because, when they are extended to the great 
 masses of the workers and consequently cause a general cheap- 
 ening of the standard of life, the wages fall, since they depend 
 on the cost of those things that are most necessary for living. 
 For the ''iron, cruel" economic law that the average wages al- 
 ways remain reduced to the barest amount needed for that sub- 
 sistence which, in a certain nation, is the standard for the pro- 
 longation of existence and propagation, determines the amount 
 of wages under such conditions as exist today under the law of 
 supply and demand. This iron, cruel law can be done away 
 with only by the workingmen becoming their own entrepreneurs 
 by applying the principle of association to manufacture on a 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 257. 
 
136 
 
 large scale. Through the application of this principle the dif- 
 ference that exists between the wages and the entrepreneur's 
 profit will be abolished, and the profit produced by labor will 
 take the place of wages. The working people must, with the 
 aid of the State, be given the power to organize themselves as 
 their own entrepreneurs through voluntary associations in the 
 most peaceful, legal and simple way. The State must consider 
 it its holiest duty to render such self -organization and self -asso- 
 ciation feasible. For the State is the greatest association of the 
 poorer classes, since 89 to 96 per cent of the population live in 
 oppression. This ' ' Staatsintervention " will be possible but by 
 universal and direct suffrage. If the legislative bodies of Ger- 
 many spring from such suffrage, then only can the State be made 
 to fulfill this common duty. The universal and direct suffrage 
 is not only the political but also the social principle, the basic 
 condition, for all social help. It is the only means of bettering 
 the material position of the workingman. Lassalle closes with 
 the invitation to organize a General German Workingmen's 
 Union with the purpose of a peaceful and legal agitation for the 
 introduction of this kind of suffrage in all German State. "Das 
 allgemeine Wahlrecht von 89 to 96 pro cent der Bevolkerung 
 als Magenfrage aufgefasst and daher auch mit der Magenwarme 
 durch den ganzen nationalen Korper hin verbreitet — seien Sie 
 ganz unbesorgt, es gibt keine Macht, die sich dem lange wider- 
 setzen wiirde. " 
 
 In passmg it may be said that expressions taken from the 
 domain of medicine, such as Lassalle uses in the passage just 
 cited and in others, presumably have caused Spielhagen to make 
 Leo a physician. Especially the rhetorical figures employed by 
 Leo in his conversation with the king (II 138; ep. also I 296), 
 are significant in this respect.^ 
 
 In contrast with Leo-Lassalle's demand for State-help, the 
 Liberals in IRuG praise self-help as the best and only means for 
 the social uplift of the working classes. At first they do nothing 
 for the proletariat. With the exception of the ideologists who 
 have taken up reformatory thoughts and feel sympathy with the 
 poor and miserable, they bear, to use their characterization by 
 the heroine in Freigeboren (293), all the marks of that party 
 
 1 Or an influence of Georg Buchner? Cp. R. M. Meyer, 1. c. I, 165. 
 
137 
 
 which has sold itself altogether to capitalism, and dominates 
 legislature in the service of the golden International. They 
 ascribe misery, if it exists at all, to bad government and the mis- 
 use of privileges and find it very natural that a proletariat 
 should be found hungry for a time, because of an unfavorable 
 conjuncture (I 234). They had done their best to develop the 
 agricultural into an industrial State. The rising entrepreneur 
 class strive with all their might to lower the cost of production 
 (I 241), and oppose making the most insignificant concessions to 
 the workmen (II 173). That it might be the task of the State 
 to participate in the solution of the problem of how to better the 
 economic condition of the proletariat finds no understanding or 
 approval with them. They fail to appreciate, like the partisans 
 of the Manchester school, that Leo, as Lassalle did, believes in 
 the power of the State, not only as the protector, but as the 
 promoter of justice and culture. The State to which Leo directs 
 the workmen is in the eyes of the Liberals some despotism 
 whether it be called comite de salut public, directorate, dictator, 
 or emperor (I 454). Nobody can permanently raise the scale 
 of wages, for they depend on the international market (II 176). 
 To their minds it is only self-help that, on the ground of full 
 individual economic liberty, brings lasting improvement: 
 ''Griindet Genossenschaften und seid Mehrer Eurer allgemei- 
 nen und fachlichen Bildung" (II 174). This is also the means 
 which the new democratic newspaper, in contrast with Leo-Las- 
 salle's policies, characterizes as the best and only way which can 
 lead to the social uplift of the working classes. A practical 
 demonstration is given by an association of tailors for co-opera- 
 tive manufacturing on a large scale (II 322) which, as they say, 
 succeeds in spite of all tricks employed by their opponents 
 (II 393). We have here again an exposition of Schulze-Delitz- 
 sch's work to keep alive by co-operative societies the small ar- 
 tisan without capital. But the preservation of this class does 
 not touch the labor question proper which, Lassalle finds, con- 
 cerns chiefly the industrial workmen because he sees that the 
 victory of the large manufacturer over the artisan is completed.^ 
 Other Liberals, it is true, concede that even if an industrious 
 workman with his family can, under ordinary circumstances, 
 
 1 Oncken. 1. c. p. 382-83 ; cp. above p. 53. 
 
138 
 
 get along, the establishment of associations for the support of 
 widows, the sick, and other purposes is imperative in case of un- 
 expected and extraordinary needs (II 182; cp. I 184), 
 
 The social-political opposition of the Liberals to the means 
 proposed by Leo leads to a newspaper war (II 1). This plainly 
 reflects the feud, prepared by Lassalle's pamphlet "Macht und 
 Recht, ' ' with its declaration of war on the Progressionist party,^ 
 which broke out between them after he had sent his Open Letter. 
 A summary of this he gives with his defense against the Pro- 
 gressionist attacks in his Leipzig speech of April 13, 1863.* 
 Not only do the formidable accusations which Lassalle hurls at 
 the bourgeoisie find an echo in the judgment of the Liberals on 
 Leo's want of a just estimate of the practical conditions, on his 
 experimenting with socialistic systems, the common dangers of 
 which to their minds have frequently been proved (I 350), but 
 their hostile newspaper articles and personal attacks (I 539; 
 544; II 3-4) are apparently modelled on the attitude of the 
 Progressionists towards Lassalle. The Liberal papers condemn 
 Leo's undertaking as bearing the stamp of its author. He has 
 flaunted too often his diploma in their faces to be surprised if 
 they examine the same a little more carefully and ask who he 
 was and who he is now (II 323). And Leo, after using soft 
 strokes of the lash, will answer now with a scourge of scorpions 
 for their attacks on him as the protector of the workmen 
 (II 324). So the fury of the Progressionists against Lassalle 
 was without bounds. They replied, most unanimously and 
 sharply in Berlin where Schulze-Delitzsch held the sway, that 
 Lassalle knew nothing of economics.^ They strove to strike him 
 down with malicious aspersions, e. g. that he was an instrument 
 hired by Reaction,* a renegade,^ and the spiteful utterances of 
 their press on the unheard of procedure of Lassalle elicited an- 
 swers from him which were in many cases nothing but insulting 
 lampoons.® The last speech held by Leo in his union, and the 
 tumult that breaks up the meeting also causes the Liberal press 
 to voice its hostility in a way that reminds us of a case in Las- 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 129 and Freigeboren, 286-87. 
 
 2 Zur Arbeiterfrage : Oncken, 1. c. p. 290-94. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 285-86. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 285. 
 
 5 Znr Arbeiterfrage, p. 2. 
 e Brandes, 1. c. p. 116. 
 
139 
 
 galle 's life. When the meeting at Solingen in 1863 — which 
 also with its accompanying circumstances seems to have been 
 the model for Leo's last gathering of his friends in the capital 
 (I 545)^ — in which he was to speak, was dissolved by the police 
 by order of the Progressionist mayor, thousands of workmen ac- 
 companied Lassalle to the railroad station where he telegraphed 
 the occurrence to Bismarck. The Liberal press of the Rhinelands 
 represented this affair as if the Gensdarmerie had been obliged 
 to protect Lassalle by means of the bayonet against the people, 
 who, hurling imprecations, rushed at him.- Likewise Leo's ar- 
 rest and the tumult broken out at the meeting of his union are 
 characterized in the Liberal press as a perfectly natural re- 
 action of the respectable workmen against the inflammatory 
 agitation of the party of Leo, who alone was responsible for the 
 necessary interference by the police, since the whole agitation 
 had sprung from sordid motives (II 44).^ 
 
 This speech, by the way, contains some thoughts of Lassalle 
 other than those which remind of the Arbeiterprogramm.* Leo 
 will take proofs from science, 'from the teaching of that which 
 is (I 548). This is the logical and real basis of Lassalle 's whole 
 
 t 
 
 agitation, the unveiling, the destruction of Pretence, as the 
 idealistic types in DvH fight against Pretence, for the keeping up 
 of which, in the novel, all possible misdeeds are committed. The 
 mightiest political means is to Lassalle 's mind, the voicing of 
 that which is. Napoleon I did so before, and Bismarck after 
 him.^ Lassalle employs it especially in the last advice he gives 
 the Progressionists, in his speech "Was nun?" of 1862.® To 
 brand before all the world Prussian Constitutionalism as a pre- 
 tence and to refuse any transaction with the Government, i. e. 
 to voice that which is, is the sole means which can make the Gov- 
 ernment yield and become genuinely constitutional. It does not 
 matter that in this respect he is only the political tactician aim- 
 ing to discredit the Liberals with their electors by showing a 
 way which they should, but do not dare, to take, for he did not 
 care for a capitulation of the Government to the Progression- 
 
 1 Cp. the young workman with whom Lassalle was on terms of greater inti- 
 macy, mentioned above p. 70, and the behavior of the police. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 127, note 3. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 3S8. 
 * Cp. above p.l34. 
 
 5 Brandes. 1. c. p. 107. 
 «Cp. above p. 128. 
 
140 
 
 ists because such a compromise could not advance his plans to 
 create a radical socialistic workmen's party. ^ It must be stated, 
 however, that Lassalle's political maxim is followed by Leo dur- 
 ing his whole activity. 
 
 Lassalle's Open Letter must needs elicit the attacks of the 
 Progressionists. Their politicians and economists saw at once 
 what was at stake. They wanted to keep the leadership of the 
 workmen in their hands. In their contest with the Government 
 they had played off the ' ' People ' ' in its compact mass with com- 
 mon interests and ideals.- Through the assertion of Lassalle 
 that their party had been found completely wanting in the 
 labor question, their position was perceptibly weakened. In 
 writing his Open Letter Lassalle showed practically only that he 
 had left the range of Marx's ideas, which had so effectively 
 fructified his, and in recommending co-operative productive so- 
 cieties with State-help, could not but try to realize them with 
 the aid of the State as it was — as in 1859, solely by judging 
 from the viewpoint of the German revolution he was led to ad- 
 vocate a Prussian policy of conquest.^ If in writing this letter 
 he had not thought directly of the royal power the Progression- 
 ists, through their attacks and violent hostility, now compelled 
 him to do so.* The Democrat and the Government met as though 
 for the same cause in a contest with a common opponent. The 
 bitter war which all organs of the bourgeoisie waged against 
 Lassalle, induced the Reactionary to take the part of an agita- 
 tion, which, in its origin, was purely democratic. 
 
 Lassalle's Open Letter to the Leipzig committee resulted in 
 the founding of the General German Workingmen's Union, May 
 23, 1863. "The Jew from Breslau became the captain on the 
 bridge, and at the top of the ship waved the social democratic 
 flag. ' ' The Constitution of the Union, however, was by no 
 means democratic; it was organized as essentially monarchical, 
 an instrument in the hand of the dictator, Lassalle. In his 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 243-44 ; 241-42. 
 
 2 Harms, 1. c. p. 50. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 276. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 332. 
 
141 
 
 practical agitation he had become aware of the necessity of 
 making this dictatorship a principle within the Union, in view 
 of the vigorous endeavors of Marx to prevent the young labor 
 movement from being dominated by his disciple. It was now 
 necessary for Lassalle to measure coolly the existing factors of 
 power in the State, as Leo does (I 341), and to bring his own 
 forces into a right relation to them.^ He could no longer main- 
 tain a simple oppositional attitude in his present responsible 
 position if he wanted to realize the dreams of his youth, ex- 
 pressed in his diary. The half-utopian theories of socialism 
 yielded to the impulse to act. The program of his Open Letter 
 shows him as the democratic politician striving for the posses- 
 sion of power. The acquisition of political liberty for the work- 
 men who, after 1848, through reactionary legislation had be- 
 come practically disfranchised, meant democracy. The demo- 
 cratic politician turned to the political leaders of the State or 
 sought to enter into connection with influential men. Leo does 
 the same, and the Liberals have ground to reproach him who 
 worships the "idea", with cultivating this or that person whose 
 aid may be needed in realizing his ideals (II 170; 275). H. 
 Mielke,'-^ therefore, should not have criticized the novelist for 
 having represented Leo's rise to power as too dependent on the 
 influence or help of others. Spielhagen shows here again his 
 thorough information concerning Lassalle. Lassalle, disap- 
 pointed by the progress of his labor agitation, must needs turn 
 to the man who alone could make possible for him the position for 
 which he and Leo, too, were striving. And this position was at 
 that time wholly dependent on Bismarck, the embodiment of the 
 idea of the Frederician State. 
 
 But before Lassalle showed openly that he expected help 
 from the Premier, both had been tactical allies for quite a while. 
 The great statesman, since taking the helm of the State in Sept., 
 1862, had made unparliamentary excursions on Right and Might, 
 the power of the crown and parliament, on blood and iron, 
 which very much agreed with the sentiments of Lassalle in his 
 " Sikkingen "." When the king adjourned the House, Oct. 13, 
 1862, the contest for Right which was really a contest for Might, 
 
 1 Harms, 1. c. p. 60-61. 
 
 2 Hielke. 1. c. p. 258. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 263 ; 130 ; cf . above p. 80. 
 
■■^ 
 
 142 
 
 had begun. Bismarck made the conflict acute, for it furthered 
 his aim to remain at the helm and bring, in the meanwhile, the 
 policy of conquest of the great independent power of Prussia to 
 a successful end. He frustrated all possible compromises to 
 keep the moderate Liberals away from leadership. Lassalle, on 
 the other hand, had fostered the conflict to bring about a revolu- 
 tion in order to secure victory for the democracy of 1848. Both 
 use the same arguments in spite of their diametrically opposed 
 aims; against the Liberals, armed with the paragraphs of the 
 Constitution, they appeal to Might: Bismarck to the crown and 
 army, Lassalle to the masses of the fourth estate.^ The latter, 
 in his speech "Was nun?" had already given Bismarck the 
 credit of being an expert in Constitutional matters,^ as he, too, 
 he said, knew that the Constitution of a country consists in the 
 actual conditions of power. Soon he was to learn that in the 
 new Premier, who was leading foreign affairs realistically and 
 with fixity of purpose, a stronger will manifested itself and 
 drew every effort of others in its own current. Lassalle exper- 
 ienced the power of the magnet on himself ere long. Bismarck 
 became the fate of his further development.'^ The two strongest 
 vital powers of Prussian-German politics of the century had 
 met. 
 
 Lassalle had started as a radical democrat to urge the Pro- 
 gressionist party to the most vigorous action against the Gov- 
 ernment, as Leo had done, but he had found so much hostility 
 with them that the opponents he encountered on his way made 
 him lose sight of the common enemy, nor disdain the alliance of 
 the Government in order to first annihilate the Progressionists. 
 The reproach, however, which the latter addressed to him that 
 the last period of his life was only Caesarism covered with the 
 sugar of socialism, as Leo 's standing on the side of the State may 
 appear to his Liberal opponents (I 454), is unfounded. He 
 kept his own political and social aims always in mind, and 
 preserved, in spite of Bismarck, his personal independence and 
 liberty of resolution, just as Leo at the time when he tries to 
 form a Cabinet plans a revolution and a fight to the knife, if he 
 king does not do his bidding (II 506). Yet there is no denying 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 329, cp. above p. 140. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 115. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 327. 
 
143 
 
 the fact, that Lassalle, for the sake of his socialistic democratic 
 aims, had deviated far from his starting point; the heat of the 
 contest and the impression of Bismarck contributed their share, 
 above all his overwise calculation, the dialectical trait in his 
 tactics urged him on. His whole political development had of 
 necessity to take a different turn. For himself the Democrat de- 
 manded the "dictatorship of intelligence", the unconditional 
 domination over the workmen in order to press on the Prussian 
 Government; at the same time, however, he expected only from 
 its decisions the impulse to gather about his flag the masses who 
 so far had failed to appear. The revolutionist, like Leo, had set 
 his calculations on the revolution through the Government 
 (II 136; 487), and on events which were really to take place in 
 1866. Like Sikkingen in his drama, he believed himself to be 
 able to attain revolutionary aims through diplomatic means. 
 They had become his only means. In the face of these tactics 
 all social aims had for the moment receded.^ 
 
 The more the democratic politician set his hopes on the 
 daring leadership of the Prussian State, the more he became 
 dependent on it as soon as Bismarck, since the opening of the 
 Schleswig-Holstein Question, brought matters to a move.^ When 
 a general convention of the Representatives of the lower Houses 
 in Frankfurt o/M, entered into a severe judgment of Bismarck's 
 political attitude towards Austria, Lassalle wrote, treating 
 this, his "Die Feste, die Presse und der Frankfurter Abgeord- 
 netentag"^ which has been characterized as a pitiless censure of 
 the Progressionists and a declaration of love addressed to Bis- 
 marck.^ When he delivered this spo^ch at Solingen, Sept. 27, 
 1863, the meeting was closed by the police, and Lassalle sent the 
 telegram to Bismarck, of which mention has been made.* As a 
 politician of quick decision lie made use of this police interfer- 
 ence to execute a plan long considered. The passage in which he 
 says that he, with difficulty, restrained the people, 5000 strong, 
 from violent acts against the police proves that he wanted to 
 show the Premier the movement of the masses as a copnter- 
 weight to the Progressionists' opposition in order to force the 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 412-13. 
 3 Cp. above p. 115. 
 
 3 Oncken. 1. c. p. 333. 
 
 4 Cp. p. 139. 
 
144 
 
 Grovernment to give attention to his ideas. It had become pub- 
 lie that Bismarck had handed in to the king a report signed by 
 the whole Cabinet in favor of a true national representation re- 
 sulting from a direct participation of the whole people, Sept. 
 15, 1863. Lassalle saw that the Government would turn to his 
 aims. He sent the telegram on Sept. 27, in order to bring about 
 at once the approachment of the two antipodes who, for some 
 time now, had been allies because of attacks by the same ad- 
 versary, and the strife for power, and were now meeting because 
 of an identical point of political program.^ He could hope that 
 Bismarck would take into his hands the furtherance of the po- 
 litical and social aims of the young labor movement, and there- 
 by deal the death blow to the Liberal parties. Bismarck de- 
 clared in the Reichstag, Sept. 1878, that he put no difficulties in 
 Lassalle 's way when the latter had an urgent desire to come 
 into relations with him. For, although he had, no doubt, rela- 
 tively little interest in negotiating with an agitator who had as 
 yet no palpable power at his disposal, Lassalle had done things 
 which found favor with the Government, and there was some- 
 thing in him which attracted Bismarck and his party. 
 
 The social agitation which Lassalle had in mind as a supple- 
 ment of his political, was by no means unfavorably regarded by 
 the Conservatives and the Premier of the king of Prussia. The 
 provision for the workmen had excited the interest of many 
 Conservatives. Some had already entered into correspondence 
 with Lassalle. Furthermore, Bismarck, although he directly 
 knew little of Hegel,^ and Lassalle had practically the same con- 
 ception of State. In Bismarck the conception of the Frederician 
 State was operative as a practical, original force, nor did the 
 tendencies of men like Schulze-Delitzsch, who would have pre- 
 ferred to dissolve the political-social life into spheres of free 
 unions, naturally find sympathy with him.^ With Lassalle the 
 Hegelian conception of State remained always one of his strong 
 ethical thoughts,* which never suffered by the competition of 
 opposed ideas, and the emphasis he lays on this idea of State in 
 his Programm of 1862, elicited as early as that the question 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 339. 
 
 2 Cp. Freigeboren, p. 292. 
 8 Oncken, 1. c. p. 330. 
 
 4 Cp. Lassalle's praise of the idea of State in his "Die indirekte Steuer uad die 
 Lage der arbeitenden Klassen," Oncken, 1. c. p. 370, cp. above p. 73. 
 
145 
 
 whether he would not experiment with the concrete Prussian 
 State in the solution of such problems, as, to his mind, were the 
 purpose of the State. His speeches on Constitutional Matters 
 and "Was nun?" of 1862, too, had found a certain measure of 
 applause with the Conservatives, and his attacks on the Liberals 
 because of their attitude towards the German Question, on the 
 economical authorities of the Progressionist party, on manu- 
 facturers like Reichenheim, who also were Bismarck's oppo- 
 nents, were of a character to be welcomed by the Government. 
 
 To some extent Lassalle's new workmen movement, there- 
 fore, must appear to an unscrupulous minister as a desirable al- 
 liance. At the end of Oct., 1863, Lassalle's personal intercourse 
 with Bismarck began and continued for several months, but 
 even after the estrangement caused through his own fault, Las- 
 salle sent the Chancellor his speeches to his last days.^ In contrast 
 with Leo, Lassalle's discussions with the representative of the 
 crown bore on universal and direct suffrage and co-operative 
 societies with State-help. Principally, however, the intention of 
 the Democrat was to influence the Government by the whole 
 weight of his eloquence to force universal suffrage upon the 
 people. While the Progressionists believed that the existing 
 electoral franchise needed no extension — even strict democrats 
 and workmen like Bebel were opposed to universal suffrage — 
 Bismarck saw in it a weapon against the opposition wherein he 
 was supported by the Kreuzzeitungs-party.^ Indeed, the Con- 
 servative party contained daily growing groups who saw in such 
 a suffrage the only way out of the existing political misery.* 
 There was, of course, a difference in the aims of these parties 
 when they thought of this suffrage. Bismarck was thinking of 
 it as a means for German unification against the particularism 
 of dynasties and tribes, and only in a secondary place was it to 
 serve him to put the loyal masses into the balance against the 
 oppositional imperious bourgeoisie. But Lassalle wanted to 
 emancipate by it and under his leadership the workmen politi- 
 cally and socially from the Liberals, in order to bring about a 
 democracy rooted in the working classes.* 
 
 1 Oncken. 1. c. p. 331 ; 341 ; 351. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 267. 
 
 8 Harms, 1. c. p. 66 ; 70 ; 78. 
 * Oncken, 1. c. p. 346. 
 
146 
 
 Yet his interviews with the Premier had a decisive influence 
 on his whole agitation. The kind of alliance with the Conserva- 
 tives which had the attainment of the main point of his program 
 for its end was drawing him more and more to the side of the 
 leading Conservative forces of the State. It was a matter of 
 course that, as long as he expected the Government to act in ac- 
 cordance with his aims to have universal suffrage established, he 
 should avoid in the political course of his Arbeiterverein any 
 opposition to the Government. He supports Bismarck in his 
 foreign policies, puts no obstacle in his way in the Polish Ques- 
 tion where his decided democratic feeling ought to have spoken 
 in the interest of Polish nationality, and opposes in agreement 
 with his former convictions^ the Liberals who champion the 
 claim of the Prince of Augustenburg in the Schleswig-Holstein 
 conflict, while he, in his desire to have Germany united, speaks 
 for the annexation of the two provinces. During the last months 
 of his life he continues, not from free will, but because of the 
 slow progress of his agitation, his tactics which practically iden- 
 tify him with the Prussian Government. He hopes for a war 
 with Austria and the resulting proclamation of universal suf- 
 frage as the necessary and fortunate turn for his agitation. His 
 "Hochverratsprozess" of March 12, 1864, however strongly the 
 speech is intended to influence the judges, shows the Democrat 
 to be on the side of the Prussian monarchy. There is much 
 which speaks for the possibility that Lassalle, if he had lived to 
 see the events of 1866 and 1870-71, would have intimately joined 
 Bismarck in politics as did his friend, Lotliar Bucher, who, 
 as a member of the Berlin National Assembly of 1848, had agi- 
 tated for the refusal to pay taxes. Brandes (p. 172) and Harms 
 (p. 72) believe so, and Spielhagen in Freigeboren (p. 298) 
 agrees with them.^ 
 
 Though, perhaps, Lassalle did not know that by his agitation 
 for universal suffrage he smoothed the way for a social empire 
 he pleaded in his speech of March, 1864, for a social (Prussian) 
 monarchy. This form of State had at the time of the Prussian 
 Conflict, shown its undiminished power and strength, and he had 
 learned thereby that monarchy in Germany was to be counted 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 74. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 83 ; 74. 
 
147 
 
 on for a long time to come. It was not impossible for him to 
 come to terms with it, and even take up the cudgel for it, as the 
 promoter of the emancipation of the fourth estate. In the mid- 
 dle of Feb., 1864, he sent Bismarck two copies of his "Herr 
 Bastiat-Schulze, etc.," with a note in which he said it would 
 be very useful for the king to read some parts of it, that he 
 might see which monarchy had still a future and who were its 
 friends and who its enemies (reflected, as we shall presently see 
 in Leo's interview with the king). That Lassalle thought of the 
 possibility of fighting in the interest of the monarchy is proved 
 by an utterance from the last year of his life: "Das aber, 
 Freunde, versprecht mir, wenn es zu einem Kampfe kommen 
 sollte zwischen dem Konigtum von Gottes Gnaden auf der einen 
 und dieser elenden Bourgeoisie auf der anderen Seite, schwort 
 mir, dass Ihr auf seiten des Konigtums stehen werdet gegen die 
 Bourgeoisie."^ 
 
 It has been shown above that Leo in his endeavor to secure 
 power as the means for the attainment of his aims, develops into 
 the champion of monarchy. He arrives at it by a way which, in 
 spite of the epic dress, is the same that led Lassalle. 
 
 That speech of March, 1864, the " Hochverratsprozess ", in 
 which the latter confesses that the monarchy of the HohenzoUern 
 represents still an actual force of life, as Leo believes (II 137), 
 and pleads for a social Prussian monarchy, is the basis on which 
 Leo's interview with the king is built (II 136-37). There are 
 tliree parties in the State ; the Government with the Conserva- 
 tive parties, the Liberal bourgeoisie or Progressionists, and the 
 real democratic party which Lassalle says he has the honor to 
 lead. The Government party has drawn nearer to him because, 
 in the contest with the Liberals and with threatening foreign 
 complications, it has to look about for the people. 
 
 "Ein nicht beizulegender, ein totlicher Kampf, exclaims Las- 
 salle, hat sich erhoben zwischen dem Konigtum und der Bour- 
 geoisie: Wer von beiden weicht, ist verloren ... In diesem 
 Kampfe ohne Ausweg hat meine Stimme den einzig moglichen 
 Ausweg eroffnet, der iiberhaupt denkbar war, . . . das Volk 
 selbst auf die Biihne zu fiihren und sein Recht herzustellen", 
 and Leo tries, with the aid of Lassallean terms — as Might and 
 
 1 Harms, 1. c. p. 9» ; 75. 
 
148 
 
 Right are identical in Natural Science, so are they in the State 
 which is only a piece of Nature (II 131) — to convince the 
 king that majesty must lean on the workmen, if the Right, i. e. 
 Might which still dwells with majesty is not to change into 
 wrong, i. e. impotency. An intelligent king can bring about an 
 amalgamation of the principle of annointed monarchy with the 
 unannointed multitude by making the basis sufficiently broad 
 (II 132). "Das Konigtum, says Lassalle, wenn es einer Clique 
 nicht weichen kann, (can) dagegen wohl das Volk auf die 
 Biihne rufen und sich auf es stiitzen . . . Es braucht sich 
 hierzu nur bewusst zu werden, welches die Saule ist, auf der es 
 steht. Das Volk, nicht die Bourgeoisie, zahlt seine Steuern ! 
 Das Volk, nicht die Bourgeoisie, schlagt seine Schlachten! Es 
 braucht sich hierzu endlich nur seines Ursprunges zu erinnern, 
 denn alles Konigtum ist urspriinglich Volkskonigtum gewesen". 
 Leo will, if he can, make the king a peasant or workmen's king 
 in whom the miserable have the confidence that he will rescue 
 them from their misery. The bourgeoisie on whom Louis- 
 Philippe intended to rely, have neither this belief or any moral 
 emotion, nor any great thought. They have paid for their 
 wealth, their comfort with their moral and intellectual bank- 
 ruptcy. But the poor and miserable, this fallow land full of 
 immeasurable strength because of being fertilized by the sweat 
 and blood of centuries, have still the belief in a power which, 
 surpassing that of individuals, supports and holds the whole, 
 and in a wisdom which always has in mind and realizes the com- 
 mon welfare (II 134). There is still piety and faith such as 
 the king demands of his subjects. For otherwise the deputation 
 would not have left, perhaps, for the first time in their lives, 
 their native valley to make a pilgrimage to their king, who the}' 
 are convinced will rescue them from their misery. Lassalle, on 
 the other hand, had exclaimed: " . . ein louis-philippistisches 
 Konigtum von der Schopfung der Bourgeoisie, konnte dies 
 freilich nicht (to lead the people on the scene and re-establish 
 their rights). Aber ein Konigtum, das noch aus seinem ur- 
 spriinglichen Teig geknetet dasteht, auf den Knauf seines 
 Schwertes gestiitzt, konnte das vollkommen wohl, wenn es 
 entschlossen ist, wahrhaft grosse, nationale und volksgemasse 
 Ziele zu verf olgen. ' ' 
 
149 
 
 These great national and popular aims are with Leo, as with 
 Lassalle, the emancipation of the fourth estate with the aid of 
 the monarchy. For a monarchy can, unconcerned by economic 
 interests, grant the social demands of the proletariat, the bour- 
 geoisie never; and in Lassallean sense it is without doubt that 
 the working class in their fight for emancipation can more easily 
 win the kings than the bourgeois. 
 
 Leo sets about to win the king by such ai^uments as follow. 
 The ruler believes that constitutional government cannot satisfy 
 the deep and pressing needs of the people but that concessions 
 must be made to the money-proud shopkeepers, and constitu- 
 tional government is demanded by the evil spirit of the times 
 which does not believe in a natural order of social classes. Leo 
 tries to convince him that the power of capital takes from 
 tlie modern slave all possibility of exercising clublaw, because 
 the power of money stands under the protection of the law 
 which assures the manufacturers the safe possession of their 
 robbery and allows them compound interest on the capital 
 created by the sweat and blood of poverty, and that, therefore, 
 the right (or the might as Leo expresses himself with Lassallean 
 terms) of the purse-proud shopkeepers can be broken only by 
 the natural protector of the poor and wretched (II 135-37). 
 Lassalle had learned that a republic nowise guaranteed the 
 State, he had in mind, and his experiences with the Progression- 
 ists must have shown him what the people had to expect if the 
 bourgeois republic was realized; it must have seemed to him 
 more desirable that a power should stand at the head of the 
 State which, in its independence, might give attention to the 
 interest of the whole people, the clearer it became to him that 
 the modern industrial-capitalistic development must lead to a 
 money aristocracy. So also Leo says that only the royal power 
 as the summary and the personification of the totality can 
 balance the individual classes of the nation so that none can 
 live at the expense of, or draw a pitiless profit from, the other 
 (II 137).^ 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 78 ; Hanns, 1. c. p. 9. 
 
150 
 
 Under the romantic language (II 164) with which Leo at- 
 tempts to win the king for his plans we have found thoughts 
 which spring from Lassalle, as his position by the side of the king 
 is the romantic representation of the historical democrat leaning 
 towards monarchy. But Spielhagen says nothing of the State or 
 the royal power being asked or expected to grant the means which 
 Lassalle declares the only sufficient one to guarantee the social 
 betterment of the working class and proletariat. Lassalle had 
 exclaimed : " Of two things one has to be selected, either pure ab- 
 solutism or universal suffrage. An absolutist monarch can do 
 everything for the people. But in a constitutional State the 
 power rests with the well-to-do classes, i. e., in the hands of the 
 minority, which is an injustice."^ Since the beginning of his agi- 
 tation the establishment of universal suffrage was his goal. In 
 April, 1863, he wrote, "Without universal suffrage, i, e., a prac- 
 tical instrument to realize our demands we can be a philosophic 
 school or religious sect, but never a political party. Therefore, 
 it seems to me that universal suffrage belongs to our social aims 
 as necessarily as the handle to the axe."- Just the speech on 
 which, as we have seen, Leo's interview with the king is to a 
 large measure based, has to do with Lassalle 's demand for, and 
 prophesy of, universal suffrage,^ and even in subordinate steps 
 he thinks always in the first place of its establishment.* 
 
 In comparison with it the recommendation of co-operative so- 
 cieties for the purpose of manufacture with the financial aid of 
 the State holds a rather secondary position. He has never pre- 
 tended to be able to solve the social problems, or contended that 
 such societies could answer the social questions -^ he says not one 
 word of it in his Open Letter. He is far from seeing his last aims 
 in such societies. He was a consistent socialist in so far as he con- 
 sidered the association of all means of production the goal for 
 which his party should strive, but he thought of the co-operative 
 societies as a means which could be realized within the existing 
 
 1 Die indirekte Steuer, etc. ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 368. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 303 ; Cp. Ansprache an die Arbeiter Berlins, Oct., 1863. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 402 ; cp. above p. 115. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 403 ; cp. p. 390. 
 
 5 Harms, 1. c. p. 89 ; Brandes, 1. c. p. 145. 
 
151 
 
 political and social order as the first step on the road on which, in 
 his firm belief, the future would and must proceed.^ 
 
 Evidently Spielhagen did not introduce universal suffrage into 
 the novel because he stood on the side of the Progressionists who, 
 as has been pointed out^, were opposed to it. And from this Pro- 
 gressionist standpoint, as a champion of self-help, he makes Leo 
 try a socialistic experiment, because of Lassalle's proposition of 
 co-operative societies, in order to give a warning example of an 
 enterprise opposed to the principles of the Manchester school. 
 
 His description of the failure of such an experiment, however, 
 is apparently based on an experiment — of Bismarck. We have 
 spoken of the deputation of weavers who had an audience with 
 King William and for this reason lost their work in the mills 
 cwned by Reichenheim.'' Bismarck, who still in 1878 held the 
 productive co-operative societies of Lassalle and his 100 million 
 thaler project as a matter worthy of discussion, of course, in a 
 monarchical sense*, caused the king to give, out of his private 
 purse, to these weavers a sum of 6000 — 7000 thalers^ for an ex- 
 perimental foundation of a co-operative association. A trial on 
 such a small scale was bound to result in a failure, the more so 
 as Bismarck's whole attention was held by the events of foreign 
 policy since 1864, and the legislative measures which the depu- 
 tation were promised by the king were not taken." 
 
 As this experiment, so Leo's does not follow the safe-guards 
 Lassalle proposed in his Frankfurt speech of May 17, 1863. The 
 latter had asked for State-help in order to thereby give the work- 
 men the chance to help themselves earnestly through a \dgorous 
 initiative of their own. State-help is not opposed to self-help, but 
 rather gives the possibility of self-help, as he says in his address 
 to the workmen of Berlin." He was thinking of co-operative so- 
 cieties which were all to be enclosed by a credit association, and 
 of an insurance society which was to embrace all societies of the 
 same trade and thus make any eventual loss almost impercept- 
 ible ; not to speak of other advantages as the decrease of the risk 
 of capital, exclusion of competition, prevention of overproduc- 
 tion, saving of expenses and increase of production. 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 146 ; 144 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 272. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 145. 
 
 3 Cp. above p. 103 ; 105. 
 
 3 Cp. above p. 104 ; 106. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 350. 
 
 5 Cp. IRuG II 515. 
 
 6 Oncken, 1. c. p. 351 ; 405. 
 
 7 Brandes, 1. c. p. 3 44; Oncken, 1. c. p. 390. 
 
152 
 
 There are uo parallels in Leo's enterprise to all these measures 
 and necessary precautions which Lassalle had in mind to estab- 
 lish without risk and with a measure of certain success his co- 
 operative societies; it does not matter here whether or not his 
 calculations were right. Leo's socialistic experiment is an evi- 
 dently intended, but, in its execution, rather vague demonstra- 
 tion of, and a plea for, the effectiveness of the Progressionist as- 
 sociations founded on self-help. In these the workmen did not 
 take the initiative, in contrast with those proposed by Lassalle, 
 and also with the English workmen's unions which the Progress- 
 ionists thought they were imitating. Their position was, rather, 
 regulated by the Progressionist leaders because they wanted no 
 State-help granted by the Government that might strengthen 
 the conservative party, nor any State-help obtained through 
 struggle or defiance by the workmen, as they detested the demo- 
 cratic self-reliance which was needed for obtaining such help.^ 
 Leo's enterprise is not in agreement with the social theories of 
 the Liberals, so it must fail. There is no authority, no business 
 ability, but distrust by all of all (II 390; 501-02). It was an 
 evil thought to leave to themselves people who are incapable of 
 self-government (II 568). It fails because tlie workmen in Leo's 
 mills act counter to the "Heilige Ordnung" (II 317-18; 620). 
 While thus his experiment would have found no approval with 
 Lassalle, Spielhagen has, no doubt, introduced it into the novel 
 on account of the economic plans of the socialistic democrat. 
 
 More in accord with historj- has the novelist treated the atti- 
 tude of the great democrat in respect to the question of how Prus- 
 sia should act during the war of Austria with Italy and France 
 in 1859. 
 
 Reference was made to this war to throw light on the position 
 of Miinzer and Lassalle towards the ideas of liberty and German 
 unity .^ Lassalle had written his pamphlet on the Italian war as 
 a kind of patriotic democrat who raised his voice against Prus- 
 sia's giving up neutrality, because in the first place, true dem- 
 ocracy could not without treachery trample upon the principle 
 of free nationalities by favoring a war with Napoleon. The lat- 
 ter was fighting in Italy for a nation's liberty, if only for the 
 purpose of strengthening his tyranny at home, while Austria, 
 
 1 p. A. Lange, 1. c. p. 361. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 74. 
 
153 
 
 which they wished to defend because of its being German land, 
 implied a firm and consistent reactionary principle. And in the 
 second place, the defeat of Austria must needs lead to German 
 unity. 
 
 While none of these reasons which Lassalle opposed vigorously 
 to the general passionate cry of Conservatives and Liberals alike, 
 to mobilize and take actively the side of the kindred people, can 
 be found in IRuG, the novelist nevertheless here again shows his 
 thorough information on the socialistic democrat and his plans. 
 For he has rightly read between Lassalle 's lines. As the latter 
 shows every proposition of his to be the consequence of demo- 
 cratic ideas, he works for an empire established by the Prussian 
 sword on a democratic basis. His correspondence with Marx 
 makes liis purpose clearer. He is opposed to a war with France 
 because a Prussian victory would be a counter-revolutionary 
 event par excellence. He will depopularize such a war which 
 would have re-enforced the bonds between monarchy and people, 
 by showing to the Prussian Government a highly national and 
 popular way which he was sure it would not take, and will lead 
 the instinct of the masses in his own paths.^ His pamphlet is 
 only a link in the democratic chain of revolutionary thoughts 
 wliich he, even after the Italian war, continues by putting on 
 other foreign events his hopes for the realization of a social 
 change in Germany.^ 
 
 These "unterirdische Argumente," or concealed arguments, 
 apparently furnish the basis for Leo's attitude to the war which 
 has broken out in the south. It has for him importance only in 
 so far as it may promote his own ends. If the country should be- 
 come involved in the war the subsequent general misery will help 
 his social efforts for the proletariat (II 380). He is a physician 
 for the sick. Up to now the stupidity of the patient has been an 
 obstacle because he is unwilling to believe in his sickness, as Las- 
 salle on May 17, 1863, exclaims: "Ihr deutschen Arbeiter seid 
 merkwiirdige Leute ! Euch . . . muss man vorher erst noch be- 
 weisen, dass Ihr in einer traurigen Lage seid. Das kommt aber 
 von Eurer verdammten Bediirfnislosigkeit. "^ Nevertheless, in 
 pointing out in opposition to the wild cry of the princely party 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 155 ; 142. 
 a Oncken, 1. c. p. 150. 
 
 -j Arboiterlesebuch ; Oncken, I. c. p. 311-312. 
 
154 
 
 the political and economic impossibility of carrying on a war — 
 at least if they intend to mobilize with the ordinary means 
 (II 465) — Leo is not led by such patriotic reasons as Lassalle's, 
 but by the desire to widen the breach between the crown and the 
 bellicose party of the prince, in order to compel the king to ac- 
 cede to his social plans. He endeavors to convince him that a war, 
 whether successful or not, will be fatal. For, in the first case, 
 the king will have to fear the prince, who would find his position 
 beside the throne too humble (II 484) ; in the second, the people 
 who would hold the king responsible for any ill-success (II 485). 
 But peace and freedom from care will be the lot of the king if he 
 makes peace with his own people by abolishing slavery, i. e., by 
 destroying the proletariat in the free State of the future, which 
 by the king's command will be at once changed into the present. 
 Only thus can he avoid seeing his ally make peace with his op- 
 ponents and try to take from Germany what he must give up 
 in another place. Leo's advice is the only way to prevent any 
 participation in the war and to give the nation which stands up 
 for its greatest and holiest ideals the firm belief that under such 
 conditions it has not to fear a war with a world in arms (II 487) . 
 The novelist thus puts Leo's efforts for the social betterment 
 of the proletariat rightlj^ in relation with the Italian war, in 
 which the desultory reader of Lassalle's pamphlet may see the 
 only occasion this democrat took to voice publicly his opinion on 
 a matter of essentially foreign policy as G. Brandes does.^ 
 
 8. 
 
 The (Italian) war takes place about nine years after Leo's 
 flight during the revolution, and his political activity comes to 
 an end when the news of peace has just arrived at the capital 
 (II 599). Spielhagen consequently puts those democratic 
 thoughts which he has gathered from Lassalle's pamphlet near 
 the end of Leo's career, while historically they mark the begin- 
 ning of Lassalle's turning to become a realistic politician free 
 from his former dreams of revolutionary republicanism. Chron- 
 ological, on the other hand, is Leo's appeal to the church for sup- 
 port during the time immediately preceding his fall and death. 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 81. 
 
155 
 
 So Lassalle, the socialistic democrat, who started with the intent 
 to drive the Progressionists into the most energetic fight with 
 the Government, and then was pleased from tactical reasons with 
 the semi-connivance of the Conservatives, leaned himself, during 
 the last three months of his life, on the untrustworthy support of 
 a Catholic bishop.^ 
 
 But here the novelist has given the church a far greater im- 
 portance than it had with Ijassalle, and as a result a more de- 
 tailed description of Leo's negotiations with its representative, 
 which are not borne out by the history of his model. We have 
 seen- that Lassalle drew the Conservative organs to his side when 
 he incurred the bitter and reckless hostility of the Progression- 
 ists in his fight for universal suffrage. The good terms on which 
 he apparently stood with the Conservatives, gave cause for the 
 assertions of his opponents that he now stood in the service of Be- 
 action; they did everything to separate him from his adherers 
 among the working classes. Besides being the war-object of the 
 Progressionists, he was also the eternal prize of the State's attor- 
 neys,'^ even at a time when he had his interviews with Bismarck. 
 At war with numerous adversaries, and an unscrupulous poli- 
 tician who would make use of anything which might appear as a 
 success of his agitation to show the Premier that he was an ally 
 with power behind him to impose universal suffrage, prudence 
 advised him to grasp the hand held out, and not to refuse the 
 strong support of the Catholic church. He found here the same 
 desire to strengthen the political power of the lower classes. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the consequences of universal suf- 
 frage, which logically must lead to leaving the last decision in 
 political matters in the hands of the greatest number of the un- 
 educated, especially in districts where the Catholic clergy rule, 
 it was quite natural that Lassalle, in his exasperate contest, took 
 his allies from whatever source he could. Leo does the same 
 (II 327). It may be open to question whether Spielhagen was 
 thinking of Lassalle 's relation to Helene von Donniges, which was 
 to be his death, when he made Leo follow the advice of his friends 
 to take such a wife as might put the cloak of her old nobility 
 about his low descent. At least the political selfishness of Leo in 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 408 ; 418. 
 
 2 Cp. above p. 140. 
 
 3 Harms, 1. c. p. 76 ; Brandes, 1. c. p. 156. 
 
156 
 
 entering into such a project differs from the lack of diplomacy 
 and from the passion which Lassalle showed by allowing himself 
 to be carried away in his love affair. But it is evident that Las- 
 salle 's acceptance of an alliance with the Catholic church, if it 
 can be called such, in the last stage of irritation over the oppo- 
 sition which he finds and the ill success of his efforts to prevail 
 on Bismarck in respect to the introduction of the universal and 
 direct suffrage, induced Spielhagen to make Leo seek the help of 
 the church as the other prop on which to lean. 
 
 At the first annivei"sary of the foundation of the General Ger- 
 man Workingmen's Union, Lassalle was compelled to show to 
 the workmen how successful their agitation had been, and to 
 Bismarck that a power capable of giving him support had arisen, 
 and he who had once declared, speaking out that which is to be 
 the first and mightiest means to attain political ends, must at- 
 tempt to get the best effects he could by unrealities..^ He could 
 speak of a support by the Catholic church only in so far as the 
 bishop of Mayence, Baron von Kettler, whom Brandes calls the 
 champion of obscurantism and anti-educationalism and who later 
 was to defend the Syllabus, had, after years of learned investiga- 
 tions of social matters, pronounced in his book, "Die Arbeiter- 
 frage und das Christentum, " his agreement with every point in 
 Lassalle 's economic tenets in opposition to the Progressionists.* 
 Spielhagen here differs essentially in his narration. 
 
 The representative of the church comes in due time, when 
 Leo, from an impulse of his own and on advice of his friends, 
 looks for allies — thus fulfilling the prediction made in the be- 
 ginning of Leo's political activity by the novelist's Liberal 
 spokesman that the latter after having learned the un- 
 changeable weight of existing conditions would, in his despair, 
 grasp after anything which had the appearance of aiding him in 
 his impotence ; a perfect reflection of Lassalle 's last political days 
 (I 386). But the help Leo seeks for carrying out his reforms 
 cannot be had except in an ecclesiastical sense, i. e., by the 
 spreading of ecclesiastical slavery in a pietistic form. The liberty 
 which he will procure is a liberty which frees but the bodies and 
 cannot be successful unless it bring also the liberty of the spirit. 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 405-06. 
 
 2 Ronsdorfer Rede ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 408. This Catholic bishop must help Imb- 
 sale still at his last trial at Dusseldorf June 27, 1864, ia his attempt to ia- 
 fluence the Catholic judges ; Oncken, p. 418. 
 
157 
 
 This is nowhere possible except under the soft yoke, of the church, 
 which grants the only imaginable liberty, i. e., equality before 
 God (II 332). Besides, this is the only liberty that can win the 
 romantic mind of the king for the reforms which Leo seeks to ac- 
 complish. Lassalle, on the other hand, had nothing to do with 
 any religious aspect of the church. But his being compelled by 
 adverse political conditions to grasp the hand of the clergy has 
 rightly found expression with Spielhagen in his representation 
 of Leo, who, by force of circumstance, with inner repugnance 
 and disgust hardly overcome, makes common cause with the rep- 
 resentative of the church.^ In regard to Leo's social program 
 the church is going to help him only if he make great conces- 
 sions to it and to capital. He struggles to refuse this (II 507-09). 
 His fall and death prevent him from subscribing to such a pro- 
 gram. 
 
 German literature includes many novels which deal with his- 
 torical persons ; we know of none, in the composition of which the 
 author has so amply, for agitatorial purposes, drawn from the life 
 and works of a great man as in DvH, and, in a still larger meas- 
 ure, in IRuG. 
 
 In comparing the political lives of Miinzer and Leo with that 
 of Lassalle we see how well informed Spielhagen was concerning 
 the latter^, and we conclude that the discrepancies which we find 
 are intentional. The assthetic and poetical principles of the 
 novelist have caused some changes.^ Others are due to the fact 
 that he did not assume the office of the historian. Thus we hear 
 nothing of the Prussian Conflict which led to the birth of the Pro- 
 gressionist party*, and gave Lassalle the occasion for which he 
 had been waiting, to re-enter the political arena and start his 
 labor movement.^ Nor does Spielhagen mention the question of 
 universal suffrage®. Indeed, Leo's political struggle does not oc- 
 cupy a place in the novel commensurate with the importance of 
 Lassalle 's contest with the Progressionists.^ And just the omis- 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 156. 
 
 2 Cp. e. g. above p. 11 ft ; 95. 
 s Cp. e. g. above p. 14 ; 115-6. 
 
 4 Above p. 112. 
 
 5 Above p. 113. 
 « Above p. 136. 
 7 Above p. 129. 
 
158 
 
 sion of Lassalle's demand for universal suffrage explains to us 
 the motives which caused the majority of the discrepancies which \ 
 exist between history and novels. The Democrat's conversations 
 with the man who represented the monarchical State bore on this 
 franchise/ But not even in Leo's interview with the king, based 
 on that speech in which Lassalle prophesied the establishment of 
 universal suffrage, does Spielhagen make mention of this fran- 
 chise which, as goal and means, is the sine qua non for the social- 
 ist's agitation.- Lassalle is nothing politically if not the cham- 
 pion of universal suffrage. "' That Spielhagen does not treat this 
 question must be attributed to his Progressionist leanings, as the 
 Progressionists believed that the existing franchise needed no 
 extension* and were in fact opposed to the grant of universal 
 suffrage. From a Progressionist standpoint the novelist gives 
 also in Leo's socialistic experiment an example of an enterprise 
 in disagreement with Liberal principles.^ The purpose is evi- 
 dent. He is politically a champion of the Progressionists and 
 wants to write ' ' Tendenzromane. ' '" He is opposed to a Hegelian 
 State and advocates self -education.' He places the ideals of the 
 Liberals in the brightest light, represents them as altruistic, 
 while he depicts the ruling classes as the embodiment of all evils, 
 as inferior in moral and intellectual qualities."* But in his char- 
 acterization of the Liberals he gives no complete historical pic- 
 ture of the opponents of Lassalle and Bismarck, and omits the 
 weak sides of Liberalism. On the other hand, he has, in his party- 
 political prejudice overdrawn Reaction, for this Reaction was 
 working for the solution of the German Question.^ 
 
 But the pronounced political purpose^" of his novels is, not- 
 withstanding his Progressionist leanings, pre-eminently an ethical 
 one." He was in sympathy with the Progressionists because he 
 had more in common with them than with other parties. But he 
 was no strict partisan of theirs. He was more interested in the 
 ethical side of Liberalism. While wishing to give in his "Zeitro- 
 
 1 Above p. 145. , 
 
 2 Above p. 150. 
 
 3 Above p. 76. 
 
 4 Above p. 145 ; 151. 
 
 5 Above p. 151. 
 
 6 Above p. 15. 
 
 7 Above p. 72-73 ; 81 ; 52 ; 136-7. 
 
 8 Above p. 43-4 ; 53 ; 117. 
 
 9 Above p. 115; 112; 11& ; 113. 
 
 10 Above p. 6. 
 
 11 Above p. 131. 
 
159 
 
 mane" an artistic form to his comprehension of the ideas which 
 animated his time, he meant also to fight for his own ideals.^ He 
 believed that the external power of a nation has never guaranteed 
 the duration of its sovereign authority, nor even its bare exist- 
 ence, but that the real invincible strength of a nation rests in its 
 humanity, which is equivalent to the moral spirit governing it.- 
 His political ideals, therefore, mean ethical aims. His love of 
 fatherland, libertj^, truth and the beautiful compel him to seek, 
 above all things, to elevate the minds of the German people to 
 the purer heights of true humanity. It is in this direction that 
 he wishes to influence his time, and to this ethical purpose he 
 makes the actual facts of Lassalle's political life subservient. 
 Even in his last novel, Freigeboren, he desires to teach us to 
 bring all our forces to the highest possible development.^ And 
 in DvH and IRuG Spielhagen's spokesmen are the champions of 
 this high ethical idealism. Politics means to them ethics. There- 
 fore, the intellectual and moral qualities of the parties at war in 
 our novels are fully illustrated, and all political and social mat- 
 ters discussed from an ethical standpoint.* Spielhagen was con- 
 vinced that social problems depend on, and find their causes, ex- 
 planation and solution in the character of man.® It is from this 
 viewpoint that the novelist in DvH and IRuG has drawn pictures 
 of the Prussian-German world as he believed it to be during the 
 middle of the past century. They have turned out to be also fit- 
 ting illustrations of his poetic principles.** The actors have been 
 characterized bj^ their words and actions, and given full life by 
 being drawn after persons whom the novelist knew intimately. 
 It was a matter of course that the principal leader of the social- 
 istic movement in these novels should have been modelled after 
 Lassalle, who was its foremost representative in history, as far 
 as Germany was concerned, and whose personality had always 
 been an interesting study to Spielhagen. In view of the novel- 
 ist 's ethical-political aims, it cannot surprise that the character 
 of Lassalle had a greater attraction for him than his political 
 activity. 
 
 1 Above p. 7. 
 
 2 Spielhagen, Am Wege p. 91. 
 
 3 Above p. 9. 
 
 4 Above p. 118 ; 129 ; 123. 
 
 5 Cp. IRuG I 184 : Henning. 1. c. p. 115. 
 
 6 Above p. 7 ff. 
 
160 
 
 In Ms autobiography he has credited the great Democrat with 
 having made himself a name in the history of the world, but he 
 has also found fault with the moral traits of his character/ He 
 has emphasized these also in * * Freigeboren. " 
 
 Here Lassalle is characterized as a man of genius. He acts 
 with an almost infallible self-possession^ is quick at repartee in 
 dialectics, excels in speaking extempore, and provokes and de- 
 rides the public prosecutor at his trial at Berlin, Jan. 16, 1863. 
 However, he shows himself as a man without taste.^ In his mania 
 for bragging and his arrogant vanity he appears in full dress be- 
 fore the judge and is, like an actor, conscious of acting his part 
 well.* Fourteen years before this S(pielhagen) had believed in 
 the honesty of the defendant ; he was too young to verify at the 
 trial of August, 1848, that Lassalle was a "phraseur" and "po- 
 seur. ' ' But now he is ready to take oath that the latter has these 
 qualities in a high degree ; that he is no longer concerned about 
 the justness of his cause, but that he thinks only of his person 
 and is working for effect (p. 295 f). Sprung from a race which, 
 endowed with the greatest intellectual gifts, had been fettered 
 for centuries, Lassalle does not know what to do with his share 
 of this long stored up mental power, now that thy fetters have 
 fallen (p. 298-9). He parades coquettishly his intellectual super- 
 iority before the unlucky prosecutor. A true gentleman could 
 and would not have done so. Lassalle should have been conscious 
 of standing before the judge, as the representative of all man- 
 kind, or at least of its majority, the poor and wretched. But his 
 conduct lacks the necessary dignity. There is a discord in his 
 nature.^ He is the prophet who intends to lead mankind to free- 
 dom, and the Don Giovanni who is the slave of his inordinate de- 
 sires. He is a mixture of greatness and eommonplaceness, of 
 high thoughts and low desires, in one human soul. Devoured by 
 vanity and selfishness, he has undertaken to solve a problem, for 
 the approximate solution of which a noble-minded self-denial is 
 the sine qua non (p. 314). But savant, thinker, apostle and agi- 
 tator that he is, he seeks also to be the hero in lovp affairs. The 
 heroine of " Freigeboren, " who has often heard him spoken of 
 
 1 Above p. 7. 
 
 2 Cp. Leo II 132 ; 121. 
 
 3 Cp. Spielbagen's utterance, quoted i>7 Brandos, p. 94. 
 
 * Cp. "Lassalle showed himself brave like a hero and vain like an actor at bis 
 
 trials." Oncken, p. 400. Cp. also p. 21 ; 116 ; 421 ; 432. 
 B Above p. 33. 
 
•'it 
 
 161 
 
 as a libertine and devotee of women (291), no longer believes in 
 his filial love for the countess (Hatzfeldt), nor in his disinterest- 
 edness jn herself, after he has assured her of his friendship with 
 a fire which, she is convinced, had been kindled with a less pure 
 torch (295). This discord in Lassalle's nature was brought to 
 light especially by his inglorious end. An unlucky accident 
 struck in a rough and rude manner the burden from his shoul- 
 ders which he would have been obliged to drop ere long (314). 
 
 We have here an almost complete agreement between Spielha- 
 gen and the biographers of Lassalle, especially Oncken.^ We 
 find those causes related which must needs lead to a personal 
 failure of the great Democrat, if not of the socialistic movement 
 which he started. Oncken remarks that there has been hardly ^ 
 any career like Lassalle's, in which the purely personal and acci-' 
 dental has led the progress of his positive efforts from their 
 course, and in which unrestrained passions have crossed a mo- 
 mentous and great cause. For Lassalle sunk forever all the am- 
 bition which had le3 him in the realms of politics and learning 
 during his whole life, into his sudden passion for Helene von 
 Donniges, and thus forgot completely the cause for which he, the 
 leader of a movement of such great consequence to Germany, had 
 staked his heart's blood during his last years.^ And Brandes 
 writes about Lassalle's inglorious end: "Das Unreine, das Pro- 
 blematische in dem Charakter Lassalles, welches bewirkte, dass 
 er, wie sehr er sonst aus einem Guss war, doch nicht ganz in 
 seiner Sache und seiner Idee aufging, das war es, was ihn zu- 
 grunde richtete . . . aus alien seinen grossen Gaben erwuchs 
 nur eine unvoUstandige personliche Durchbildung. "^ 
 
 Upon these moral shortcomings of Lassalle, Spielhageh has en- 
 larged in DvH and IRuG, and from his ethical views on the so- 
 cial problems as depending on the character of man, these novels 
 must be judged.* The author sees the two principles of egoism 
 and idealism (altruism) in a contest for supremacy.^ He per- 
 sonifies them in his conservative-reactionary types and his pro- 
 gressive-idealistic types." At first Miinzer and Leo take part in 
 this contest on the side of the latter, but soon they pursue their 
 
 1 Cp. above p. 9 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 376-7. 
 
 2 Oncken, p. 431; 434. 
 
 3 Brandes, 1. c. p. 171. 
 
 4 Above p. 159. 
 
 siRuG II 399-400. ; 
 
 '5Abo\e p. 40-40; 51-52; 117. 
 
162 
 
 own ends in politics. In doing so, they are not faithful in their 
 duties toward the "Idea," which they wish to realize. Instead 
 of concentrating their whole minds on it, they are led astray by 
 passions which lie outside the "Idea." They prove to be lack- 
 ing in that moral worth with which men must be equipped who 
 undertake the difficult task of bringing nearer the solution of 
 the social questions. Despite their splendid talents and ideal- 
 istic efforts, they cannot succeed and must in gloriously go to ruin. 
 As for DvH, Lassalle's unfortunate infatuation for Helene 
 von Donniges with its sad issue, cannot have furnished Spielha- 
 gen with material for depicting Munzer's love affair, his result- 
 ing failure in his political work and his death at the hand of a 
 rival. But it is interesting to note that the novelist should have 
 drawn from the character of Miinzer-Lassalle as early as 1862-3 
 a conclusion which, in August, 1864, was to become an historical 
 fact, and this in its turn was to serve the novelist as the founda- 
 tion for his critical remarks on the inglorious end of the social- 
 istic Democrat, as the logical result of the latter 's character, just 
 cited from ' ' Freigeboren. ' ' The lack of moral worth for accom- 
 plishing great plans such as Lassalle conceived, is found by Spiel- 
 hagen rather in the democrat 's relations with the Countess Sophie 
 von Hatzfeldt, for which also the choice of the name of Antonie 
 would speak.^ These relations were a public secret, and were 
 criticized by his Progressionist opponents, as are those of Miin- 
 zer's with Antonie. But whatever the intimacy which resulted 
 from Lassalle's becoming the attorney of the countess from mo- 
 tives doubtlessly ideal,^ these relations had hardly anything to 
 do with his untimely end or with his failure to reach practical 
 results in politics, while such is the case with Miinzer. It is much 
 more the fact that the social sphere, which he entered as the 
 friend of a woman belonging to the highest aristocracy, had for 
 the champion of the working people such great attractions which 
 is for the novelist a demonstration of the weakness in Lassalle's 
 character. And, indeed, the social intercourse with the countess 
 gave food to Lassalle 's vanity. His whole predisposition for aris- 
 
 1 Above p. 13. Lassalle's famous love letter, written to the beautiful Russian 
 Sophie Sontzeft whom he met in Aachen In the summer of 1860 (cp. Onckea 
 I. c. p. 188) is a veritable document showing the foolishness of which the 
 great Democrat was capable in love affairs. Spielhagen has made use of some 
 thoughts, contained in this letter, cp. above p. 47 ; 105. It seems as If some 
 material has been taken from this source to ascribe to Miinzer traits of char- 
 acter, unfit for his great work. 
 
 2 Above p. 29. 
 
163 
 
 tocratic living met this vanity which developed more and more 
 while he was fighting against the power of rank and aristocracy* 
 and showed a discrepancy in principle and action which, from 
 the ethical viewpoint of Spielhagen, rightfully must be consid- 
 ered a moral defect. 
 
 But the novelist has magnified this discrepancy in Miinzer by 
 placing him in a conflict between his duties toward wife and chil- 
 dren, and political aims on the one hand, and his passion for a 
 woman of high aristocracy on the other, in order to show that 
 only a morally spotless champion of the people can hope to be 
 successful in his political task. For such a conflict in a char- 
 acter like Miinzer 's must end badly for himself and also have the 
 strongest influence on the success of his public activity. 
 
 Miinzer is, like Lassalle^, an idealist, but he is of a more roman- 
 tic nature. He is a poet (297) — Lassalle composed even in his 
 youth no lyric poem' — a dreamer whose real home is the won- 
 derland of Romantic (152; 159), an^ "who cannot live without 
 his dreams (465-6). Anything of a fairy nature is apt to en- 
 snare, as with magic threads, his mind, which longs passionately 
 for the extraordinary (161). An ardent Faustean desire fills 
 him (156) like Lassalle*, and his soul is easily intoxicated, to the 
 state of ecstacy, with whatever is great and beautiful (652). His 
 passionate heart is continually at war with his better thoughts 
 and conscience (267; 395). 
 
 The "Idea," too, which leads Miinzer^, has a romantic color. 
 He has found that men as the sons of Titans, who, after a vain 
 attempt to share the blessed life of the Gods on Olympos, mar- 
 ried in their disappointment daughters of the earth: Sorrow, 
 Want, Sickness, have still a suspicion of this blessed life which 
 we call love, but which we, no more than our Titan fathers, can 
 find. There is only a small amount of happiness for mankind to 
 share, and each of us can have his modest portion but by con- 
 tenting himself nor asking more than he willingly gives to his 
 fellow-men. This discernment, which can demonstrate itself by 
 deeds of humility and resignation, is called justice by Miinzer. 
 If he cannot love his fellow-men, he can at least be just (165). 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 46 ; also p. 20. 
 
 2 Oncken. 1. c. p. 100. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 115. Cp. above p. 16, note 2. 
 * Oncken, 1. c. p. 192. 
 
 •• Above p. 32 ; 71. 
 
164 
 
 This idea of justice he has not only endeavored to implant in 
 the minds of his pupils (44), but he will realize here on earth by 
 working for the freedom of his people politically, without expect- 
 ing material reward (273), or being hampered by interest in 
 friends and by domestic happiness (276-7; 151). Deliberate 
 (28; 298) and inflexible (479) in his political activity, he fails 
 because of his deceiving the "Idea"^ and for the weightier reason 
 that in the struggle of his idea of justice with his passionate 
 heart (325) and his aristocratic, romantic nature (317; 310-1; 
 501-2) he proves to be an erratic character. 
 
 He has married, without love, what he believed to be a simple, 
 insignificant girl, in order to have no advantage over other men 
 (169). His heart, however, claims its rights. But instead of 
 making its warmth eradiate into the heart of his wife and stir- 
 ring the flame of his domestic hearth by the fire in his bosom 
 (652), he finds no satisfaction in the crushing narrowness of a 
 sober middle-class abode (159) since he has met a member of that 
 social class against which he has started his fight, that woman 
 who is the realization of his phantastic dreams and worthy of 
 him (156 ; 159 ; 161). An aristocrat in thought and feeling (652), 
 he falls in love with her because she, an aristocrat by birth and 
 character, is in every way the opposite of his gentle, modest and 
 peaceful wife, whose charms, a good character and intellectual 
 gifts of talents, he has been unable to discover and to appreciate. 
 For he was born to live in a sphere which lies far above an ordin- 
 ary commonplace life, and he is attracted toward aristocrats. He 
 feels himself now in an irreconcilable conflict between passion 
 and duty towards the cause to which he had vowed his life (267). 
 His mind struggles to combat his love for Antonie (384; 464), 
 recognizing very well that this love is an error (383), but his 
 heart remains a victim to her charms (320; 673). He is not the 
 man who can make real his idea of justice (323; 325; 382).- 
 Neither does his political activity make him contented. He has 
 no confidence in the people whom he wishes to reform. He es- 
 teems the workmen for whom he pretends to fight, as little as the 
 nobility and the propertied classes (646). Nor does he find in 
 Antonie 's love that satisfaction for which he has been longing 
 and for which he has sacrificed his wife (461). He feels that at 
 
 1 Above p. 64-65. 
 
 2 Above p. 65. 
 
165 
 
 the bottom of her heart she, the aristocrat by birth, must in her 
 proud soul despise the cause for which he seeks victory (465). 
 He seeks death in the revolutionary rising when he believes that 
 Antonie has given him up for another man (575). His power is 
 broken. He does not know how to rhyme his ideals with life as 
 it is (474) and feels that he does not fit into this world (665). 
 Miinzer, the champion of justice, fails because of his problem- 
 atical character. 
 
 Splendid intellectual gifts of talent alone are not sufficient to 
 erect a new world. The actions and words of the democrats in 
 DvH' preach Spielhagen's means for the approximate solution 
 of social problems, and to this purpose Lassalle 's political activity 
 has been made subordinate in the novel. A new society can and 
 must be erected only on the principles of right, justice and the 
 solidarity of interests (67). The archenemy of man, selfishness, 
 can be overcome only by love (645). That these principles shall 
 rule the earth and be the foundation of the new world, we must 
 begin with ourselves (44). We can hold ourselves free from sin, 
 do for our persons the right thing, live, undisturbed by the ego- 
 ism of others, for the ideal of brotherhood (47-49), and make sac- 
 rifices as much as we can, without giving up our better selves 
 (372). Fate makes of us what we make of ourselves, for our fate 
 is not the work of a God, but it is ourselves with our weaknesses 
 and virtues (447; 646; 70). Every disloyal action, both in pri- 
 vate life and in politics, must needs result in error and confusion. 
 Hum.an virtues are bound to one another in solidarity (665). If 
 in any man there has been a disturbance within one sphere it will 
 react on another ( 501 ) . Adultery is a sin against common mor- 
 ality, a principle which holds good everywhere, and he who be- 
 comes faithless to his convictions (400) — the worst sin he can 
 commit- — who will rule and knows not how to rule himself, can- 
 not be great politically. He is the worst enemy to freedom. In 
 a trnl3' free commonwealth moral greatness is the necessary cor- 
 relate to political greatness (389). 
 
 Beside the problematical, there was, however, one trait in Las- 
 salle 's nature to which he owes all his success, and which made 
 him one of the most remarkable men. History has not kept rec- 
 
 1 Above p. 52. 
 
 2 Compromising, founded deeply in Lassalle's nature (cp. above p. 78; 92; 93; 
 142-3), is from Spielhagen's viewpoint a moral defect (cp. above p. 64). 
 
166 
 
 ord of many who are such monuments to Will, as is Lassalle/ He 
 believed in the power of his will to accomplish anything on which 
 he has set his mind,^ and he has shown in the realms of leaminfr, 
 law and politics that this belief was no self-conceit.* He was a 
 champion of the indeterminism of will,* and life without action^ 
 meant nothing to him. In his correspondence with Marx con- 
 cerning his "Sikkingen" he does not agree with his friend, that 
 the failure of the reactionary Sikkingen was demanded by the 
 philosophy of history. He is, from his own personality, which 
 bums with impatience to act, so fully convinced of the immortal 
 right and importance of individual initiative that he refuses to 
 accept a critical philosophical conception of history, which denies 
 the reality of individual decisions and actions, and leaves, there- 
 fore, no ground for practical deeds, nor representations of ac- 
 tions on the stage.^ Even if Spielhagen had not known of this 
 correspondence he could not have helped finding in Lassalle's 
 whole life an exhibition of such an independent will.^ 
 
 In union with his eminent will power and his belief in the pos- 
 sibility and necessity of free decision, his aristocratic nature 
 shaped Lassalle's career. For the innermost trait of his active 
 personality was dominating aristocracy.* He had been created 
 to rule like an autocrat and for display — he was always the 
 grand seignior with aristocratic taste — he had not been made 
 for the part of a plain, self-denying champion of the people, al- 
 though he remained a democrat all his life.^ He looked as if he 
 would conquer a throne.^" There was a feeling in him as in the 
 offspring of an old lordly race,^^ and even in his youth he had 
 strong leanings toward aristocracy.'^ His aristocratic individu- 
 ality showed itself not only in his agreement with Heraclitus, the 
 intellectual aristocrat who everywhere utters his contempt for 
 men, speaks of the democratic envy of greatness and declares 
 that there are never more than a few good (great) men, while 
 
 1 Brandes, 1. c. p. 174. 
 
 2 Above p. 21 f. 
 
 3 Oncken, 1. c. p. 425. 
 
 4 Above p. 97. 
 
 5 Above p. 125. 
 
 8 Oncken, 1. c. p. 125-6. 
 
 7 Above p. 65. 
 
 8 Above p. 26. 
 
 9 Cp. above p. 107 ; 12. Oncken, p. 436 ; 324 ; 325. 
 
 10 Above p. 14. 
 
 11 Oncken, 1. c. p. 436. 
 
 12 Above p. 26. 
 
[W 
 
 167 
 
 the majority live like beasts.^ It showed itself also in his chal- 
 lenge to Fabrice, the action of an aristocrat which he prefers to 
 his democratic principles.^ It not only explains his position at 
 the head of a party which he created,^ but brings him, in union 
 with the inflexibility of his whole nature, into a position which 
 was to result in a great calamity.* 
 
 Because of this exhibition of will, aristocratic individuality 
 and desire for wielding an autocratic power, rather than in his 
 conceptions of State as the embodiment and promoter of Right,^ 
 and of Might as Right on the part of the Democrat,* Spielhagen, 
 seeking to delineate in a poetical form the typical features of the 
 spiritual life of his time, saw in him a type of reckless and ruth- 
 ](ss egoism^ of heroic proportions, well fitted to pose for the 
 drawing of a champion of the working people who, despite his 
 heroic character, is unable, on account of his moral shortcomings, 
 to lead them out of their social wretchedness. It is to this pre- 
 dominating thought that in IRuG, too, the actual facts of Las- 
 salle 's political activity have been made subservient. Leo, the 
 socialistic hero, has been equipped freely with the splendid gifts 
 of his prototype, but at the same time, the main traits of charac- 
 ter which made the historical democrat the great man of the Ger- 
 man labor movement, have been blended with some that are 
 either fictitious, or are exaggerations of the moral shortcomings 
 of Lassalle.* This was done in order, by contrast, to bring into 
 prominence the ethical ideals of the novelist and the means which 
 he proposes for the social progress of mankind. Thus Leo has be- 
 come a figure which, on the whole, differs greatly from the s 
 founder of German social democracy. It is no historical truth 
 that Lassalle undertook and performed from reckless egoism his 
 entire political-social activity. But such an egoism, the belief 
 that he alone has found a way that can help the working people 
 and the vigorous pursuit of his aims to the detriment of the rights 
 of others, are both the underlying motives for Leo's political ac- 
 tivity and the cause of his necessary failure. 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 101. 
 
 2 Oncken, 1. c. p. 107. 
 
 3 Above p. 140-1 ; 143. 
 
 4 Oncken, 1. c. p. 324; 325; 432. 
 
 6 Above p. 72-3. 
 8 Above p. 81. 
 
 7 Cp. also above p. 160. 
 
 8 Above p. 16 ; ZO. 
 
168 
 
 Even in his boyish mind he claimed to be the instrument of 
 Avhatever idea had just taken hold of him (II 413), but through 
 the influences which he underwent as a youth he has come to ex- 
 change the passion of his heart for the "Idea." Since a serious 
 mind must sooner or later turn to those highest problems which 
 appear on the horizon of mankind, Leo has given himself up pas- 
 sionately to the solution of the labor question, to the exclusion of 
 a life of leisure (I 512). He is convinced that he has learned 
 something in philosophic and political matters which is not the 
 property of most men. Like Lassalle\ he wishes to disseminate 
 new ideas. He sees in the power of capital those fetters which 
 must be removed if the social emancipation of the working people 
 is to be accomplished (II 177). He feels assured that with the 
 exception of death and such ailments as are inseparable from 
 our human nature, there is no single evil which has not its roots 
 in the stupidity of man. The amount of natural suflFerings, there- 
 fore, can be reduced to a minimum (I 258) by him who has the 
 power to force liberty and health upon those who do not wish to 
 be free and healthy (I 296). There was hardly any labor ques- 
 tion in 1862 when Lassalle entered the political arena.- But the 
 mastery of Hegelian dialectis invited him to shape actual condi- 
 tions rationally, it gave him also the spiritual contents for the 
 emancipation of the working people^. So Leo will draw from his 
 political-philosophical doctrine the practical conclusions to break 
 the power of capital and feels that he is blessed by fate to be the 
 instrument of this great idea (I 516),* as Lassalle felt himself 
 called to fight for his ideals.' It is this immortal idea which 
 forms the center of his universe ; it is no woman who occupies 
 this place (I 263). In order to serve with all his power the idea 
 of liberty he must be free (I 266) . He has learned to believe that 
 the only true passions are those of the brain (I 397; cp. I 140; 
 252), and that the noblest and greatest of all consist in the un- 
 selfish devotion to a great idea which carries in itself its happi- 
 ness and wretchedness, and, therefore, does not trouble itself 
 about the happiness or wretchedness of the individual (II 274). 
 Happiness and contentment are matters of secondary importance 
 
 1 Above p. 23. 
 
 2 Above p. 113 ; 153. 
 •t Above p. 28. 
 
 4 Above p. 34. 
 
 .- Above p. 27-8. 
 
169 
 
 (I 265). Thus Leo is filled with the passions of truth and jus- 
 tice, and serves the great idea of freedom (I 497 ; ep. II 585). 
 
 With the spirit of independence and courage which he showed 
 in his relations with Tusky (I 192 ; 147), he enters upon the pur- 
 suit of his political plans (I 395), to be, like Lassalle, the leader 
 of the fourth estate.^ He has always aimed at great things and 
 even in his youth he dreamed of leadership.^ Conscious, like 
 Lassalle, of his superiority t'o many eminent men (I 251), and 
 like him having longed from early youth to rise above the crowd,"* 
 Leo also is determined to succeed.* His way shall lead upward, 
 for the liistorv' of nations is made by those who have power 
 (I 271)^ — Lassalle 's high esteem of power." Disappointed in 
 his hope to find an understanding with the Liberal forces of the 
 State, he becomes a deserter from their ranks from a mighty in- 
 stinct of creative genius, wliich finds in the world, as it is, no 
 more room for itself (I 452-3). Alone — like Lassalle — he en- 
 dea\'ors to bring into life his great thought of freeing the work- 
 ing people from the fetters of capital, convinced that he will se- 
 cure the power to force freedom and health upon those who do 
 not wish to be free and healthy. To this holy cause of the people 
 in its last consequences, he has, like the historic democrat, conse- 
 crated his existence.' To fight alone enflames rather than intimi- 
 dates his courage (I 451). He who once has looked into the mys- 
 terious face of the sphinx, the social problem, is forever charmed ; 
 he must continue his dangerous path, regardless whether jack- 
 daws and ravens crow about him or the abyss gaps threatening 
 before him (I 394). No hesitation and procrastination, no weigh- 
 ing and measuring becomes him who wishes to attain great things 
 in a great way (II 165). He is ready to sacrifice himself like 
 Lassalle.** If he should not succeed, he is willing to depart this 
 life covered with the jeers and scorn which the world has in 
 store for fools and adventurers (I 440). Failure, however, shall 
 find him greater than destiny, which can crush him, but which 
 cannot humiliate him (I 530). He deems it possible that the 
 times of heroes have passed by, that the strong arm of the indi- 
 
 1 Above p. 133. 
 
 2 Above p. 130. 
 ■■; Above p. 21. 
 
 ■» Oncken, 1. c. p. 188. 
 
 ■"> Above p. 97. 
 
 «5 Above p. 80. 
 
 7 Above p. 105 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 190. 
 
 s Above p. 26 ; Oncken, 1. c. p. 190. 
 
170 
 
 vidual warrior has no longer the weight which it had once, but he 
 believes that genius has not become superfluous, for the move- 
 ments of the battalions must be led by some one who overlooks 
 the whole. The masses today, as formerly and ever, will and 
 must be guided. They cannot engender in themselves the thought 
 which is to lead them, but still must be move^ by him in whom 
 the great thought originated (I 268) — Lassalle's organization 
 of the masses.^ Having learned what doleful parts dreamers and 
 good souls play, and are not ashamed to play, in this cruel world 
 of inexorable^acts, Leo prefers to be the hammer, instead of the 
 anvil. He will use the means for his great aims with cold blood 
 and clear head (I 434). Left to his own resources, he goes as a 
 heroic nature (I 266) his way with the boldest assurance (I 529) 
 as his prototype was, by his mastery of Hegelian dialectics, im- 
 bued with the firm belief in himself.- He follows his star untir- 
 ingly (I 265) with his aims clear before his mind — Lassalle re- 
 mains always the democrat and seeks to the end of his life vic- 
 tory for the democracy of 1848.^ But Leo's former friends among 
 the Liberals find that he walks through life, arbitrarily and self- 
 sufficiently like a comet, which runs its course solitarily and in- 
 calculably, a phenomenon, a riddle which they cannot solve 
 (1251).* ^ 
 
 But because of the many obstacles which confront him, Leo 
 soon recognizes the impossibility of executing his plans without 
 support. He must, like Lassalle, enter into connection with influ- 
 ential men.* From an idealist he turns, like him, to be a realist 
 in politics (I 251) in order to attain his social aims within the ex- 
 isting- State,' and in so doing, the heroic champion of the people 
 is compelled to compromise as the historic democrat, notwith- 
 standing his theory on the failure of revolutions, was forced to 
 compromise in order to see results in his political activity and be- 
 come a power within the State in the shortest time possible.* 
 Early in his political career he had wished to be a king, for every 
 one who plans great things has at some time this wish (I 395). 
 He had also seen in dreams the royal ruler, with head bowed be- 
 fore him who was ruling by the power of mind and the force of 
 
 1 Above p. 91. 
 
 2 Above p. 28.* 
 
 3 Above p. 142. 
 
 4 Above p. 141. 
 
 5 Above p. 92. 
 c Above p. 106. 
 
171 
 
 words (I 431). He has known for years that this is to happen. 
 Great souls that work on great plans have in a moment of extra- 
 ordinary excitement a kind of fore-kngwledge of their fulfill- 
 ment by seeing certain pictures in dreams. It is only necessary 
 to interpret them rightly. So Leo schemes to use the king for his 
 political plans, for the king is susceptible to new ideas, and soft 
 and tractable like clay in the hands of the artist (I 431). If he 
 should prove to be fragile, it would not matter, since Leo's work 
 would be done in a very short time. He trusts, like Lassalle,^ in 
 his ability to do an unlimited amount of things in a few years or 
 even in a few months (I 431) , and he is sure of success. For, like 
 Mm, be believes in his star (II 165). 
 
 Leo, indeed, has had no empty dreams. He wins the good graces 
 of the king, and, consequently, rises in influence. But while 
 drawing nearer to his goal, his striving for power springs more 
 from selfish lust than from the holy cause to which he has vowed 
 his life. So Lassalle's thirst for fame, with all positive efforts, 
 must always think of itself,- and might and its possession becomes 
 to him everything in the course of his political career.^ Only as 
 a democratic politician, striving for power, he becomes a social- 
 ist.* Leo had been the lofty idealist, which he was in his youth,^ 
 when he entered the capital, and with the feeling of responsi- 
 bility he had undertaken the fight against the selfish interests, 
 ruling the State, not for himself, .but for the working people 
 (II 598). As a prophet he had utt0;red proud words (II 412-3). 
 His ambition was praiseworthy and his egoism had altruistic pur- 
 poses. He believed himself to have found the only way possible 
 for the social improvement of the conditions of the working peo- 
 ple and was engaged solely in accomplishing this task. But when 
 the opportunity of gaining influence over the king offers itself 
 Leo works systematically for the sake of his own success (II 518) . 
 So-iiassalle 's striving for power had also personal motives.^ Leo 
 himself, to be sure, is not aware of this; he believes that he is 
 working to rule all, in order to serv-^e many unselfishly (II 267). 
 He feels like Jehova, who desires, in the first place, to be a god 
 of justice, and, therefore, cannot suffer any other god beside 
 
 1 Above p. 22. 
 
 2 Above p. 21. 
 
 3 Above p. 21; 80. 
 
 4 Above p. 141: 6. 
 
 5 Above p. 22-3. 
 
 6 Above p. 130. 
 
172 
 
 himself (II 268). But because Leo is always friendly with, and 
 obliging to, those who are weaker than he (II 267), others inter- 
 pret his desire for power differentl}' ; they believe he bids for the 
 favor of the people in order to satisfy his selfish lust for rule. 
 Indeed, the heroic champion of the people becomes the champion 
 of his own interests (II 367-9). Although he thinks or pretends 
 to be free from petty egoism (II 170), his political activity is 
 blemished by his selfish work in the interest of holding and 
 strengthening his personal power which this position makes cer- 
 tain. In his youth he had always wished for something out of 
 the ordinary line for himself, he had striven and hoped for it. 
 Now when he has found the greatest appreciation by the king, 
 who. he believes, is not entirely unworthy of this name, his old 
 vanity leads him astray .(H 596). His aristocratic individuality 
 puts itself forward. As^with Lassalle,^ so Leo's innermost in- 
 clinations and true nature are repelled by the vulgar crowd for 
 Avhom he must pretend to have love and the desire to labor. He 
 has nothing but pitj' for them, or that sympathy which a drill- 
 sergeant has for the block-head whom he must drill, and a police- 
 man has for the starving vagabond whom he must pick up from 
 the dirty streets, and love only in so far as love is pity (II 319) — 
 Lassalle, however, had always an honest compassion with those 
 against whom he saw an outrage committed.- 
 
 Without losing sight of his aims to erect a new social world, 
 as Lassalle always remained the democrat, Leo's autocratic de- 
 sires manifest themselves with all their inherent moral blam- 
 ableness and harmfulness to others, an exaggeration or even a 
 fictitious rendering of the dominant aristocratic character of the 
 great democrat. Leo allows no interference with the freedom of 
 his decisions. This is in certain measure true with Lassalle, but 
 it is enlarged upon in Leo. The mere thought that some one 
 attempts to impose his will on hira is sufficient to arouse his feel- 
 ing of independence and to feed his lust for power; it prompts 
 him to exercise his tried strength to throw off mercilessly every- 
 thing which, uninvited, crowds upon him with the intention of 
 crossing his path (I 404). Pitiless and circumspect, as must be 
 he who struggles with the world (I 402-3), the erstwhile champ- 
 ion of the "Idea" becomes the egoist who is more concerned 
 
 1 Above p. 70. 
 
 2 Above p. 72. 
 
173 
 
 about the pretense of being the instrument or the apostle of his 
 idea than about- its contents; a demagogue whose social program 
 seems to become only a means for selfish ends (II 505; cp. 
 II 518) — the Liberal capitalists, too, think that Leo uses the 
 Labor question only to push himself into the highest political 
 spheres.^ Lassalle, on the other hand, works, during the last 
 month of his life, for a revolution by the Government, and his 
 social aims recede for the moment — f a cold calculator who, still 
 and great, proceeds without troubling himself about those who 
 cry on the side of his path. He knows only one weakness, to 
 permit himself to be led from his course by secondary considera- 
 tions (I 492). In his endeavor to gain influence everywhere 
 (I 366), he shows that he has no heart like other men. He who 
 believes himself true to his duty and is held to be a man of 
 heroic virtues does not concern himself about the individual 
 (I 465 ; 513-4), unless it has a political interest for him (I 437), 
 to be thrown aside when he has profited by it (I 358; 442). It 
 is to the interest of the common-weal that he sacrifices a whole 
 family (I 523), but the lot of the mill people, who have given 
 themselves into his hands as their attorney and champion, does 
 not trouble him when his principal aim is to hold his power 
 over the king (II 380), or when his heart claims at last its 
 rights — only the latter would apply to Lassalle ; for he had a 
 decided feeling for justice.^ Leo becomes unscrupulous in his 
 egoism. Spielhagen speaks of Lassalle as "der riickssichts- 
 iind skrupellos handelnde."* This, apparently, refers to his 
 political methods. Oncken also says that Lassalle was unscrupu- 
 lous in politics, that he would make use of anything which might 
 appear as a success of his agitation.^ In the case of Leo, how- 
 ever, unscrupulousness is more personal. He never loses sight 
 of his aims or twists resolutions which he has taken, although he 
 may change his ways (II 477). If he chooses another way it is 
 not because of any sentimental emotion (II 160). He would 
 sacrifice his best friends or the woman whom he loves if he be- 
 lieved that would help him (I 493). The sacredness of his 
 cause has ceased to be to him an assurance of its success, and 
 
 1 Above p. 100. 
 
 2 Above p. 143. 
 
 3 Above p. 77. 
 
 4 Above p. 7. 
 
 5 Oncken, 1. c. p. 38. 
 
174 f 
 
 every means suits him if it promises good resiilts (II 413) ; it 
 does not matter to him if this success is, from an ethical view- 
 point, entirely desecrated by the evil means which he employs 
 (II 412). He professes openly, without the quiver of an eyelid, 
 views which he despises from the depth of his soul. He will mar- 
 ry a woman of noble rank because it fits into his political com- 
 binations (II 412), a woman who understands just enough of 
 his ideas and plans, in order to know that she cannot lecture 
 him (II 319). And in the refusal to marry a woman for her 
 wealth, he sees an action, worthy of the hollow idealism which 
 he finds contemptible in the Liberals after they have become his 
 opponents (II 338). 
 
 His vanity and assumption of superiority bring him more and 
 more into conflict with the ethical principles of society. It is 
 true, he does not forget the warnings of Tusky to beware of 
 the first blot on his character since his blood is hot — which can- 
 not be said of Lassalle — nor must he be reproached for com- 
 plaining that he must make history with men who, in their 
 timidity and scrupulousness, consider their duties toward 
 others instead of making use of the suitableness of political con- 
 stellations (I 531), and for considering — in agreement with 
 Lassalle — immoral and hating from the bottom of his heart the 
 merchant-ethics which always speaks of the "Mine" and the 
 "Thine", and in which everything is measured by the yard of 
 individual advantage (II 274). But in his unfortunate over- 
 weaning opinion of himself (II 597), Leo treats with indiffer- 
 ence common morality. He is not concerned about the morality 
 of men in his attempt to improve social conditions, whereas 
 Lassalle devotes his life to an alliance of learning and the work- 
 ing people, and therefore, has also an ethical interest in them.^ 
 Leo can do nothing but use the people for his purposes in what- 
 ever way these purposes require (I 352). And for himself, he 
 concedes to great men an exceptional position in respect to com- 
 mon ethics. Life is to him a science. When one considers it 
 such and commits an error, then his grief differs very much 
 from the desolate pang which springs from the so-called moral 
 constitution of the world with which they frighten small and 
 
 1 Above p. 125. 
 
175 
 
 grown up children. It does not matter to him whether such is 
 the philosophy of a god or a devil ; it is certainly not the philoso- 
 phy of mediocre men who would not be called men if they were 
 not in the majority (I 353). Indeed, he believes it to be the 
 glory of great men, not to be wholly blameless morally, and of an 
 able man, not to be desirous of being guiltless. Only he who has 
 not understood fully this word of the philosopher^ can demand 
 of himself to be morally without blemish (I 515). Sometimes 
 one does the good because his way leads straight over it. One 
 needs not do it for its own sake (II 505). A heroic man, like 
 Leo, cannot be measured by the standard of commonplace mor- 
 ality (II 370). 
 
 But this heroic champion of the people, the great man who 
 owes himself to his great aims, as kings owe themselves to their 
 people (I 516), who, in the pursuit of these aims offends the 
 accepted standard of ethics and unwittingly is more concerned 
 about having his own way and ruling, autocratically without 
 true sympathy with the sufferings of the working people, fails 
 by overrating himself. He had boasted of being free from senti- 
 mental emotions, and of not belonging to those who crave for 
 love because they cannot live without a mirror which in reflect- 
 ing beautifies their pictures, nor to those who strive for friend- 
 ship because, conscious of their weakness, they are afraid in the 
 gloom of life (I 541). But there is also something problemati- 
 cal in him. His heart, like Miinzer's, carries the day. He is 
 now no longer the man who he used to be (II 509), and like 
 Lassalle and Miinzer, forgets that for which he has been working 
 (II 556-7). His political ambitions fade before the desire to 
 revenge himself. Now he does not change even his ways, be- 
 cause he has gone too far (II 477). He will continue the fight 
 in the waj"^ in which he had started it (II 598). But an unlucky 
 accident ends his life. In his political fall it becomes also mani- 
 fest that whatever successes he has had, they have been dependent 
 on the ruling powers of the State — Lassalle 's position dependent 
 on Bismarck.- His rise was due to the influence of his cousin 
 on the King.^ Without this influence, without the chain by 
 which Leo draws the heavy royal earth up to the Olympian 
 
 1 Scbelling. Influence of Lassalle? 
 
 2 Above p. 141. 
 
 3 Spielhagen's creation of this loveljr woman a poetical representation of the 
 conservative-liberalism which for a short time ruled in Prussia before the 
 outbreak of the "Conflict"? 
 

 176 
 
 height of his view of the world (II 170), all heroism of his is of 
 no avail. The king's judgment runs: Leo in his vanity and ar- 
 rogance has leaped all bounds; he cannot do the great things 
 which he boasted he could do. He is an impostor, a charlatan 
 (II 534-5). And this judgment is subscribed to also by Spiel- 
 hagen and his ideologists in IRuG. As a problematical charac- 
 ter, like Miinzer's, cannot solve the social problem, so a heroic 
 nature like Leo 's, is unfit for this task. 
 
 The novelist, too, is aware of the wretchedness of the existing 
 conditions and of the need of a radical change (I 438-9; cp. 
 I 453-4). He sees that the time has put forward problems which 
 must be solved; he himself intends to do his share in helping 
 the progress of mankind ( I 303 ) . He goes direct at the solution 
 of those problenis and voices frankly his convictions (I 302 )y 
 by giving his novels a purpose. As the laws of poetry prevent 
 him from saying that which is to him of the greatest import 
 (I 304), he will fee a man of action, a man who proclaims and 
 preaches from his platform, the novel, that which as a poet he 
 would be obliged to keep shut up in his desk; a man who no 
 longer reflects magical castles through the fata morgana of his 
 poetry, but girds on jgy^sty leathern apron and helps with 
 hammer and trowel in Building the house in which free men 
 shall live beside freemen (I 305-6).^ He and his friends claim 
 that they march at the head of all those who are earnestly en- 
 gaged in leading the German people from mediaeval cojiditions 
 up to liberty and light (II 398). They feel that they have the 
 cultural mission to enlighten the people and destroy egoism, 
 and this also in the interest of women (I 401; cp. I 414-5). 
 They believe themselves to be the salt of the earth, without 
 which it would become torpid in desolate selfishness, an abode 
 for wild animals in human forms. They look beyond the indi- 
 vidual at the general interest so that nothing ambiguous and 
 obscure remain in them ; that any possible remnant of selfishness 
 will disappear in the great holy aim, the humane thought, which 
 in its loftiest expression is love. This humane thought has taken 
 hold of their hearts and minds, and compels them to strive for 
 the kingdom of God and its justice, which are so intimately re- 
 lated that the one is unthinkable without the other. This jus- 
 
 1 Above p. 7. 
 
177 
 
 tice, in union with the faithful fulfillment of the duties which 
 our daily work imposes on us (cp. II 388-9) makes us worthy 
 of a better future (II 174), and will bring about the free State 
 for which they hope (cp. I 399; 303). It can, however, main- 
 tain its rights only under the protection of the sovereign free- 
 dom of culture (I 415). These Liberals are proud to be called 
 ideologists. They believe in themselves, trust that they will be 
 freed from slavery (I 305), love truth (I 251), insist on morali- 
 ty in politics (I 398; cp. II 270), and excel in frankness and in 
 fidelity to their convictions (1299). They profess these convictions 
 without feai^of men (I 397). They are ready to sacrifice them- 
 selves that liberty may dawn for the people (I 398) and con- 
 sider it a duty and honor to suffer for just things (I 397), in 
 their attempt to remove the existing difficulties that the follow- 
 ing generations may, upon smoother and broader paths, hasten 
 on to conditions of liberty (II 398). The social question is 
 with Spielhagen an ethical question . 
 
 In contrast with Leo-Lassalle, who sees in the power of capital 
 the main cause of social wretchedness, the novelist recog- 
 nizes qnly a few defects which can and must be abolished, or 
 made at least harmless, by spreading a better education. Man 
 must be taught to aspire for the good, beautiful and true 
 (cp. I 312).^ We must live our lives without fear so that we en- 
 joy the fragrance of every good deed (cp. II 400), and our ac- 
 tions must emanate from our innermost being if they are to be 
 valid (II 322; cp. I 409; 246). For the greatest happiness is 
 found in that we agree with ourselves and feel responsible for 
 whatever we do (I 305 ; cp. I 120). Love,- the better part of our 
 human nature, the humane and democratic idea which comprises 
 all mankind, as it was born with, and is immortal like, mankind 
 (II 172), has been given new strength by the revolution. It 
 must now become nobler and richer in the life of man, must be 
 set to work, must become an object of sentiment (II 399). The 
 ideologists have sympathy with the poor and wretched.^ The 
 individual is to be freed from distress and burdens, none shall 
 carry more than he is able to do (I 267). Our heart must feel 
 oppressed at the sight of want, and our hands must open them- 
 
 1 Above p. 8. 
 
 2 Above p. 55. 
 
 3 Above p. 137. 
 
178 
 
 selves at the voice of poverty, it being our duty to lend at any 
 time our ears to those in affliction (II 11). There is only one im- 
 morality, that is the lack of kindness of heart, in which any and 
 every feeling becomes torpid (II 272). An active, practical love 
 in a free commonwealth (I 303) must take the place of re- 
 ligion. Politics must emanate from a moral philosophy which 
 aflSrms liberty for all (cp. I 312; II 400), and allows every one 
 to find his salvation in a way that suits him best (I 53). This 
 does not mean that the novelist and his friends wish to prevent 
 children from attending church. Not every one comes into 
 peace with his God in the same way as his neighbor, nor must 
 children find the path obstructed which for centuries has been 
 tak6n by innumerable people, and without doubt, has led them 
 very often to their goal (I 53). But they believe that religion, 
 like art, is only a point of transit for mankind on its pilgrimage 
 to its highest development. For a religion, which puts the solu- 
 tion of the most perplexing problems into an indefinite here- 
 after, can give them no complete satisfaction (I 303). They 
 claim for actual facts an eternal sovereignty (I 301) and are 
 not satisfied with making an ''immortal Idea", as such, a center 
 in the whirl of crowding phenomena (I 263). 
 
 It is the spirit of human brotherhood (II 619) which makes 
 Spielhagen and the best types of Liberals the unselfish cham- 
 pions of the people against the egoism of the nobility, church 
 and the brutal police tyranny which calls itself the Govern- 
 ment (cp. II 399; 400; I 305).^ For they believe that these are, 
 because of their privileges or illegitimate immunities, the main 
 obstacles for the diffusion of education and for social progress 
 (I 314). They will not acknowledge a nobility by birth. True 
 nobleness consists in goodness of character, in the unceasing en- 
 deavor to perfect oneself, and consequently, the nobility of a 
 race can only be found in excellence, increasing from generation 
 to generation (I 137). The claim to nobility can, therefore, 
 only be earned. It is not exclusive but strives to include in it- 
 self all mankind (II 216). An aristocracy which holds privi- 
 leges by reason of birth, a Government which suppresses liberty, 
 and a church which pursues its selfish ends are, moreover, in 
 conflict with the great thought of the solidarity of human inter- 
 
 1 Above p. 1]8. 
 
179 
 
 ests which is again putting itself forward in these days. Every- 
 one, of whatever parentage, must submit himself to this thought 
 (I 266-7), no one can rightfully claim an exceptional position 
 which favors his interests to the detriment of the rest. 
 
 Nor can he be considered a great man who has not contended 
 for this" solidarity and followed it up in all its ramifications to 
 the best of his ability and realized it by his acts. Leo-Lassalle is 
 not striving for this greatness, nor willing to be converted to this 
 thought of the solidarity of interests (I 386). He prefers to pur- 
 sue his selfish aims while he is posing as the heroic champion of 
 the working people. What he has in mind is something impossi- 
 ble, unattainable, and revolting against the democratic spirit of 
 the time. He plumes himself on worshipping the ' * Idea. ' ' But 
 that this idea is not the idea of the Liberals is shown by his 
 method of action. While he himself makes pathetic speeches — 
 like Lassalle^ — (II 388-9), a third person must be made use of 
 for the work of realization. He makes, and must make, use of 
 evil means which are not only frail and, therefore, bound to 
 foil his plans, but become or may become in the turn of a hand 
 evil aims (I 393 ; II 275 ; 270). If the Liberal idea is the "Idea," 
 Leo cannot prevent it from realizing itself, still less destroy it 
 (I 453). He may obscure it for a moment, but it does not de- 
 pend on the doings and conduct of an individual (I 453). An 
 individual can be but its instrument (II 275), not its father. 
 
 Moreover, however heroic one may be, he can accomplish noth- 
 ing great, as an individual and in a moment. Leo is mistaken in 
 doing things head over heels. Besides his socialistic experiments 
 to raise the wages of the working people — for it is evident that 
 siich a raise cannot last any length of time since wages depend 
 on the market of the world (II 176) — , his dissatisfaction with 
 the slow progress, made by human industry and activity, is not 
 well founded. The Liberals, too, wish for a faster progress. But 
 since the basis on which a new social world is to be erected must 
 be broader, the plans for the democratic uplift of the people will 
 take more time for their execution than a heroic individual like 
 Leo may wish. And this is not harmful. Only that which has 
 been prepared with the sweat of the brow and finished by the 
 slow, hard work of thousands of industrious hands, will bring 
 
 1 Oncken, 1. c. p. 116. 
 
r>:; 
 
 180 
 
 the right kind of blessing, and will last for centuries (I 246-7; 
 cp. I 433). And finally, no one can go a solitary way if he 
 wishes to be successful in a task of the greatest import for all. 
 As a politician, Leo-Lassalle commits the fatal error of believ- 
 ing himself able to swim against the current, and of imagin- 
 ing that an individual can unite in himself the sum of strength, 
 discernment and knowledge which ordinarily is, with difficulty 
 and incompletely, found only in a goodly number of able party- 
 leaders (I 385). In order to accomplish the great political deed 
 which is to be accomplished, Leo-Lassalle must unite his power 
 with that of others, the good are unable to do anything unless 
 they stand together (I 439). We live for one another (I 52-3). 
 We can attain our highest development, our salvation, only by 
 following the motto : The individual for all, and all for the in- 
 dividual, like good soldiers in rank and file (I 266), that is, by 
 living for the "holy order" (II 620). All countries contain 
 good people who form a single great army, while the individual 
 is but a single soldier. However feeble he is as such, he is ir- 
 resistible as a member of the whole (I 266-67). The times when 
 heroes took the lead and the headless and heartless crowd fol- 
 lowed them, shouting and inactive (I 266)' have passed by. 
 Now and then.we may, in the boundlessness of absolute conten- 
 tedness, believe in our ability to remove mountains. But this 
 arrogant vanity is crushed by the unchangeable weight of facts 
 (cp. I 253). In view of this, the individual must needs despair 
 of his powers and grasp for anything and everything which has 
 the semblance of help to him in his impotency (I 386).^ But 
 this is of no avail. The obstinate, capricious pursuance of sucli 
 aims as Leo-Lassalle 's must lead to a tragic issue, unless one 
 make concessions (II 173 ; cp. II 388-9) . A man with a character 
 like theirs may act, for a time, the part of a star. The magician 
 apprentice will be drowned by the waters which he has conjured 
 (I 454). He will pay for socialistic experiments with his moral, 
 perhaps with his physical death (I 454). Heroes and saints may 
 sacrifice themselves but they are unable to deliver others 
 (II 260). 
 
 1 Above p. 156-7. 
 
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