11. K. Marx. Declaration Against Karl Grün
Under the date-line Berlin, March 20, the Trier'sche Zeitung prints an article on my pamphlet now in printing, Contradictions dans le système des contradictions économiques de M. Proudhon ou les misères de la philosophie.(1) The Berlin correspondent(2) makes me out to be the author of a report printed in the Rhein- u. Mosel-Zeitung and elsewhere concerning this pamphlet, Proudhon's book(3) and the activities of its translator, Herr Grün.[56] He hails me time and again as "editor of the former Rheinische Zeitung" quite in the style of the Brussels or another correspondent. "Buttressed by a knowledge of the current state of the press in Germany", our friend peddles his insinuation. Not merely his insinuation, but his whole literary existence may, as far as I am concerned, be "buttressed by a knowledge of the current state of the press in Germany". I grant him the most practically proven "knowledge of the current state of the press in Germany". But this time it has not "buttressed" him.
The alleged Berlin correspondent need only read through my criticism of Proudhon in the Critical Criticism(4) in order to realise that the report which arouses his enmity might well originate in Brussels, but could not possibly originate with me, if only because it "sets the same value" on Proudhon and H[er]r Grün.
My criticism of Proudhon is written in French. Proudhon himself will be able to reply. A letter he wrote to me before the publication of his book shows absolutely no inclination to leave it to Herr Grün and his associates to avenge him in the event of criticism on my part.[57]
"Concerning further the translator of P[roudhon]'s work on economics", our friend in Berlin need only add to the record that " We here in Berlin have learnt much and of great diversity" from Herr Grün's Soziale Bewegung in Frankreich und Belgien [Social Movement in France and Belgium] in order to place the value of this book above all doubt. And one must consider what it means when "We here in Berlin" "learn" anything at all, and in this case even "much and of great diversity", quantitatively and qualitatively at the same time! We here in Berlin!
Identifying me with the Brussels or another correspondent, the Berlin or alleged Berlin correspondent exclaims:
Grün "has probably to make amends for the misfortune of having acquainted the German world with the results of foreign socialism before Herr Dr. Marx, 'editor of the former Rheinische Zeitung'".
Our friend undeniably betrays great ingenuity in forming his conjectures! I should like to confide to him, sub rosa,(5) that, admittedly in my own view, Herr Grün's Soziale Bewegung in Frankreich und Belgien and the French and the Belgian social movement — individual names and data excepted — have nothing in common with each other. At the" same time, however, I must confide to him that I have experienced so little urge to acquaint "the German world" with the results of my studies of Herr Grün's Soziale Bewegung in Frankreich und Belgien that I have permitted a fairly comprehensive review of Grün's book, prepared a year ago, peacefully to sleep the sleep of the just in manuscript form, and only now that I have been challenged by our friend in Berlin shall I send it to the Westphälisches Dampfboot to be printed. The review forms an appendix to the book written jointly by Fr. Engels and me on "the German ideology" (critique of modern German philosophy as expounded by its representatives Feuerbach, B[runo] Bauer and Stirner, and of German socialism as expounded by its various prophets).(6) The circumstances which have hindered the printing of this manuscript and still hinder it will perhaps be set forth for the reader elsewhere as a contribution to the description of the "current state of the press in Germany". Nothing hindered the separate printing of my review of Grün's book, which in no way offends
against the censorship, except the slight obstacle that this book was not considered worthy of a special attack, and it was thought that only in a survey of the whole of the insipid and tasteless(7) literature of German socialism would some reference to Herr Grün be unavoid-able. Now, however, after the article by our Berlin friend, the separate printing of this review has taken on the more or less humorous significance of showing the manner in which "the German world" "acquaints itself" with the "results of foreign socialism", and especially the desire and capacity "We here in Berlin" possess "to learn much and of great diversity". It will immediately be realised how strongly I was compelled to resort to pettv attacks in petty little newspaper articles if I had otherwise been anxious to bring Herr Grün's "Social Movement in France and Belgium" to a standstill. Finally, even our Berlin friend will be unable to refrain from making public testimony that if I really harboured the intention of "acquainting the German world with the results of foreign socialism" in his sense, and truly feared a competitor in a predecessor, then I should be obliged daily to beseech fate, "Give me no predecessor, or even better, give me Herr Grün as a predecessor!"
A word more concerning "my conceit in imagining that I have scaled the topmost rung of human wisdom".
Who else could have inoculated me with this disease but Herr Grün who found in my expositions in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher[1]' the solution to the ultimate riddle (see, for example, the foreword to his Bausteine) in the same way as he finds it now in Proudhon's economics; who, as he now extols in Proudhon the true point of view, likewise assured his readers about me (see Grün's Neue Anekdota), that I had "negated the constitutional and radical point of view".[5]« Herr Grün first poisons me, in order then to be able to blame me for the fact that his poison worked! Let our Berlin friend calm himself, however — I enjoy perfect health.
Brussels, April 3, 1847 Karl Marx
Endnotes
[56] Karl Grün translated into German Proudhon's work Systeme des contradictions économiques, ou Philosophie de la misère. The book was published in Darmstadt in 1847 under the title Philosophie der Staatsökonomie oder Notwendigkeit des Elends.
[57] The reference is to Proudhon's letter to Marx of May 17, 1846 (published in Corres-pondance de P. J. Proudhon précédée d'une notice sur P. J. Proudhon par J. A. Lang-lois, T. II, Paris, 1875), which was an answer to Marx's letter to him of May 5, suggesting that he correspond with the Brussels Communist Correspondence Committee in the capacity of a representative of the French proletariat. While in fact rejecting this proposal, Proudhon nevertheless wrote to Marx that he was eager to know Marx's opinion of his latest work.
[1] This article deals with a meeting held in London on September 22. 1845 at which an international society of Fraternal Democrats was formed. The society embraced representatives of Left Chartists, German workers and craftsmen — members of the League of the Just — and revolutionary emigrants of other nationalities. During their stay in England in the summer of 1845, Marx and Engels helped in preparing for the meeting but did not attend it as they had by then left London. Later they kept in constant touch with the Fraternal Democrats trying to influence the proletarian core of the society, which joined the Communist League in 1847, and through it the Chartist movement. The society ceased its activities in 1853. Engels' article, written to show the significance of international unity of the proletarian and revolutionary democratic forces, was directed at the same time against "true socialism"—the petty-bourgeois socialist trend current among German intellectuals and craftsmen from the end of 1844 onwards. This was Engels' second printed article against "true socialism", the first being "A Fragment of Fourier's On Trade" (see present edition, Vol. 4). Engels describes the meeting of September 22, 1845 and cites speeches delivered at it according to the report published in The Northern Star No. 411, September 27, 1845. Excerpts from the article were published in English in The Plebs MagazineNo. 2, March 1922.
[5] The reference is to associations for improving the conditions of the working classes set up in a number of Prussian towns in 1844-45 ontheinitiativeof the liberal bourgeoisie who were frightened by the uprising of the Silesian weavers in the summer of 1844. The aim of their founders was to divert the German workers' attention from the struggle for their class interests.