XI
"The force of actual events", to use one of Arnold's pungently beautiful forms, now took the following course. On February 24, Ruge had compromised himself and the German émigrés in the
["La déclaration de la commission du Banquet des Egaux du 1 mars 1851"]; G.Antoine, "À M. le rédacteur du journal La Patrie" [le 6 mars 1851,] La Patrie, No. 66, March 7, 1851.—Ed.
[J. Vidil, "Au rédacteur du journal La Patrie, le 8 mars 1851,] La Patrie, No. 69, March 10, 1851.—Ed.
presence of foreigners. Hence the few émigrés who still felt inclined to go along with him felt insecure and without backing. Arnold put the blame on the division in the emigration and pressed harder than ever for unity. Compromised as he was, he still reached eagerly for the chance to compromise himself further.
Hence the anniversary of the March revolution in Vienna was used to give a German banquet. The chivalrous Willich declined the invitation; as he belonged to "citizen" Louis Blanc he could not collaborate with "citizen" Ruge who belonged to "citizen" Ledru. Likewise the ex-deputies Reichenbach, Schramm, Bûcher, etc., shunned Ruge. Not counting the silent guests there appeared Mazzini, Ruge, Struve, Tausenau, Haug, Ronge and Kinkel — all of whom spoke.
Ruge filled the role of the "complete fool", as even his friends say. The Germans present were however to experience even greater things. Tausenau's clowning, Struve's croaking, Haug's chattering, Ronge's litanies turned the whole audience to stone and the majority drifted away even before that flower of rhetoric, Jeremiah-Kinkel, who had been saved for the dessert, could begin his speech. "In the name of the martyrs" for the martyrs, Gottfried spoke as a martyr and uttered lachrymose words of reconciliation to all, "from the simple defender of the constitution down to the red republican".[d] At the same time as all these republicans, and even red republicans, like Kinkel, groaned away in this fashion, they also grovelled before the English constitution in humble adoration, a contradiction to which the Morning Chronicle deigned to draw their attention the following morning.
However, the same evening Ruge saw the fulfilment of his desires, as can be seen from a proclamation whose most brilliant sections we offer here:
'TO THE GERMANS!
"Brothers and friends in the fatherland! We, the undersigned, constitute at present, and until such time as you decide differently, the committee for German affairs" (irrespective which affairs).
"The Central Committee of European Democracy has sent us Arnold Ruge, the Baden revolution has sent us Gustav Struve, the Viennese revolution has sent us Ernst Haug, the religious movement has sent us Johannes Ronge, and prison has sent us Gottfried Kinkel; we have invited the Social-Democratic workers to send a representative to our midst.
"German brothers! Events have deprived you of your freedom ... we know that you are incapable of abandoning your freedom for ever, and we have" (according to Arnold) "omitted nothing" (in the way of committees and manifestos) "that might accelerate your recovery of it.
"When we ... when we gave our support and our guarantee to the Mazzini loan, when we ... when we ... initiated the holy alliance of peoples against the unholy alliance of their oppressors, we only did, we are sure of it, what you wished with all your hearts to see done.... The tyrants have been arraigned before the universal court of mankind in the .great trial of freedom" (and while Arnold is the public prosecutor, the "tyrants" can sleep in peace). "... Arson, murder, devastation, hunger and bankruptcy will soon be widespread throughout Germany.
"You have the example of France before your eyes — smouldering with fury it is more united than ever in its determination to liberate itself" (who the devil could have predicted December 2!a)—"Look at Hungary, even the Croats have been converted" (thanks to the Deutscher Zuschauer and Ruge's coats made from sawdust) — "and believe us, for we know, when we say that Poland is immortal" (Mr. Darasz confided this piece of information to them under solemn oath of secrecy).
"Force against force—that is the justice that is being prepared. And we shall leave nothing undone to bring into being a more effective provisional government?' (aha!) "than the Pre-parliament and a more potent arm of the people than the National Assembly" (see below what these gentlemen brought into being when they attempted to lead each other by the nose).
"Our draft proposals concerning the finances and the press" (Order No. 1 and 2 of the strong provisional government—the Customs Officer, Christian Müller, is given the task of implementing this measure) "shall be presented to you separately. They deal mainly with business affairs. We wish only to say that every purchase of the Italian loan will be of immediate benefit to our committee and to our cause and that for the moment you can help in a practical way above all by ensuring a liberal supply of money. We shall then know how to translate this money into public opinion and public power" (with Arnold as translator) "... We say to you: Subscribe 10 million francs and we shall liberate the Continent!
"Germans, remember..." (that you sing baritone and kindle fires on the mountains ) "... lend us your thoughts" (at present they are almost as much in demand as money), "your purse" (yes, don't forget that) "and your arm! We expect your zeal to increase with the intensity of your oppression and that the committee shall be adequately strengthened for the hour of decision by your present assistance." (If not, they would have to resort to liquor, which would be against Gustav's principles.)
"All democrats are instructed to publicise our proclamation" (the Customs Officer, Christian Müller, will take care of the rest).
"London, March 13, 1851
The Committee for German Affairs Arnold Rüge, Gustav Struve, Ernst Haug,
Johannes Ronge, Gottfried Kinkel0"
The reference is to Louis Bonaparte's coup d'état in France on December 2, 1851.— Ed.
Our readers are acquainted with Gottfried, they are also acquainted with Gustav; Arnold's "frequent appearances" have likewise been repeated often enough. So there remain but two members of the "effective provisional government" whom we have still to introduce.
Johannes Ronge or Johannes Kurzweg,[3] as he likes to be known in his intimate circle, has certainly not written the Apocalypse. There is nothing mysterious about him; he is banal, hackneyed, as insipid as water, especially lukewarm dish-water. As is well known Johannes became famous when he refused to permit the Holy Coat of Trier[205] to intercede for him—though it is wholly unimportant who intercedes for Johannes. When Johannes first made his appearance the elderly Paulus expressed his regrets that Hegel was dead as now he would no longer be able to regard him as shallow, and the late Krug was lucky to be dead as he thereby escaped the danger of acquiring a reputation for profundity. Johannes is one of those phenomena often met with in history who several centuries after the rise and fall of a movement expound the content of this movement in a most feeble and colourless manner to philistines of a certain kind and to eight-year-old children as if it were the latest discovery. Such a profession does not last very long, and soon our Johannes found himself in a situation in Germany which became daily more difficult. His watered-down version of the German Enlightenment went out of fashion and Johannes made a pilgrimage to England where we see him re-appear, without any notable success, as the rival of Padre Gavazzi. The ungainly, sallow, tedious village parson naturally paled by the side of the fiery, histrionic Italian monk, and the English bet heavily that this boring Johannes could not be the man who had set the deep-thinking German nation in motion. But he was consoled by Arnold Ruge, who found that the German Catholicism of our Johannes was remarkably similar to his own brand of atheism.
Ludwig von Hauck had been a captain of engineers in the Imperial Austrian army, then in 1848 co-editor of the constitution in Vienna, later still as leader of a battalion in the Viennese National Guard he defended the gate of the Imperial Palace against the Imperial army on October 30 with great courage, abandoning his post only after all was lost. He escaped to Hungary, joined up with Bern's army in Transylvania where in consequence of his valour he advanced to the rank of colonel in the general staff. After Görgey surrendered at Vilagos[206] Ludwig Hauck was taken prisoner and died like a hero on one of the gallows that the Austrians erected in Hungary to avenge their repeated defeats and to express their fury at the Russian protection, which had become intolerable to them. In London Haug was long thought to be the Hauck who had been taken prisoner, an officer who had greatly distinguished himself in the Hungarian campaign. However, it now seems to be established that he is not the late Hauck. Just as he was unable to prevent Mazzini from improvising him into a general after the fall of Rome,[207] so too he could do nothing to stop Arnold Ruge from transforming him into the representative of the Viennese revolution and a member of the strong provisional government. Later he gave aesthetic lectures about the economic foundations of the cosmogony of universal history from a geological standpoint and with musical accompaniment. Among the emigres this melancholic man is known as the poor wretch, or as the French say, la bonne
bête.
Arnold could not believe his good fortune. He had a manifesto, a strong provisional government, a loan of ten million francs and even a tiny weekly magazine with the modest title Kosmos, edited by General Haug.
The manifesto disappeared unread and without leaving a trace. The Kosmos died of exhaustion in the third number, the money failed to roll in, the provisional government dissolved into its components once more.
At first, the Kosmos contained advertisements for Kinkel's lectures,[3] for the worthy Willich's appeals for money for the Schleswig-Holstein refugees and for Göhringer's saloon. It contained further among other things a lampoon by Arnold. The old joker invented a certain hospitable friend called Müller in Germany whose friend, Schulze,[a] he pretended to be. Müller expresses astonishment at what he reads in the papers about English hospitality; he fears that all this "sybaritism" may dis-tract Schulze from his "affairs of state"—but he does not grudge him this as when Schulze returns to Germany he will be so overwhelmed by state affairs that he will have to deny himself the pleasures of Müller's hospitality. Finally, Müller exclaims:
"Surely it was not the traitor Radowitz, but Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, Citizen Willich, Kinkel and yourself" (Arnold Ruge) "who were invited to Windsor Castle?"
If after all this the Kosmos collapsed after the third issue the failure could certainly not be put down to lack of publicity, for at every possible English meeting the speakers would find it pressed into their hands with the request to recommend it as they would find their own principles specially represented in it.
Scarcely had the subscriptions for the ten-million-franc loan been opened when suddenly the rumour arose that a list of contributors to a fund to dispatch Struve (and Amalia) to America was circulating in the City.
"When the committee resolved to publish a German weekly with Haug as editor, Struve protested as he wanted the post of editor for himself and wished to call the journal Deutscher Zuschauer. Thereupon he resolved to go to America."
Thus far the report in the Deutsche Schnellpost of New York. It remains silent about the fact (and Heinzen had his reasons for this) that as Gustav was a collaborator on the Duke of Brunswick's Deutsche Londoner Zeitung Mazzini had struck his name off the list of the German committee. Gustav soon acclimatised his Deutscher Zuschauer in New York. But soon after came the news from over the ocean: "Gustav's Zuschauer is dead." As he says, this was not for the lack of people who put their name down as subscribers, nor because he had no leisure for writing but simply because of a dearth of paying subscribers. However, the democratic revision of Rotteck's Weltgeschichte could not be postponed any longer, so great was the need for it, and as he had already begun it 15 years previously he would send the subscribers a corresponding number of pages of the Weltgeschichte instead of the Deutscher Zuschauer. But he would have to request payment in advance for this, to which in the cjrcumstances no one could object. As long as Gustav had remained on this side of the Atlantic Heinzen depicted him along with Ruge as the greatest man in Europe. No sooner had he reached the other side than a terrific row began between them.
Gustav writes:
"When on June 6 in Karlsruhe Heinzen saw that guns were being brought up he left for Strasbourg in female company."
Whereupon Heinzen called Gustav a "soothsayer". When the Kosmos was about to founder, Arnold was busy broadcasting its virtues in the journal of the stalwart Heinzen, and at about the time when the strong provisional government .was disintegrating, Rodomonte-Heinzen was proclaiming "military obedience" towards it in his journal. Heinzen's love of the military in peacetime is well known.
"Shortly after Struve's departure Kinkel too resigned from the committee, which was thereby reduced to impotence" (New York Deutsche Schnellpost, No. 23).
Thus the "strong provisional government" dwindled still further and only Messrs. Ruge, Ronge and Haug remained in it. Even Arnold realised that with this Trinity nothing at all could be brought into existence, let alone a cosmos. Nevertheless through all the permutations, variations and combinations it remained the nucleus of all the committees he subsequently formed. An indefatigable man, he saw no reason to throw in his hand; after all his aim was merely to do something that would have the appearance of action, the semblance of profound political schemes, something that, above all, would provide matter for self-important talk, frequent appearances and complacent gossip.
As for Gottfried, his dramatic lectures for respectable city-merchants[3] did not allow him to compromise himself. But on the other hand it was altogether too evident that the purpose of the manifesto of March 13 was none other than to provide support for the place Herr Arnold had usurped in the European Central Committee. Even Gottfried had afterwards to realise this, but it was not in his interest to grant Ruge such recognition. So it came to pass that shortly after the manifesto had been published, the Kölnische Zeitung printed a declaration by that dama acerba,b
Mockel. Her husband, she wrote, had not signed the appeal, he was not interested in public loans and had resigned from the newly-formed committee. Whereupon Arnold gossiped in the New York Schnellpost to the effect that admittedly Kinkel had been prevented by illness from signing the manifesto, but he gave his approval, the plan to issue it had been conceived in his room, he himself had undertaken to dispatch a number of copies to Germany and he only left the committee because it elected General Haug president in preference to himself. Arnold accompanied this declaration with annoying attacks on Kinkel's vanity, calling him "absolute martyr" and the "democratic Beckerath", and with insinuations against Frau Johanna Kinkel, who had access to such taboo journals as the Kölnische Zeitung.
Marx and Engels use the English words "city-merchants".—Ed.
Kölnische Zeitung, No. 114, May 13, 1851; dama acerba—strict woman.—Ed.
However, Arnold's seed had not fallen on stony soil. Kinkel's "beautiful soul" resolved to turn the tables on his rivals and to raise the treasure of revolution alone. Johanna's statement repudiating this ridiculous scheme had scarcely appeared in the
Kölnische Zeitung when on his own initiative our Gottfried launched an appeal for a loan in the transatlantic papers with the comment that the money should be sent to the man "who inspires the most confidence". And who could this man be but Gottfried Kinkel? For the time being he demanded an advance payment of £500 sterling with which to manufacture revolutionary paper money. Ruge, not to be outdone, had the Schnellpost declare that he was the treasurer of the Democratic Central Committee and that Mazzini notes were already available and could be purchased from him. Whoever wished to lose £500 sterling would certainly do better to take the available notes than to speculate in something that did not yet exist. And Rodomonte-Heinzen roared that unless Herr Kinkel abandoned his manoeuvres he would be branded publicly as an "enemy of the revolution". Gottfried had counter-articles published in the New-Yorker Staatszeitung, the direct rival of the Schnellpost. In this way full-scale hostilities were in progress on the other side of the Atlantic while kisses of Judas were still being exchanged on this side.
But by issuing an appeal for a national loan in his own name Gottfried had somewhat shocked the democratic rank and file, as he soon realised. To make good his blunder he now declared that
"this appeal for money, for a German national loan did not proceed from him. In all likelihood what had happened was that some all too zealous friends in America had made free with his name".
This declaration provoked the following answer from Dr. Wiss in the New York Schnellpost:
"It is generally known that the appeal to agitate for a German loan was sent to me by Gottfried Kinkel with the urgent request to publicise it in all the German newspapers, and I am ready and willing to show this letter to anyone who is in doubt on this point. If Kinkel has really made that statement the only honourable course for him to pursue is to retract it publicly and to publish my correspondence with him to show the party that I was quite independent and that as far as he is concerned I did certainly not exhibit 'an excess of zeal'. If he has not issued the statement it is Kinkel's duty to declare publicly that the journalist responsible for printing it is an evil slanderer, or if there had been a misunderstanding, an irresponsible and unscrupulous gossip. For my part I am unable to believe Kinkel capable of such unmitigated perfidy. Dr. C. Wiss" (Wochenblatt der Deutschen Schnellpost, New York).
What was Kinkel to do? Once again he thrust his aspra donzella* into the breach, he stated that Mockel was the "irresponsible and unscrupulous gossip", he claimed that his wife had promoted the loan behind his back. It cannot be denied that this tactic was highly "aesthetic".
Thus did our Gottfried sway like a reed, now advancing, now retreating, now launching a project, now dissociating himself from it, always tacking to adjust to the wind of popularity. While he officially allowed the aesthetic bourgeoisie to fête and feast him in London as the martyr of the revolution, behind the backs of the same people he indulged in forbidden commerce with the mobb of the emigration as represented by Willich. While living in circumstances that could be described as luxurious in comparison with'his modest situation in Bonn, he wrote to St. Louis that he was living as befitted the "representative of poverty"/ In this way he behaved towards the bourgeoisie as etiquette required, and at the same time he showed due respect to the proletariat. But as a man whose imagination far outweighed his understanding he could not help falling into the bad manners and the arrogant postures of the parvenu and this alienated many a pompous philistine émigré from him. Wholly characteristic of him was the article on the Great Exhibition that he wrote for the Kosmos. He admired nothing so much as the giant mirror that was exhibited in the Crystal Palace. For him, the objective world reduces itself to a mirror, the subjective world to a cliché. Under the pretext of seeing the beautiful side of everything he dallies with everything and this dallying he calls poetry, self-sacrifice or religion, as the occasion demands. Fundamentally, everything is used to gratify himself. It is inevitable that in practice he should bring into prominence the ugly side, since imagination turns into lies and enthusiasm into baseness. It was moreover to be expected that Gottfried would soon cast off his lion's skin when he fell into the hands of old, experienced clowns like Gustav and Arnold.
Endnotes
[3] Serfdom was abolished in the territories along the left bank of the Rhine annexed to France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, as were the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, and the church estates.
[206] [Editorial note 206: text not recovered from the source scan.]
[207] [Editorial note 207: text not recovered from the source scan.]
[3] Serfdom was abolished in the territories along the left bank of the Rhine annexed to France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, as were the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, and the church estates.
[3] Serfdom was abolished in the territories along the left bank of the Rhine annexed to France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, as were the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, and the church estates.