Karl Marx

Er gilt als „einer der wichtigsten Vertreter der Jugendmusik mit zahlreichen, in ihrer schlichten Klarheit dem Volkslied nahen Vertonungen nach Texten von Rainer Maria Rilke [...] Friedrich Hölderlin, Hans Carossa und Wilhelm Busch“ (DBE). Daneben komponierte er Orchesterwerke, Instrumentalkonzerte, Kammermusik, Klaviermusik, Orgelwerke, Kantaten und zahlreiche Chorwerke. – Auf Briefpapier mit gedr. Briefkopf..

Daneben komponierte er Orchesterwerke, Instrumentalkonzerte, Kammermusik, Klaviermusik, Orgelwerke, Kantaten und zahlreiche Chorwerke..

Marx used such publications to stay informed about developments within the socialist movement in Germany. Interestingly, the firm that sent the letter, Gebrüder Löbbecke & Co., was a banking house founded in the mid-19th century in response to the growing capital requirements of the start of the industrialization. That their letter, addressed to the family-controlled bank of the Rothschilds ("de Rothschild Frères"), mistakenly wound up in the possession of Karl Marx—the world's foremost critic of capitalism—is truly remarkable. A unique and historically serendipitous piece..

Julian Harvey, rédacteur du Northern Star. Salut et fraternité [...]." Flocon was the editor of the democratic newspaper "La Réforme"; Engels hat met him in October 1847 and contributed several articles. While Marx and Engels had little regard for Flocon's petty-bourgeois politics and at first viewed him chiefly as a tool for their propagandistic purposes, they soon recognized Flocon as a man of character, Engels writing on 28 March 1848: "I've been to visit old Flocon a few times, the fellow still lives in his wretched fifth-floor flat, smokes the most common tobacco in an old clay pipe and has only bought himself a new dressing gown. Otherwise quite as republican in his habits as he was as editor of the 'Réforme', and just as genial, cordial, and outspoken as ever. He's one of the most upright fellows I know." A Montagnard and member of the provisional government of the Republic in 1848 (he would be expelled from France after the 1851 coup d'état), it was Flocon who invited Marx to France with an enthusiastic letter at the very moment when he was evicted from Brussels: "Brave et loyal Marx! Le sol de la République Française est un champs d'azyle pour tous les amis de la liberté. La tyrannie vous a banni: la France libre vous rouvre ses portes à vous [...]" (Paris, 1 March 1848). When the revolutionary fervor seized Europe, Marx again set off for Germany in April, but in May 1849 the Prussian authorities turned him out. He returned to Paris in June, only to receive a notice of banishment to Brittany on 19 July. Marx fought the order, but lost his appeal on 23 August. On the same day, he wrote to Engels: "I have been banished to the Departement of Morbihan, the Pontine Marshes of Brittany. You will understand that I will have no part in this disguised attempt at murder. Hence, I am leaving France. I cannot have a passport to Switzerland, so I must to London, tomorrow [...]". A day later, he wrote the present farewell to his "cher Flocon", never again to settle on the continent. - On wove paper with floral design embossed to upper left corner, there marked "8" in faint blue crayron, likely by the recipient. Some browning and light wrinkling; traces of original folds. Some duststains and traces of mounting on blank leaf, but well preserved..

- Marx was a close friend of the Collet family, which included the pioneering feminist activist Sophia Dobson Collet, social reformer Clara Collet, and the recipient of this letter, the editor of "The Free Press: A Diplomatic Review", to which Marx contributed a number of articles. The men became good friends and soon held weekly meetings at each other's houses to recite Shakespeare. The assembled group, which was formally coined as the Dogberry Club, included Marx's daughter Eleanor and Collet's daughter Clara, as well as Edward Rose, Dollie Radford, Sir Henry Juta, and Friedrich Engels. The publication to which Marx alludes, "Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century", was originally serialized in the "Free Press" from August 1856 to April 1857..

Roy que j’avais prêt, c. à d. corrigé. Pourquoi n’ai-je pas encore reçu les dernières épreuves de livr[aisons] 8 et 9 ? Vous les aviez envoyés à Bordeaux où M. Roy n’est pas pour le moment. Mais quoiqu’il est très juste et même dicté par les convenances de lui envoyer des épreuves, cela ne devrait jamais devenir une cause de retard. Les corrections sont faites ici et non par lui. Longuet - qui demeure à Oxford - vous fait saluer [...]" (5 Nov. 1872) ("Enclosed is the continuation of the 'lost' manuscript. Until tomorrow the rest, and the manuscript of M. Roy that I have ready, that is corrected. Why have I not already received the last proofs of the instalments 8 and 9? You sent them to Bordeaux where M. Roy currently is not. But although it is quite correct and even dictated by convention to send him the proofs, this can never become the cause for a delay. The corrections are done here and not by him. Longuet, who stays in Oxford, sends you greetings [...]"). - The postscript concerning a possible Italian translation of "Das Kapital" reads: "Je ne sais plus si je vous ai déjà communiqué que deux traducteurs - le général La Cecilia et Bignami (rédacteur de La Plebe à Lodi) se sont offerts pour la traduction italienne" ("I do not remember anymore whether I already communicated to you that two translators - General La Cecilia and Bignami (editor of La Plebe in Lodi) offered themselves for an Italian translation"). - II. Concerning further pages of the manuscript and missing proofs: "Je vous envoie aujourd’hui du manuscrit, p. 365-416 (inclus). Veuillez bien m’en accuser réception. Des trois placards (à commencer par 16) que M. Lahure m’a envoyés je n’ai reçu qu’un seul exemplaire, et je regrette d’avoir à répéter toujours de nouveau qu’il me faut deux exemplaires de chaque placard. Il me faut donc envoyer un nouveau exemplaire de chaque placard [...]" (18 Nov. 1872) ("Today I send you pages 365 to 416 (enclosed). Please acknowledge their receipt. Of the three proofs (beginning with 16) that M. Lahure sent me, I have not received but a single copy and I regret that I always must repeat that I need two copies of each proof. Therefore I need to be sent a new copy of each proof [...]"). - III. Explaining problems with the English mail in sending the manuscripts: "Il paraît que les agents subalternes de la Poste Anglaise avaient demandé à ma servante un affranchissement 'insuffisant' et qu’ensuite l’administration supérieure nous punit pour les péchés de ses propres gens. J’ai immédiatement arrangé l’affaire et j’espère qu’on expédiera le manuscrit aujourd’hui. J’attends encore - en vain jusqu’ici - l’envoi par M. Lahure d’un second exemplaire des placards 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Par cela on me fait perdre le temps […]" (23 Nov.) ("It seems that the subordinate employees of the English mail asked my servant for 'insufficient' postage and that, later, the higher echelons punished us for the sins of their own people. I immediately sorted out the affair and I hope that they will dispatch the manuscript today. I am still waiting - so far in vain - for the shipment from M. Lahure of a second copy of the proofs 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Thus I lose time [...]"). - IV. Complaining about the missing proofs: "Je n’ai pas encore reçu le[s] duplicates des placards que vous m’aviez annoncé dans votre dernière lettre. J’espère que vous mettrez fin, une fois pour toutes à ces procédés dilatoires de M. Lahure […]" (28 Nov.) ("I have not yet received the copies of the proofs that you announced to me in your most recent letter. I expect that you will make an end to these dilatory proceedings by M. Lahure once and for all [...]"). - All letters with an inventory note and two minuscule holes from stapling. The letter from 23 Nov. with frayed left border (no text loss)..

Roy has asked M. Lachâtre to give him 300 f. by the end of this month. M. Lachâtre has asked me to give my authorisation. Therefore, I write to you and to M. L. today to authorise you to pay M. Roy this sum immediately. From M. Roy's letter I see that he has not received a single printed fascicle. That is almost unbelievable! Surely, this was not a means to prompt his work or to even make him change his mode of translation [...]"). - With old inventory note..

The King's chances are more than dubious; but even if he returns, France will not be lost. By the way, it is M. Thiers' politics that caused this catastrophe, and if France escapes from it, it will be thanks to the absurd hecticness of the men of the moral order and to the hesitations and scruples of the child prodigy, also known as 'the child of Europe' [...]". - Marx alludes to Henri d'Artois, the Legitimist pretender to the throne of France between 1844 and 1883. After the collapse of the Second Empire under Napoleon III, his claim to the throne was supported by both Legitimists and Orléanists. However, Henri's insistence on the abandonment of the tricolour flag led to his losing the throne and to the establishment of the Third Republic. - With old inventory note. Small waterstain to upper left-hand corner, not touching text; two tiny marks from a paper clip, affecting a single letter..

Therefore he has to be paid the rest of the 1500 frs which I have advanced (to M. Lachâtre) for his payment. My health is nearly restored and M. Lahure will soon receive a good part of the manuscript [...]"). - With a notarial inventory mark. Tiny holes; lower margin slightly frayed..

- The first livraison of the French edition had appeared in August 1872, the second was delayed until early February 1873. In January 1872, Marx and Lachatre had not even signed their publication contract. Although Marx was not usually prone to misdating letters at the beginning of the year (a lapse more common in Engels's letters), he was at that moment seriously overworked with revising Roy's translation for Lachatre's ongoing publication, and simultaneously completing the revised second German edition for his publisher Otto Meissner in Hamburg. Quite recently he had complained to his correspondent Friedrich Adolph Sorge, "Because of the French translation, which makes me more work than if I had to do it without the translator, I am so overworked that I have not been able to write to you" (21 Dec. 1872), and still a month after the present letter, he wrote to Friedrich Bolte in very similar vein that "the revision of the French translation is causing me more work than if I had done the whole translation myself" (12 February 1873). - Slightly wrinkled and slight edge damage. Recipient's note to upper margin..

Lahure, I have enclosed a manuscript by M. Lachâtre (preface to Eugène Sue)". - With secretarial annotation by the recipient. Torn from a larger sheet, lower edge and especially left-hand edge irregular..

This is an unpleasant incident". Marx further inquires after the latest postal address of Joseph Roy (1830-1916), his Bordeaux-based translator. - Severely overworked with revising Roy's translation for Lachatre's ongoing publication of "Le Capital" and completing the revised second German edition for his publisher Otto Meissner in Hamburg, the final corrected proofs of which he had sent Meißner at the beginning of the month, Marx had fallen ill in April and would suffer from intermittent bouts of headaches and insomnia until August. - Traces of old folds. Recipient's note to upper margin, some offsetting from similar notes to verso..

When this failed, their panic was delightful to behold” (Wheen, p. 325). International papers, seizing on an item published in the reactionary "Paris-Journal", reported that even Karl Marx "was so horrified by the uprising that he had sent a stern message of rebuke to French members of the International" (ibid.) and that the French International had voted to “expel the Germans from the International Working Men’s Association". Marx clarifies that "the letter, as I have already explained in The Times, is a brazen fake from beginning to end". The purpose of this calumny, he advises readers of the "Volksstaat", "is immediately obvious […] It is quite natural that the important dignitaries and the ruling classes of the old society who can only maintain their own power and the exploitation of the productive masses of the people by national conflicts and antagonisms, recognise their common adversary in the International Working Men’s Association. All and any means are good to destroy it". - Marx signs in full as "Karl Marx, Secretary of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association for Germany". The article was published in the "Volksstaat" on 29 March 1871 and also in other newspapers of the "International", as well as in the paper "Die Zukunft". - Complete manuscripts by Karl Marx are of the utmost rarity in the trade..

1865 ("C. Schulz - photogr. Atelier Trier, Dietrichstr. No. 216"). - Both photographs were offered together in 1984 by Dr. Helmut Tenner, Heidelberg, who identified the lady's portrait as one supposedly taken "ca. 1860" of Johanna (Jenny) Marx, née von Westphalen (1814-81), who had married Karl Marx in 1843. The purchaser returned both items to the trade in 2023; based on the lady's evident youth, the more recent auction house now attributed it "with a high degree of likelihood" to Jenny Julia Eleanor ("Tussy") Marx-Aveling (1855-98), Karl and Jenny Marx's third daughter, apparently in mourning for her mother and thus dated to 1881. However, visual comparison of the sitter with the known portraits of Marx's daughters would not appear to confirm this or similar attributions. - Further includes a typed letter from the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the SED Central Committee, to be issued by Tenner to the successful bidder, requesting a "high-quality photocopy" and "precise description of the photographs" (10 Oct. 1984, 1½ pp., 4to), signed by the Institute's deputy director, Professor Dr. Heinrich Gemkow (1928-2017)..