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Ferdinand Lassalle

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For the 1918 film, see Ferdinand Lassalle (film).
Ferdinand Lassalle
Lassalle in 1860
Born
Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassal

(1825-04-11)11 April 1825
Breslau, Kingdom of Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland)
Died31 August 1864(1864-08-31) (aged 39)
Carouge, Switzerland
Political partyGeneral German Workers' Association (1863–1864)
Education
Education
Philosophical work
Era19th-century philosophy
RegionGerman philosophy
SchoolHegelian philosophy
Main interests
  • Political philosophy
  • Economics
  • History
Notable ideas
Signature
Part of a series on
Socialism
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Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassalle (born Lassal; 11 April 1825 – 31 August 1864) was a German jurist, philosopher, socialist, and political activist. Remembered as an initiator of the German labour movement, he developed the theory of state socialism and was a founder of the General German Workers' Association (ADAV) in 1863, a precursor to the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Lassalle's political thought was shaped by Hegelianism and the German revolutions of 1848–1849. He advocated for a strong role for the state in achieving social reform and improving the conditions of the working class, believing that universal suffrage would enable workers to transform the existing Prussian state into a "people's state" (Volksstaat) that would own and control major industries. This put him at odds with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who advocated for international proletarian revolution and viewed the state primarily as an instrument of class oppression.

A charismatic but controversial figure, Lassalle gained notoriety for his eight-year legal battle on behalf of Countess Sophie von Hatzfeldt, which brought him fame and a substantial annuity. His political career, though brief, was marked by energetic agitation, prolific writing, and a complex, often secret, relationship with Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Lassalle's life was cut short at the age of 39 when he was killed in a duel arising from a love affair. Despite his early death and the theoretical differences with Marxism, Lassalle's ideas and organizational efforts significantly influenced the course of German socialism.

Early life and education

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Childhood in Breslau

[edit]

Ferdinand Lassal (he later adopted the French spelling "Lassalle"[1]) was born in Breslau (now Wrocław), Prussian Silesia, on 11 April 1825.[1] His family were Jews, originally domiciled in Poland, who had moved to Prussian Silesia in the late 18th century. His father, Heymann Lassal, was a prosperous wholesale silk merchant.[1] Ferdinand had a sister, Frederike (Riekchen).[1]

For the New Year of 1840, his father gave him a diary. The boy, not yet fifteen, recorded his activities, faults, and good deeds, aiming to understand his own character.[1] His early diary reveals a precocious, quick-witted boy, capable of warm affection but unscrupulous when he truly wanted something. He was a voracious reader with intense dreams of knight-errantry and glory.[2] He was highly sensitive about the figure he cut, his Jewishness, and his background as the son of a provincial tradesman.[2] The diary shows an early interest in gambling, a keen eye for money, and a casuistic ability to justify his actions, such as playing billiards despite his father's prohibition.[3] He also displayed a precocious interest in romantic intrigues, offering advice to family friends.[4]

The household was often tense due to quick tempers.[5] Ferdinand formed a close alliance with his father, who was often disappointed by his wife's deafness and his daughter's perceived ignorance.[6] However, Heymann himself was quick-tempered, and Ferdinand's dressiness and wilfulness led to friction. One serious quarrel over trousers led to Ferdinand contemplating suicide, an intention his father discerned and gently averted.[7] Heymann generally treated his son as an equal, involving him in family discussions, particularly concerning Riekchen's marriage prospects.[8]

Lassalle was unhappy at school.[9] He resented discipline and his reports were often unsatisfactory. To avoid his father's distress, he devised a method of forging his parents' signatures on the school report book.[10] When this deception was nearly discovered, he decided he needed to leave Breslau and persuaded his father to send him to a commercial school in Leipzig.[11]

His diary also reveals early idealistic convictions. He expressed a strong Jewish identity, dreaming of leading the Jews, "sword in hand, along the path to their independence", inspired by characters in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Leila; or, The Siege of Granada.[12]

Leipzig (1840–1841)

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Lasalle in Leipzig, circa 1840

In early May 1840, Ferdinand and his father travelled to Leipzig via Berlin.[13] Heymann arranged for Ferdinand to lodge with Herr Hander, headmaster of a Realschule, at a considerable expense that demonstrated his love for his son.[13] Ferdinand, then fifteen, was treated as a young man of twenty in the Hander household.[13]

In Leipzig, Lassalle was often homesick and exasperated but rarely bored.[14] His diary entries from this period reflect his developing revolutionary fervour, particularly in response to the Damascus affair of 1840: "Cowardly race, you deserve no better fate! ... You were born to be slaves!" he wrote of the Jewish community's response.[14] He read Ludwig Börne's letters, seeing Germany as "one great prison where human rights are trodden under foot".[15] Heinrich Heine's poetry and Friedrich Schiller's play Fiesco also profoundly influenced him. After seeing Fiesco, he reflected, "Had I been born a prince I would have been an aristocrat heart and soul. As it is I am one of the middle classes, and, therefore, a democrat".[16] His reading of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wilhelm Meister led him to contrast his own path with Meister's; while Meister renounced trade for Art, Lassalle felt he had renounced an "aesthetic life" for commerce to escape his "horrible position" at home.[17] However, he firmly believed that fate, or Providence, would lead him to a life concerned with "Freedom rather than markets".[18]

His ambitions crystallized: "I will proclaim Freedom to the Peoples even if it costs me my life. I swear it by God and beneath the stars ... the blood of princes shall flow".[18] Life with the Handers became strained as Herr Hander proved pompous and shifty.[19] The death of the Handers' young daughter, Marie, to whom Ferdinand had grown attached, led to an uncomfortable interview where Hander revealed he had intended to ask Ferdinand to leave due to lack of space.[19] School life also saw friction with the director, Schiebe.[19]

Ultimately, Lassalle decided against a commercial career. He persuaded his father, during a visit in the summer of 1841, to allow him to study at a university.[20] He declared his intention to study history, "the greatest subject in the world", viewing it as a means to fight for humanity's highest ideals and to "enlighten and illumine" the peoples, rather than as a path to a traditional career.[21]

University and Hegelianism

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Between leaving Leipzig and entering university, Lassalle lived at home in Breslau, studying for his matriculation. He developed an "iron determination to study", often remaining indoors for days, immersed in books.[22] After initial refusal, his appeal to the Prussian Minister of Education allowed him to sit the matriculation examination in 1842. Though he impressed examiners with his essay on "The Development of the idea of the Humane", he failed due to the hostility of the presiding Commissioner, Dr. David Schulz.[23] He passed the following year.[24]

Lassalle's university career was divided between Breslau (1843–1844 and summer 1845) and Berlin (1844–1845 and autumn 1845 onwards).[24] It was in his early undergraduate days at Breslau that he discovered Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This was a "first big milestone" in his life, providing a creed that gave him "full satisfaction".[2] He described it as a "second birth" that gave him "clarity, self-assurance ... made of me self-containing Intellect, that is self-conscious God".[24] Hegelian philosophy emancipated him from the revolutionary romanticism of Heine and made him a "determined socialist", albeit one who believed the new social order would arise from the "inevitable triumph of the Hegelian idea" rather than from barricades.[25] Hegelian dialectic became an instrument for solving problems in line with his own desires and contributed to his self-assurance, but at the cost of his sense of humour, proportion, and self-criticism.[26]

He joined the Raczeks, a Breslau student association dedicated to studying Hegel and his successors like Ludwig Feuerbach and Arnold Ruge.[27] In April 1844, he moved to Berlin, living frugally at 52 Unter den Linden and dedicating himself to an austere regime of study, focusing on Hegel.[28] He wrote a forty-page letter to his father outlining his Hegelian interpretation of history, industry, and the eventual emergence of a Communist State where "man’s subjective individuality will come to real fruition in the conception of the State as an organised whole".[29]

His life in Berlin was not solely academic. He had a love affair with a musician, Lonni Grodzka, whom he helped marry off when he tired of her.[30] He also formed a circle of followers, his "Triumviri": Arnold Mendelssohn (a doctor and cousin of the banking family), Alexander Oppenheim (a young lawyer), and Albert Lehfeldt (a student).[31] Mendelssohn, in particular, fell under Lassalle's intellectual sway, writing letters of intense admiration.[32] Lassalle's ambition at this time was to formulate his own philosophical system, with a work on Heraclitus as a preliminary step to establish his academic reputation.[33]

Hatzfeldt affair (1846–1854)

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Sophie von Hatzfeldt

In early 1846, Lassalle met Countess Sophie von Hatzfeldt. This was the "second big milestone of his career".[34] The Countess, born in 1805 into a prominent noble family, had been unhappily married since 1822 to her cousin, Count Edmund von Hatzfeldt-Kinsweiler. The Count was unfaithful, unscrupulous in money matters, and had denied her access to their elder children.[35] Having failed to secure help from her family or the Palace, the 41-year-old Countess was, by 1846, a lonely and embittered woman determined to seek legal redress.[35]

Lassalle, introduced to her by a mutual acquaintance from Karl August Varnhagen von Ense's salon, devoted the next eight years almost exclusively to vindicating her claims against her husband.[36] He later described his motivation as that of a "revolutionary of the school of Robespierre", compelled to act against social oppression.[37] His temperament contained an "irrepressible urge towards knight-errantry", but the publicity, the high rank of his client and her opponent, and the considerable interests involved undoubtedly appealed to the "obscure young Jew from the provinces".[38]

The nature of their personal relationship was a subject of much speculation. Lassalle later told Helene von Dönniges it was "more or less as you say" (implying an early affair), but that their unbreakable bond was "gratitude".[39] In the 1850s, he wrote the Countess a long Hegelian letter arguing there was no physical relationship.[40] In 1857, he gave his word of honour no intimacy had ever taken place.[41] The Countess, in her 1852 will, described Lassalle as "the best of sons".[41] Footman concludes that "posterity can only guess at what these words imply... We only know that each remained a major factor in the life of the other".[41]

The campaign involved numerous lawsuits: for alimony, against the Count's "prodigality" with her dowry, and for establishment of domicile for divorce.[42] It became a cause célèbre, fought with polemical articles, libel actions, bought witnesses, and intimidation from both sides.[42] In August 1846, affairs took a sensational turn when Lassalle's associates, Mendelssohn and Oppenheim, attempted to seize a casket from the Count's mistress, Baroness von Meyendorff, believing it contained a deed of gift that would ruin the Countess's son, Paul.[43] This led to Oppenheim's arrest for theft and Mendelssohn's flight to England.[44] Lassalle supported Mendelssohn financially and attempted, unsuccessfully, to enlist Heinrich Heine and Alexander von Humboldt in a press campaign and to secure Oppenheim's release.[45] His father, Heymann, bore the financial strain of these efforts with remarkable patience.[46] Oppenheim was eventually acquitted.[46] Lassalle himself was arrested in March 1847 for complicity in the Oppenheim case but was acquitted after six weeks.[47]

Revolution of 1848 and aftermath

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During the revolutions of 1848, Lassalle was briefly imprisoned for his role in the Hatzfeldt affair. On 11 January 1848, he and Countess Hatzfeldt were sentenced to two months' imprisonment for criminal libel, though they appealed.[48] In February, he was arrested in Potsdam for instigating the theft of the casket and transferred to Cologne.[48] At his trial in August 1848, Lassalle delivered a "spirited counter-attack", skilfully identifying his cause with Liberty and Democracy, and was acquitted. This was hailed as a triumph for the Left in the Rhineland.[49]

It was during this period that Lassalle met Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marx was editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne.[50] Engels disliked Lassalle from the start, disapproving of his "glibness, ostentation and self-importance", and the Hatzfeldt scandal. Marx, while aware of these foibles, was more tolerant, appreciating Lassalle's drive and intellectual capacity.[50] Lassalle made his first public political speech on 29 August 1848, at a protest meeting in Cologne against the arrest of the revolutionary poet Ferdinand Freiligrath.[50] He became active in the Rhineland, in frequent touch with Marx. In November 1848, following government moves against the Constituent Assembly in Berlin, Lassalle advocated armed resistance and was arrested on a charge of inciting the populace to arms. He remained in custody for six months.[51] At his trial in May 1849, he was acquitted of the main charge but was immediately rearrested for inciting violence against authorities and remained in custody for two more months. He was eventually sentenced in July 1849 to six months' imprisonment, which he did not serve until over a year later.[52]

After his release in 1849, Lassalle remained in the Rhineland, "the last of the Mohicans", as Marx and other Left-wing leaders went into exile.[53] He maintained a warm correspondence with Marx and his wife Jenny, offering support during their early, impoverished years in London.[54] Lassalle served his six-month prison sentence from October 1850 to April 1851.[55] During this time, Marx suggested Lassalle for membership in the Communist League, but the Cologne committee, led by Heinrich Bürgers (who had past friction with Lassalle over the Hatzfeldt affair), rejected the proposal "in view of Lassalle's reputation".[56] Lassalle was unaware of this. After the Cologne Communist Trial in late 1851, where Bürgers and others were imprisoned, Lassalle, who was not implicated, supported them and their dependents.[57]

In 1854, the Hatzfeldt affair finally concluded. Through intrigue and blackmail involving the Count's estate agent, Stockum, Lassalle forced Count Hatzfeldt into an acceptable financial settlement.[58] Countess Hatzfeldt received over 300,000 thalers. Lassalle himself secured an annuity of 4,000 thalers from these funds, an arrangement he later explained was compensation for his sacrifices and to ensure he was not under too great an obligation to the Countess.[59] For the rest of his life, he could live as a rich man.[60]

"Man of means" and intellectual development

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Following the Hatzfeldt settlement, Lassalle initially stayed in Düsseldorf with the Countess, maintaining his connections with local workers.[61] He entered into an affair with Agnes Dennis-Street, daughter of Georg Klindworth, a political intelligence agent. Klindworth became a source of information for Lassalle, useful for both political insights (which he passed to Marx) and stock exchange speculation.[62] Agnes gave birth to Lassalle's daughter in 1855.[62]

Lassalle's relationship with Countess Hatzfeldt entered a period of crisis. He was ambitious and she feared a lonely old age.[63] Her son Paul also resented Lassalle. Lassalle desired to move to Berlin to work on his long-planned book on Heraclitus and to play the lion in its salons, but police permission was repeatedly denied.[64] In 1856, he undertook an Eastern tour with his brother-in-law Friedland, visiting Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Istanbul.[65] During this trip, he learned of Arnold Mendelssohn's death in the Crimean War, which deeply moved him.[66] The tour was cut short due to the Countess's financial worries caused by a stock market slump.[67]

Meanwhile, his relationship with Marx deteriorated. In 1853, Marx received an unfavorable report about Lassalle from a certain Wiss.[68] In 1855, Gustav Lewy, a Düsseldorf democrat, denounced Lassalle to Marx in London, accusing him of exploiting the workers' party for his private affairs and of dangerous political maneuvering.[68] Although no further evidence was forthcoming, Marx was "deeply impressed" and retained a sense of mistrust.[69]

In 1857, Lassalle finally obtained a six-month permit to reside in Berlin for medical treatment and the publication of his work on Heraclitus.[70] He re-established contact with Marx, sending him his Heraclitus the Obscure, the Philosopher of Ephesus, which was published in two volumes in 1857. The work, a Hegelian interpretation of the Ephesian philosopher, was well-received in Berlin academic circles, earning praise from Humboldt, Varnhagen, and Karl Richard Lepsius, and leading to his membership in the Berlin Philosophical Society.[71] Marx, however, found it "masterly" but too verbose and insufficiently critical of Hegel.[72] To Engels, Marx was more dismissive, calling it a "feeble composition" displaying erudition but lacking originality.[72] Lassalle remained unaware of Marx's private criticisms.[73]

His social life in Berlin included an affair with Lina Duncker, wife of his publisher Franz Duncker.[74] This, and other social activities, caused friction with the Countess.[75] An altercation with an army officer, Fabrice, a rival for Lina Duncker's affections, led to a public scandal and a police expulsion order from Berlin.[76] Lassalle successfully appealed this order, partly through a petition to the Prince of Prussia.[77] His daughter by Agnes Dennis-Street died in September 1857, an event that seems to have had little impact on him.[78]

In 1859, Lassalle published two more works: a blank verse tragedy, Franz von Sickingen, and a pamphlet on foreign politics, The Italian War and Prussia's Duty: Democracy's Call.[79] Franz von Sickingen depicted the Knights' Revolt leader as a revolutionary figure, with the character of Ulrich von Hutten reflecting Lassalle's own persona. Marx criticized the play for its feudal protagonist, suggesting peasant leaders would have been more appropriate.[80] The pamphlet on the Italian War advocated Prussian neutrality and eventual incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein, differing significantly from Marx and Engels' pro-Austrian, anti-Bonapartist stance.[81] These disagreements further strained his relationship with Marx, exacerbated by Lassalle's handling of Marx's financial requests and his perceived condescension in the Vogt affair.[82] The tension culminated in Marx sending Lassalle copies of Lewy's 1855 denunciation, which deeply wounded Lassalle.[83]

In 1860, Lassalle became involved with Sonia Sontsev, a young Russian woman he met at a spa in Aachen.[84] He wrote her a sixty-page letter proposing marriage, detailing his life, his Jewishness (which he described ambivalently), his relationship with Countess Hatzfeldt (whom he hoped Sonia would live with), and the dangers of a political life.[85] Sonia ultimately rejected his proposal.[86] His major work, The System of Acquired Rights (Das System der erworbenen Rechte), was published in 1861. This Hegelian legal treatise argued for the progressive limitation of private property rights and the retrospective application of new laws reflecting evolving popular consciousness (Volksbewusstsein).[87] Its reception was tepid.[88]

Political agitation and the ADAV

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Ferdinand Lassalle

The early 1860s saw a growing constitutional conflict in Prussia over army reform. Lassalle saw an opportunity for political action. In April 1862, he delivered two influential lectures in Berlin: "The Nature of Constitutions" and "The Working Class and its Significance in the Present Age" (later published as The Workers' Programme).[89] In these, he argued that a constitution is merely the "factual power relationship in any given society" written down, and that the working class, the "Fourth Estate", was destined to become the dominant social force.[90] He advocated for the working class to form its own independent political party.[91] These speeches, which effectively called for a break with the bourgeois Progressives, caused a stir and led to police confiscation of The Workers' Programme and charges against Lassalle.[92]

In late 1862, a committee of Leipzig workers, disillusioned with the Progressives, approached Lassalle, asking him to lead a new workers' movement.[93] Lassalle responded with his Open Letter to the Central Committee for the Convening of a General German Workers' Congress in Leipzig (Offnes Antwortschreiben) in March 1863.[94] In it, he reiterated the impotence of the Progressives and outlined his program: the formation of an independent workers' party advocating for universal, equal, and direct suffrage.[95] He famously attacked Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch's self-help co-operatives as inadequate and proposed instead state-financed producers' co-operatives.[95] He also expounded his "iron law of wages", arguing that under capitalism, average wages are always driven down to the bare minimum of subsistence.[95] Only through state aid and universal suffrage could the working class achieve emancipation.[96]

The Open Answer became the founding document of the General German Workers' Association (ADAV), established in Leipzig on 23 May 1863, with Lassalle as its president for a five-year term.[97] The ADAV was the first organized German workers' party. Lassalle's statutes gave the president dictatorial powers.[98] Recruitment was slow; by the time of his death, the ADAV had only about 4,600 members.[99]

During this period, Lassalle entered into a series of confidential meetings and correspondence with Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian Minister President.[100] The first meeting, at Bismarck's invitation, took place in May 1863.[100] Bismarck was interested in Lassalle's movement as a potential counterweight to the liberal Progressives.[101] Lassalle hoped to persuade Bismarck to introduce universal suffrage, believing it would benefit both the Crown and the workers against the bourgeoisie.[102] He even suggested that the working class might support a "social dictatorship" by the Crown against bourgeois society.[102] The exact nature of their discussions remained secret, but Lassalle's overtures to the conservative state and his nationalist sentiments were viewed with deep suspicion by Marx and other socialists. His relationship with Marx finally broke down completely in November 1862 over a misunderstanding about a loan.[94]

Lassalle continued his agitation throughout 1863 and 1864, delivering powerful speeches, notably at Frankfurt and Ronsdorf.[103] His pamphlet Herr Bastiat-Schulze von Delitzsch, the Economic Julian, Or Capital and Labour (1864) was a polemical attack on Schulze-Delitzsch.[104] He faced ongoing legal battles; he was convicted for The Workers' Programme (sentence commuted to a fine) and later for his Ronsdorf speech (sentenced to imprisonment, pending appeal).[105]

Final year and death

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In the summer of 1864, Lassalle was on a health cure at Rigi Kaltbad in Switzerland.[106] While there, he re-encountered Helene von Dönniges, a young woman he had met briefly before.[107] Helene was the daughter of Wilhelm von Dönniges, a Bavarian diplomat. A whirlwind romance ensued, and Lassalle proposed marriage.[108] Helene accepted, writing to him: "I intend to be your wife. You asked me for a 'yes et je m'en charge'. Here is my 'yes', chargez-vous".[109]

However, Helene's family, particularly her father, vehemently opposed the match due to Lassalle's Jewish origins, his political notoriety, and the perceived social mésalliance.[110] When Helene returned to her family in Geneva, she was effectively held captive and pressured to renounce Lassalle.[111] Lassalle, in Geneva, attempted to secure her release and her parents' consent, enlisting the help of Countess Hatzfeldt and others, and even seeking the intervention of Bavarian authorities through his acquaintance Baron von Schrenk.[112]

After weeks of intense emotional struggle, during which Lassalle sent frantic letters and telegrams, Helene eventually capitulated to her family's pressure and wrote a letter to Lassalle renouncing him in favour of a previous suitor, Yanko von Rakowitza, a young Wallachian nobleman.[113] Lassalle, feeling his honour impugned and publicly humiliated, challenged Helene's father to a duel. Herr von Dönniges declined, but Rakowitza accepted the challenge in his stead.[114]

The duel took place on the morning of 28 August 1864, in Carouge, a suburb of Geneva. Lassalle had little pistol practice, while Rakowitza, though not a marksman, had spent the previous afternoon in intensive training.[115] Rakowitza fired first and hit Lassalle in the abdomen. Lassalle's return shot missed.[116] Lassalle lingered for three days, heavily drugged with opium, and died on the morning of 31 August 1864, at the age of 39.[117]

Legacy

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Lassalle's tomb in Breslau, now the Old Jewish Cemetery, Wrocław

Lassalle's death caused a sensation. His body was embalmed and taken by Countess Hatzfeldt in a solemn procession down the Rhine, where vast crowds of workers mourned him.[118] He was eventually buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Breslau.[118]

Countess Hatzfeldt devoted the rest of her life (until her death in 1881) to defending Lassalle's memory and fostering his cult within and outside the ADAV.[118] Helene von Dönniges married Yanko von Rakowitza, who died a few months later; she subsequently had two more husbands and a stage career, eventually committing suicide.[119] Sonia Sontsev married and lived in the Crimea.[119]

Marx and Engels, while acknowledging Lassalle's importance, were critical. Engels lamented the loss of "one of the most important men in Germany" but Marx, in private letters, expressed relief that their strained relations were over and strongly condemned Lassalle's tactics, alleged plagiarism of his writings, and his "vanity, braggadocio".[120] Marx also felt Lassalle's state socialism was a misunderstanding of his own theories.[121]

Despite its small membership at his death, the ADAV grew rapidly. In 1875, it merged with the Social Democratic Workers' Party (founded by August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht) at the Gotha Congress to form what eventually became the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The Gotha Program adopted by the new party was heavily influenced by Lassallean theories and slogans, much to Marx's and Engels's chagrin.[121] Engels later wrote that Lassalle's "immortal service" was to "re-awaken the workers' movement in Germany after fifteen years of slumber", but maintained that his historical role remained "equivocal", with "Lassalle the socialist... accompanied step by step by Lassalle the demagogue".[121]

Lassalle remains a controversial figure. He is credited with popularizing socialist ideas among German workers and creating their first political organization. His emphasis on achieving socialism through the existing state via universal suffrage, his nationalism, and his dealings with Bismarck distinguish his approach from Marxism.

Works

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German editions

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  • Die Philosophie Herakleitos des Dunklen von Ephesos (The Philosophy of Heraclitus the Obscure of Ephesus) Berlin: Franz Duncker, 1858.
  • Der italienische Krieg und die Aufgabe Preussens: eine Stimme aus der Demokratie (The Italian War and the Tasks of Prussia: A Voice of Democracy). Berlin: Franz Duncker, 1859.
  • Das System der erworbenen Rechte (The System of Acquired Rights). Two volumes. Leipzig: 1861.
  • Über Verfassungswesen: zwei Vorträge und ein offenes Sendschreiben (On The Essence of a Constitution: Two Lectures and an Open Letter). Berlin: 1862.
  • Offenes Antwortschreiben an das Zentralkomitee zur Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeiter-Kongresses zu Leipzig (Open Letter Answering the Central Committee on the Convening of a General German Workers' Congress in Leipzig). Zürich: Meyer and Zeller, 1863.
  • Zur Arbeiterfrage: Lassalle's Rede bei der am 16. April in Leipzig abgehaltenen Arbeiterversammlung nebst Briefen der Herren Professoren Wuttke und Dr. Lothar Bucher. (On the Labor Problem: Lassalle's Speech on the 16th of April [1863] at a Leipzig Workers' Meeting, Together with the Letters of Professor Wuttke and Dr. Lothar Bucher). Leipzig: 1863.
  • Herr Bastiat-Schulze von Delitzsch, der ökonomische Julian, oder Kapital und Arbeit (Mr. Bastiat-Schulze von Delitzsch, the Economic Julian, or, Capital and Labour). Berlin: Reinhold Schlingmann, 1864.
  • Reden und Schriften (Speeches and Writings). In three volumes. New York: Wolff and Höhne, n.d. [1883].
  • Gesammelte Reden und Schriften (Collected Speeches and Writings). In 12 volumes. Berlin: P. Cassirer, 1919–1920.

English translations

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  • The Working Man's Programme: An Address. Edward Peters, trans. London: The Modern Press, 1884.
  • What is Capital? F. Keddell, trans. New York: New York Labor News Co., 1900.
  • Lassalle's Open Letter to the National Labor Association of Germany. John Ehmann and Fred Bader, trans. New York: International Library Publishing, 1901. Originally published in US in 1879.
  • Franz von Sickingen: A Tragedy in Five Acts. Daniel DeLeon, trans. New York: New York Labor News, 1904.
  • Voices of Revolt, Volume 3: Speeches of Ferdinand Lassalle with a Biographical Sketch. Introduction by Jakob Altmaier. New York: International Publishers, 1927.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e Footman 1947, p. 21.
  2. ^ a b c Footman 1947, p. ix.
  3. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 22–23.
  4. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 23–24.
  5. ^ Footman 1947, p. 25.
  6. ^ Footman 1947, p. 26.
  7. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 26–27.
  8. ^ Footman 1947, p. 27.
  9. ^ Footman 1947, p. 28.
  10. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 29–30.
  11. ^ Footman 1947, p. 30.
  12. ^ Footman 1947, p. 31.
  13. ^ a b c Footman 1947, p. 36.
  14. ^ a b Footman 1947, p. 37.
  15. ^ Footman 1947, p. 40.
  16. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 39–40.
  17. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 40–41.
  18. ^ a b Footman 1947, p. 41.
  19. ^ a b c Footman 1947, p. 42.
  20. ^ Footman 1947, p. 52.
  21. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 52–53.
  22. ^ Footman 1947, p. 54.
  23. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 54–55.
  24. ^ a b c Footman 1947, p. 55.
  25. ^ Footman 1947, pp. ix, 56.
  26. ^ Footman 1947, pp. ix–x.
  27. ^ Footman 1947, p. 56.
  28. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 56–57.
  29. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 58–59.
  30. ^ Footman 1947, p. 61.
  31. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 63–64.
  32. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 63–65.
  33. ^ Footman 1947, p. 66.
  34. ^ Footman 1947, p. x.
  35. ^ a b Footman 1947, p. 71.
  36. ^ Footman 1947, p. 72.
  37. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 72–73.
  38. ^ Footman 1947, pp. x, 73.
  39. ^ Footman 1947, p. 73.
  40. ^ Footman 1947, pp. 73–74.
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Works cited

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  • Footman, David (1947). Ferdinand Lassalle: Romantic Revolutionary. New Haven: Yale University Press. OCLC 186524436. (Reprinted 1969 by Greenwood Press, ISBN 9780837123588; and 1994 by Transaction Publishers, ISBN 9781560007677)

Further reading

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  • Berlau, A Joseph (1949), The German Social Democratic Party, 1914–1921, New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Bernstein, Edward (1893), Ferdinand Lassalle as a Social Reformer, London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.
  • Dawson, WH (1891), German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle, London: Swan Sonnenschein.
  • Kirkup, Thomas (1911). "Lassalle, Ferdinand" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). pp. 235–236.
  • Eduard Bernstein, Ferdinand Lassalle as a Social Reformer. Eleanor Marx Aveling, trans. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1893.
  • William Harbutt Dawson, German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1891.
  • David Footman, The Primrose Path: A Biography of Ferdinand Lassalle. London: Cresset Press, 1946.
  • Arno Schirokauer, Lassalle: The Power of Illusion and the Illusion of Power. Eden and Cedar Paul, trans. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1931.
  • Carlton J. H. Hayes. “The History of German Socialism Reconsidered.” The American Historical Review 23, no. 1 (1917): 62–101. [1].
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