The International Workingmen's Association

To the editor of the Berliner Reform

Written: by Engels on March 28, 1865;
First published: in the Berliner Reform, No. 78, April 1, 1865;
Translated: by Barrie Selman;
Transcribed: by director@marx.org.

This letter was prompted by Schweitzer's attacks against Marx for breaking with Der Social-Demokrat -- which Schweitzer represented, in articles in that paper and Berliner Reform, as being due to a personal hostility Marx held for Lassalle.

From No. 68 of the Reform and No. 37 of the Social-Demokrat forwarded to me here, I see that Herr v. Schweitzer is making embarrassed and mendacious attempts to extricate himself from the "fair impediments" he has prepared for himself. Habeat sibi! [I don't care!] However, I will not permit him to distort my statement of March 15, in which I simply let him describe himself, into a statement on Lassalle. The correspondence between myself and Lassalle in my possession, spanning about fifteen years, totally deprives the Schweitzers and company of the power to misrepresent our personal relationship or to cast suspicion on the motives for my neutral attitude to Lassalle's agitation. The relationship of Lassalle's theoretical works to mine, on the other hand, is a matter for scientific criticism. An occasion may perhaps arise later for discussing individual points. But under any circumstances, reverence prohibits me from making such matters the object of a polemic in the press with sycophants.

alt-Bommel,
March 28, 1865