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LASSALLE, FERDINAND (1825-1864)
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See also:LASSALLE, See also: He was not so fortunate in 1849, when he underwent a See also:year's See also:durance for resistance to the authorities of See also:Dusseldorf during the troubles of that stormy See also:period. But going to See also:prison was a See also:familiar experience in Lassalle's life. Till 1859 Lassalle resided mostly in the See also:Rhine See also:country, prosecuting the suit of the countess, See also:finishing the work on Heraclitus, which was not published till 1858, taking little See also:part in See also:political agitation, but ever a helpful friend of the working men. He was not allowed to live in Berlin because of his connexion with the disturbances of '48. In 1859, however, he entered the See also:city disguised as a See also:carter, and, through the See also:influence of See also:Humboldt with the See also: Lassalle, a democrat of the most advanced type, saw that an opportunity had come for asserting a third great cause—that of the working men—which would outflank the liberalism of the See also:middle classes, and might even command the sympathy of the See also:government. His political See also:programme was, however, entirely subordinate to the social, that of bettering the See also:condition of the working classes, for which he believed the schemes of Schulze-See also:Delitzsch were utterly inadequate. Lassalle flung himself into the career of agitator with his accustomed vigour. His worst difficulties were with the working men themselves, among whom he met the most discouraging apathy. His mission as organizer and emancipator of the working class lasted only two years and a See also:half. In that period he issued about twenty See also:separate publications, most of them speeches and See also:pamphlets, but one of them, that against Schulze-Delitzsch, a considerable See also:treatise, and all full of keen and vigorous thought. He founded the " Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein," was its See also:president and almost single-handed See also:champion, conducted its affairs, and carried on a vast See also:correspondence, not to mention about a dozen See also:state prosecutions in which he was during that period involved. Berlin, Leipzig, See also:Frankfort and the See also:industrial centres on the Rhine were the See also:chief scenes of his activity. His greatest success was on the Rhine, where in the summers of 1$63 and 1864 his travels as missionary of the new See also:gospel resembled a triumphal procession. The agitation was growing rapidly, but he had achieved little substantial success when a most unworthy See also:death closed his career. While posing as the See also:messiah of the poor, Lassalle was a See also:man of decidedly fashionable and luxurious habits. His suppers were well known as among the most exquisite in Berlin. It was the most piquant feature of his life that he, one of the gilded youth, a connoisseur in wines, and a learned man to See also:boot, had become agitator and the champion of the working man. In one of the See also:literary and fashionable circles of Berlin he had met a Frdulein von Donniges, for whom he at once See also:felt a See also:passion, which was ardently reciprocated. In the summer of 1864 he met her again on the Rigi, when they resolved to marry. She was a See also:young lady of twenty, decidedly unconventional and See also:original in See also:character, but the daughter of a Bavarian diplomatist then See also:resident at See also:Geneva, who would have nothing to do with Lassalle. The lady was imprisoned in her own room, and soon, apparently under the influence of very questionable pressure, renounced Lassalle in favour of another admirer, a Wallachian, Count von Racowitza. Lassalle sent a See also:challenge both to the lady's father and her betrothed, which was accepted by the latter. At the Carouge, a suburb of Geneva, the See also:meeting took See also:place on the See also:morning of See also:August 28, 1864, when Lassalle was mortally wounded, and he died on the 31st of August. In spite of such a foolish ending, his funeral was that of a See also:martyr, and by many of his adherents he has been regarded since with feelings almost of religious devotion. Lassalle did not See also:lay claim to any special originality as a socialistic thinker, nor did he publish any systematic statement of his views. Yet his leading ideas are sufficiently clear and See also:simple. Like a true Hegelian he saw three stages in the development of labour: the See also:ancient and feudal period, which, through the subjection of the labourer, sought solidarity without freedom; the reign of See also:capital and the middle classes, established in 1789, which sought freedom by destroying solidarity; and the new era, beginning in 1848, which would reconcile solidarity with freedom by introducing the principle of association. It was the basis and starting-point of his opinions that, under the See also:empire of capital and so See also:long as the working man was merely a See also:receiver of See also:wages, no improvement in his condition could be expected. This position he founded on the law of wages formulated by See also:Ricardo, and accepted by all the leading economists, that wages are controlled by the See also:ordinary relations of See also:supply and demand, that a rise in wages leads to an increase in the labouring See also:population, which, by increasing the supply of labour, is followed by a corresponding fall of wages. Thus population increases or decreases in fixed relation to the rise or fall of wages. The condition of the working man will never permanently rise above the See also:mere See also:standard of living required for his subsistence, and the continued supply of his See also:kind. Lassalle held that the co-operative schemes of Schulze-Delitzsch on the principle of " self-help " were utterly inadequate, for the obvious See also:reason that the working classes were destitute of capital. The struggle of the working man helping himself with his empty pockets against the capitalists he compared to a See also:battle with See also:teeth and nails against See also:modern See also:artillery. In short, Lassalle accepted the orthodox political See also:economy to show that the inevitable operation of its See also:laws See also:left no See also:hope for the working classes, and that no remedy could be found but by abolishing the conditions in which these laws had their validity—in other words, by abolishing the See also:present relations of labour and capital altogether. And this could only be done by the productive association of the working men with See also:money provided by the state. And he held that such association should be the voluntary See also:act of the working men, the government merely reserving the right to examine the books of the various See also:societies. All the arrangements should be carried out according to the rules of business usually followed in such transactions. But how move the government to See also: The aim of Lassalle, then, was to organize the working classes into a great political See also:power, which in the way thus indicated, by peaceful resolute agitation, without violence or insurrection, might attain the See also:goal of productive association. In this way the See also:fourth See also:estate would be emancipated from the despotism of the capitalist, and a great step taken in the See also:solution of the great " social question." It will be seen that the See also:net result of Lassalle's life was to produce a See also:European scandal, and to originate a socialistic See also:movement in Germany, which, at the See also:election of 1903, returned to the Reichstag eighty-one members and polled 3,010,771 votes, and at the election of 1907 returned See also:forty-three members and polled 3,258,968 votes. (The diminution in the number of members returned in 1907 was due mostly to See also:combination among the different political See also:groups.) This result, great as it was, would hardly have been commensurate with his ambition, which was boundless. In the heyday of his passion for Fraulein von Donniges, his See also:dream was to be enthroned as the president of the German See also:republic with her seated at his See also:side. With his See also:energy, ability and See also:gift of dominating and organizing, he might indeed have done a great See also:deal. Bismarck coquetted with him as the representative of a force that might help him to combat the Prussian liberals; in 1878, in a speech before the Reichstag, he spoke of him with deep respect, as a man of the greatest amiability and ability from whom much could be learned. Even See also:Bishop See also:Ketteler of See also:Mainz had declared his sympathy for the cause he advocated. Lassalle's See also:Die Philosophie Herakleitos See also:des Dunklen von Ephesos (Berlin, 1858), and the System der erworbenen Rechte (Leipzig, 1861) are both marked by great learning and intellectual power. But of far more historical See also:interest are the speeches and pamphlets connected with his socialistic agitation, of which the most important are—Ueber Verfassungswesen; Arbeiterprogramm; Offenes Antwortschreiben; Zur Arbeiterfrage; Arbeiterlesebuch; Herr See also:Bastiat-Schulze von Delitzsch, See also:oder Kapital und Arbeit. His See also:drama, See also:Franz von See also:Sickingen, published in 1859, is a work of no poetic value. His Collected See also:Works were issued at Leipzig in 1899-1901. The best See also:biography of Lassalle is H. Oncken's Lassalle (See also:Stuttgart, 1904) ; another excellent work on his life and writings is See also:George See also:Brandes's Danish work, Ferdinand Lassalle (German See also:translation, 4th ed., Leipzig, 1900). See also A. Aaberg, Ferdinand Lassalle Leipzig, 1883) ; C. v. Plener, Lassalle (Leipzig, 1884) ; G. See also:Meyer, Lassalle als Sozialokonom (Berlin, 1894) ; Brandt, F. Lassalles sozialokonomische Anschauungen und praktische Vorschlage (See also:Jena, 1895) ; Seilliere, Etudes sur Ferdinand Lassalle (See also:Paris, 1897) ; E. See also:Bernstein, Ferd. Lassalle und See also:seine Bedeutung See also:fur die Arbeiterklasse (Berlin, 1904). There is a considerable literature on his love affair and death; the most notable books are: Meine Beziehungen zu F. Lassalle, by Helene von Racowitza, a very See also:strange See also:book; Enthiillungen fiber das tragische Lebensende F. Lassalle's by B. See also:Becker; lm Anschluss an die Memoiren der H. von Racowitza, by A. Kutschbach, and George See also:Meredith's Tragic Comedians (188o). (T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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