Wilhelm Weitling
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Wilhelm Weitling (October 5, 1808 – January 24, 1871)[1] was important early German anarchist, communist or socialist. Part of the utopian socialism movement, he was respected by Marx, who broke with him in 1846. Considered the founder of German communism by Friedrich Engels.[2]
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[edit] Life
He was born in Magdeburg, Prussia.[1] As a travelling sartorial journeyman/apprentice he came to Paris in 1838, during the July Monarchy, and later to Switzerland. Working twelve-hour days as a tailor, he still found time to read Strauss and Lamennais. After joining the League of the Just in 1837, Weitling joined Parisian workers in protests and street battles in 1839.
In the book Gospel of Poor Sinners he traced communism back to early Christianity.[3] [4] His book Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom was praised by Bruno Bauer, Ludwig Feuerbach and Mikhail Bakunin, the latter of whom Weitling was to meet in Zürich in 1843.[5] Karl Marx was greatly impressed by what he called the "unbounded brilliance of the literary debut of the German worker."[6]
During his stay in Zürich, he was arrested for revolutionary agitation, and extradited to the Kingdom of Prussia. From there he got the chance in 1846 to immigrate to United States (as one of the Forty-Eighters).
[edit] Works
He published several revolutionary works:
- Die Menschheit. Wie Sie ist und wie sie sein sollte, (1838/39) German text online
- The Poor Sinner's Gospel, (Das Evangelium eines armen Sünders. 1845)
- Ein Nothruf an die Männer der Arbeit und der Sorge, Brief an die Landsleute, (1847)
- Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom, (Garantien der Harmonie und Freiheit), (1849) German text online
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Obituary in New York Times, January 27, 1871, Wednesday
- ^ Frederick Engels: Progress of Social Reform On the Continent, II Germany and Switzerland, The New Moral World No. 21, November 18, 1843
- ^ Frederick Engels: On The History of the Communist League, Nov 12-26, 1885 in Sozialdemokrat
- ^ Antonio Labriola, Socialism and Philosophy, VII, Rome, June 16, 1897.
- ^ Leier, 106.
- ^ Marx, cited in Nicolaievsky and Maenchen-Helfer, 83.
[edit] References
Mark Leier. Bakunin: The Creative Passion. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006.
Boris Nicolaievsky and Otto Maenchen-Helfer. Karl Marx: Man and Fighter. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1983.
Wolf Schäfer. Die unvertraute Moderne. Historische Umrisse einer anderen Natur und Sozialgeschichte, Frankfurt, 1985, ISBN 3-596-27356-0
