Ferdinand Lassalle, 1825-1864

When Ferdinan Lassalle, the founder of the first German Socialist party, returned to his lodgings, he found the beautiful young noblewoman, Helene von Donniges, waiting for him. It was 1864, and he was shocked when she suggested that they run away together. A hired cab took her home to her father, since Lassalle had decided that if he could not win her hand honourably, he would not resort to stealth.

Helene, however, lost all interest in the proud gentleman who had replaced her imagined hero, and Lassalle’s fervent letters went unanswered. Lassalle convinced himself that old Donniges was forcing his daughter to reject him. He challenged the father to a duel, which was accepted for him by the Rumanian Count Racowitz, who had meanwhile become Helene’s fiancé.

The Socialist was mortally wounded, and died four days later, on the first of September, 1864. The General German Workingmen’s Association had lost its leader, but German Socialism gained a myth. Deserving or not, Lassalle was elevated to the Socialist sainthood, his name to be venerated with Marx’s and Engels’ wherever their disciples gather.