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Early life
Ferdinand Lassalle was born on 11 April 1825 in Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia to a prosperous Jewish family descending from the Upper Silesian town Loslau.[1] The original spelling of the family name was "Lassal" – changed by Ferdinand as a young man to deemphasize his ethnic origins.[1]
Ferdinand's father was a silk merchant and intended his son for a business career, sending him tothe commercial school at Leipzig.[2] However, Lassalle soon transferred to university, studying first in the University of Breslau and later at the University of Berlin.[2] There Lassalle studied philology and philosophy and became an devotee of the philosophical system of Georg Hegel.
Lassalle passed his university examinations with distinction during 1845 and thereafter traveled to Paris to writea book on Heraclitus.[2] There Lassalle met the poet Heinrich Heine, who wrote of his intense young friend during 1846: "I have found in no one so much passion and clearness of intellect united in action. You have good right to be audacious – we others only usurp this divine right, this heavenly privilege."[3]
Back in Berlin to work on his book, Lassalle soon found himself ceasing his project infavor of a different mission. Lassalle met Countess Sophie von Hatzfeldt, a woman in her early 40s who had been separated from her husband for many years, and had ongoing difficulties with him regarding an equitable division of property. Lassalle volunteered himself to the countess's cause, an offer which was accepted readily.[4] Lassalle first challenged the nobleman to a duel, an offer whichwas rejected immediately.[4]
An extensive legal case ensued in which Lassalle represented Countess von Hatzfeldt's interests, performed in 36 courtrooms during the period of 8 years.[5] Ultimately, a compromise was negotiated, bringing the countess a substantial fortune, from which she paid Lassalle an annual income of 5000 thalers (about £750) for the rest of his life.[6]
[edit]The 1848revolution and its aftermath
Lassalle was a committed republican from an early age and during the German Revolutions of 1848 he spoke at public meetings for the revolutionary-democratic cause and urged the citizens of Düsseldorf to prepared themselves for armed resistance to the November decision of the Prussian government to dissolve the National Assembly.[7] Lassalle was subsequently arrested inconjunction with this activity and charged with inciting armed opposition to the state.[8]
While Lassalle was ultimately acquitted of this serious charge, he was kept in prison until he could be tried on a lesser charge of inciting resistance against public officials.[9] Lassalle was ultimately convicted of this subsidiary charge, for which the 23-year old served a sentence of six months in prison.[9]Banned from residence in Berlin in the aftermath of his conviction, Lassalle began residence in the Rhineland, where he continued to pursue the law suit of the Countess von Hatzfeldt (settled during 1854) and finished his work on the philosophy of Heraclitus, which was completed during 1857 and published in two volumes the next year.[10] Reaction to the book was mixed, with some declaring the workseminal while others considered it as a recitation of Hegelian axioms.[11] Even the book's detractors admired the scope of the work, however, and the publication gave Lassalle lasting cachet among the German intelligentsia.[11]
During this interval Lassalle was not active politically, although he retained an interest in labour affairs. Instead his interests changed again, abandoning legalpractice and philosophy in favor of drama, authoring a play called "Franz von Sickingen, a Historical Tragedy."[12] Sent in anonymously the Royal Theatre, the play was rejected by a manager, causing Lassalle to publish it by his own name during 1859.[12] The work was characterized by Edward Bernstein, an early and sympathetic biographer, as awkward and prone to excessive oratory – unsuited for the...