This marvelous letter written to Luise Kautsky from the Gesellschaftshaus Hessenwinkel lakeside retreat east of Berlin where Rosa Luxemburg went for rest, hiking in the country air, during the summer of 1904.

‘Letter from Hessenwinkel’ (1904) by Rosa Luxemburg from Letters to Karl and Luise Kautsky from 1896 to 1918. Robert M. McBride and Company, New York. 1925.

From Hessenwinkel, undated, probably end of July, 1904.

Carissima Luigina:

Above all we ought to congratulate ourselves upon Konigsberg.¹ It is a real joy-and-triumphal feast; at least I feel it as such here and I hope you experience the same feelings over where you are, despite the heat and the beauties of nature. Zounds! such a bloody judgment over Russia and Prussia is still more beautiful than all the rugged mountains and the smiling valleys!

As to me, I am enjoying only the latter, more modest portion of nature’s beauties — but by way of compensation in limitless quantity— a discretion. “The great sandbox of the blessed holy Roman Empire’s German nation,” as the good Mark² used to be called, has led me into the deeply philosophical question: How is it, anyway, that, wherever there is a mountain, there must unconditionally be a valley somewhere, so that one can always enjoy both; but where there is only a valley, as for instance here in Hessenwinkel, there is — well, — only valley, and that’s all there is to it! Can you solve this geological riddle for me? (But, please, don’t you, by maliciously hinting at the genial nature of the question, call it a “psychological” instead of a geological riddle!). But to be serious: it is wonderful here: hours of woods, lakes— wherever you spit, — (pardon, it wasn’t meant that way), and idyllic quiet. The advantages of these surroundings have gradually filled my soul. For, at the beginning I was still so over-tired mentally that an invisible paper hung suspended from heaven down to earth, as it were, interposing itself between my senses and the blossoming “object,” and I did not experience the beauties that struck my eyes and my ears, but merely registered them with the equanimity of a Baedeker. Every day I go on long hikes (I rise at— 6! Carl, don’t fall off the chair) and enjoy the devoted company of a quadruped sheared a la lion and called “Lump” (les beaux esprits se recontrent), who greets me every morning with joyous barking when “we” go out walking. Everybody observes and is surprised to notice that his intelligence grows visibly by virtue of his active intellectual intercourse with me, this despite the fact that I do not even make use of the editorials in the “Vorwarts” as an educational auxiliary, as I used to do with my highly blessed Mimi.³ Anyway, think of me here as in a sort of paradise before the ejection of Adam with family: at every step I meet all sorts of animals that I have otherwise seen only behind a lattice at the Zoo. Not to mention hares, my path is crossed daily by deer (not those married to Liebkn)⁴, squirrels and the like! I next expect some leopards, rhinoceros and bisons.

A propos, the other day, of course, I ran into an honest-to-God comrade, a real, actual comrade from the east side of Berlin, just as I was on a harmless stroll and as, deeply engrossed in the blue secrets of the heavens and the green secrets of the forest, I was strolling about miles away from every shadow of class consciousness. Unfortunately for me, he was even a comrade in the narrower sense of the word, in that our forefathers were of similar faith. He was naturally very happy about the meeting, told me a mass of class conscious news and promised unconditionally to visit me in the near future with several additional comrades. (Our forefathers used in cases of that kind merely to say “masltoff”⁵ for short.) Still, he finally recompensed me for the pleasures which I experienced and which are yet in store for me by telling me a new Berlin joke. It is this: in Berlin the “Montagsblatt” has been rebaptized and since the beginning of the vacation has been dubbed “Ode am Montag.”⁶ Corking, eh? Now, quickly give me a kiss as my messenger’s fee for bringing you this joke, and then adieu for the present — “Lump” is calling me and the “Lumpin” is always willing — to go out walking.

A propos, Luigina, what about our joint journey?⁷ The bureau will “sit” before the congress, on the morning of the 13th. I must therefore be there as early as the 12th and leave Berlin on the 11th. Can you arrange? Now one more kiss. — Pardon, one more thing: Clara has just written me that her Breslau case has been dropped! First result of the Konigsberg fiasco, which is, however, not at all to Clara’s liking, since she has been so happy in anticipation of the joint indictment with Comrades Schiller and Fichte!⁸ I suppose the latter will be in bad spirits even in heaven, because they have missed out on a “divine” comedy! But now a kiss in all seriousness.

Your,

R.

NOTES

1. The great trial at Konigsberg on the charge of sedition and treason ended on July 25, 1904, with the acquittal of the three principal defendants and with negligible awards against the rest of the defendants. L.K.

2. The section of territory north of Berlin, once ruled over by the Margraves of Brandenburg. Transl.

3. Rosa’s pet rabbit. Transl.

4. The maiden name of Natalie Liebknecht was “Reh” (deer). L.K.

5. Hebrew expression for much luck. L.K.

6. Montagsblatt, i.e., Monday News or Monday Paper; ode am Montag, i.e., Desolation on Monday. Ode is in turn a pun on Ede (Edward) Bernstein, then editor of the Monday News. Transl.

7. To Amsterdam to the International Socialist Congress Aug. 14-20, 1904. L.K.

8. Clara Zetkin had been indicted for having “incited to class hatred and class struggle” in a speech at Breslau, in the course of which she had quoted from Schiller’s poem and from Fichte’s philosophical works. The indictment was withdrawn later. Transl.

Letters to Karl and Luise Kautsky from 1896 to 1918 by Rosa Luxemburg. Edited by Luise Kautsy, Translated by Louis Lochner. Robert M. McBride and Company, New York. 1925.

Contents: Introduction by Luise Kautsky, Beginnings, 1896-1899, Incipient Friendship1900-1904, From the Imprisonment at Zwickau to the First Russian Revolution, The First Russian Revolution 1905-06, Up to the World War 1907-1914, Letters from Prison During the War 1915-1918, Postscript by Luise Kautsky, Appendix: Biography of Karl Kautsky. 238 pages.

PDF of original book: https://archive.org/download/lettersofrosalux0000unse/lettersofrosalux0000unse.pdf