Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). These days mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ferdinand Lassalle, who was born on 11 April 1825 in the turmoil of the war between Prussia and Austria against Denmark over the possession the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The focus was on his role as founder of the General German Workers’ Education Association. The fact that he met a tragic death in a shootout on 31 August 1864 was hardly mentioned. He died after three days of excruciating pain as a result of a duel. These duels usually took place at dawn in forest clearings. This was certainly the case with Lassalle, who encountered his opponent, a Romanian boyar whom he had stolen the fiancée of, on 28 August in a forest in the Geneva suburb of Carouge. The cuckolded nobleman aimed and hit precisely the parts of Lassalle’s body with which he had violated his ‘honour’.
His death was the almost logical consequence of radical character traits and political views that had determined his life and actions. Born in Breslau in 1825, the son of a wealthy Jewish merchant, his real name was Lassal, but he had his name changed to the French form Lassalle in Paris. He was not only considered a brilliant speaker, but was also said to be overly ambitious, obsessed and excessively vain. Above all, however, the politician, who was blessed with a strikingly handsome appearance, had a reputation as a successful seducer of women. According to the biographical novel ‘Lassalle’ by Stefan Heym (Bechtle Verlag 1969), his conquests included ladies from the highest society as well as daughters of the proletariat and girls from the demimonde.
One might think that the founder of the German Workers’ Education Association led a double life. Ferdinand Lassalle promoted the independent political organisation of the German proletariat, but remained a petty-bourgeois socialist throughout his life, seeking access to the ruling classes, primarily their aristocratic circles. In 1846, he met Countess Sophie von Hatzfeld, who was 20 years his senior. While participating in the revolution of 1848/49 as a democrat, he acted as her legal advisor and general representative in her divorce and property proceedings from 1846 to 1854, which he won. In return, the countess granted him an annual pension of 5,000 talers, which was a small fortune at the time and ensured him a fairly carefree life.
How it came to the duel that proved fatal for Lassalle could have been taken from a novel by Courths-Mahler, were it not historically documented. When the 39-year-old Lassalle met the beautiful Helene von Dönniges, 20 years his junior, during a spa stay in Switzerland in early 1864, he already had countless liaisons behind him and had been close to the risk of a duel several times. Helene, the daughter of a Swiss diplomat in the service of Bavaria, fell madly in love with the ‘fiery revolutionary,’ who was no less taken with her and wanted to marry her. Unfortunately for Lassalle, his beloved was already engaged to the Romanian boyar Janko von Racowitja. Not only for this reason, but also because Helene’s parents did not consider the suitor from ‘the people’, the ‘worker’, suitable for their circle, his request for her hand in marriage was rejected.
Helene fled to her beloved and demanded that he kidnap her and take her to France to present her parents with a fait accompli. Lassalle did not consider such an adventure befitting an aristocrat and brought her back to her mother. Deeply disappointed, Helene turned away from him, took her boyar back into her bed and wrote to Lassalle that she swore ‘eternal fidelity and love’ to her fiancé. Lassalle was publicly exposed to ridicule, scorn and derision. Deeply offended and wounded in his vanity, he demanded satisfaction from the father of his former lover. To emphasise his demand, he now called Helene ‘a worthless whore’. Countess Hatzfeld rushed to Geneva and tried in vain to persuade her ‘great, wonderful, beloved boy’ to settle the confused affair amicably, as even the Bavarian Foreign Minister and superior of the diplomat von Dönniges, who had been informed of the matter, advised.
Von Dönniges refused and transferred the defence of the family honour to his future son-in-law Racowitja, with whom Lassalle then met on 28 August in the aforementioned forest of Carouge for a pistol duel. Lassalle once again showed his allegiance. His seconds were a colonel and a retired general. The outcome has already been described. His old friend Countess Hatzfeld remained at his deathbed until the end.
