KARL MARX

PARIS
103
biicher met with little success in France; there were no French contributors
and it attracted virtually no comment in the French Press. Froebel withdrew
from the enterprise, both because he was unwilling to risk losing
more money and because he disliked the revolutionary tone of the first
number. But the fate of the Jahrbiicher was finally sealed by the increasing
divergence in the views of the two co-editors. Ruge had been ill during
the weeks immediately preceding publication, and most of the crucial
editorial work had fallen on Marx. Ruge was rather dismayed to see that
the general impression left by the body of the Jahrbiicher was considerably
different from his own vaguely humanist Preface; he appreciated the
articles by Marx but thought them too stylish and epigrammatic. There
were also problems of finance: Ruge had paid Hess an advance for articles
he in fact failed to write, and wanted it back immediately - which annoyed
Hess who had no money (and knew anyway that Ruge had just made a
considerable amount through lucky speculation in railway shares). Marx
urged Ruge to continue publication: Ruge refused and by way of payment
for Marx's contributions gave him copies of the single issue of the Jahrbiicher.
Marx's finances were, however, re-established by the receipt in
mid-March 1844 of 1000 thalers (about twice his annual salary as coeditor),
sent on the initiative of Jung by the former shareholders of the
Rheinische Zeitung. 9 ''
During the spring of 1844 Marx and Ruge were still in close contact.
What led to the final break between them was Marx's overt adoption of
communism and his rather bohemian life-style. He had not used the
term 'communism' in the Jahrbiicher but by the spring of 1844 Marx had
definitely adopted the term as a brief description of his views. 98 Ruge
could not stand communists. 'They wish to liberate people', he wrote to
his mother with the bitterness of one whose financial resources had been
called on just once too often, 'by turning them into artisans and abolishing
private property by a fair and communal repartition of goods; but for the
moment they attach the utmost importance to property and in particular
to money....'" Their ideas, he wrote further, 'lead to a police state and
slavery. To free the proletariat intellectually and physically from the
weight of its misery, they dream of an organisation that would generalise
this misery and make all men bear its weight.' 100 Ruge had a strong
puritan streak and was also exasperated by the sybaritic company Marx
was keeping. The poet Herwegh had recently married a rich banker's
daughter and was leading the life of a playboy: according to Ruge,
One evening our conversation turned to the relations of Herwegh with
the Countess d'Agoult. 101 I was just at that time occupied in trying to
restart the Jahrbiicher and was outraged by Herwegh's style of life and