KARL MARX

TRIER, BONN AND BERLIN
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opposition from the Westphalens was based on anti-semitism, 59 and it is
more likely that the conflicts arose from the generally reactionary attitudes
of some members of that family.
His taste for romanticism and poetry increased by his successful if still
semi-secret wooing, Marx left Trier in October 1836 for Berlin. The
capital city was in almost total contrast to Bonn. Engels later graphically
recalled the Berlin of the time 'with its scarcely formed bourgeoisie, its
loud-mouthed petty bourgeoisie, so unenterprising and fawning, its still
completely unorganised workers, its masses of bureaucrats and hangerson
of nobility and court, its whole character as mere "residence" \ 60 Berlin
was, indeed, a very roodess city with no long-established aristocracy, no
solid bourgeoisie, no nascent working class. With over 300,000 inhabitants
it was nevertheless the largest German city after Vienna, and possessed a
university three times the size of that in Bonn and totally different in
atmosphere. Ten years earlier the student Feuerbach had written to his
father: 'There is no question here of drinking, duelling and pleasant
communal outings; in no other university can you find such a passion for
work, such an interest for things that are not petty student intrigues, such
an inclination for the sciences, such calm and such silence. Compared to
this temple of work, the other universities appear like public houses.' 61
We are exceptionally well informed about Marx's first year in Berlin
(where he was to remain four and a half years) thanks to his one surviving
letter to his father written (by candlelight, during the early hours of the
morning) in November 1837. It is an extraordinarily intimate letter in
which he retails at great length the spiritual itinerary of his last year.
When I left you [he began] a new world had just begun to exist for
me, the world of love that was at first drunk with its own desire and
hopeless. Even the journey to Berlin which would otherwise have
charmed me completely, exciting in me an admiration for nature and
inflaming me with a zest for life, left me cold and, surprisingly, even
depressed me; for the rocks that I saw were not rougher, not harsher
than the emotions of my soul, the broad cities not more full of life than
my blood, the tables of the inns not more overladen and their fare not
more indigestible than the stocks of fantasies that I carried with me,
nor, finally, was any work of art as beautiful as Jenny. 62
As soon as he reached Berlin he reluctantly made a few necessary visits
and then completely isolated himself in order to immerse himself in
science and art. The writing of lyric poetry was his first concern; at least,
as he himself put it, it was 'the pleasantest and readiest to hand'. 63 His
poems written while he was in Bonn and those written during the autumn
of 1836 in Berlin have not survived. The latter were written in three
books en tided 'Book of Love, Part 1 and 2' and 'Book of Songs' - all