Bibliographical Note
The main sources for this biography are Weitling's own published
works, and the files of the journals which he published in Europe and
the United States. Of these journals, Die Republik der Arbeiter, pub
lished in New York from 1850 to 1855, is the most important.
Though Weitling destroyed many of his papers two years before
his death, a mass of material survived and was made available to the
author by his last surviving son, Terijon Weitling of New York.
These manuscripts include correspondence with co-workers in
Europe and America, account books of the Arbeiterbund, two note
books with a miscellany of personal items, and a great many items
dealing with the colony of Communia, Iowa, and with Weitling's
interest in astronomy, a universal language, and inventions. The
Library of Congress also has a few Weitling items.
There are several earlier monographs, of varying excellence but of
great value, which deal almost entirely with the European phase of
Weitling's career. The best are Wolfgang Joho, Wilhelm Weitling:
Der Ideengehalt seiner Schriften, entwickelt aus den geschichtlichen
Zusammenhängen (Heidelberg, 1932) and Emil Kaler, Wilhelm
Weitling: Seine Agitation und Lehre im geschichtlichen Zusam¬
menhange dargestellt (Zurich, 1887). F. Caille, Wilhelm Weitling:
Theoricien du Communisme, 1808-1870 (Paris, 1905) is less de
tailed.
Because of Weitling's great importance in what the Germans call
Frühsozialismus, there are many widely scattered references to him
and his work in primary and secondary sources. The number of cita
tions have been reduced to a minimum, but reference has been made
at least once in the footnotes to the most significant publications
which deal with Weitling's career before he came to the United
States.
In developing the story of Weitling's career in America, the phase
of his life to which an attempt has been made to give new emphasis, the