36 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
dramatically tossed scissors and needle into Lake Geneva to sym
bolize his intention to work and die for communism.^11 Another
member of Austria's network of spies met Weitling in a coffee
house in Geneva and reported that the latter had tried to sell him
a copy of Cabet's Voyage en Icarie and had taken him to a com
munist meeting where Weitling addressed the "brethren" from a
number of the French cantons. The Austrian stool pigeon, if one
may believe his rather fantastic report, was initiated into the secret
fraternity and received "the kiss of brotherhood" from Weitling
himself, who impressed him quite favorably because of his knowl
edge of history, his mastery of the Bible, and his ability to adjust to
new situations. It is evident that Weitling stood out as the intellec
tual superior of most of his associates, and even the spy admitted
that he was a man who could be introduced to any social group
and who knew how to win the support of church people and
former university men among the German colony in Switzer
land.^12
Weitling corresponded regularly with Dr. Ewerbeck in Paris,
and he was careful not to sever his French connections as he made
new contacts in Switzerland. In Zurich he associated occasionally
with Follen, who was blessed with ample funds and lived in medie
val splendor, with Fröbel, and with other university men. He
wrote to Karl Gutzkow and tried to convert him to communism,
with such men as Dr. Sutermeister, a physician of Zofingen; Dr.
Wilhelm Schulz, a Hessian refugee; and others among the bour
geoisie.^13 He took Herwegh to several meetings of workers' clubs
and hoped for financial support from the funds of the poet's
charming and relatively affluent wife. He met Wilhelm Marr, son
of a famous actor, who had come from Vienna. At twenty-two,
he was a leader in the workers' clubs of Switzerland, though as a
follower of Feuerbach he soon reacted unfavorably to the reli
gious aspects of Weitling's communism. August Becker, who was
"Wermuth and Stieber, Communisten-Verschwörungen, I, 25-29.(^12) See Brügel, Österreichische Sozialdemokratie, I, 29-31.
(^13) Mehring, Deutsche Sozialdemokratie, 222.