izedversions of the arts and, by extension, of socialist utopias often takeafe-
male form, includinginallegoricalrepresentations of Social Democracy.The pro-
letarian Prometheusrestages the class struggle through his physical body’sdou-
ble presenceasgod andman. By contrast, adecidedlyethereal Libertas comes to
embodythe SPD through her association with universal values such as truth,
beauty,and happiness.Thisidentification withabstract ideas precludes anydi-
rect contact with social reality,includingthe dynamics of sufferingand empathy.
The most powerful emotions remain reserved for the spectacle of masculinity–
evidence that emotional socialism should notautomaticallybeinterpreted as fe-
male and feminizing.Infact, the emotional confessions by party leaders (in
chapter 3) and the cult of celebrity surroundingLassalle (in chapter 6) suggest
that the popularfascination with the Prometheusmyth drawsondeep reservoirs
of male emotion.
TodayEduardFuchs (18 70 – 1940) isremembered best as theWeimar-eraau-
thor who wroteasuccessful illustratedculturalhistory,asix-volumeSittenge-
schichte,and the art collector who inspiredWalterBenjamin’sevocative reflec-
tions on the affinities between the collector,allegorist,and historical
materialist.⁶Correctingwidespread claims that socialist culturewas primarilylit-
erature-based, UlrichWeitz has highlightedFuchs’scontributionto the develop-
ment of“the visual languageofthe German workers’movement”and his promo-
tion of caricature as aformofpolitical agitation and, with implications beyond
the socialist movement,avisual aesthetic of dissent.⁷During theWilhelmine
years,Fuchs playedakey role in the creation ofadistinctly socialist visual cul-
ture, most prominentlyasthe editor–after 1892–ofSüddeutscher Postillon,a
satirical journal that introduceditself as the proletarian among Munich-based
journals in its 1887inaugural issue.⁸Süddeutscher Postillonopenlyannounced
its political commitments inafakeadvertisement from 1892(perhaps written
by Fuchs himself)that singled out satire for“havingavery refreshing and invig-
orating effect on proletarian souls.”⁹Unlikethe serious tomeswritten by Engels
SeeWalter Benjamin,“EduardFuchs,Collector and Historian,”inSelected Writings,Volume 3
1935 – 1938 (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Press,2002),260–302. Forareading ofFuchs
along these lines,see MichaelP. Steinberg,“The Collector as Allegorist: Goods,Gods,and the
Objects of History,”inWalter Benjamin and the Demands of History,ed. MichaelP. Steinberg
(Ithaca, NY:Cornell University Press, 1996), 88–118.
UlrichWeitz,Salonkultur und Proletariat. EduardFuchs,Sammler, Sittengeschichtler,Sozialist
(Stuttgart: Stöffler&Schütz, 1991),7.
“Abonniert denSüddeutschen Postillon,”Süddeutscher Postillon1(1887).
Quoted inHuonker,Revolution, Moral&Kunst, 234 – 235. On political satireinthe journal, see
Ursula E.Koch,“EduardFuchs und das politische Arbeiter-WitzblattSüddeutscher Postillon,”
Ridiculosa2(1995), online at http://www.eiris.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=arti
104 Chapter 5