Karl Henckell’sBuch der Freiheit(1893, Book ofFreedom),acollection of poems
commissioned by the SPD’sVorwärts publishing house. The introduction ex-
presses support for the struggle for freedom“as it has been understood and ad-
vanced primarilybythe organized proletariat as both the heir of unrealized bour-
geois ideals and the creator and bearerofanew consciousness of mankind.”¹⁸
Yetbyincludingonlyclassical and naturalistauthors, the editor ends up settling
on an abstract notion of freedom that has little in common with the confronta-
tional stance takenbyFuchs’sPrometheus ofFrom the Class Strugglepublished
onlyone year later.
Endowed withadistinctSturm and Drangsensibility,the GoetheanProme-
theus becameavailable to proletarian identifications through the same processes
of critical appropriation thathad facilitated the productive encounter between
Hegelianism and Marxism. Inspired by Prometheus’sdefiant declaration
(taken fromAeschylus’sPrometheusBound)that“Ihate the pack ofgods,”
Marx recognized the famousbringer of fire“as themost eminent saint and mar-
tyr in the philosophicalcalendar.”¹⁹He occasionallyused themyth to make his
analysis of class society more accessible, for just as Prometheus was chainedto
the mountainbyZeus, the proletariat was“chained byalaw of nature to the
naked rock of capitalist production.”²⁰In fact,the editor of theRheinische Zei-
tunghimself appeared asPrometheusBoundin ahumorous cartoon published
in response to the newspaper’sfirst ban in 1843. Marx is depicted chainedto
aprinting press as the Prussian eagle pecks at his liverand atinysquirrel, aref-
erencetoPrussian Minister ofCultureFriedrich Eichhorn, tightens his chain. The
five bare-breasted Rhine Maidens swimmingathis feet bemoan the loss of the
free press (see figure5.4).
Karl Henckell, ed.,Buch der Freiheit(Berlin:Vorwärts,1893),v. Henckell’sbook wasare-
workingofthe first semiofficial anthology of socialist poems editedbyRudolf Lavantunder
the programmatic titleVorwärts!(1886,Forward!).
Karl Marx,“The Differencebetween the Democritean and Epicurean PhilosophyofNature,”
MECW1: 31.
Karl Marx,“Capital.ACritique of Political Economy. Volume One,”MECW6: 584.The Marxist
appropriation of Prometheus has promptedLeonardP. Wessell to insist on themythico-religious
andmytho-poetic natureofMarxist thought; see hisKarl Marx,Romantic Ironyand the Proletar-
iat:TheMythopoetic Origins ofMarxism(Baton Rouge:Louisiana StateUniversity Press, 1979)
andPrometheus Bound:TheMythic StructureofKarlMarx’sScientificThinking(Baton Rouge:
Louisiana StateUniv ersityPress, 1984).
The Proletarian Prometheusand Socialist Allegory 111