off the other!”and announcedthat onlyfourmonths after the founding of the
ADAV,“passion alreadytakes up residenceinthe heart of the people!”¹⁰Howev-
er,ifthe workers chose notto follow through with actions, Lassalle confessed in
private, they onlyhad themselvestoblame. As he explainedto afriend,“if they
[i.e.,mywords] fail to inciteagitation in the workers,then that is the clearest
proof that nothing more can be accomplished with them.”¹¹Later commentators
have read such passages as evidence of serious character flaws or,aspsychoana-
lyst ErwinKohn argues inLassalle, der Führer(1926,Lassalle, the Leader),anar-
cissistic personality disorder;ofcourse, this diagnosis does not contradict the
psychologicaldynamics of the celebrity phenomenon.¹²In fact,Lassalle’swaver-
ing in his own writingsbetween dependence on the loveofthe masses and con-
tempt for their weakness findsits corresponding psychological disposition in the
emotionalvolatility–from deep despair to uncontrolledrage to exuberant
hope–attributed to the workers in the fictional encounters included in almost
all literary treatments of his life.
These mutual projections wereestablished and solidified through Lassalle’s
various public personas: the ladies’man withastrongattachment toamaternal
figure, the CountessHatzfeldt; the socialist activist who repeatedlymet with
Chancellor Bismarckto discuss aspects of German nationalism; the champion
of the workingclass who worshipped the Prussian state; and the luxury-loving
dandywho turned into an advocate of thevoiceless and dispossessed.¹³Contem-
poraries called him brilliant,charming, and fascinating but also arrogant,imper-
vious, and self-righteous.Evenpolitical allies described him asacomplicated,
volatile character ill-suited for the responsibilities of party leadership. Dönni-
ges’sremark in her later tell-all book that Lassalle liked to imagine hisglorious
future asaplebeian-tribune-turned-absolute-ruler known as“Ferdinandder
Ferdinand Lassalle,An die ArbeiterBerlins.Eine Ansprache im Namen der Arbeiter desAllge-
meinen Deutschen Arbeiterverbandes(Berlin: Schlingmann, 1863),9. Manyofthesetexts have
been reprinted inArbeiterlesebuch und andereStudientexte,ed.Wolfgang Schäfer (Reinbek: Row-
ohlt, 1972).
Lassalle, quoted in EckardColberg,Die Erlösung derWelt durchFerdinand Lassalle(Munich:
List,1969),90.The referenceistothe“Offenes Antwortscheiben”of 3March1863tothe men
with whom he would soon found the ADAV.
ErwinKohn,Lassalle, der Führer(Vienna: Internationaler PsychoanalytischerVerlag,1926),
70.
On literary treatments of the Bismarck connection, see MartinKane,“‘Er spieltsoein ver-
wickeltes Spiel’(Wilhelm Liebknecht). Literary Representations of the Association betweenFer-
dinand Lassalle and OttovonBismarck,”inTheText and Its Context: Studies inModern German
Literatureand Society,ed. NigelHarris andJoanne Sayner (Berne: Peter Lang, 2008), 109–120.
Ferdinand Lassalle, the First SocialistCelebrity 125