9138 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHYPhilippe Gigot, a young Belgian palaeographist in the Ministry of the
Interior."^5 Among the Germans who were closely connected with Marx
were Sebastian Seiler, a former Swiss contributor to the Rheinische Zeitung
who ran a left-orientated news agency in Brussels; Karl Heinzen, a radical
journalist then in the insurance business; Hermann Kriege, a journalist
and disciple of Weitling; Wilhelm Wolff, who had arrived unheralded on
the Marxes' doorstep in 1846 straight from Silesia where he had escaped
from arrest for communist propaganda among the peasantry; and Georg
Weerth, a representative for a German commercial firm who - though
still in his early twenties - had already made a reputation as a poet.
Jenny's unstable but likeable brother, Edgar, who had a temporary job in
Seiler's agency, also formed part of the group. Marx was also visited by
Stefan Born, a young typesetter who was to play a central role in the
1848 revolution.
After a brief stay in the Bois Sauvage guest house (for economy reasons,
he told Weydemeyer"), the Marx family moved in October 1846 to
Ixelles, a southern suburb of Brussels. Here, Marx's first son, the ill-fated
Edgar was born. Marx's financial situation was becoming very difficult
and he was forced to write begging letters to Herwegh and Annenkov.
He managed to get a loan from Burgers in Cologne and also from his
brother-in-law, but the situation only improved when in early 1848
his mother granted him a sizeable advance on his inheritance.^58 Jenny was
glad of the opportunities afforded by Brussels to extend her horizons
beyond the household.
In Germany [she wrote to Marx at the beginning of their stay] a child
is still a very great honour, the cooking pot and needle still bring
respect and moreover one still has the satisfaction of a duty fulfilled in
return for all the days spent washing, sewing and minding the children.
But when these old things no longer count as duties and honours and
so on, when people progress so far that they even consider such old
expressions to be obsolete ... from then on one feels no more impulse
to the small duties of life. One wants to enjoy, become active and
experience in oneself the happiness of mankind.^59
In his memoirs written some fifty years later Stefan Born left the following
account of his visit to Marx in late 1847 :
I found him in a very simple - I might almost say poor - little dwelling
in a suburb of Brussels. He received me in a friendly fashion, asking
me about the success of my propaganda trip, and complimented me on
my pamphlet against Heinzen; his wife joined him in this and gave me
a friendly welcome.... I have seldom known so happy a marriage in
which joy and suffering - the latter in most abundant measure - were
shared and all sorrow overcome in the consciousness of full and mutual