ground. She now rests (dead?unconscious?) in the arms of her aggrieved father;
both are surrounded byagroup of workers. This typical scene from the melodra-
matic imagination reenacts the conditions of working-classabjection from two
perspectives, the trauma of violation and therage of powerlessness.The arrival
of Lassallerewritesthis tragic moment by shifting the center of attention and,
ultimately, of power from the old ruling classes to the new advocate of the peo-
ple. This process involves theabove-mentionedexperiences of recognition and
revelation that,inthe Bible, establish the conditionsfor the possibility ofresur-
rection known in Marxist theory as revolution. Confirmingthis political dimen-
sion, the visual presentation alludes to therape ofLucretia, which in Roman
mythologyfunctions asacatalyst in the transition from tyrannytorepublican-
ism.Additionally, it references the SwissRütli oath and, by implication, Schil-
ler’sWilhelmTell,as afoundationalmyth for populist and nationalist liberation
movements. As soon as he announces (in the caption),“IamFerdinand Las-
salle,”the workers undergoaprofound transformation, with the repeated evoca-
tion of his name taking on an almost ritualistic quality. This moment of interpel-
lation,inturn, allows him to claim his role as their designated savior:
Likeaburst of magic, the expressions of those standingaroundhim changed. The name
Ferdinand Lassalle affected them as if they had suddenlyheardthe sound of liberatingFig. 6.3Frontispiece in Heinrich Büttner,
Ferdinand Lassalle, der Held desVolkes(1892),
frontispiece. With permission of Deutsches
Literaturarchiv Marbach,KoschCollection.130 Chapter 6