On Anastasius Grün

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written April 1840


Written: in the first half of April 1840
First published: in the Telegraph für Deutschland No. 61, April 1840
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 2
Collection(s): Telegraph für Deutschland

In connection with Anastasius Grün's application for the post of chamberlain, one is involuntarily reminded of the verses he published two years ago in the Elegante. The poem was entitled Apostasie and concluded:

God's will, you'll know how well I fare

By this flag overhead.

God's truth, if ever you see me there,

I'm sick or good as dead.

Then think of me as dead and gone:

Bitter, to cast one's eye,

Living, on one's own gravestone,

As one is passing by.[1]

It sounds almost like a premonition.


F. 0.

  1. This poem was published in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt on February 8, 1838