LASSALLE, FERDINAND. - Socialist agitator and philosopher, born into a Jewish family in Breslau on 11 April 1825, died in Geneva on 31 August 1864 (his family’s original surname was Lasel, or Lasset, which he later Francized during his stay in France). Through his ideological and political activity, he prepared the ground in Germany for the penetration of Marxism. He studied in Berlin, came under the influence of Hegel, and later entered into relations with Karl Marx. During the disturbances of 1848–49, he served several months in prison. Among his writings, first to be noted is the early drama Franz von Sickingen (Berlin 1859), which, though set in the time of the Lutheran Reformation, is imbued with modern revolutionary aspirations. In System der erworbenen Rechte (Leipzig 1861), socialist aspirations and Hegelian motifs are reflected. His Arbeiter-Programm (Berlin 1862) occupies a notable place in the development of the German labor movement and in the attempt to break the “iron law of wages.” Important from an economic standpoint is his work Herr Bastiat-Schulze von Delitzsch (ibid. 1864).
Even as a young man, L. impressed men like Heine and Humboldt with the vivacity and precocity of his intellect. Deeply preoccupied with economic and social problems in an age of widespread positivism and materialism, he retained certain unmistakably romantic traits: Countess Sophie Hatzfeld, whom he defended against her husband, exercised a notable intellectual and emotional influence over him. During the war of 1859, he sympathized with the Italian Risorgimento, was anti-Austrian, and in a certain sense a German nationalist. An advocate of universal suffrage, he was nevertheless a fierce opponent of liberals; for tactical purposes, he attempted a political rapprochement with Bismarck. Various and sometimes conflicting political and philosophical currents intersected in his thought, which, however, must above all be linked to the traditions of German idealism. Mehring aptly noted how the uncertainties and imprecision of L.’s idealism constituted at once his weakness and his polemical strength.
Mondolfo summarized the significance of his figure and work as follows: “A vigorous and combative spirit, he sought to stir masses and to stir ideas... philosophy was to provide weapons for social struggles, theory was to be an instrument of praxis... The consistency of his work was undermined... by his having linked his studies to practical ends.” Of a temperament quite different from Marx’s, he was nevertheless among the first to advocate an independent proletarian party. Aspirations of the first and second halves of the 19th century seemed to meet in his work in an attractive and disconcerting way.