Wilhelm Wolff

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Wolff, nicknamed "Lupus" (21 June 1809 – 9 May 1864) was a German schoolmaster, political activist and publicist.

For other similarly-named individuals, see Wilhelm Wolf
Wilhelm Wolff

Life

Wolff was born in Tarnau, Kreis Frankenstein, Silesia (now Tarnów, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, (Ząbkowice Śląskie), Poland). In 1831 he became active as a radical student organization member, for which he was imprisoned between 1834 and 1838.

In 1846, in Brussels, Wolff became a close friend of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He was active in the Brussels Communist Correspondence Committee and a member of the League of the Just in addition to being co-founder of the League of Communists in 1848 as a member of its central authority. He served as an editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in 1848-9 and as a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly.

Wolff emigrated to Switzerland in 1849 and then to England in 1851.

Legacy

On his death, Wolff left a substantial fortune to Marx, who dedicated the first volume of Das Kapital to him with the line "To my unforgettable friend, Wilhelm Wolff. Intrepid, faithful, noble protagonist of the proletariat."[1]

Gerhart Hauptmann's play Die Weber (The Weavers) is based on Wolff's essay about the weavers' uprising in Silesia in 1844 and its suppression, Das Elend und der Aufuhr in Schlesien.[2]

References
  1. "Glossary of People: Wolff, Wilhelm". Marxist Internet Archive.
  2. Eyck, Frank The Revolutions of 1848 Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1972 p. 19


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