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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Karl von Scherzer   26 December 18791

What a foolish idea seems to prevail in Germany on the connection between Socialism and Evolution through Natural Selection.2

Footnotes

1
The date is given by Francis Darwin, LL 3: 236.
2
This letter fragment was published by Francis in his Life and letters of Charles Darwin (LL 3: 237), as showing a hint of CD’s views on the connection being made in Germany between Darwinism and Socialism. Francis traced the connection to comments made by Rudolf Virchow in an address to the assembly of German naturalists and physicians in Munich in 1877 (Virchow 1877, p. 12). On the interrelationship of Darwinism and Socialism in late-nineteenth-century Germany, see Kelly 1981, especially pp. 58–60, and Weikart 1999. See also letter from Carl Kraus, 8 January 1879.

Bibliography

Kelly, Alfred. 1981. The descent of Darwin. The popularization of Darwinism in Germany, 1860–1914. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

LL: The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. Edited by Francis Darwin. 3 vols. London: John Murray. 1887–8.

Virchow, Rudolf. 1877. Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im modernen Staat: Rede gehalten in der dritten allgemeinen Sitzung der fünfzigsten Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte zu München am 22. September 1877. 2d edition. Berlin: Wiegandt, Hempel & Parey.

Weikart, Richard. 1999. Socialist Darwinism: evolution in German socialist thought from Marx to Bernstein. San Francisco and London: International Scholars.

Summary

What a foolish idea seems to prevail in Germany on the connection between Socialism and Evolution through Natural Selection.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12370F
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Karl von Scherzer
Source of text
LL 3: 237

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12370F,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12370F.xml

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