50 SOCIAL SCIENTIST 1 Claus Trager, "Zur Stellung des Realism usgedankens bei Marx und Engels", in Studien zur Realismustheorie und Methodologie der Literaturwissenschaft, Leipzing, 1972. 2 7W,pp8-ll. 8 Ferdinand Lasalle, Franz, von Sickingen, eine historische Tragedie, mit einem Nachwort von Rudiger Kaun, Stuttgart, 1974. A brief summary of the content of the play may be required since, as fas as I know, it has never been translated into English. Set in the sixteenth century Germany (1520- 23) on the eve of the Peasant Wars of 1524-25, the play is about the abortive revolt of a section of the lower nobility led by the knight Franz von Sickingen against the political hegemony of the Emperor and princes and the clergy representing papal domination. The struggle is for German national identity and religious freedom based on Luther's teaching. Instead of a frontal attack on his opponents, Sickingen decides to adopt a ruse. He selectively attacks one of the princes pretending to settle a long standing feud and hoping thereby to outmanoeuvre his enemies. They see through the ruse, unite and crush the revolt. Sickingen dies. In the final scenes Lasalle brings out his message that a ruse as tactics betrays the revolutionary idea thus leading to tragedy. 4 Ibid,? 13. 6 The Lasalle-Marx-Engels correspondence is reproduced in Karl^Marx and Fricdrich Engels, Uber Kunst und Literature zwei Banden, Berlin, 1967, pp 166-217. The letters of Marx and Engels to Lasalle are available in English in Marx and Engels on Literature and Art, Moscow, 1976, pp 98-107. I have quoted the English translations from this edition. 6 Michail Lifschitz, "Die Diskussion der tragischen Idee zwischen Marx, Engels und Lasalle (1931)", in Walter Hinderer (ed), Sickingen-Debatte, Darmstadt, 1974, p 152. This volume contains the major documents for understanding the debate. 7 Ralf Schnell and Florian Vassen, "Literarische Debatte und historischer Prozcss. Die Diskussion uber Lasalles Sickingen—Drama und ihre Rczcption", in KM Begdal, B Lindncr, G Pumpe (ed), Arbeitsfeld: Materialistische Literaturthearie, Frankfurt a.M» 1975,-p46f. 8 Marx and Engels on Literature and Art, p 107. 9 Georg Lukacs, "Die Sickingendcbattc zwischen Marx-Engels und Lasalle", in Kunst und Objektive Wahrheit, Leipzig, 1977, p 25. Lasalle, as is well known, compromized with Bismark. 10 Marx and Engels on Literature and Art, pp 98-107. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 14 See Friedrich Engels, "The Peasant Wars in Germany (1850/*, in Marx und Engels Werke, Bd 7, p 327 ff. 15 It is important to note that Brecht did not publish his replies and comments on realism. They were confined to his notebooks and friends. The full extent of his disagreement with Lukacs became known only in 1966 (ten years after Brecht's death). Therefore, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a Brecht-Lukacs public debate. This is a matter for subsequent construction. The term is retained for convenience. ie Werncr Mittenzwei, "Der Streit zwischen nichtaristotelischer und aristotclischer Kunstauffassung, Die Brecht-Lukacs-Debatte/' in Dialog und Kontroverse mit Georg Lukacs, Leipzig, 1975, p 153. 17 Ibid) p 164, and preface by Lukacs to Georg Lukacs Geschichte und Klassenbewusstein, Fruschriften II, Neuwied und Berlin, 1968. lfi Werner Mittenzwei, "Brecht und die Schicksalc der Materialaesthetik", in Kampf-der Richtungen, Leipzig, 1978, pp lOf. There is a large body of scholarship on the Brccht-Lukacs debate, but I am mainly indebted to Mittenzwei for my understanding. 19 Walter Benjamin, "Der Autor als Produzcnt", in Versuche uber Brecht, Frankfurt a M,. 1967.