From: Hedwig Bleek (for Auguste Bleek) (23 December 1870)

From: Hedwig Bleek (for Auguste Bleek) (23 December 1870)

Correspondence

A letter in German from Hedwig Bleek (Wilhelm Bleek's sister) to her cousin Ernst Haeckel, dated 23 December 1870 in Bonn. Hedwig writes on behalf of her mother, Auguste Bleek, who is too ill to respond. She thanks Haeckel for sending essays and comments on his "Arbeitsteilung" having read it, admitting she disagrees with some of his conclusions, fearing they make life seem "poorer and emptier". She hopes opposing views of life may one day be reconciled. She ends by asking if it is true he received a "calling" to Berlin and turned his back on the new-born Reich.

23 December 1870

Auguste Bleek (Wilhelm Bleek's mother), letter (Hedwig Bleek's to Ernst Haeckel 23 December 1870), Ernst Haeckel (sent essays to Bleek relatives in Bonn), Hedwig Bleek (comments on Ernst Haeckel's research and opposing "life views"), sister (Wilhelm Bleek's Hedwig), cousin (Ernst Haeckel's Hedwig Bleek), mother (Hedwig Bleek's Auguste Bleek), ill health (Auguste Bleek's), Reich (1870 formation of North German Confederation), politics (1870 formation of North German Confederation), essay (Ernst Haeckel's "Arbeitsteilung in natur und menschen-leben")

1. With "Arbeitsteilung" Hedwig is referring to Haeckel's recent publication "Ueber Arbeitsteilung in Natur- und Menschenleben" (1869). 2. By "new Reich" she probably means Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's constitution of the North German Confederation in 1870. 3.This copied letter includes an English translation.