LASSALLE, la-sal', Ferdinand, German Socialist: h. Breslau, 11 April 1825; d. Geneva, 28 Aug.
He studied at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, and while there gained the friendship of such men as Bocich and Humboldt. Toward the end of 1844 he met at Berlin the Countess Hatzfeldt, who had contracted an un fortunate marriage, conducted her suit for sepa ration and, brought it to a successful issue. He first made himself known as a leader during the democratic troubles of 1848, and was im prisoned for a year for alleged inciting to re volt. In 1858 he produced a work on the phi losophy of Herachtus and in 1861 published his `System of Acquired Rights.' Thereafter he proceeded to organize the working classes, which caused the government to accuse him of sedition, and he was imprisoned for four months. He was at first allied with the party of the Progressists, but in 1862 he broke with them; in 1863 he issued his famous
he published an attack on the Manchester school of economists under the title 'Herr Bastiat Schultze von Delitzsch der okonomische Julian, oder Kapital und Arbeit.' In the sum mer of the same year he was killed in a duel occasioned by a love affair. One of the chief points in his economic theory was that the 'iron law of wages* tended always to reduce wages to the mere cost of living; to remedy this he proposed associations of the working i classes in productive enterprises with capital furnished by the state. He left tio suck elabo rate statement of his views of the nature of capital and capitalistic society as did Marx; nor did he influence the labor movement so much through his theoretical teachings as through his power and success as an organizer. Consult Bernstein, 'Lassalle as a Social Reformer,' and Dawson, 'German Socialism and Lassalle.)