Luigi Wolff, also known as Louis Wolff or Adolfo Wolff, was an Italian revolutionary of German birth and Jewish ancestry.

Life

Adolfo Luigi Wolff was born in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...

, the son of Ludwig Alexander Wolff and Apollonia von Megenauer. The precise dates of his birth and death are uncertain, but he was probably alive between 1810 and 1875. In the 1830s he joined the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

and fought with distinction in the French conquest of

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(1830–47). Before 1849 he served in the Papal army. In 1848–1849 he participated in the Italian Revolution, and in 1856 he fought in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

as part of an Anglo-Italian contingent. During his adventurous youth, Wolff became a partisan of the Italian

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

and a champion of Italian unification. In addition to nationalist and democratic ideas, he was influenced by utopian socialist doctrines. He became an associate of

Giuseppe Mazzini Giuseppe Mazzini (, , ; 22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872) was an Italian politician, journalist, and activist for the unification of Italy (Risorgimento) and spearhead of the Italian revolutionary movement. His efforts helped bring about the in ...

and served as Mazzini's secretary from 1860 to 1870. In 1860–1862, Wolff fought with Giuseppe Garibaldi's troops in several campaigns. When he was not away fighting somewhere, Wolff usually resided in London. In the early 1860s he helped organise an association of Italian workers in London. In 1864, at Mazzini's suggestion, Wolff served as one of the Italian delegates to the newly founded

First International The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trad ...

. In 1864–1865, he served on its General Council. He was involved in drafting the International's rules and statutes, much to the dismay of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, who deplored Mazzini's influence.Ironically, Marx was in those years encouraging the anarchist

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary s ...

to set up workers' associations in Italy to rival Mazzini's; within a few years, the First International was to split over the conflict between Marx and Bakunin. (Marx eventually wrote the rules adopted by the International.) In 1865, Wolff withdrew from the General Council of the International. In 1865 he was imprisoned in Alexandria. In 1866 he volunteered once again for Garibaldi's forces and fought in the third Italian war of independence. He fought in the battle of Ponte Caffaro on 25 June and in the battle of Monte Suello on 3 July 1866. Wolff attained the rank of colonel and was given the medal of valour after Italy achieved her independence. However, in 1871, after the fall of the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930 ...

, documents found in Paris apparently proved that Wolff had been a paid informer of the imperial police of Napoléon III. This damaged Wolff's reputation among Italian nationalists, who never forgave Napoléon III for his attack on the Roman revolutionaries in 1849, and among socialists and trade unionists, who remembered the persecution of their French comrades. Wolff disappeared after this and was not heard from again.

Sources

* Marx, K., 'On Mazzini’s Attitude to The International Working Men’s Association.' ''Marx-Engels Collected Works'', Volume 20, p. 401. * ''Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe.'' - ''Werke, Artikel, Entwürfe, September 1864-September 1867.'' Berlin, 2003, p. 390 f. and p. 453 ff. * Ferino, U.Z., ''La Campagna Garibaldina dall’Adda al Garda.'' Trento 1966. * King, B., ''The Life of Mazzini.'' London, 1902. * King, H. (ed.), ''Letters and Recollections of Mazzini.'' New York, 1912.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Adolfo Luigi People of the Italian unification Members of the International Workingmen's Association Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion