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Trinity or existence of this particular God. Her ideal Father was already in the house. She had no need of reference to another. It is easy to underestimate how unusual and radical it was to bring up such an unreligious child in the middle of the nineteenth century. Tussy was never required to pray, sing to God or go to church. Marx read aloud to his children: ‘Thus to me, as to my sisters before me, he read the whole of Homer, the whole of Das Nibelungenlied, Gudrun, Don Quixote, the Arabian Nights, etc.’47 For a long time Getwerg Albericht, heroic superdwarf of Das Nibelungenlied (Song of the Nibelungs), gave Tussy her nickname at home.48 The fearsome Albericht, ‘trusty treasurer’ to the German folk hero Siegfried, guards the Nibelung treasure locked deep in the heart of the mountain. ‘Dwarf Albericht’ was an entertaining soubriquet for Tussy, poking fun at her questioning, combative and contrarian spirit, and acknowledging her trusted status in the Marx household as her father’s most devoted lieutenant, despite being its most diminutive member. Loyal Albericht is Siegfried’s little man: ‘Whatever Siegfried wanted the dwarf was ready to do.’49 But Albericht the bold is no slavish follower – he tests his master and his loyalty has to be earned. We know from her partiality to Richard III that Tussy liked swaggering with swords and daggers, and like the Getwerg Albericht she kept the whole castle awake with her forcefield of energy – chattering, gymnastic tumbling, pranks and uproarious laughter. It’s pleasing to think of the Nibelung treasure buried deep inside the mountain as a metaphor for Marx scribbling away in his upstairs study on what Engels called his ‘fat book’ – his historical and scientific exploration of political economy and the workings of capital. Tussy had dolls, kittens and puppies, but her father’s study was her playroom. Later, she marvelled at her father’s tolerance for her constant disruption of his work and thinking, remembering ‘the infinite patience and sweetness with which . . . he would answer every question, and never complain of an interruption. Yet it must have been no small nuisance to have a small child chattering while he was working at his great book. But the child was never allowed to think she was in the way.’50 Whilst her father worked on the masterwork that became Capital:
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