Articles From Neue Zeitung: The Rheinische

Workers of All Countries, Unite!
Karl MARX
and
Frederick ENGEL S
ARTICLES
from the
NEUE
RHEINISCHE
ZEITUNG
1848'49
MOSCOW
PROGRESS PUBLISHERS
Translated from the German by S. Ryazanskaya
Edited by Bernard Isaacs
Compiled by R. Ivyanskaya and A. Fomenko
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
The translation has been made from Marx/Engels,

Werke, Band 5 and Band 6, Dietz Verlag, Berlin. 'The aim
has been to make the translation as close as possible to the
original. When for the sake of clarity it has been found
necessary to insert a few words, these are inclosed in
square brackets. Italicised passages and words indicate
emphasis by Marx or Engels but following English usage
titles of publications and foreign words are also italicised.
This volume is a cross-section of articles and editorials
and the complete Neue Rheinische Zeitung writings by
Marx and Engels will be published in the English edition
of the Collected Works, now in preparation.
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First printing 1972

Second printing 1977
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
10101—344
M3 014(01)—77 7—77
CONTENTS
Foreword.............................................................................................. 7
'STATEMENT OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE
NEUE RHEIN1SCHE ZEEIUNG................................................ 21
THE ASSEMBLY AT FRANKFURT. By Frederick Engels . . 22
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. By Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels............................................................................................, 27
THE PROGRAMMES OF THE RADICAL-DEMOCRATIC
PARTY AND OF THE LEFT AT FRANKFURT. By Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels................................................................ 30
THE BERLIN DEBATE ON THE REVOLUTION. By Frederick
Engels........................................................................................... 35
THE PRAGUE UPRISING. By Frederick Engels..............................38
A DEMOCRATIC UPRISING. By Frederick Engels......................... 41
NEWS FROM PARIS. By Karl Marx and Frederick Engels ... 44
THE JUNE REVOLUTION. By KarlMarx..........................................45
THE JUNE REVOLUTION [The Course of the Paris Uprising],
By Frederick Engels............................................................................ 50
I 50
II 53
GERMANY’S FOREIGN POLICY. By Frederick Engels .... 60
THE DEBATE ON JACOBY’S MOTION.By Frederick Engels . 63
THE ARMISTICE WITH DENMARK. By Frederick Engels . . 67
THE BILL PROPOSING THE ABOLITION OF FEUDAL OB
LIGATIONS. By Karl Marx............................................................... 71
THE KOLNISCHE ZEITUNG ON THE STATE OF AF
FAIRS IN ENGLAND. By Frederick Engels...................................77
THE FRANKFURT ASSEMBLY DEBATES THE POLISH
QUESTION. By Frederick Engels.................................................. 83
Headings given by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism are indi

cated by an asterisk.
4 CONTENTS
I............................................................................................................... 83
II 91
III 98
THE ITALIAN LIBERATION STRUGGLE AND THE CAUSE
OF ITS PRESENT FAILURE. By Frederick Engels .... 103
THE ZEIFUNG-HALLE ON THE RHINE PROVINCE. By
Frederick Engels................................................................................. 106
MEDIATION AND INTERVENTION. RADETZKY AND CA-
VAIGNAC. By Frederick Engels......................................... 109
THE ANTWERP DEATH SENTENCES.By Frederick Engels . Ill
THE DANISH-PRUSSIAN ARMISTICE.By Frederick Engels . 115
THE CRISIS AND THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION. By Karl
Marx............................................................................................. 121
I........................................................................................................ 121
II........................................................................................................ 122
III.......................................................................................................124
IV....................................................................................................... 128
FREEDOM OF DEBATE IN BERLIN. By Karl Marx and Fre
derick Engels........................................................................ 129
RATIFICATION OF THE ARMISTICE. By Frederick Engels . 132
THE UPRISING IN FRANKFURT. By Frederick Engels.... 135
I...................................................................................................... 135
II.....................................................................................................136
REVOLUTION IN VIENNA. By Karl Marx.............................. 139
THE PARIS REFORME ON THE SITUATION IN FRANCE.
By Karl Marx.......................................................................... 141
THE LATEST NEWS FROM VIENNA, BERLIN AND PARIS.
By Karl Marx.................................. 145
THE VICTORY OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN VIEN
NA. By Karl Marx............................................................................ 147
THE CRISIS IN BERLIN. By Karl Marx..................................... 151
NEW INSTITUTIONS—PROGRESS IN SWITZERLAND. By
Frederick Engels................................................................................ 153
COUNTER-REVOLUTION INBERLIN. By Karl Marx .... 158
I ........................................................................................................... 158
II .......................................................................................................... 161
III...................................................... 163
APPEAL OF THE DEMOCRATIC DISTRICT COMMITTEE
OF THE RHINEPROVINCE....................................................... 165
CONTENTS 5
IMPEACHMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT. By Karl Marx . . 166

NO TAX PAYMENTS! By Karl Marx............................................... 168
APPEAL................................................................................................... 169
THE ASSEMBLY AT FRANKFURT. By Karl Marx....................... 170
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITALY. By Karl Marx 172
THE COUP D’ETAT OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION. By
Karl Marx........................................................................................... 177
THE BOURGEOISIE AND THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION.
By Karl Marx..................................................................................... 178
I............................................................................................................ 178
II........................................................................................................... 182
III 186
IV 191
THE REVOLUTIONARYMOVEMENT. By Karl Marx . . 205
A BOURGEOIS DOCUMENT. ByKarl Marx................................... 208
MONTESQUIEU LVI. ByKarlMarx.................................................... 218
I ............................................................................................. 218
II .......................................................................................................... 222
THE TRIAL OF THE RHENISH DISTRICT COMMITTEE OF
DEMOCRATS. Karl Marx’s Speech................................................ 230
THE PROCLAMATION OF A REPUBLIC IN ROME. By Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels......................................................... 251
‘THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY OFFENSIVE AND THE
SUCCESSES OF THE REVOLUTION. By Frederick Engels . . 252
‘SUPPRESSION OF THE NEUE RHE1NISCHE ZE1FUNG. By
Karl Marx....................... 254
‘HUNGARY. By Frederick Engels........................................................ 258
TO THE WORKERS OF COLOGNE................................................... 269
Notes......................................................................................................... 271
Name Index................................................................................................289
FOREWORD
The articles included in this volume were written by

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels during the stormy period
of 1848-49, the period of European revolutions.
In 1848 the revolutionary movement was building up,
with more or less greater momentum, in most of the Euro
pean countries. The masses came out onto the streets
demanding political liberty, the overthrow of the hated
monarchist regimes, the convocation of national assemblies
and remedies to improve the unendurable conditions of life
of the urban poor, the workers and artisans. Demonstrations
and meetings grew into barricade battles, armed uprisings.
The revolutionary people won a number of brilliant—but,
alas! temporary—victories over the regular troops, which
were armed to the teeth. In the wake of the townspeople the
peasantry joined the struggle demanding land and the
abolition of feudal dependency on the landed aristocracy.
The peoples under the heel of foreign oppressors rose in
rebellion one after the other—Italians, Poles, Hungarians
and Czechs—fighting for national freedom and indepen
dence.
On February 22-24, 1848, the workers and artisans of
Paris toppled the monarchy of Louis Philippe; the King
abdicated and fled to England. On March 13 demonstra
tions started in Vienna and developed into an armed strug
gle between the people and the troops. The people won,
but the constitution, which the Austrian government drafted
soon afterwards, deprived the majority of the working
people of the franchise and raised a storm of popular anger.
On May 26-27 barricades were thrown up once more in
the streets of Vienna and fighting broke out. March saw the
beginning of armed risings in other German states—Prussia,
8 FOREWORD
Baden, Saxony, Wurttemberg and Bavaria. On March 18

the streets of Berlin were blocked with barricades and
fighting went on all night between the people and the troops.
On the morning of March 19 Frederick William IV, King
of Prussia, frightened by the revolution, promised to have
the troops withdrawn from the capital, asked the people to
take down the barricades, and formed a new government
headed by Camphausen, the leader of the Rhine bourgeois
liberals. In Italy the revolutionary movement started in the
South. The uprising which had broken out in Palermo
(Sicily) on January 12 overthrew the Bourbon dynasty.
Soon afterwards Naples rose in revolt, followed by Pied
mont, Tuscany, Lombardy, Milan and Venice. In September
1848 a popular uprising took place in Rome; Pope Pius IX
fled, the Pope’s temporal power was abrogated and the
Roman republic proclaimed.
The revolution of 1848 found Marx and Engels in Brus
sels. After a stay of several weeks in Paris they arrived in
Germany, which was in the grip of revolution, in April
1848. In Cologne, capital of the Rhine Province of Prussia,
Marx and Engels founded the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, a
revolutionary daily, which defended the interests of the
popular masses, first and foremost those of the working
class, and expressed the political ideas and aspirations of
the most consistent and resolute wing of the revolutionary
movement in Germany. Karl Marx was Editor-in-Chief of
the paper, around which were grouped proletarian revolu
tionaries and revolutionary democrats. The newspaper
highlighted all the major issues of the European revolution.
It supported the revolutionary movement in all countries,
demonstrated the social nature of the sharpening political
struggle, analysed the alignment of class forces, defined the
chief aims of the Left, revolutionary wing of the demo
cratic movements, criticised the inconsistent half-way policy
of the petty bourgeoisie and exposed the treacherous policy
of the big bourgeoisie.
In June 1848 an uprising of the workers broke out in
Paris. Duped by the bourgeoisie, who took advantage of the
fruits of the workers’ victory in February to further their
FOREWORD 9
own selfish interests and did nothing to improve the

unendurable conditions of life of the working class, and
having learned from experience that all the talk of the
liberals about unity and brotherhood among all classes of
society was merely a screen to hide their concern for the
interests of a single class—that of the bourgeoisie, the
workers threw up barricades in the streets of Paris and in
the course of four days courageously fought the armed forces
of bourgeois society who outnumbered them several times
over. The troops of General Cavaignac, the bourgeois
republican, gunned the workers. The uprising was crushed.
The bourgeoisie took ferocious reprisals against the insur
gents.
As soon as the Paris uprising started, Marx and Engels
declared their solidarity with the insurgents in the columns
of their paper. In response to the savage attacks and the
slander which the bourgeois press in all countries hurled
upon the workers of the French capital Marx and Engels,
in a number of brilliant articles, came out in defence of the
June uprising, and revealed its character and historical
significance. It was “the first great battle fought between the
two classes that split modern society. It was a fight for the
preservation or annihilation of the bourgeois order”, wrote
Marx.
A number of articles in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
were devoted to the struggle of the Italian people for their
country’s freedom and independence.
Difficult problems confronted the revolution in Italy. The
country represented a conglomeration of states, large and
small. A considerable part of it was under Austrian domina
tion. Liberation from foreign rule was an essential condition
for the country’s political unification. At the same time
Italy’s progressive development was impossible unless the
feudal-monarchist system was destroyed. But the liberal
bourgeoisie, which had seized control of the movement,
betrayed the interests of the masses. It sought to unite the
country “from above”, within the framework of a constitu
tional monarchy. Marx and Engels called upon the Italian
people not to trust the liberals and to take the cause of
10 FOREWORD
national liberation into their own hands. Independence could

only be won if the monarchist regimes of the various Italian
states were overthrown. Only an uprising of the masses and
a revolutionary people’s war could put an end to the Aus
trian yoke, said Engels.
The national liberation movement of the oppressed peoples
was an integral part of the European revolution of 1848-49.
The Neue Rheinische Zeitung warmly supported the Poles,
Hungarians and Czechs as well as the Italians in their fight
against the Hohenzollerns, the Hapsburgs and the Russian
Tsar, who had seized their lands. In standing up for national
freedom and independence, Marx and Engels stressed the
fact that the fight for democracy was closely identified with
the struggle against national oppression. Engels wrote:
“Germany will liberate herself to the extent to which she
sets free neighbouring nations.”
In the spring of 1848 the Polish population of Poznan,
which formed part of Prussia, rose up in arms against their
oppressors. The revolt was brutally suppressed by the Prus
sian military. Marx and Engels were strongly in sympathy
with the struggle of the Polish people for an independent
Polish state. They wrote with anger and indignation about
the colonialist policy of the Prussian government in Poznan
and considered the decision of the Frankfurt Assembly to
incorporate the greater part of Poznan in the German Con
federation a disgrace.
In 1848-49 the liberation struggle spread among the
Hungarian people, who were under the heel of the Austrian
empire of the Hapsburgs. A Hungarian revolutionary gov
ernment was formed, headed by Kossuth, which carried out
a number of measures aimed at abolishing feudal relations.
In April 1849 Kossuth’s government proclaimed Hungary’s
secession from Austria. The Hungarian revolutionary army
fought successfully against the Austrian regular troops.
Marx and Engels commented on the genuinely popular
character of the war in Hungary. They came out in support
of the Hungarian revolution, for they believed that its vic
tory could lead to the fall of the Hapsburg monarchy and
affect the course of the revolution in Germany.
FOREWORD 11
Naturally, the attention of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung

was focussed on Germany.
Germany at that time was divided into several dozen
small and tiny states, of which only Prussia and Austria
stood apart as large states possessing considerable armed
forces. Every German kingdom and duchy, however small,
had its own laws, its own absolute monarch, its own feudal
services, soldiers, custom-houses, taxes and duties. Germany
as a whole was an extremely backward country economi
cally and politically, with a feudal system of exploitation
of the peasantry surviving since the Middle Ages, with a
people robbed of political suffrage, and its kings and dukes
enjoying unlimited power. The country’s disunity and the
existence of customs and other barriers between the states
greatly hampered the growth of German industry and com
merce, and the country’s economy as a whole.
How did events develop in Germany after the March
revolution of 1848?
In May 1848 the all-German National Assembly gathered
in Frankfurt am Main. The majority in this national par
liament were bourgeois liberals. The Right flank was made
up of a relatively small group of supporters of the absolute
monarchy. The petty-bourgeois democrats formed its Left
wing.
From the very outset the Frankfurt Assembly evaded the
basic issues of the revolution and engaged in petty affairs
of little importance. The liberal bourgeoisie, which had the
greatest say in the Assembly, had no intention of tackling
any of the major problems that confronted Germany, namely,
the problems of uniting the country, overthrowing the
monarchy, and doing away with the feudal dependency of
the peasants. The leaders of the Frankfurt Assembly feared
nothing so much as the further development of the revolu
tion and they would have been quite content with such a
deal with the monarchy as would have put an end to the
popular movement and given the representatives of the
bourgeoisie access to power.
In contrast to the pusillanimous, evasive and double
faced policy of the liberals, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
12 FOREWORD
put forward a bold and consistent revolutionary programme.

This was:
Reunification of Germany on a democratic basis through
the overthrow of the Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs in
Prussia and Austria; formation of a united democratic
German republic; the carrying through of democratic
reforms in the interests of the popular masses.
This programme differed radically from the plans of the
bourgeois liberals, who wanted to see Germany united “from
above” in the form of a constitutional monarchy; it differed
also from the views of the petty-bourgeois republicans, who
dreamt of turning the country into a federative republic
along the lines of neighbouring Switzerland.
Abolition of feudal relations, that hoary relic of the
Middle Ages, was another problem of paramount importance
which the German revolution had to deal with. In the course
of the revolution the peasants rose to the struggle for their
emancipation from the oppression of the landowners. The
flames of the peasant war raged throughout Germany, the
walls of feudal castles fell to the ground, and ancient
charters containing an endless list of peasant dues and ser
vices were reduced to ashes. But instead of supporting the
peasants, who were their closest allies in the struggle against
the feudalists, the bourgeoisie, on coming to power, made a
deal with the landowning clique and refused to enact the
abolition of feudal services. In the columns of the Neue
Rheinische Zeitung Marx branded the treachery of the
bourgeoisie, who had joined the camp of the people’s
enemies. Marx and his associates wholeheartedly supported
the peasant movement. They called upon the peasants to
fight for the immediate, complete and final abolition of all
feudal services. Without a revolutionary solution of the
agrarian question it would be impossible to carry out the
unification and democratisation of Germany.
Marx and Engels regarded the German revolution as a
popular revolution in its motive forces and aims. They
repeatedly stressed in their articles that the only force that
could and should go through with the revolution and secure
political and social reforms was the people, that is, the
FOREWORD 13
proletariat, the peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie of the

towns. The people were to wield supreme state power. The
representative institutions—the Prussian National Assembly
in Berlin and especially the all-German National Assembly
at Frankfurt convened as a result of the March revolution—
were to uphold the interests of the people against the coun
ter-revolutionary governments of Germany. Criticising the
inactivity and impotence of the Frankfurt Assembly, the
Neue Rheinische Zeitung wrote: “It [the National Assembly]
only had to oppose authoritatively all reactionary encroach
ments by obsolete governments in order to win such strength
of public opinion as would make all bayonets and rifle butts
ineffective against it.”
The bourgeois revolution in Germany, Marx and Engels
stressed, should have as its outcome the overthrow of the
existing governments and the establishment of a new
rule. “We must achieve a really popular government, and
the old edifice must be razed to the ground,” wrote the
newspaper.
Marx envisaged this new rule as a revolutionary dictator
ship of the people—the workers, peasants and petty bour
geois—who, by means of decisive action, would paralyse the
attacks of the counter-revolution and carry out a broad
programme of revolutionary democratic reforms.
One of the most important events of the German revolu
tion was the uprising in Vienna in October 1848. The popu
lace of the Austrian capital—the workers, students and
democratic intellectuals—heroically fought against the
superior forces of the feudal-monarchist reaction. The
uprising in Vienna stirred up the whole of Germany. The
sympathies of all revolutionary democrats were with the
insurgents. The forces, however, were unequal, and this
decided the outcome of the uprising. The government troops
under General Windischgratz took revolutionary Vienna by
storm. Analysing the reasons for the uprising’s defeat, Marx
pointed out the disgraceful behaviour of the Austrian bour
geoisie, who betrayed the fighting people and surrendered
to the forces of counter-revolution.
In November 1848 an acute political crisis was coming
14 FOREWORD
to a head in Prussia. The counter-revolutionary government

was preparing a coup d’etat. The appeals of the Rhenish
District Committee of Democrats, of which Marx was a
member, called for the organisation of a Civil Guard to
fight the enemy and for the setting-up of revolutionary
organs of power—committees of public safety. As opposed
to the passive resistance proclaimed by the democratic lead
ers in the National Assembly, Marx and his associates
called upon the people to respond with violence to the acts
of violence on the part of the Prussian government, which
intended to dissolve the National Assembly. Defending the
people’s right to revolution and active interference in the
course of the political struggle, Marx stated in his address
to the jury during his trial in February 1849: “If the
Crown makes a counter-revolution, the people has the right
to reply with a revolution.”
However, the capitulation of the bourgeois majority of
the Assembly and the indecisive, wavering stand of the
petty-bourgeois democrats paralysed the people’s resistance.
The royal power, backed by the civil servants and the mili
tary, carried out a coup in Prussia in December 1848 and
dismissed the National Assembly. A decisive factor contrib
uting to the victory of the reactionary clique was the
attitude adopted by the Prussian bourgeoisie. The big com
mercial and industrial bourgeoisie threw themselves into
“the arms of the counter-revolution for fear of the revolu
tion”, Marx wrote. Despite the fact that the Prussian
bourgeoisie had a vested interest in the unification of
Germany and in the introduction of a number of political
reforms, they yielded control of the country to the
monarchist camarilla and the feudalists out of fear that the
continuation of the revolution would threaten bourgeois as
well as feudalist property.
The consolidation of the reactionary forces in Prussia
led to a sharpening of class antagonisms within the country.
The bourgeoisie launched an attack upon the vital interests
of the proletariat. While wringing profits out of the workers,
the bourgeois robbed them of the means of subsistence. The
Neue Rheinische Zeitung denounced the oppressive policy
FOREWORD 15
of the German bourgeoisie. It wrote with wrath and indigna

tion that the capitalists refused to grant elementary human
rights to the workers of whom they demanded absolute
submission to conditions of slavery under the threat of police
reprisals. Marx presented to the bourgeoisie the shameful
list of their crimes and accused them of “shameless maltreat
ment of the working class”.
The spring of 1849 brought signs of a new upswing in
the German revolution. In May an uprising broke out in
South-Western Germany in defence of the imperial constitu
tion. Framed by the Frankfurt parliament in March 1849,
this constitution was a compromise. It preserved the exist
ence of the 36 German states and at the same time provided
for the establishment of a central all-German government
headed by a hereditary emperor. The constitution proclaimed
a number of bourgeois-democratic freedoms and was a step
towards the unification of Germany. “The Imperial Constitu
tion,” Engels wrote, “not only was distinguished by its
apparently exclusive popular origin, but at the same time,
full of contradiction as it was, it yet was the most liberal
Constitution of all Germany.” The refusal of the counter
revolutionary governments of Austria, Prussia, Bavaria,
Hannover and Saxony to recognise the imperial constitution
threw up a new wave of protest among the masses. The
workers, artisans and peasants took up arms in defence of
the constitution. The uprising spread with great force to
both banks of the Rhine, overrunning Rhenish Prussia, Pfalz
and Baden. Engels fought in one of the units of the revolu
tionary army.
The Prussian government sent a 60,000-strong army
against the insurgents and by the end of July 1849 the
uprising was suppressed.
In 1848-49 the working class of the European countries
entered the arena of political struggle. It was an active
force of the general democratic front. Hegemony in the
democratic movement, however, belonged to the petty bour
geoisie and its leaders. The labour movement was taking its
first steps at the time. One of its advanced detachments was
the English Chartists—the organised party of the proletariat,
16 FOREWORD
which directed the class struggle of the workers in Europe’s

most industrialised country. The Neue Rheinische Zeitung
defended the Chartists against the attacks of the reactionary
press and considered the fight of the Chartists an example
to be emulated by the German workers. The revolutionary
struggle in France, Germany and other countries tended to
widen the political horizon of the European workers and
awaken in them a sense of international solidarity. Engels
noted with satisfaction the successes achieved by the labour
movement even in such a small country as Switzerland,
where the growing class-consciousness of the workers gradu
ally drew them into the socialist movement, and made them
follow with sympathy the struggle of their brothers in other
countries.
The activities of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung were
imbued with a spirit of proletarian internationalism. As
opposed to the coalition between international reaction and
the counter-revolutionary big bourgeoisie, Marx and Engels
worked for the unity of the European proletarian forces,
whose militant symbol was the red flag flying on the barri
cades of many European cities.
The Neue Rheinische Zeitung succeeded in winning the
sympathy and love of the broad popular masses. The
Prussian government, quick to see in it a dangerous oppo
nent, did everything it could to hamper and prevent its
activities. From the very first months of the paper’s existence
the legal authorities and the police started to persecute its
editors. Two trials against the paper’s editors were held in
February 1849. Marx used the courtroom as a rostrum from
which to arraign the counter-revolutionary policy of the
Prussian government and publicise his revolutionary views.
At both trials the accused were acquitted.
In May 1849 the counter-revolution went into the
offensive all over Germany, and the Prussian government
resorted to further police repressions against Marx and the
other editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. The news
paper closed down. Its last issue, which came out on May 19,
1849, was printed in red ink. Taking leave of the workers,
to whom the paper’s revolutionary propaganda was chiefly
FOREWORD 17
addressed, its editors issued the battle-cry of “Emancipation

of the Working Class”. Reviewing the honourable path the
paper had traversed, Marx wrote: “We have saved the
revolutionary honour of our homeland.”
The revolution of 1848-49 ended with the defeat of the
people. The struggle of the working masses—the proletariat,
peasantry and lower strata of the towns—met with growing
resistance not only on the part of the forces of obsolete
feudal society, the monarchist parties, nobility, clergy, the
military and reactionary officialdom, but also on the part of
the big bourgeoisie. Seeing in the victory of the revolu
tionary people a threat to their propertied interests and class
privileges, the bourgeoisie made a deal with the feudal-
monarchist reaction, betrayed the interests of their original
allies—the popular masses—and took a direct part in
crushing the revolution.
In their works written immediately after the defeat of
the revolution, Marx and Engels subjected the development
and results of the revolution of 1848-49 to a scientific
analysis from the standpoint of historical materialism. The
theory of Marxism withstood the historical test of revolu
tionary practice in the course of the revolution. This test
revealed the vital force of Marxism as the only correct
revolutionary doctrine. Only Marxism was capable of dem
onstrating the inner objective laws of development of the
revolution in the different countries, correctly assessing the
attitudes of the fighting classes and parties, and pointing
out to the masses the prospects of the further struggle for
democracy and socialism against feudal oppression and dis
franchisement.
S. Z. Leviova
*
KARL MARX
AND
FREDERICK ENGELS
Articles
from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
1848-49
[STATEMENT OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD
OF THE NEUE RHEINISCHE ZEI TUNG
}
*
Originally the date of publication of the Neue Rheinische

Zeitung was to be the first of July, and arrangements with
correspondents, etc., were made with that date in view.
But since the brazen attitude reassumed by the reaction
aries foreshadows the enactment of German September
Laws2 in the near future, we have decided to make use of
every available day and to publish the paper as from June
the first. Our readers will therefore have to bear with us
if during the first days we cannot offer so wide a variety of
news and reports as our widespread connections should
enable us to do. In a few days we shall be able to satisfy
all requirements in this respect too.
Editorial Board:
Karl Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Heinrich Burgers,
Ernst Dronke,
Friedrich Engels,
Georg Weerth, editors
Ferdinand Wolff,
Wilhelm Wolff
Written on May 31, 1848
Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 1,
June 1, 1848
THE ASSEMBLY AT FRANKFURT
Cologne, May 31. For a fortnight Germany has had a

constituent National Assembly elected by the German people
as a whole.
The German people won its sovereign status by fighting
in the streets of almost all towns in the country, large and
small, and especially on the barricades of Vienna and
Berlin. It exercised this sovereignty in the elections to the
National Assembly.
The bold and public proclamation of the sovereignty of
the German people should have been the first act of the
National Assembly.
Its second act should have been the drafting of a German
constitution based on the sovereignty of the people and the
elimination from the conditions actually existing in Germany
of everything that conflicts with this principle.
During the whole of its session the Assembly ought to
have taken all necessary measures to frustrate any reac
tionary sallies, to maintain the revolutionary basis on which
it depends and to safeguard the sovereignty of the people,
won by the revolution, against all attacks.
Though the German National Assembly has met about a
dozen times already, it has done none of these things.
But it has ensured the salvation of Germany by the
following great deeds.
The National Assembly realised that it must have rules,
for it knew that when two or three Germans get together
they must have a set of rules, otherwise chair legs will be
used to decide matters. And now some school-master had
THE ASSEMBLY AT FRANKFURT 23
foreseen this contingency and drawn up special regulations

for this high Assembly. A motion was submitted to adopt
this scheme provisionally; though most deputies had not
read it, the Assembly adopted it without more ado, for what
would become of Germany’s representatives without regula
tions? Fiat regiementum partout et toujours!
Herr Raveaux of Cologne tables a quite simple motion
dealing with conflicts between the assemblies at Frankfurt
and at Berlin.3 But the Assembly debates the final regula
tions, and although Raveaux’s motion is urgent, the regula
tions are still more urgent. Pereat mundus, fiat regiemen
tum! However, the elected philistines in their wisdom cannot
refrain from making a few remarks concerning Raveaux’s
motion, and while they are debating whether the regulations
or the motion should take precedence, they have already
produced up to two dozen amendments to this motion. They
ventilate the thing, talk, get stuck, raise a din, waste time
and postpone voting from the 19th to the 22nd of May. The
matter is brought up again on the 22nd, there is a deluge
of new amendments and new digressions, and after long-
winded speeches and endless confusion they decide that
the question, which was already placed on the agenda,
is to be referred back to the sections. Thus the time
has happily slipped by and the deputies leave to take their
meal.
On May 23 they first wrangle about the minutes, then
have innumerable motions read out again, and just when
they are about to return to the agenda, that is, to the beloved
regulations, Zitz of Mainz mentions the brutalities of the
Prussian army and the despotic abuses of the Prussian com
mandant at Mainz.4 This was an indubitable and successful
sally on the part of the reaction, an event with which the
Assembly was especially competent to deal. It ought to have
called to account the presumptuous soldier who dared
threaten to shell Mainz almost within sight of the National
Assembly, it ought to have protected the unarmed citizens
of Mainz in their own houses from the atrocities of a coarse
soldiery which had been forced upon them and incited
against them. But Herr Bassermann, the waterman of
24 FREDERICK ENGELS
*Baden, declares that these are trifles. Mainz must be left

to its fate, the whole is more important, the Assembly meets
here to consider a set of regulations in the interests of
Germany as a whole—indeed, what is the shelling of Mainz
compared with this! Pereat Moguntia, fiat regiementum! But
the Assembly is soft-hearted, it elects a commission that
is to go to Mainz to investigate matters and—it is again
just time to adjourn and dine.
And then, on May 24, we lose the parliamentary thread
altogether. The regulations would seem to have been com
pleted or to have got lost, at any rate we hear nothing more
about them. Instead we are inundated by a veritable flood
of well-intentioned motions in which numerous representa
tives of the sovereign people obstinately demonstrate the
limited understanding of a loyal subject.5 Then follow
applications, petitions, protests, etc., and in the end the
national slops find an outlet in innumerable speeches skip
ping from one subject to another. The fact, however, that
four committees have been set up cannot be passed over
in silence.
Finally Herr Schloffel asked for the floor. Three German
citizens, Esselen, Pelz and Lowenstein, had been ordered
to leave Frankfurt that very day, before 4 p.m. The wise
and all-knowing police asserted that these gentlemen had
incurred the wrath of the townspeople by their speeches in
the Workers’ Association and must therefore clear out. And
the police dare to do this after German right of citizenship
was proclaimed by the Preparliament6 and even after it was
endorsed in the draft constitution of the 17 “trusted men”
(hommes de confiance de la diete')? The matter is urgent.
Herr Schloffel asks to be allowed to speak on this point.
He is refused permission. He asks for the floor to speak on
the urgency of the subject, which he is entitled to do accord
ing to the regulations, but on this occasion it was a case
of fiat politia, pereat regiementum! Naturally, for it was
time to go home and eat.
* A pun on the words “Bassermann” and “Wassermann” (water

man).—Ed.
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The first issue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung

On the 25th, the flood of tabled motions caused the

pensive heads of the deputies to droop like ripe ears of corn
in a downpour. Two deputies then attempted once more to
raise the question of the expulsion, but they too did not get
a chance to speak, even about the urgency of the matter.
Some of the documents received, especially one sent by
Poles, were much more interesting than all the motions of
the deputies. Finally the commission that was sent to Mainz
was given the floor. It announced that it could not report
until the following day; moreover it had, of course, arrived
too late: 8,000 Prussian bayonets had restored order by dis
arming 1,200 men of the Civil Guard. Meantime, there was
nothing for it but to pass on to the agenda. This was
done promptly, the item on the agenda being Raveaux’s
motion. Since in Frankfurt this had not yet been settled,
whereas in Berlin it had already lost all significance
because of Auerswald’s decree, the National Assembly
decided to defer the question till the next day and to go
and dine.
On the 26th innumerable new motions were introduced
and after that the Mainz commission delivered its final and
very indecisive report. Herr Hergenhahn, ex-people’s
representative and pro tempore minister, presented the
report. He moved an extremely moderate resolution, but
after a lengthy debate the Assembly concluded that even
this docile proposition was too strong and resolved to leave
the citizens of Mainz to the tender mercies of the Prussians
commanded by a Herr Hiiser, and “in the hope that
the government will do its duty” the Assembly passed
on to the agenda, that is, the gentlemen left to have a
meal.
Finally, on May 27, after lengthy preliminaries over the
minutes, Raveaux’s motion was discussed. There was some
desultory talk until half past two and then the deputies
went to dine, but this time they assembled again for an
evening session and at last brought the matter to a close.
Because of the extreme tardiness of the National Assembly,
Herr Auerswald had already disposed of Raveaux’s motion,
therefore Herr Raveaux decided to support an amendment
26 FREDERICK ENGELS
proposed by Herr Werner, which settled the question of the

people’s sovereignty neither in the affirmative nor in the
negative.
Our information concerning the National Assembly ends
here, but there is every reason to assume that after having
taken this decision the meeting was adjourned and the
deputies went to dine. That they were able to do this so
early, they have to thank Robert Blum, who said:
“Gentlemen, if you decide to pass on to the agenda today, then the
whole agenda of this Assembly may be cut short in a very curious
manner.”
Written by Engels
June 1, 1848
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Cologne, June 1. Every new organ of public opinion is

generally expected to show enthusiasm for the party whose
principles it supports, unqualified confidence in the strength
of this party, and constant readiness either to use the real
power to back the principles, or to use the glamour of the
principles to cover up real weaknesses. We shall not live up
to these expectations. We shall not seek to gild defeats with
deceptive illusions.
The democratic party has suffered defeat; the principles
which it proclaimed at the moment of victory are called in
question; the ground it has actually won is being contested
inch by inch; much has been lost already and soon the ques
tion will arise—what is left?
What is important for us is that the democratic party
should understand its position. People may ask why we
are concerned with a party, why we do not concentrate on
the aims of the democratic movement, the welfare of the
people, the happiness of all without distinction.
For such is the law and usage of struggle, and only from
the struggle of parties can the future welfare arise—not
from pseudo-judicious compromises or from a hypocritical
alliance brought about despite conflicting views, interests
and aims.
We demand of the democratic party that it grasp the
significance of its position. This demand springs from the
experience of the past months. The democratic party has
allowed the elation of its first victory to go to its head.
Intoxicated with the joy of being able at last to proclaim
its principles openly for all to hear, it imagined that one
had merely to proclaim these principles for them to be
28 KARL MARX AND FREDERICK ENGELS
immediately realised. It did not go beyond this proclamation

after its first victory and the concessions which directly
followed it. But while the party was lavish with its ideas
and treated as a brother everyone who did not immediately
dare to challenge it, the others—those who retained or
obtained power—were active. And their activity is not to be
made light of. Keeping their principles to themselves and
divulging only those parts that were directed against old
conditions already overthrown by the revolution, they care
fully held the movement in check, ostensibly in the interests
of the evolving legal system or the establishment of formal
order. They made would-be concessions to the advocates of
the old order to secure their support for their own plans;
then they gradually built up the basic elements of their own
political system and thus succeeded in occupying an inter
mediate position between the democratic party and the
defenders of absolutism, on the one hand advancing and on
the other retarding the movement, being at once progres
sive—as regards the absolutists—and reactionary—as regards
the democrats.
In its first intoxication the people’s party allowed itself
to be taken in by the party of the prudent, moderate bour
geoisie, till finally it began to see things in their true light
after having been contemptuously spurned, after all sorts of
reprehensible intentions had been imputed to it, and its
members denounced as demagogues. Then it perceived that
it had actually achieved nothing but what the gentlemen
of the bourgeoisie regarded as compatible with their own
well-understood interests. Set in conflict with itself by an
undemocratic electoral law and defeated in the elections,
the party now has against it two elected bodies; the only
doubtful thing about them is, which of them will more
strongly oppose its demands. Consequently, the enthusiasm
of the party has of course melted away and has been replaced
by the sober recognition of the fact that a powerful reaction
has gained control, and this, strangely enough, happened
before any revolutionary action took place.
Although all this is undoubtedly true, it would be dan
gerous if the bitter feeling engendered by the first and
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 29
partly self-induced defeat would impel the democratic party

now to revert to that wretched idealism, which is unfor
tunately characteristic of the German temperament, and
according to which a principle that cannot be put into
practice immediately is relegated to the distant future
while for the present its innocuous elaboration is left to the
“thinkers”.
We must clearly warn against those hypocritical friends
who, while declaring that they agree with the principles,
doubt whether they are practicable, because, they allege,
the world is not yet ready for them, and who have no
intention of making it ready, but on the contrary prefer to
share the common lot of the wicked in this wicked earthly
life. If these are the crypto-republicans whom the privy
councillor Gervinus fears so much, then we wholeheartedly
agree with him: “Such men are dangerous.”
Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 2,
June 2, 1848
THE PROGRAMMES
OF THE RADICAL-DEMOCRATIC PARTY
AND OF THE LEFT AT FRANKFURT
Cologne, June 6. Yesterday we acquainted our readers

with the “reasoned manifesto of the Radical-Democratic
Party8 in the constituent National Assembly at Frankfurt
am Main”. Today they will find the manifesto of the Left
under the heading Frankfurt. At first sight the two mani
festos appear to be almost identical except in form, as the
Radical-Democratic Party has a clumsy editor and the Left
a skilful one. On closer scrutiny, however, several substan
tially different points stand out. The manifesto of the Radi
cals demands a National Assembly to be set up “by direct
voting without any electoral qualifications”, that of the Left
wants it to be convened by “free universal elections”. Free
universal elections exclude electoral qualifications, but do
not exclude indirect methods. In any case why use this
vague and ambiguous term?
We encounter once more this greater latitude and
flexibility in the demands of the Left compared with the
demands of the Radical Party. The Left wants “an
executive central authority elected by the National Assembly
for a definite period and responsible to it”. It does not say
whether this central authority has to be elected from the
ranks of the National Assembly, as the manifesto of the
Radicals expressly states.
Finally the manifesto of the Left calls for the immediate
definition, proclamation and maintenance of the basic rights
of the German people against all encroachments by individ
ual governments. The manifesto of the Radicals is not
content with this. It declares that
“all political power of the federal state is now concentrated in the
Assembly which must immediately bring into operation the various
PROGRAMMES OF RADICAL-DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE LEFT 31
forces and political institutions falling within its jurisdiction, and direct
the home and foreign policies of the federal state”.
Both manifestos agree that the “drafting of the German
constitution should be left solely to the National Assembly”
and the governments debarred from taking part in it. Both
agree that “without prejudice to the people’s rights to be
proclaimed by the National Assembly” it should be left to
the individual states to choose the form of government,
whether that of a constitutional monarchy or a republic. Both
finally agree that Germany should be transformed into a
confederation or a federative state.
The manifesto of the Radicals at least expresses the
revolutionary nature of the National Assembly. It demands
appropriate revolutionary action. Does not the mere existence
of a constituent National Assembly prove that there is no
longer any constitution? But if there is no constitution, then
there is no government either. And if there is no govern
ment the National Assembly must govern. Its first move
should have been a decree of seven words: “The Federal
Diefl is dissolved for ever’'
A constituent National Assembly must above all be an
active, revolutionarily active assembly. The Assembly at
Frankfurt is engaged in parliamentary school exercises and
leaves it to the governments to act. Assuming that this
learned gathering succeeds, after mature consideration, in
framing the best of agendas and the best of constitutions,
of what use is the best agenda and the best constitution if
the governments meanwhile have placed bayonets on the
agenda?
Apart from the fact that it was the outcome of indirect
elections, the German National Assembly suffers from a
specifically German malady. It sits at Frankfurt am Main,
and Frankfurt am Main is merely an ideal centre, which
corresponded to the hitherto ideal, that is, merely imaginary,
German unity. Frankfurt moreover is not a big city with
a numerous revolutionary population that can back the Nation
al Assembly, partly defending it, partly spurring it on. It
is the first time in human history that the constituent
assembly of a big nation holds its sessions in a small town.
This is the result of Germany’s previous history. While the

French and English national assemblies met on volcanic
ground—Paris and London—the German National Assembly
considered itself lucky to find neutral ground, where in the
most comfortable peace of mind it could ponder over the
best constitution and the best agenda. Yet the present state
of affairs in Germany offered the assembly an opportunity
to overcome the drawbacks of its unfortunate physical situa
tion. It only had to oppose authoritatively all reactionary
encroachments by obsolete governments in order to win
such strength of public opinion as would make all bayonets
and rifle butts ineffective against it. Instead Mainz, almost
within sight of the Assembly, is abandoned to the arbitrary
actions of the army, and German citizens from other parts
of the country are exposed to the chicanery of the philis-
tines in Frankfurt.
* The Assembly bores the German people
instead of inspiring it or being inspired by it. Although there
is a public which for the time being still looks with good-
natured humour upon the antics performed by the spectre
of the resurrected Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, there is
no people that can find its own life reflected in the life of
the Assembly. Far from being the central organ of the revo
lutionary movement, the Assembly, up till now, was not
even its echo.
If the National Assembly forms a central authority from
its own midst, little satisfaction can be expected from such
a provisional government, in view of the Assembly’s present
composition and the fact that it let the favourable moment
slip by. If it forms no central authority, it puts its seal to
its own abdication and will be scattered to the winds at the
first stir of a revolutionary current.
It is to the credit of both the programme of the Left and
that of the Radical group that they have grasped this neces
sity. Both exclaim with Heine:
After very careful consideration
I see that we need no emperor at all.10
* See this volume, pp. 23-25.—Ed.

PROGRAMMES OF RADICAL-DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE LEFT 33
Because it is so difficult to decide “who shall be emperor”,

and because there are as many good reasons for an elected
emperor as there are for a hereditary emperor, even the
conservative majority of the Assembly will be compelled to
cut the Gordian knot by electing no emperor at all.
It is quite incomprehensible how the so-called Radical-
Democratic Party can advocate, as the ultimate political
structure of Germany, a federation of constitutional monar
chies, small principalities and tiny republics, i.e., a federal
union of such heterogeneous elements, headed by a republi
can government—for this is what the central body agreed to
by the Left really amounts to.
First of all the German central government elected by
the National Assembly must undoubtedly be set up along
side the governments which still actually exist. But its
struggle against the separate governments begins as soon as
it comes into existence, and in the course of this struggle
either the federal government and the unity of Germany
are wrecked, or the separate governments with their consti
tutional princes or petty republics are destroyed.
We do not make the utopian demand that at the outset a
united indivisible German republic should be proclaimed,
but we ask the so-called Radical-Democratic Party not to
confuse the starting-point of the struggle and of the revo
lutionary movement with the goal. Both German unity and
the German constitution can result only from a movement in
which the internal conflicts and the war with the East will
play an equally decisive role. The final act of constitution
cannot be decreed, it coincides with the movement we have to
go through. It is therefore not a question of putting into
practice this or that view, this or that political idea, but of
understanding the course of development. The National
Assembly has to take only such steps as are practicable in
the first instance.
Nothing can be more confused than the notion advanced
by the editor of the democratic manifesto—for all his as
surances that “everybody is glad to get rid of his confusion”
—that the federal state of North America should serve as a
model for the German constitution.
3—509
Leaving alone the fact that all its constituent parts have a
similar structure, the United States of America covers an
area equal to that of civilised Europe. Only a European
federation would be analogous to it. But in order to federate
with other states Germany must first of all become one state.
The conflict between centralisation and federalism in Ger
many is a conflict between modern culture and feudalism.
Germany fell into a kind of bourgeoisified feudalism at the
very moment the great monarchies arose in the West; she
was moreover excluded from the world market just when
this market was opened up to the countries of Western Eu
rope. Germany became impoverished while the Western
countries grew rich; she became countrified while they be
came urbanised. Even if Russia did not knock at the gates
of Germany, the economic conditions alone would compel
the latter to introduce rigorous centralisation. Even from a
purely bourgeois point of view, the solid unity of Germany
is a primary condition for her deliverance from her present
wretchedness and for the building up of her national wealth.
And how could modern social problems be solved in a ter
ritory that is split into 39 small states?
Incidentally, the editor of the democratic programme does
not bother about such a minor question as material economic
conditions. He relies on the concept of federation in his rea
soning. Federation is an alliance of free and equal partners.
Hence Germany must be a federal state. But cannot the
Germans unite in one great state without offence to the con
cept of an alliance of free and equal partners?
June 7, 1848
THE BERLIN DEBATE ON THE REVOLUTION
Cologne, June 13. At last the Assembly of conciliation has

made its position clear. It has rejected the idea of revolution
and accepted the theory of agreement.11
The matter the Assembly had to decide was this.
On March 18 the King promised a constitution, introduced
freedom of the press together with caution money, and made
a series of proposals in which he declared that Germany’s
unity must be achieved by the merging of Germany in
Prussia.
These sum up the crux of the concessions made on March
18. The fact that the people of Berlin were satisfied with
this and that they marched to the palace to thank the King is
the clearest proof of the necessity of the March 18 revolution.
Not only the state, its citizens too had to be revolutionised.
Their submissiveness could only be shed in a sanguinary
liberation struggle.
A well-known “misunderstanding” led to the revolution.
There was indeed a misunderstanding. The attack by the
soldiers, the 16-hour fight, and the fact that the troops had
to be forced by the people to withdraw are sufficient proof
that the people completely misunderstood the concessions
of March 18.
The results of the revolution were, on the one hand, the
arming of the people, the right of association and the sov
ereignty of the people, won de facto; on the other hand, the
retention of the monarchy and the Camphausen-Hansemann
ministry, that is, a government representing the big bour
geoisie.
Thus the revolution produced two sets of results, which
were bound to fall apart. The people was victorious; it had
won liberties of a pronounced democratic nature, but direct
3*
36 FREDERICK ENGELS
control passed into the hands of the big bourgeoisie and not
into those of the people.
In short, the revolution was not carried through to the
end. The people left the formation of a cabinet to the big
bourgeoisie, and the big bourgeoisie promptly revealed its
intentions by inviting the old Prussian nobility and the bu
reaucracy to enter into an alliance with it. Arnim, Kanitz
and Schwerin became members of the government.
The upper middle class was all along anti-revolutionary;
through fear of the people, i.e., of the workers and the
democratic lower middle class, it concluded a defensive and
offensive alliance with the reaction.
The united reactionary parties began their fight against
the democratic movement by calling the revolution in ques
tion. The victory of the people was denied, the famous list
of the “seventeen dead soldiers” was fabricated, and those
who had fought on the barricades were slandered in every
possible way. But this was not all. The United Provincial
Diet12 convoked before the revolution was now actually
convened by the government, in order rather belatedly to
fabricate a legal transition from absolutism to the constitu
tion. Thus the government openly repudiated the revolution.
It moreover invented the theory of agreement, once more
repudiating the revolution and with it the sovereignty of
the people.
The revolution was accordingly really called in question,
and this could be done because it was only a partial revolu
tion, only the beginning of a long revolutionary movement.
We cannot here go into the question as to why and to
what extent the present rule of the big bourgeoisie in Prus
sia is a necessary transitional stage towards democracy, and
why, directly after its ascension, the big bourgeoisie joined
the reactionary camp. For the present we merely report
the fact.
The Assembly of conciliation was now to declare whether
it recognised the revolution or not.
But to recognise the revolution under these circumstances
meant recognising the democratic aspects of the revolution,
which the big bourgeoisie wanted to appropriate to itself.
BERLIN DEBATE ON THE REVOLUTION 37
Recognising the revolution at this moment meant recog

nising the half-and-half nature of the revolution, and con
sequently recognising the democratic movement, which was
directed against some of the results of the revolution. It
meant recognising that Germany was in the grip of a revo
lutionary movement, and that the Camphausen ministry, the
theory of agreement, indirect elections, the rule of the big
capitalists and the decisions of the Assembly itself could
indeed be regarded as unavoidable transitional steps, but
by no means as final results.
The debate on the recognition of the revolution was car
ried on by both sides with great prolixity and great interest,
but with remarkably little intelligence. One seldom reads
anything so unedifying as these long-winded deliberations,
constantly interrupted by noisy scenes or fine-spun argu
ments about standing orders. Instead of the great passion
of party strife, we have a cold, placid temper which threat
ens at any moment to lapse into amiable colloquy; instead
of the biting edge of argument we have interminable and
confused talk rambling from one subject to another; instead
of neat retorts we have tedious sermons on the essence and
nature of morality.
Neither has the Left exactly distinguished itself in these
debates. Most of its speakers repeat one another; none of them
dare tackle the matter head-on and speak their mind in
frank revolutionary terms. They are always afraid to give
offence, to hurt or to frighten people away. Germany would
have been in a sorry plight if the people who fought on
March 18 had not shown more energy and passion in battle
than the gentlemen of the Left showed in the debate.
Written by Engels
June 14, 1848
THE PRAGUE UPRISING
Cologne, June 17. Another massacre similar to that of

Poznan13 is being prepared in Bohemia. The possibility of a
peaceful association of Bohemia and Germany has been
drowned in the blood of the Czech people shed by the Aus
trian army.
Prince Windischgratz had cannons mounted on the
Wyshehrad and Hradschin14 and trained on Prague. Troops
were massed and a sudden attack on the Slavic Congress15
and the Czechs was being prepared.
The people discovered these preparations; they went in
a body to the residence of the prince and demanded arms.
The demand was rejected. Feeling began to run high and
the crowds of people with and without arms were growing.
Then a shot was fired from an inn opposite the comman
dant’s palace and Princess Windischgratz dropped, mortally
wounded. The order to attack followed immediately; the
Grenadiers advanced, the people were driven back. But bar
ricades were thrown up everywhere, checking the advance
of the military. Cannons were brought into position and the
barricades raked with grape-shot. Torrents of blood were
shed. The fighting went on throughout the night of the 12th
and continued on the 13th. Eventually the troops succeeded
in occupying the wide streets and pressing the people back
into the narrower quarters of the city where artillery could
not be used.
That is as far as our latest news goes. But in addition it is
stated that many members of the Slavic Congress were sent
out of the city under a strong escort. It would appear that
the military won at least a partial victory.
THE PRAGUE UPRISING 39
However the uprising may end, a war of attrition between

the Germans and Czechs is now the only possible out
come.
In their revolution the Germans have to suffer for the sins
of their whole past. They suffered for them in Italy. In Poz
nan they have brought down upon themselves once more
the curse of the whole of Poland, and to that is now added
Bohemia.
The French were able to win the recognition and sympathy
even of the countries to which they came as enemies. The
Germans win recognition nowhere and find sympathy no
where. Even where they adopt the role of magnanimous
apostles of liberty, they are spurned with bitter scorn.
And so they deserve to be. A nation which throughout its
history allowed itself to be used as a tool of oppression
against all other nations must first of all prove that it has
been really revolutionised. It must prove this not merely by
a few indecisive revolutions, as a result of which the old ir
resolution, impotence and discord are allowed to continue
in a modified form; revolutions which allow a Radetzky to
remain in Milan, a Colomb and Steinacker in Poznan, a
Windischgratz in Prague, a Hiiser in Mainz, as if nothing
had changed.
A revolutionised Germany ought to have renounced her
entire past, especially as far as the neighbouring nations are
concerned. Together with her own freedom, she should have
proclaimed the freedom of the nations hitherto suppressed
by her.
And what has revolutionised Germany done? She has
fully endorsed the old oppression of Italy, Poland, and now
of Bohemia too, by German troops. Kaunitz and Metternich
have been completely vindicated.
And the Germans, after this, demand that the Czechs
should trust them?
Are the Czechs to be blamed for not wanting to join a
nation that oppresses and maltreats other nations, while
liberating itself?
Are they to be blamed for not wanting to send their
representatives to the despondent and faint-hearted Na
40 FREDERICK ENGELS
tional Assembly at Frankfurt, which is afraid of its own sov

ereignty?
Are they to be blamed for dissociating themselves from
the impotent Austrian government, which is in such a per
plexed and helpless state that it seems to exist only in order
to register the disintegration of Austria, which it is unable
to prevent, or at least to give it an orderly course? A gov
ernment which is even too weak to save Prague from the
guns and soldiers of a Windischgratz?
But it is the gallant Czechs themselves who are most of
all to be pitied. Whether they win or are defeated, their
doom is sealed. They have been driven into the arms of the
Russians by 400 years of German oppression, which is being
continued now in the street-fighting waged in Prague. In
the great struggle between Western and Eastern Europe,
which may begin very soon, perhaps in a few weeks, the
Czechs are placed by an unhappy fate on the side of the
Russians, the side of despotism opposed to the revolution.
The revolution will triumph and the Czechs will be the first
to be crushed by it.
The Germans once again bear the responsibility for the
ruin of the Czech people, for the Germans have betrayed
them to the Russians.
Written by Engels
June 18, 1848
Barricades on the Briickenplatz in Prague,
June 12, 1848 (Lithograph)
A DEMOCRATIC UPRISING
Prague. Every day brings further confirmation of our

view of the Prague uprising (No. 18 of this paper"'), and
shows that the insinuations of the German papers which
alleged that the Czech party served reaction, the aristocracy,
the Russians, etc., were downright lies.
They only saw Count Leo Thun and his aristocrats, and
failed to notice the mass of the people of Bohemia—the
numerous industrial workers and peasants. The fact that at
one moment the aristocracy tried to use the Czech movement
in its own interests and those of the camarilla at Innsbruck,
was regarded by them as evidence that the revolutionary
proletariat of Prague, who, already in 1844, held full con
trol of Prague for three days,16 represented the interests of
the nobility and reaction in general.
All these calumnies, however, were exploded by the first
decisive act of the Czech party. The uprising was so decid
edly democratic that the counts Thun instead of heading
it, immediately withdrew from it, and were detained by the
people as Austrian hostages. It was so definitely democratic
that all Czechs belonging to the aristocratic party shunned
it. It was aimed as much against the Czech feudal lords as
against the Austrian troops.
The Austrians attacked the people not because they were
Czechs, but because they were revolutionaries. The military
See this volume, pp. 38-40.—Ed.

42 FREDERICK ENGELS
regarded the storming of Prague simply as a prelude to the

storming and burning down of Vienna.
Thus the Berliner Zeitungs-Halle11 writes:
“Vienna, June 20. The deputation which the Viennese Citizens’ Com
mittee18 had sent to Prague has returned today. Its sole errand was to
arrange for some sort of supervision of telegraphic communications, so
that we should not have to wait for information 24 hours, as was often
the case during the last few days. The deputation reported back to the
Committee. They related dreadful things about the military rule in
Prague. Words failed them to describe the horrors of a conquered,
shelled and besieged city. At the peril of their lives they drove into
the city from the last station before Prague by cart, and at the peril
of their lives they passed through the lines of soldiers to the castle of
Prague.
“Everywhere the soldiers met them with exclamations of: ‘So you’re
here, too, you Viennese dogs! Now we’ve got you!’ Many wanted to
set upon them, even the officers were shockingly rude. Finally the de
puties reached the castle. Count Wallmoden took the credentials the
Committee had given them, looked at the signature and said: ‘Pillers
dorf? He has nothing to say here.’ Windischgratz treated the plebeian
rabble more arrogantly than ever, saying: “The revolution has been
victorious everywhere; here we are the victors and we recognise no
civilian authority. While I was in Vienna things were quiet there. But
the moment I left everything was upset.’ The members of the deputa
tion were disarmed and confined in one of the rooms of the castle. They
were not allowed to leave until two days later, and their arms were
not returned to them.
“This is what our deputies reported, this is how they were treated
by the Tilly of Prague and the soldiers, yet people here still act as
though they believe that this is merely a fight against the Czechs. Did
our deputies perhaps speak Czech? Did they not wear the uniform of
the Viennese National Guard? Did they not have a warrant from the
ministry and the Citizens’ Committee which the ministry had recog
nised as a legal authority?
“But the revolution has gone too far. Windischgratz thinks he is the
man who can stem it. The Bohemians are shot down like dogs, and when
the time for the venture comes the advance against Vienna will begin.
Why did Windischgratz set Leo Thun free, the same Leo Thun who
headed the Provisional Government in Prague and who advocated the
separation of Bohemia? Why, we ask, was he freed from Czech hands
if his entire activity were not a game prearranged with the aristocracy
in order to bring about the explosion?
“A train left Prague the day before yesterday. On it travelled Ger
man students, Viennese National Guards, and families who were leav
ing Prague, for, despite the fact that tranquility had been restored, they
no longer felt at home there. At the first station the military guard posted
A DEMOCRATIC UPRISING 43
there demanded that all the passengers without exception hand over
their weapons, and when they refused the soldiers fired into the car
riages at the defenceless men, women and children. Six bodies were
removed from the carriages and the passengers wiped the blood of
the murdered people from their faces. This was how Germans were
treated by the very military whom people here would like to regard as
the guardian angels of German liberty.”
Written by Engels on June 24,

1848
.Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 25,
June 25, 1848
NEWS FROM PARIS
Cologne, June 26. The news just received from Paris takes
up so much space that we are obliged to omit all articles
of critical comment.
Therefore only a few words to our readers. Our latest
news from Paris gives this:—the resignation of Ledru-Rollin
and Lamartine and their ministers; the transfer of Cavaig-
nac’s military dictatorship from Algiers to Paris; Marrast
the dictator in plain clothes; Paris bathed in blood; the in
surrection growing into the greatest revolution that has ever
taken place, into a revolution of the proletariat against the
bourgeoisie. Three days which sufficed for the July revolution
and the February revolution are insufficient for the colossal
contours of this June revolution, but the victory of the people
is more certain than ever. The French bourgeoisie has dared
to do what the French kings never dared—it has itself cast
the die. This second act of the French revolution is only the
beginning of the European tragedy.
June 27, 1848
THE JUNE REVOLUTION
The workers of Paris were overwhelmed by superior

strength, but they were not subdued. They have been defeat
ed but their enemies are vanquished. The momentary
triumph of brute force has been purchased with the destruc
tion of all the delusions and illusions of the February revo
lution, the dissolution of the entire moderate republican
party and the division of the French nation into two nations,
the nation of owners and the nation of workers. The tricol
our republic now displays only one colour, the colour of
the defeated, the colour of blood. It has become a red
republic.
None of the big republican figures, whether of the Nation
al^ or of the Reforme,20 sided with the people. In the
absence of leaders and means other than those thrown up
by the rebellion itself, the people stood up to the united
forces of the bourgeoisie and army longer than any French
dynasty with the entire military apparatus at its disposal
was ever able to stand up to any group of the bourgeoisie
allied with the people. To have the people lose its last
illusions and break completely with the past, it was neces
sary that the customary poetic trimmings of French upris
ings—the enthusiastic bourgeois youth, the students of the
ecole polytechnique, the tricornes—should join the side of
the suppressors. The medical students had to deny the
wounded plebeians the succour of their science. Science does
not exist for the plebeian who has committed the heinous,
unutterable crime of fighting this time for his own existence
instead of for Louis Philippe or Monsieur Marrast.
The Executive Committee,21 that last official vestige of
the February revolution, vanished like a ghost in the face
46 KARL MARX
of these grave events. Lamartine’s fireworks have turned

into the incendiary shells of Cavaignac.
Fraternite, the brotherhood of antagonistic classes, one of
which exploits the other, this fraternite which in February
was proclaimed and inscribed in large letters on the facades,
of Paris, on every prison and every barracks—this frater
nity found its true, unadulterated and prosaic expression in
civil war, civil war in its most terrible aspect, the war of
labour against capital. This brotherhood blazed in front of
the windows of Paris on the evening of June 25, when the
Paris of the bourgeoisie held illuminations while the Pari&
of the proletariat was burning, bleeding, groaning in the
throes of death.
This brotherhood lasted only as long as there was a con
sanguinity of interests between the bourgeoisie and the pro
letariat. Pedants sticking to the old revolutionary tradition
of 1793; socialist doctrinaires who begged alms for the
people from the bourgeoisie and who were allowed to deliv
er lengthy sermons and compromise themselves so long as
the proletarian lion had to be lulled to sleep; republicans
who wanted to keep the old bourgeois order in toto, but
without the crowned head; members of the Dynastic Oppo
sition22 on whom chance imposed the task of bringing about
the downfall of a dynasty instead of a change of govern
ment; legitimists,23 who did not want to cast off their livery
but merely to change its style—these were the allies with
whom the people had fought their February revolution. What
the people instinctively hated in Louis Philippe was not
Louis Philippe himself, but the crowned rule of a class, the
capital on the throne. But magnanimous as always, the peo
ple thought they had destroyed their enemy when they had
overthrown the enemy of their enemies, their common enemy.
The February revolution was the nice revolution, the
revolution of universal sympathies, because the contradic
tions which erupted in it against the monarchy were still
undeveloped and peacefully dormant, because the social
struggle which formed their background had only achieved
an ephemeral existence, an existence in phrases, in words.
The June revolution is the ugly revolution, the nasty revo
THE JUNE REVOLUTION 47
lution, because the phrases have given place to the real

thing, because the republic has bared the head of the mon
ster by knocking off the crown which shielded and con
cealed it.
Order! was Guizot’s war-cry. Order! shouted Sebastiani,
the Guizotist, when Warsaw became Russian. Order! shouts
Cavaignac, the brutal echo of the French National Assembly
and of the republican bourgeoisie.
Order! thundered his grape-shot as it tore into the body
of the proletariat.
None of the numerous revolutions of the French bourgeoi
sie since 1789 assailed the existing order, for they retained
the class rule, the slavery of the workers, the bourgeois sys
tem, even though the political form of this rule and this
slavery changed frequently. The June uprising did assail
this system. Woe to the June uprising!
Under the Provisional Government it was considered good
form and, moreover, a necessity to preach to the magnani
mous workers—who, as a thousand official posters pro
claimed, “placed three months of misery at the disposal of the
Republic”—it was both good politics and a sign of enthu
siasm to preach to the workers that the February revolution
had been carried out in their own interests and that the
principal issue of the February revolution was the interests
of the workers. With the opening of the National Assembly
the speeches have become more prosaic. Now it was only a
matter of leading labour back to its old conditions, as Min
ister Trelat said. Thus the workers fought in February in
order to be engulfed in an industrial crisis.
It is the business of the National Assembly to undo the
work of February, at least as far as the workers are con
cerned, and to throw them back to their old conditions. But
even this was not done, because it is not within the power
of any assembly any more than of a king to will a universal
industrial crisis—advance up to this point and no further.
In its crude eagerness to put an end to the tiresome February
phraseology, the National Assembly did not even take the
measures that were possible on the basis of the old conditions.
Parisian workers aged 17 to 25 were either pressed into the
48 KARL MARX
army or thrown onto the street; those from other parts were
ordered out of Paris to the Sologne without even receiving
the money that went with such an order; adult Parisians
could for the time being secure a pittance in workshops or
ganised on military lines on condition that they did not at
tend any public meetings, in other words on condition that
they ceased to be republicans. Neither the sentimental rhet
oric which followed the February events nor the brutal
legislation after May 1524 achieved their purpose. A real,
practical decision had to be taken. For whom did you make
the February revolution, you rascals—for yourselves or for
us? The bourgeoisie put this question in such a way that it
had to be answered in June with grape-shot and barricades.
The entire National Assembly is nevertheless struck with
paralysis, as one deputy
* put it on June 25. Its members are
stunned when question and answer make the streets of Paris
flow with blood; some are stunned because their illusions are
lost in the smoke of gunpowder, others because they cannot
understand how the people dare stand up on their own for
their own vital interests. Russian money, British money, the
Bonapartist eagle, the lily, amulets of all kinds—this is
where they sought an explanation of this strange event. Both
parts of the Assembly feel however that a vast gulf separates
them from the people. None of them dare stand up for the
people.
As soon as the stupor has passed frenzy breaks out. The
majority quite rightly greets with catcalls those hapless Uto
pians and hypocrites guilty of the anachronism of still using
the term fraternite, brotherhood. The question at issue was
precisely that of doing away with this term and with the il
lusions arising from its ambiguity. When the legitimist
Larochejaquelein, the chivalrous dreamer, protested against
the infamy of those who cried “Vae victis! Woe to the van
quished!" the majority of the deputies broke into a St. Vitus’s
dance as if stung by a tarantula. They shouted woe! to the
workers in order to hide the fact that they themselves are the
“vanquished”. Either the Assembly must perish now, or the
* Ducoux.—Ed.
Street-fighting in the Faubourg St. Antoine (Paris),
June 1848 (Lithograph)
republic. And that is why it frantically yells—long live the

republic!
Is the deep chasm which has opened at our feet to mislead
us, democrats, or cause us to believe that the struggle for a
form of polity is meaningless, illusory and futile?
Only weak, cowardly minds can pose such a question. Col
lisions proceeding from the very conditions of bourgeois so
ciety must be overcome by fighting, they cannot be reasoned
out of existence. The best form of polity is that in which the
social contradictions are not blurred, not arbitrarily—that is,
merely artificially, and therefore only seemingly—kept down.
The best form of polity is that in which these contradictions
reach a stage of open struggle in the course of which they
are resolved.
We may be asked, do we not find a tear, a sigh, a word for
the victims of the people’s wrath, for the National Guard,
the mobile guard,25 the republican guard and the line?
The state will care for their widows and orphans, decrees
extolling them will be issued, their remains will be carried
to the grave in solemn procession, the official press will
declare them immortal, the European reaction in the East
and the West will pay homage to them.
But the plebeians are tormented by hunger, abused by the
press, forsaken by the physicians, called thieves, incendiaries
and galley-slaves by the respectabilities; their wives and
children are plunged into still greater misery and the best
of those who have survived are sent overseas. It is the right
and the privilege of the democratic press to place laurels on
their gloomy threatening brow.
Written by Marx on June 28,
1848
June 29, 1848
THE JUNE REVOLUTION
[The Course of the Paris Uprising]
[I]
Gradually we gain a more comprehensive view of the
June Revolution; fuller reports arrive, it becomes possible
to distinguish facts from either hearsay or lies, and the na
ture of the uprising stands out with increasing clarity. The
more one succeeds in grasping the interconnection of the
events of the four days in June, the more is one astonished
by the vast magnitude of the uprising, the heroic courage,
the rapidly improvised organisation and the unanimity of
the insurgents.
The workers’ plan of action, which Kersausie, a friend
of Raspail and a former officer, is said to have drawn up,
was as follows:
The insurgents, moving in four columns, advance concen
trically towards the town hall.
The first column, whose base were the suburbs of Mont
martre, La Chapelle and La Villette, advance southwards
from the gates of Poissonniere, Rochechouart, St. Denis and
La Villette, occupy the Boulevards and approach the town
hall through the streets Montorgueil, St. Denis and St.
Martin.
The second column, whose base were the faubourgs du
Temple and St. Antoine, which are inhabited almost entire
ly by workers and protected by the St. Martin canal, ad
vance towards the same centre through the streets du
Temple and St. Antoine and along the quais of the northern
bank of the Seine as well as through all other streets running
in the same direction in this part of the city.
The third column based on the Faubourg St. Marceau
move towards the tie de la Cite through the Rue St. Victor
and the quais of the southern bank of the Seine.
The fourth column, based on the Faubourg St. Jacques and
the vicinity of the Medical School, move down the Rue Saint
Jacques also to the Cite. There the two columns join, cross
to the right bank of the Seine and envelop the town hall
from the rear and flank.
Thus the plan, quite correctly, was based on the districts
in which only workers lived. These districts form a semicir
cular belt, which surrounds the entire eastern half of Paris,
widening out towards the east. First of all the eastern part
of Paris was to be cleared of enemies, and then it was in
tended to move along both banks of the Seine towards the
west and its centres, the Tuileries and the National Assembly.
These columns were to be supported by numerous flying
squads which, operating independently alongside and be
tween the columns, were to build barricades, occupy the
smaller streets and be responsible for maintaining communi
cation.
The operational bases were strongly fortified and skilfully
transformed into formidable fortresses, e.g., the Clos St.
Lazare, the Faubourg and Quartier St. Antoine and the Fau
bourg St. Jacques, in case it should become necessary to
retreat.
If there was any flaw in this plan it was that in the begin
ning of the operations the western part of Paris was complete
ly overlooked. There are several districts eminently suitable
for armed action on both sides of the Rue St. Honore near the
market halls and the Palais National, which have very
narrow, winding streets tenanted mainly by workers. It was
important to set up a fifth centre of the insurrection there,
thus cutting off the town hall and at the same time holding
up a considerable number of troops at this projecting strong
point. The success of the uprising depended on the insurgents
reaching the centre of Paris as quickly as possible and seiz
ing the town hall. We cannot know what prevented Ker-
sausie from organising insurgent action in this part. But it
is a fact that no uprising was ever successful which did not
at the outset succeed in seizing the centre of Paris adjoining
the Tuileries. Suffice to mention the uprising
* which took
place during General Lamarque’s funeral when the insur-
The uprising took place in Paris on June 5-6, 1832.—Ed.

4*
52 FREDERICK ENGELS
gents got as far as the Rue Montorgueil and were then driven
back.
The insurgents advanced in accordance with their plan.
They immediately began to separate their territory, the
Paris of the workers, from the Paris of the bourgeoisie, by
two main fortifications—the barricades at the Porte Saint
Denis and those of the Cite. They were dislodged from the
former, but were able to hold the latter. June 23, the first
day, was merely a prelude. The plan of the insurgents al
ready began to emerge clearly (and the Neue Rheinische
Zeitung grasped it correctly at the outset, see No. 26, special
*),
supplement especially after the first skirmishes between
the advanced guards which took place in the morning. The
Boulevard St. Martin, which crosses the line of operation of
the first column, became the scene of fierce fighting, which,
partly due to the nature of the terrain, ended with a victory
for the forces of “order”.
The approaches to the Cite were blocked on the right by
a flying squad, which entrenched itself in the Rue de la
Planche-Mibray; on the left by the third and fourth columns,
which occupied and fortified the three southern bridges of
the Cite. Here too a very fierce battle raged. The forces of
“order” succeeded in taking the St. Michel bridge and
advancing to the Rue St. Jacques. They felt sure that by the
evening the revolt would be suppressed.
The plan of the forces of “order” stood out even more
clearly than that of the insurgents. To begin with, their plan
was merely to crush the insurrection with all available
means. They announced their design to the insurgents with
cannon-ball and grape-shot.
But the government believed it was dealing with an un
couth gang of common rioters acting without any plan. After
clearing the main streets by the evening, the government
declared that the revolt was quelled, and the stationing of
troops in the conquered districts was arranged in an exceed
ingly negligent manner.
* See “Details uber den 23. Juni” by Engels in: Marx/Engels, Werke,
Bd. 5, Berlin, 1969, S. 112-15.—Ed.
The insurgents made excellent use of this negligence by

launching the great battle which followed the skirmishes of
June 23. It is simply amazing how quickly the workers mas
tered the plan of campaign, how well-concerted their actions
were and how skilfully they used the difficult terrain. This
would be quite inexplicable if in the national workshops the
workers had not already been to a certain extent organised
on military lines and divided into companies, so that they
only needed to apply their industrial organisation to their
military enterprise in order to create a fully organised army.
On the morning of the 24-th they had not only complete
ly regained the ground they had lost, but even added new
strips to it. True, the line of Boulevards up to the Boulevard
du Temple remained in the hands of the troops, thus cutting
off the first column from the centre, but on the other hand
the second column pushed forward from the Quartier St.
Antoine until it almost surrounded the town hall. It estab
lished its headquarters in the church of St. Gervais, within
300 paces of the town hall. It captured the St. Merri mo
nastery and the adjoining streets and advanced far beyond
the town hall so that together with the columns in the Cite
it almost completely encircled the town hall. Only one way
of approach, the quais of the right bank, remained open. In
the south the Faubourg St. Jacques was completely reoccu
pied, communication with the Cite was restored, reinforce
ments were sent there, and preparations were made for
crossing to the right bank.
There was no time to be lost. The town hall, the revolu
tionary centre of Paris, was threatened and was bound to
fall unless resolute measures were taken immediately.
[II]
Cavaignac was appointed dictator by a frightened Na

tional Assembly. Accustomed as he was in Algeria to “ener
getic” action, he did not have to be told what to do.
Ten battalions promptly moved towards the town hall
along the wide Quai de 1’Ecole. They cut off the insurgents
in the Cite from the right bank, secured the safety of the
54 FREDERICK ENGELS
town hall and made it even possible to attack the barri

cades surrounding it.
The Rue de la Planche-Mibray and its continuation, Rue
Saint Martin, were cleared and kept permanently clear by
cavalry. The Notre-Dame bridge, which lies opposite and
leads to the Cite, was swept by heavy guns, and then Ca-
vaignac advanced directly on the Cite in order to take “ener
getic” measures there. The “Belle Jardiniere”, the strong
point of the insurgents, was first destroyed by cannon and
then set on fire by rockets. The Rue de la Cite was also
seized with the aid of gun-fire; three bridges leading to the
left bank were stormed and the insurgents on the left bank
were pressed back. Meanwhile, the 14 battalions deployed
on the Place de Greve and the quais freed the besieged town
hall, and reduced the church of Saint Gervais from a head
quarters to a lost outpost of the insurgents.
The Rue St. Jacques was bombarded not only from the
Cite but also in the flank from the left bank. General Da-
mesme broke through along the Luxembourg to the Sor
bonne, seized the Quartier Latin and sent his columns against
the Pantheon. The Pantheon square had been transformed
into a formidable stronghold. The forces of “order” still
faced this unassailable bulwark long after they had taken
the Rue St. Jacques. Gun-fire and bayonet attacks were of
no avail until finally exhaustion, lack of ammunition and
the threat of the bourgeois to set the place on fire compelled
the 1,500 workers, who were completely hemmed in, to
surrender. At about the same time, the Place Maubert fell
into the hands of the forces of “order” after a long and
courageous resistance, and the insurgents, deprived of their
strongest positions, were forced to abandon the entire left
bank of the Seine.
Meanwhile the troops and National Guards stationed on
the Boulevards of the right bank of the Seine were likewise
put into action in two directions. Lamoriciere, who com
manded them, had the streets of the faubourgs St. Denis and
St. Martin, the Boulevard du Temple and part of the Rue
du Temple cleared by heavy artillery and swift infantry
attacks. By the evening he could boast of brilliant successes.
He had cut off and partly surrounded the first column in

the Clos St. Lazare; he had pushed back the second column,
and by advancing along the Boulevards had thrust a wedge
into it.
How did Cavaignac win these advantages?
First, by the vastly superior force he was able to use
against the insurgents. On the 24th he had at his disposal
not only the 20,000-strong Paris garrison, the 20,000 to
25,000 men of the Garde mobile and the 60,000 to 80,000
available men of the Garde national, but also the Garde na
tional from the whole vicinity of Paris and from many of
the more distant towns (20,000 to 30,000 men) and in ad
dition 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers who were called in with the
utmost dispatch from the neighbouring garrisons. Even on
the morning of the 24th he had well over 100,000 men at
his disposal, and by the evening their numbers had increased
by half. The insurgents, on the other hand, numbered 40,000
to 50,000 men at most!
Secondly, by the brutal means he used. Until then guns
had been fired in the streets of Paris only once, i.e., in Ven-
demiaire 1795, when Napoleon dispersed the insurgents in
the Rue Saint Honore with grape-shot. But no artillery, let
alone grenades and incendiary rockets, was ever used against
barricades and against houses. The people were unprepared
for this, they were defenceless, for the only counteraction
they could take was to set fire to houses, but this was repug
nant to their noble sentiments. Up till then the people had
no idea that this brand of Algerian warfare could be used
right in the centre of Paris. They therefore retreated, and
their first retreat spelt their defeat.
On the 25th Cavaignac attacked with even larger forces.
The insurgents were confined to a single district, the fau
bourgs Saint Antoine and du Temple; in addition they still
held two outposts, the Clos St. Lazare and a part of the
St. Antoine district up to the Damiette bridge.
Cavaignac, who had received further reinforcements of
20,000 to 30,000 men as well as a substantial park of artil
lery, first attacked the isolated outposts of the insurgents,
especially the Clos St. Lazare. The insurgents were en
56 FREDERICK ENGELS
trenched here as in a fortress. After a 12-hour bombardment

with shell and grenades, Lamoriciere finally succeeded
in dislodging the insurgents and occupying the Clos St.
Lazare, but not until he had mounted a flank attack from
the Rue Rochechouart and the Rue Poissonniere, and had
demolished the barricades by bombarding them with 40
guns on the first day and with an even greater number on
the next.
Another part of his column penetrated through the Fau
bourg Saint Martin into the Faubourg du Temple, but was
not very successful. A third section moved along the Boule
vards towards the Bastille, but it did not get very far either,
because a number of the most formidable barricades there re
sisted for a long time and only succumbed after a fierce can
nonade. The houses here suffered appalling destruction.
Duvivier’s column advancing from the town hall pressed
the insurgents back still further with the aid of incessant
artillery fire. The church of St. Gervais was captured, a
long stretch of the Rue St. Antoine well beyond the town
hall was cleared, and several columns moving along the
quai and streets running parallel to it seized the Damiette
bridge, which connected the insurgents of the St. Antoine dis
trict with those of the St. Louis and Cite islands. The St.
Antoine district was outflanked and the insurgents had no
choice but to fall back into the faubourg, which they did in
fierce combat with a column advancing along the quais to
the mouth of the St. Martin canal and thence along the Bou
levard Bourdon skirting the canal. Several insurgents who
were cut off were massacred, hardly any were taken
prisoner.
The St. Antoine district and the Place de la Bastille were
seized in this operation. Lamorici^re’s column managed to
occupy the whole Boulevard Beaumarchais by the evening
and join up with Duvivier’s troops on the Place de la
Bastille.
The capture of the Damiette bridge enabled Duvivier to
dislodge the insurgents from the St. Louis island and the
former Louvier island. He did this with a commendable
display of Algerian barbarity. Hardly anywhere in the city
was heavy artillery used with such devastating effect as in

the island of St. Louis. But what did that matter? The in
surgents were either driven out or massacred and among the
blood-stained ruins “order” triumphed.
One more post remained to be seized on the left bank of
the Seine. The Austerlitz bridge, which east of the St. Mar
tin canal links the Faubourg St. Antoine with the left bank
of the Seine, was heavily barricaded and had a strong bridge
head on the left bank where it adjoins the Place Valhu-
bert in front of the Botanical Gardens. This bridgehead,
which after the fall of the Pantheon and the Place Maubert
was the last stronghold of the insurgents on the left bank,
was taken after stubborn resistance.
Only their last bulwark, the Faubourg St. Antoine and a
part of the Faubourg du Temple, was thus left to the insur
gents on the following day, the 26th. Neither of these is
quite suitable for street-fighting; the streets there are fairly
wide and almost perfectly straight, offering full play for the
artillery. Their western side is well protected by the St.
Martin canal, but the northern side is completely exposed.
Five or six perfectly straight, wide streets run from the north
right into the centre of the Faubourg St. Antoine.
The principal fortifications were at the Place de la Bas
tille and in the Rue du Faubourg St. Antoine, the main
street of the whole district. Remarkably strong barricades
were set up there, built partly of big flagstones and partly
of wooden beams. They were constructed in the form of an
angle pointing inward in order partly to weaken the effect
of the gun-fire, partly to offer a larger defence front making
cross-fire possible. Openings had been made in the fire
proof walls of the houses so that the rows of houses were
connected with each other, thus enabling the insurgents to
open rifle fire on the troops or withdraw behind the barri
cades as circumstances demanded. The bridges and quais
along the canal as well as the streets running parallel to it
were also strongly fortified. In short, the two faubourgs the
insurgents still held resembled a veritable fortress, in which
the troops had to wage a bloody battle for every inch of
ground.
58 FREDERICK ENGELS
On the morning of the 26th the fighting was to be resumed,

but Cavaignac was not keen on sending his troops into
this maze of barricades. He threatened to shell them; mor
tars and howitzers were brought up. A parley was held. Ca
vaignac meanwhile ordered the nearest houses to be under
mined, but this could only be done to a very limited extent,
because the time was too short and because the canal cov
ered one of the lines of attack; he also ordered internal com
munication to be established between the occupied houses
and the adjoining houses through gaps in the fire-proof
walls.
Then negotiations broke down and fighting was resumed.
Cavaignac ordered General Perrot to attack from the Fau
bourg du Temple and General Lamoriciere from the Place
de la Bastille. The barricades were heavily shelled from
both directions. Perrot pushed forward fairly rapidly, occu
pied the remaining section of the Faubourg du Temple and
even penetrated into the Faubourg St. Antoine at several
points. Lamoriciere’s advance was slower. The first barri
cades withstood his guns, although his grenades set the first
houses of the faubourg on fire. He began once more to ne
gotiate. Watch in hand he awaited the moment when he
would have the pleasure of shelling and razing to the
ground the most thickly populated district of Paris. Some of
the insurgents at last capitulated, while others, attacked in
the flank, withdrew from the city after a short battle.
That saw the end of the June barricade fighting. Skir
mishes still continued outside the city, but they were of
no significance. The insurgents who fled were scattered in
the neighbourhood and were one by one captured by
cavalry.
We have given this purely military description of the
struggle to show our readers with what heroic courage,
unity, discipline and military skill the Paris workers fought.
For four days 40,000 of them opposed forces four times their
strength, and were within a hairbreadth of victory. They
almost succeeded in gaining a footing in the centre of Paris,
taking the town hall, forming a provisional government and
doubling their number not only by people from the captured
parts of the city joining them but also from the ranks of
the Garde mobile, who at that time needed but a slight
impetus to make them go over to their side.
German newspapers assert that this was the decisive
battle between the red and the tricolour republics, between
workers and bourgeois. We are convinced that this battle
will decide nothing but the disintegration of the victors.
Moreover, the whole course of events proves that, even
from a purely military standpoint, the workers are bound to
triumph within a fairly short space of time. If 40,000 Paris
workers could achieve such tremendous things against
forces four times their number, what will the whole mass
of Paris workers accomplish by concerted and co-ordinated
action.
Kersausie was captured and by now has probably been
shot. The bourgeois can kill him, but cannot take from him
the fame of having been the first to organise street-fighting.
They can kill him, but no power on earth can prevent his
techniques from being used in all future street-fighting.
They can kill him, but they cannot prevent his name from
going down in history as the first commander-in-chief of
barricade fighting.
Written by Engels
on June 30 and July 1, 1848
Neue Rheinische Zeitung Nos. 31
and 32, July 1 and 2, 1848
GERMANY’S FOREIGN POLICY
Cologne, July 2. All hitherto existing rulers and their

diplomats have employed their skill and efforts to set one
nation against another and use one nation to suppress
another, and in this manner to perpetuate absolute rule.
Germany has distinguished herself in this respect. During
the last 70 years alone, she had furnished the British, in
exchange for English gold, with mercenaries to be used
against the North Americans fighting for their independence;
when the first French revolution broke out it was the
Germans again who, like a rabid pack, allowed themselves
to be set upon the French; in a vicious manifesto issued by
the Duke of Brunswick they threatened to raze the whole
of Paris to the ground; they conspired with the emigre
aristocrats against the new order in France and were paid
for this in the form of subsidies received from England.
When the Dutch, for the first time in two hundred years,
finally hit upon the sensible idea of putting an end to the
mad rule of the House of Orange and establishing a repub
lic,26 it was the Germans again who acted as the hang
men of freedom. The Swiss, too, could tell a tale about
their German neighbours, and it will be some time before
the Hungarians recover from the harm which Austria, i.e.,
the German imperial court, inflicted upon them. German
mercenary troops were even sent to Greece to prop up the
little throne of dear Otto,27 and German policemen were
sent even to Portugal. Then there were the congresses after
1815, Austria’s expeditions to Naples, Turin and the
Romagna, the imprisonment of Ypsilanti, the German-
imposed war of suppression which France waged against
Spain,28 Dom Miguel29 and Don Carlos30 who were sup
ported by Germany; the reaction in Britain had Hannove
rian troops at its disposal; German influence led to the
dismemberment of Belgium and the establishment of a
Thermidorian rule there; in the very heart of Russia
P A N T I N
Barriere
Barriere St. Denis
IES Barriere Poissonniere
Rochechouart
Clos
St. Lazare
B E L L E V
SAINT-HONORE
MENIIMONTANT
S A IN T-A N EOIN
Place de la Bastill
Mauberi aUbn
Pont d'Austerlitz
rlacesvalhubert
i Nord
du Gymnase
ssonniere
I, Denis Barriere de Fontainebleau
rd St. Denis
. Martin
t. Eustache
des Innocents
la Planche-Mibray
I V R V
la Corderie 18 Pont de Damiette
rse 19 Pont St. Michel
>t. Merri 20 Rue de la Huchette
e Greve 21 Ecole de medecine
St. Gervais 22 La Sorbonne
jx Fleurs 23 Ecole polytechnique
:>tre - Dame 24 Rue de I'Observatoire
Constantine 25 Bd Beaumarchais 1000 m
GERMANY'S FOREIGN POLICY 61
Germans are the mainstay of the one autocrat and of the

smaller ones, all Europe is flooded with sprigs of the House
of Coburg.
Poland was plundered and dismembered and Cracow
throttled with the help of German soldiers.31 German money
and blood helped to enslave and impoverish Lombardy and
Venice, and directly or indirectly to stifle any movement of
liberation throughout Italy by means of bayonets, gallows,
prisons and galleys. The list of sins is much longer, let us
close it.
The blame for the infamies committed with the aid of
Germany in other countries falls not only on the govern
ments but to a large extent also on the German people. But
for the delusions of the Germans, their slavish spirit, their
flair for acting as mercenaries and “benign” jailers and
tools of the masters “by divine right”, the German name
abroad would not be so detested, cursed and despised, and
the nations oppressed by Germany would have long since
been able to develop freely. Now that the Germans are throw
ing off their own yoke, their whole foreign policy must
change too. Otherwise the fetters with which we have
chained other nations will shackle our own new, barely pre
scient, freedom. Germany will liberate herself to the extent
to which she sets free neighbouring nations.
Things are indeed beginning to look up. The lies and mis
representations which the old government organs have been
so busy spreading about Poland and Italy, the attempts to
artificially create enmity, the turgid phrases proclaiming that
German honour or German power is at stake—all these
magic formulas are no longer effective. The official patriot
ism is effective only when these patriotic postures conceal
material interests, i.e., only among a section of the big
bourgeoisie whose business depends on this official patriot
ism. The reactionary party knows this and makes use of it.
But the great mass of the German middle class and the work
ing class understand or feel that the freedom of the neigh
bouring nations is the guarantee of their own freedom. Is
Austria’s war against Italy’s independence or Prussia’s war
against the restoration of Poland popular, or do these “pa
62 FREDERICK ENGELS
triotic” crusades on the contrary destroy the last illusions?

However, neither this understanding nor this feeling is suffi
cient. If Germany’s blood and money is no longer to be
squandered, to her own detriment, in suppressing other na
tions, then we must achieve a really popular government,
and the old edifice must be razed to the ground. Only then
can an international policy of democracy take the place of
the sanguinary, cowardly policy of the old, revived system.
How can a democratic foreign policy be carried through
while democracy at home is stifled? Meanwhile, everything
possible must be done to prepare the way for the democrat
ic system on this side and the other side of the Alps. The
Italians have issued a number of declarations which make
their friendly attitude towards Germany perfectly clear. We
would mention the Manifesto of the Provisional Govern
ment at Milan addressed to the German people32 and the
numerous articles written in the same vein, which are pub
lished in the Italian press. We have now received further
evidence of this attitude—a private letter from the admini
strative committee of the newspaper L’Alba,33 published in
Florence, to the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. It
is dated June 20, and says among other things:
“We thank you sincerely for the esteem in which you hold our poor
Italy. Meanwhile we wholeheartedly assure you that all Italians know
who really violates and attacks their liberty; they know that their most
deadly enemy is not the strong and magnanimous German people, but
rather their unjust, despotic, and cruel government; we assure you that
every true Italian longs for the moment when he will be free to shake
hands with his German brother, who, once his inalienable rights are
established, will be able to defend them, to respect them himself and
to secure the respect of all his brothers for them. Placing our trust in
the principles to whose careful elaboration you have dedicated your
selves, we remain
your faithful friends and brothers
(signed) L. Alinari”
The Alba is one of the few papers in Italy which advo
cate thoroughly democratic principles.
Written by Engels
July 3, 1848
THE DEBATE ON JACOBY’S MOTION
Cologne, July 17. Again a “great debate”, to use an ex

pression of Herr Camphausen, has taken place, a debate
which lasted two full days.
The substance of the debate is well known—the reserva
tions the government advanced regarding the immediate
validity of the decisions passed by the National Assembly
and Jacoby’s motion asserting the Assembly’s right to pass
legally binding decisions requiring no one’s consent, and at
the same time objecting to the resolution on the central
authority.34
That a debate on this subject was possible at all may
seem incomprehensible to other nations. But we live in
a land of oaks and lime-trees where nothing should sur
prise us.
The people send their representatives to Frankfurt with
the mandate that the Assembly assume sovereign power over
the whole of Germany and all her governments, and, by
virtue of the sovereignty the people have vested in the As
sembly, adopt a constitution for Germany.
Instead of immediately proclaiming its sovereignty in re
spect to the separate states and the Federal Diet, the As
sembly timidly avoids any question relating to this subject
and maintains an irresolute and vacillating attitude.
Finally it is confronted with a decisive issue—the appoint
ment of a provisional central authority. Seemingly indepen
dent, but in fact guided by the governments with the help of
Gagern, the Assembly elects as Vice Regent of the Empire a
man whom these governments had in advance designated
for this post.
The Federal Diet recognises the election, pretending, as it
were, that only its confirmation makes the election valid.
64 FREDERICK ENGELS
Reservations are nevertheless made by Hannover and

even by Prussia, and it is the Prussian reservation that has
caused the debate of the 11th and 12th.
This time, therefore, it is not so much the fault of the
Chamber in Berlin that the debates are vague and hazy. The
irresolute, weak-kneed, ineffectual Frankfurt National As
sembly itself is to blame for the fact that its decisions can
only be described as so much twaddle.
Jacoby introduces his motion with a brief speech made
with his usual precision. He makes things very difficult for
the speakers of the Left, because he says everything that can
be said about the motion if one is to avoid enlarging upon
the origin of the central authority, whose history is rather
discreditable to the National Assembly.
In fact, the deputies of the Left who follow him advance
hardly any new arguments, while those of the Right fare
much worse—they lapse either into sheer twaddle or jurid
ical hair-splitting. Both sides endlessly repeat themselves.
The honour of first presenting the case for the Right de
volves on Deputy Schneider.
He begins with the grand argument that the motion is
self-contradictory. On the one hand, the motion recognises
the sovereignty of the National Assembly, on the other hand,
it calls upon the Chamber of conciliation to censure the Na
tional Assembly, thus placing itself above it. Any individual
could express his disapproval but not the Chamber.
This subtle argument, of which the Right seems to be very
proud seeing that it recurs in all the speeches of its deputies,
advances an entirely new theory. According to this theory,
the Chamber has fewer rights with regard to the National
Assembly than an individual.
This first grand argument is followed by a republican
one. Germany consists for the most part of constitutional
monarchies, and must therefore be headed by a constitu
tional, irresponsible authority and not by a republican, re
sponsible one. This argument was rebutted on the second day
by Herr Stein, who said that Germany, under her federal
constitution, had always been a republic, indeed a very
edifying republic.
THE DEBATE ON JACOBY’S MOTION 65
“We have been given a mandate,” says Herr Schneider, “to agree on
a constitutional monarchy, and those in Frankfurt have been given a
similar mandate, i.e., to agree with the German governments on a con
stitution for Germany.”
The reaction indulges in wishful thinking. When, by order
of the so-called Preparliament—an assembly having no
valid mandate—the trembling Federal Diet convened the
German National Assembly, there was no question at the
time of any agreement; the National Assembly was then
considered to be a sovereign power. But things now have
changed. The June events in Paris have revived the hopes
of both the big bourgeoisie and the supporters of the over
thrown system. Every country bumpkin of a squire hopes to
see the old rule of the knout re-established, and a clamour
for “an agreed German constitution” is already arising from
the imperial court at Innsbruck to the ancestral castle of
Henry LXXII. The Frankfurt Assembly has no one but
itself to blame for this.
“In electing a constitutional head the National Assembly has there
fore acted according to its mandate. But it has also acted in accordance
with the will of the people; the great majority want a constitutional mon
archy. Indeed, had the National Assembly come to a different decision,
I would have regarded it as a misfortune. Not because I am against the
republic; in principle I admit that the republic—and I have quite defi
nitely made up my mind about it—is the most perfect and lofty form of
polity, but in reality we are still very far from it. We cannot have the
form unless we have the spirit. We cannot have a republic while we lack
republicans, that is to say, noble minds capable, at all times, with a clear
conscience and noble selflessness, and not only in a fit of enthusiasm, of
sinking their own interests in the common interest.”
Can anyone ask for better proof of the virtues represent
ed in the Berlin Chamber than these noble and modest
words of Deputy Schneider? Surely, if any doubt still exist
ed about the fitness of the Germans to set up a republic, it
must have completely vanished in face of these examples of
true civic virtue, of the noble and most modest self-sacrifice
of our Cincinnatus-Schneider. Let Cincinnatus pluck up
courage and have faith in himself and the numerous noble
citizens of Germany who likewise regard the republic as the
most noble political form but consider themselves bad re
publicans—they are ripe for the republic, they would endure
5—509
66 FREDERICK ENGELS
the republic with the same equanimity with which they have
endured the absolute monarchy. The republic of worthies
would be the happiest republic that ever existed—
a republic without Brutus and Catiline, without Marat and
upheavals like those of June, it would be a republic of well-
fed virtue and solvent morality.35
How mistaken is Cincinnatus-Schneider when he exclaims:
“A republican mentality cannot be formed under absolutism; it is not
possible to create a republican spirit offhand, we must first educate our
children and grandchildren in this way. At present I would regard a re
public as the greatest calamity, for it would be anarchy under the dese
crated name of republic, despotism under the cloak of liberty.”
On the contrary, as Herr Vogt (from Giessen) said in the
National Assembly, the Germans are republicans by nature,
and to educate his children in the republican spirit Cincinna
tus-Schneider could do no better than bring them up in the
old German discipline, tradition of modesty and God-fear
ing piety, the way he himself grew up. Not anarchy and
despotism, but those cozy beer-swilling proceedings, in which
Cincinnatus-Schneider excels, would be brought to the high
est perfection in the republic of worthies. For removed
from all the atrocities and crimes which defiled the first
French republic, unstained by blood, and detesting the red
flag, the republic of worthies would make possible something
hitherto unattainable: it would enable every respectable
burgher to lead a quiet, peaceful life marked by godliness
and propriety. The republic of worthies might even revive
the guilds together with all the amusing trials of non-guild
artisans. This republic of worthies is by no means a fanci
ful dream; it is a reality existing in Bremen, Hamburg,
Lubeck and Frankfurt, and even in some parts of Switzer
land. But its existence is everywhere threatened by the con
temporary storms, which bid fair to engulf it everywhere.
Therefore rise up, Cincinnatus-Schneider, leave your
plough and turnip field, your beer and conciliation, mount
your steed and save the threatened republic, your republic,
the republic of worthies]
Written by Engels
July 18, 1848
THE ARMISTICE WITH DENMARK
Cologne, July 21. As our readers know, we have always

regarded the Danish war36 with great equanimity. We have
joined neither in the blatant bluster of the nationalists, nor
in the well-worn tune of the sea-girt Schleswig-Holstein
fraternity with their sham enthusiasm. We knew our coun
try too well, we knew what it means to rely on Germany.
Events have fully borne out our views. The unimpeded
capture of Schleswig by the Danes, the recapture of the
country and the march to Jutland, the retreat to the Schlei,
the repeated capture of the duchy up to Konigsau—this
utterly incomprehensible conduct of the war from first to
last has shown the Schleswigers what sort of protection they
can expect from the revolutionary, great, strong, united, etc.,
Germany, from the supposedly sovereign nation of forty-five
million. However, in order that they lose all desire to be
come German, and that “the Danish yoke” appear infinitely
more desirable to them than “German liberty”, the Prus
sians, in the name of the German Confederation, negotiated
the armistice of which we print today a word-for-word
translation.
Hitherto it has been the custom, when signing an armi
stice, for the two armies to maintain their positions, or as a
last resort, a narrow neutral strip was interposed between
them. Under this armistice, the first result of “the prowess
of Prussian arms”, the victorious Prussians withdraw over
20 miles, from Kolding to this side of Lauenburg, whereas
the defeated Danes maintain their positions at Kolding and
relinquish only Alsen. Furthermore, in the event of the ar
mistice being called off, the Danes are to advance to the po
sitions they held on June 24, in other words they are to
5*
68 FREDERICK ENGELS
occupy a six to seven miles wide stretch of North Schleswig

without firing a shot—a stretch from which they were twice
driven out—whereas the Germans are allowed to advance
only to Apenrade and its environs. Thus “the honour of the
German arms is preserved” and North Schleswig, already
exhausted because it was deluged with troops four times, is
promised a possible fifth and sixth invasion.
But that is not all. A part of Schleswig is to be occupied
by Danish troops even during the armistice. Under Clause
8, Schleswig is to be occupied by regiments recruited in the
duchy, i.e., partly by soldiers from Schleswig who took part
in the movement, and partly by soldiers who at that time
were stationed in Denmark and fought in the ranks of the
Danish army against the Provisional Government. They are
commanded by Danish officers and are in every respect
Danish troops. That is how the Danish papers, too, size up
the situation.
The Fddrelandet31 of July 13 writes:
“The presence in the duchy of loyal troops from Schleswig will un
doubtedly substantially harden popular feeling which, now that the coun
try has experienced the misfortunes of war, will forcefully turn against
those who are the cause of these misfortunes.”
On top of that we have the movement in Schleswig-Hol

stein. The Danes call it a riot, and the Prussians treat it as
a riot. The Provisional Government, which has been recog
nised by Prussia and the German Confederation, is mer
cilessly sacrificed; all laws, decrees, etc., issued after Schles
wig became independent are abrogated; on the other hand,
the repealed Danish laws have again come into force. In
short, the reply concerning Wildenbruch’s famous Note,38
a reply which Herr Auerswald refused to give, can be found
here in Clause 7 of the proposed armistice. Everything that
was revolutionary in the movement is ruthlessly destroyed,
and the government created by the revolution is to be re
placed by a legitimate administration nominated by three
legitimate monarchs. The troops of Holstein and Schleswig
are again to be commanded by Danes and thrashed by
Danes; the ships of Holstein and Schleswig are to remain
THE ARMISTICE WITH DENMARK 69
“Danish property” as before, despite the latest order of the

Provisional Government.
The new government which they intend to set up puts the
finishing touch to all this. The Fadrelandet declares:
“Though in the limited electoral district from which the Danish-
elected members of the new government are to be chosen we shall
probably not find the combination of energy, talent, intelligence, and
experience which Prussia will dispose of when making her selection,”
this is not decisive. “The members of the government must of course
be elected from among the population of the duchies, but nothing is
to prevent us giving them secretaries and assistants residing and born
in other parts of the country. In selecting these secretaries and admin
istrative advisers one can be guided by considerations of fitness and
talent without regard to local considerations, and it is likely that these
men will exert a great influence on the spirit and trend of the entire
administration. Indeed, it is to be hoped that even high-ranking Danish
officials will accept such a post, though its official status may be in
ferior. Every true Dane will consider such a post an honour under the
present circumstances.”
This semi-official paper thus promises the duchies that
they will be swamped not only with Danish troops but also
with Danish civil servants. A partly-Danish government
will take up its residence in Rendsburg on the officially
recognised territory of the German Confederation.
These are the advantages which the armistice brings
Schleswig. The advantages for Germany are just as great.
The admission of Schleswig to the German Confederation is
not mentioned at all. On the contrary, the decision of the
Confederation is flatly repudiated by the composition of the
new government. The German Confederation chooses the
members for Holstein, and the King of Denmark chooses
those for Schleswig. Schleswig is therefore under Danish,
and not German, jurisdiction.
Germany would have rendered a real service in this
Danish war if she had compelled Denmark to abolish the
Sound tax, a form of old feudal robbery.39 The German
seaports, hard hit by the blockade and the seizure of their
ships, would have willingly borne the burden even longer if
it led to the abolition of the Sound tax. The governments
also made it known everywhere that the abolition of this tax
must at any rate be brought about. And what came of all
70 FREDERICK ENGELS
this boasting? Britain and Russia want the tax kept, and of
course Germany obediently acquiesces.
It goes without saying that in exchange for the return of
the ships, the supplies requisitioned in Jutland have to be
refunded, on the principle that Germany is rich enough to
pay for her glory.
These are the advantages which the Hansemann ministry
offers in this draft armistice to the German nation. These
are the fruits of a war waged for three months against a
small nation of a million and a half. That is the result of
all the boasting by our national papers, our formidable
Dane-haters!
It is said that the armistice will not be concluded. Gen
eral Wrangel, encouraged by Beseler, has definitely refused
to sign it, despite repeated requests by Count Pourtales, who
brought him Auerswald’s order to sign it, and despite nu
merous reminders that it was his duty as a Prussian general
to do so. Wrangel stated that he is above all subordinated
to the German central authority, and the latter will not
approve of the armistice unless the armies maintain their
present positions and the Provisional Government remains
in office until the peace is concluded.
Thus the Prussian project will probably not be carried
out, but it is nevertheless interesting as a demonstration of
how Prussia, when she takes over the reins, is capable of
defending Germany’s honour and interests.
Written by Engels
July 22, 1848
THE BILL PROPOSING THE ABOLITION
OF FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS
Cologne, July 29. If any Rhinelander should have for

gotten what he owes to the “foreign rule”, to “the yoke of
the Corsican tyrant”, he ought to read the Bill providing for
the abolition without compensation of various services and
dues. The Bill has been submitted by Herr Hansemann in
this year of grace 1848 for the “consideration” of his con
ciliators. Liegedom, allodification rent, death dues, heriot,
protection money, legal dues and fines, signet money, tithes
on live-stock, bees, etc.—what a strange, what a barbaric
ring these absurd terms have for our ears, which have been
civilised by the French Revolution’s destruction of feudal
ism and by the Code Napoleon. How incomprehensible to
us is this farrago of medieval duties and taxes, this collec
tion of musty junk from an antediluvian age.
Nevertheless, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, German
patriot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
These barbarities are the last remnants of Christian-German
glory, the last links of the historical chain which connects
you with your illustrious ancestors all the way back to the
forest of the Cherusci. The musty air, the feudal mire which
we find here in their classic unadulterated form are the very
own products of our fatherland, and every true German
should exclaim with the poet:
’Tis my own native air, and the glow
on my cheek
Could bear no other construction;
The very dirt in the highway itself
Is my fatherland’s production!40
Reading the Bill, it seems to you at first glance that our
Minister of Agriculture Herr Gierke, on the orders of Herr
Hansemann, has brought off a terrifically “bold stroke”, has
done away with the Middle Ages by a stroke of the pen,
and of course quite gratuitously.
72 KARL MARX
But when one looks at the Bill’s motivation, one discovers

that it sets out straight away to prove that no feudal obli
gations whatever ought to be abolished without compensa
tion, that is to say, it starts with a bold assertion which di
rectly contradicts the “bold stroke”.
The minister’s practical timidity now manoeuvres warily
and prudently between these two bold postures. On the left
“the general welfare” and “the demands of the spirit of our
time”; on the right the “established rights of the lords of the
manor”; in the middle the “praiseworthy idea of a freer
development of rural relations” represented by Herr
Gierke’s shamefaced embarrassment—what a picture!
In short, Herr Gierke fully recognises that feudal obliga
tions in general ought to be abolished only against compen
sation. Thus the most onerous, the most widespread, the
principal obligations are to continue or, seeing that the peas
ants have in fact already done away with them, they are
to be reimposed.
But, Herr Gierke observes,
“if, nevertheless, particular relations, whose intrinsic justification is
insufficient or whose continued existence is incompatible with the de
mands of the spirit of our time and the general welfare, are abolished
without compensation, then the persons affected by this should ap
preciate that they are making a few sacrifices not only for the good
of all but also in their own well-understood interests, in order that re
lations between those who have claims and those who have duties shall
be peaceful and friendly, thereby helping landed property generally
to maintain the political status which befits it for the good of the whole”.
The revolution in the countryside consisted in the actual
elimination of all feudal obligations. The government of
action, which recognises the revolution, recognises it in the
countryside by destroying it underhandedly. It is quite im
possible to restore the old status quo completely; the peas
ants would promptly kill their feudal lords—even Herr
Gierke realises that. An impressive list of insignificant feud
al obligations existing only in a few places is therefore
abolished, but the principal feudal obligation epitomised in
the simple term corvee is revived.
As a result of all the rights that are to be abolished, the
aristocracy will sacrifice less than 50,000 thaler a year, but
BILL PROPOSING ABOLITION OF FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS 73
will thereby save several million. Indeed the minister hopes

that they will thus placate the peasants and even gain their
votes at future parliamentary elections. This would really
be a very good deal, provided Herr Gierke does not mis
calculate.
In this way the objections of the peasants would be elimi
nated, and so would those of the aristocrats, in so far as they
correctly understand their position. There remains the
Chamber, the scruples of the inflexible legalists and radicals.
The distinction between obligations that are to be abolished
and those that are to be retained—which is simply the dis
tinction between practically worthless obligations and
very valuable obligations—must be based as regards the
Chamber on some semblance of legal and economic justifi
cation. Herr Gierke must prove that the obligations to be
abolished 1. have an insufficient inner justification, 2. are
incompatible with the general welfare, 3. are incompatible
with the demands of the spirit of our time, and 4. that their
abolition is fundamentally no infringement of property
rights, i.e., no expropriation without compensation.
In order to prove the insufficient justification of these dues
and services Herr Gierke delves into the darkest recesses of
feudal law. He invokes the entire, “originally very slow
development of the Germanic states over a period of a
thousand years”. But what good will it do? The deeper he
digs, the more he rakes up the stagnant mire of feudal law,
the more does that feudal law prove that the obligations in
question have, not an insufficient justification, but from the
feudal point of view, a very solid justification. The hapless
minister merely causes general amusement when he tries his
hardest to induce feudal law to make cryptic pronounce
ments in the style of modern civil law, or to let the feudal
lord of the twelfth century think and judge like a bourgeois
of the nineteenth century.
Herr Gierke fortunately has inherited Herr von Patow’s
principle that everything emanating from feudal sovereignty
and serfdom is to be abolished without payment, but every
thing else is to be abolished only against payment of compen
sation. But does Herr Gierke really think that special per
74 KARL MARX
spicacity is required in order to show that all and every

obligation subject to repeal emanates from feudal sover
eignty?
It is hardly necessary to add that for the sake of consis
tency Herr Gierke constantly insinuates modern legal con
cepts into feudal legal regulations, and in an extremity he
always invokes them. But if Herr Gierke evaluates some of
these obligations in terms of the modern ideas of law, then
it is incomprehensible why the same should not be done with
all obligations. In that case, however, the corvee, faced
with the freedom of the individual and of property, would
certainly come off badly.
Herr Gierke fares even worse when he advances the ar
gument of public welfare and the demands of the spirit of
our time in support of his differentiations. Surely it is self-
evident that if these insignificant obligations impede the
public welfare and are incompatible with the demands of
the spirit of our time, then this applies in still greater mea
sure to such obligations as labour service, the corvee, lau-
demium, etc. Or does Herr Gierke consider that the right to
pluck the peasants’ geese (§ 1, No. 14) is out of date, but
the right to pluck the peasants is not?
Then follows the demonstration that the abolition of those
particular obligations does not infringe any property rights.
Of course, only spurious arguments can be adduced to prove
such a glaring falsehood; it can indeed only be done by
reckoning up these rights to show the squires how worth
less they are for them, though this, obviously, can be proved
only approximately. And so Herr Gierke sedulously reck
ons up all the 18 sections of Clause 1, and does not notice
that, to the extent in which he succeeds in proving the given
obligations to be worthless, he also succeeds in proving the
proposed legislation to be worthless. Virtuous Herr Gierke!
How it pains us to have to destroy his fond delusions and
obliterate his Archimedean-feudalist diagrams.
But there is another difficulty. Both in previous commu
tations of the obligations now to be abolished and in all
other commutations, the peasants were flagrantly cheated in
favour of the aristocracy by corrupt commissions. The
BILL PROPOSING ABOLITION OF FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS 75
peasants now demand the revision of all commutation agree

ments concluded under the previous government, and they
are quite justified in doing so.
But Herr Gierke will have nothing to do with this, since
“formal right and law are opposed” to it; such an attitude is
altogether opposed to any progress, since every new law
nullifies some old formal right and law.
“The consequences of this, it can confidently be predicted, will be
that, in order to secure advantages to those under obligations by means
that run counter to the eternal legal principles” (revolutions, too, run
counter to the eternal legal principles), “incalculable damage must be
done to a very large section of landed property in the state, and
hence” (!) “to the state itself.”
Herr Gierke now proves with staggering thoroughness
that such a procedure
“would call in question and undermine the entire legal framework
of landed property and this together with numerous lawsuits and the
great expenditure involved would cause great damage to landed pro
perty, which is the principal foundation of the national welfare”; that
it “would be an encroachment on the legal principles underlying the
validity of contracts, an attack on the most indubitable contractual re
lations, the consequences of which would shake all confidence in the
stability of civil law, thereby constituting a grave menace to the whole
of commercial intercourse”!!
Herr Gierke thus sees in this an infringement of the
rights of property, which would undermine all legal prin
ciples. Why is the abolition of the obligations under dis
cussion without compensation not an infringement? These
are not merely indubitable contractual relations, but claims
that were invariably met and not contested since time im
memorial, whereas the demand for revision concerns con
tracts that are by no means uncontested, since the bribery
and swindling are notorious, and can be proved in many
cases.
It cannot be denied that, though the abolished obligations
are quite insignificant, Herr Gierke, by abolishing them, se
cures “advantages to those under obligations by means that
run counter to the eternal legal principles” and this is “di
rectly opposed to formal right and law”; he “undermines the
entire legal framework of landed property” and attacks the
very foundation of the “most indubitable” rights.
76 KARL MARX
Really, Herr Gierke, was it worth while to go to all this

trouble and commit such a grievous sin in order to achieve
such paltry results?
Herr Gierke does indeed attack property—that is quite
indisputable—but it is feudal property he attacks, not mod
ern, bourgeois property. By destroying feudal property he
strengthens bourgeois property which arises on the ruins of
feudal property. The only reason he does not want the
commutation agreements revised is because by means of
these contracts feudal ownership relations were converted
into bourgeois ones, and consequently he cannot revise them
without at the same time formally infringing bourgeois
property. Bourgeois property is, of course, as sacred and
inviolable as feudal property is vulnerable and—depending
on the requirements and courage of the ministers—violable.
What in brief is the significance of this lengthy law?
It is the most striking proof that the German revolution
of 1848 is merely a parody of the French revolution of
1789.
On August 4, 1789, three weeks after the storming of the
Bastille, the French people, in a single day, got the better
of the feudal obligations.
On July 11, 1848, four months after the March barricades,
the feudal obligations got the better of the German people.
7este Gierke cum Hansemanno.
The French bourgeoisie of 1789 never left its allies, the
peasants, in the lurch. It knew that the abolition of feudal
ism in the countryside and the creation of a free, land
owning peasant class was the basis of its rule.
The German bourgeoisie of 1848 unhesitatingly betrays
the peasants, who are its natural allies, flesh of its own flesh,
and without whom it cannot stand up to the aristocracy.
The perpetuation of feudal rights and their endorsement
in the form of the (illusory) commutations—such is the
result of the German revolution of 1848. There was much
ado about nothing.
Written by Marx
July 30, 1848
THE KOLNISCHE ZEITUNG ON THE
STATE OF AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND
Cologne, July 31.

“Where is it possible in England to discover any trace of hatred
against the class which in France is called the bourgeoisie? This hatred
was at one time directed against the aristocracy, which by means of
its corn monopoly imposed a heavy and unjust tax on industry. The
bourgeois in England enjoys no privileges, he depends on his own dili
gence; in France under Louis Philippe he depended on monopolies, on
privileges.”
This great, this scholarly, this veracious proposition can
be found in Herr Wolfers’ leading article in the always
well-informed Kolnische Zeitung.^
It is indeed strange. England has the most numerous, the
most concentrated, the most classic proletariat, a proletariat
which every five or six years is decimated by the crushing
misery of a commercial crisis, by hunger and typhus; a pro
letariat which for half its life is redundant to industry and
unemployed. One man in every ten in England is a pauper,
and one pauper in every three is an inmate in one of the
Poor Law Bastilles.42 The annual cost of poor-relief in Eng
land almost equals the entire expenditure of the Prussian
state. Poverty and pauperism have been openly declared in
England to be necessary elements of the present industrial
system and the national wealth. Yet, despite this, where is
it possible in England to discover any trace of hatred against
the bourgeoisie?
There is no other country in the world where, simulta
neously with the enormous growth of the proletariat, the
contradiction between proletariat and bourgeoisie has reached
78 FREDERICK ENGELS
such a high level as in England; no other country pre

sents such glaring contrasts between extreme poverty and
immense wealth—yet where can one find even a trace of
hatred against the bourgeoisie?
Obviously, the associations of workers, set up secretly
before 1825 and openly after 1825, associations not for just
a day against any single manufacturer, but permanent as
sociations directed against entire groups of manufacturers,
workers’ associations of entire industries, entire towns,
finally associations uniting large numbers of workers through
out England, all these associations and their numerous fights
against the manufacturers, the strikes, which led to acts of
violence, revengeful destructions, arson, armed attacks and
assassinations—all these actions just prove the love of the
proletariat for the bourgeoisie.
The entire struggle of the workers against the manufac
turers over the last 80 years, a struggle which, beginning
with machine wrecking, has developed through associations,
through isolated attacks on the person and property of the
manufacturers and on the few workers who were loyal to
them, through bigger and smaller rebellions, through the
insurrections of 1839 and 1842, has become the most ad
vanced class struggle the world has seen. The class war of the
Chartists,43 the organised party of the proletariat, against
the organised political power of the bourgeoisie, has not yet
led to those terrible bloody clashes which took place during
the June uprising in Paris, but it is waged by a far larger
number of people with much greater tenacity and on a much
larger territory—this social civil war is of course regarded
by the Kolnische Zeitung and its Wolfers as nothing but a
long demonstration of the love of the English proletariat for
its bourgeois employers-.
Not so long ago it was fashionable to present England as
the classic land of social contradictions and struggles, and to
declare that France, compared with England’s so-called
“unnatural situation”, was a happy land with her Citizen
King, her bourgeois parliamentary adversaries and her up
right workers, who always fought so bravely for the bour
geoisie. It was not so long ago that the Kolnische Zeitung
KOLNISCHE ZEITUNG ON ENGLAND 79
kept harping on this well-worn tune and saw in the English

class struggles a reason for warning Germany against pro
tectionism and the “unnatural” hot-house industry to which
it gives rise. But the June days have changed everything. The
horrors of the June battles have shaken the Kolnische Zei
tung, and the millions of Chartists in London, Manchester
and Glasgow vanish into thin air in face of the forty thou
sand Paris insurgents.
France has become the classic country as regards hatred
of the bourgeoisie and, according to the present assertions
of the Kolnische Zeitung, this has been the case since 1830.
How strange. For the last ten years English agitators, re
ceived with acclamation by the entire proletariat, have un
tiringly preached fervent hatred of the bourgeoisie at meet
ings and in pamphlets and journals, whereas the French
working-class and socialist literature has always advocated
reconciliation with the bourgeoisie on the grounds that the
class antagonisms in France were far less developed than in
England. The men at whose very name the Kolnische Zei
tung makes the triple sign of the cross, men like Louis
Blanc, Cabet, Caussidiere and Ledru-Rollin, have, for many
years before and after the February revolution, preached
peace with the bourgeoisie, and they generally did it in
good faith. Let the Kolnische Zeitung look through any of
the writings of these people, or through the Reformed the
Populaire,® or even the working-class journals published
during the last few years like the Union,46 the Ruche popu-
laire111 and the Fraternite®—though it should be sufficient to
mention two works which everybody knows, Louis Blanc’s
entire Histoire de dix ans, especially the last part, and his
Histoire de la revolution frangaise in two volumes.
But the Kolnische Zeitung is not content with merely as
serting that no hatred exists in England against “the class
which in France is called the bourgeoisie” (in England too,
our well-informed colleague, cf. The Northern Star® for
the last two years)—it also explains why this must
be so.
Peel saved the English bourgeoisie from this hatred by
repealing the monopolies and establishing Free Trade.
80 FREDERICK ENGELS
“The bourgeois in England enjoys no privileges, no monopolies; in

France he depended on monopolies. ... It was Peel’s measures that
saved England from the most appalling upheavals.”
By doing away with the monopoly of the aristocracy,
Peel saved the bourgeoisie from the threatening hatred of
the proletariat, according to the amazing logic of the Kbl-
nische Zeitung.
“The English people, we say: the English people realises more and
more that only from Free Trade can it expect a solution of the vital
problems bearing on all its present afflictions and apprehensions, a
solution which was recently attempted amid streams of blood.... We
must not forget that the first notions of Free Trade came from the
English people.”
The English people! But the “English people" have been

fighting the Free Traders since 1839 at all their meetings
and in the press, and compelled them, when the Anti-Corn
Law League was at the height of its fame, to hold their
meetings in secret and to admit only persons who had a
ticket. The people with bitter irony compared the practice
of the Free Traders with their fine words, and fully identi
fied the bourgeois with the Free Trader. Sometimes the Eng
lish people were even forced temporarily to seek the sup
port of the aristocracy, the monopolists, against the bour
geoisie, e.g., in their fight for the ten-hour day.50 And we are
asked to believe that the people who were so well able to
drive the Free Traders off the rostrum at public meetings,
that it was these “English people" who originally conceived
the ideas of Free Trade! The Kblnische Zeitung, in its
artless simplicity, not only repeats mechanically the illu
sions of the big capitalists of Manchester and Leeds, but
lends a gullible ear to their deliberate lies.
“The bourgeois in England enjoys no privileges, no mo
nopolies.” But in France things are different:
“The worker for a long time regarded the bourgeois as the monop
olist who imposed a tax of 60 per cent on the poor farmer for the
iron of his plough, who made extortionate profits on his coal, who ex
posed the vine-growers throughout France to death from starvation,
who added 20, 40, 50 per cent to the price of everything he sold
them....”
KOLNISCHE ZEITUNG ON ENGLAND 81
The only monopoly which the worthy Kolnische Zeitung

knows is the customs monopoly, i.e., the monopoly which
only appears to affect the workers, but actually falls on the
bourgeoisie, on all industrialists, who do not profit from the
tariff-protection. The Kolnische Zeitung knows only the
local, legally imposed monopoly, the monopoly which was
attacked by the Free Traders from Adam Smith to
Cobden.
But the monopoly of capital, which comes into being with
out the aid of legislation and often exists despite it, this mo
nopoly is not recognised by the gentlemen of the Kolnische
Zeitung. Yet it is this monopoly which directly and ruthlessly
weighs upon the workers and causes the struggle between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Precisely this monopoly
is the specifically modern monopoly, which produces the
modern class contradictions, and the solution of just
these contradictions is the specific task of the nineteenth
century.
But this monopoly of capital becomes more powerful,
more comprehensive, and more threatening in proportion as
the other small and localised monopolies disappear.
The freer competition becomes as a result of the aboli
tion of all “monopolies”, the more rapidly is capital concen
trated in the hands of the industrial barons, the more rap
idly does the petty bourgeoisie become ruined and the
faster does the industry of England, the country of capital’s
monopoly, subjugate the neighbouring countries. If the
“monopolies” of the French, German and Italian bourgeoi
sie were abolished, Germany, France and Italy would be
reduced to proletarians compared with the all-absorbing
English bourgeoisie. The pressure which the individual Eng
lish bourgeois exerts on the individual English proletarian
would then be matched by the pressure exerted by the Eng
lish bourgeoisie as a whole on Germany, France and Italy,
and it is particularly the petty bourgeoisie of these countries
which would suffer most.
These are such commonplace ideas that today can no long
er be explained without causing offence—to anybody but
the learned gentlemen of the Kolnische Zeitung.
6—509
82 FREDERICK ENGELS
These profound thinkers see in Free Trade the only

means by which France can be saved from a devastating war
between the workers and the bourgeois.
To reduce the bourgeoisie of a country to the level of the
proletariat is indeed a means of solving class contradictions,
which is worthy of the Kolnische Zeitung.
Written by Engels
August 1, 1848
THE FRANKFURT ASSEMBLY DEBATES
THE POLISH QUESTION
[I]
Cologne, August 7. The Frankfurt Assembly, whose de
bates even during the most exciting moments were conducted
in a truly German spirit of geniality, at last pulled itself
together when the Poznan question came up. On this ques
tion, the ground for which had been prepared by Prussian
shrapnel and the docile resolutions of the Federal Diet, the
Assembly had to pass a clear-cut resolution. No mediation
was possible: it had either to save Germany’s honour or to
blot it once again. The Assembly acted as we had expected;
it sanctioned the seven partitions of Poland, and shifted the
disgrace of 1772, 1794 and 1815 from the shoulders of the
German princes to its own shoulders.
The Frankfurt Assembly, moreover, declared that the
seven partitions of Poland were benefactions wasted on the
Poles. Had not the forcible intrusion of the Jewish-German
raqe lifted Poland to a level of culture and a stage of science
which that country could never have dreamed of! Deluded,
ungrateful Poles! If your country had not been partitioned
you would have had to ask this favour yourselves of the
Frankfurt Assembly.
Pastor Bonavita Blank of the Paradise monastery near
Schaffhausen trained magpies and starlings to fly in and out.
He had cut away the lower part of their bill so that they
were unable to get their own food and could only receive it
from his hands. The philistines who from a distance saw the
birds alight on the Reverend’s shoulders and seem to be
friendly with him, admired his great culture and learning.
His biographer says that the birds loved their benefactor.
Yet the fettered, maimed, branded Poles refuse to love
their Prussian benefactors.
We could not give a better description of the benefactions
which Prussia bestowed on the Poles than that provided by
6*
84 FREDERICK ENGELS
the report which the learned historiographer Herr Stenzel

submitted on behalf of the Committee for International Law,
a report which forms the basis of the debate.
The report, entirely in the style of the conventional dip
lomatic documents, first recounts how the Grand Duchy of
Poznan was set up in 1815 by “incorporation” and “merg
ing”. Then follow the promises which at the same time
Frederick William III made to the inhabitants of Poznan,
i.e., the safeguarding of their nationality, language and
religion, the appointment of a native governor, and partici
pation in the famous Prussian constitution.51
The extent to which these promises were kept is well
known. The freedom of communication between the three
sections of Poland, to which the Congress of Vienna could
the more easily agree the less feasible it was, was of course
never put into effect.
The make-up of the population is then examined. Herr
Stenzel calculates that 790,000 Poles, 420,000 Germans and
about 80,000 Jews lived in the Grand Duchy in 1843,
making a total of 1,300,000.
Herr Stenzel’s statement is challenged by the Poles, no
tably by Archbishop Przyluski, according to whom there
are considerably more than 800,000 Poles, and, if one de
ducts the Jews, officials and soldiers, hardly 250,000 Ger
mans, living in Poznan.
Let us, however, accept Herr Stenzel’s figures. For our pur
poses it is quite sufficient. To avoid all further discussion, let
us concede that there are 420,000 Germans living in Poz
nan. Who are these Germans, who by the inclusion of the
Jews have been brought up to half a million?
The Slavs are a predominantly agricultural people with
little aptitude for urban trades in the form in which they
were hitherto carried on in the Slav countries. The first
crude stage of commerce, when it was still mere hawking,
was left to Jewish pedlars. With the growth of culture and
population the need for urban trades and urban concentra
tion made itself felt, and Germans moved into the Slav
countries. The Germans, who after all had their heyday in
the petty-bourgeois life of the imperial cities of the
FRANKFURT ASSEMBLY DEBATES POLISH QUESTION 85
Middle Ages, in the sluggish inland trade conducted in

caravan style, in a restricted maritime trade, and in the
handicraft workshops of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen
turies organised on guild lines—the Germans demonstrated
their vocation as the philistines of world history by the very
fact that they still to this day form the core of the petty
bourgeoisie throughout Eastern and Northern Europe and
even in America. Many, often most of the craftsmen, shop
keepers and small middlemen in Petersburg, Moscow,
Warsaw and Cracow, in Stockholm and Copenhagen, in
Pest, Odessa and Jassy, in New York and Philadelphia are
Germans or of German extraction. All these cities have dis
tricts where only German is spoken, and some of them, for
example Pest, are almost entirely German.
This German immigration, particularly into the Slav
countries, went on almost uninterruptedly since the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. Moreover, from time to time since
the Reformation, as a result of the persecution of various
sects large groups of Germans were forced to migrate
to Poland, where they received a friendly welcome. In
other Slav countries, such as Bohemia, Moravia, the Slav
population was decimated by German wars of conquest,
whereas the German population increased as a result of
invasion.
The position is clearest in Poland. The German philis
tines living there for centuries never regarded themselves
as politically belonging to Germany any more than did the
Germans in North America; just as the “French colony” in
Berlin and the 15,000 Frenchmen in Montevideo do not
regard themselves as belonging to France. As far as that
was possible during the days of decentralisation in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they became Poles,
German-speaking Poles, who had long since renounced all
ties with the mother country.
But the Germans brought to Poland culture, education
and science, commerce and trades.—True, they brought retail
trade and guild crafts; by their consumption and the limited
intercourse which they established they stimulated produc
tion to some extent. Up to 1772 Poland as a whole was not
86 FREDERICK ENGELS
particularly well known for her high standard of education

and science, and the same applies to Austrian and Russian
Poland since then; of the Prussian part we shall speak later.
On the other hand, the Germans prevented the formation
of Polish towns with a Polish bourgeoisie. By their distinct
language, their separateness from the Polish population,
their numerous different privileges and urban codes, they
impeded centralisation, that most potent of political means
by which a country achieves rapid development. Almost
every town had its own law; indeed towns with a mixed
population had, and often still have, a different law for Ger
mans, Poles and Jews. The German Poles remained at the
lowest stage of industrial development; they did not accu
mulate large capitals; they were neither able to set up large-
scale industry nor control any extensive commercial net
works. The Englishman Cockerill had to come to Warsaw
for industry to strike root in Poland. The entire activity of
the German Poles was restricted to retail trade, the handi
crafts and at most the corn trade and manufacture (weaving,
etc.) on the smallest scale. In considering the merits of the
German Poles it should not be forgotten that they im
ported German philistinism and German petty-bourgeois
narrow-mindedness into Poland, and that they combined
the worst qualities of both nations without acquiring their
good ones.
Herr Stenzel seeks to enlist the sympathy of the Germans
for the German Poles:
“When the kings ... especially in the seventeenth century, became
increasingly powerless and were no longer able to protect the native
Polish peasants against the severest oppression by the nobles, the Ger
man villages and towns, too, declined, and many of them became the
property of the nobility. Only the larger royal cities kept some of their
old liberties” (read: privileges).
Does Herr Stenzel perhaps demand that the Poles should
have protected the “Germans” (i.e., German Poles, who are
moreover also “natives”) better than themselves? Surely it
is obvious that foreigners who immigrate into any country
must expect to share the good and bad with the indigenous
inhabitants.
Now passing to the blessings for which the Poles are in
debted to the Prussian government in particular.
Frederick II seized the Netze district in 1772, and in the
following year the Bromberg canal was built, which made
inland navigation between the Oder and Vistula possible.
“The region, which for centuries was an object of dispute between
Poland and Pomerania, and which was largely desolate as a result of
countless devastations and because of vast swamps, was now brought
under cultivation and populated by numerous colonists.”
Thus, the first partition of Poland was no robbery. Fre
derick II merely seized an area which “for centuries was
an object of dispute”. But since when has there no longer
existed an independent Pomerania which could have dis
puted this region? For how many centuries were in fact the
rights of Poland to this region no longer challenged? And
in general, what meaning has this rusted and rotten theory
of “disputes” and “claims”, which, in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, served the purpose of covering up the
naked commercial interests and the policy of rounding off
one’s lands? What meaning can it have in 1848 when the
bottom has been knocked out of all historical justice and
injustice?
Incidentally, Herr Stenzel ought to bear in mind that
according to this junk-heap doctrine the Rhine borders be
tween France and Germany have been “an object of dispute
for millennia”, and that Poland could assert her claims to
suzerainty over the province of Prussia and even over
Pomerania.
In short, the Netze district became part of Prussia and
hence ceased to be “an object of dispute”. Frederick II had
it colonised by Germans, and so the “Netze brethren”, who
received such praise in connection with the Poznan affair,
came into being. The state-promoted Germanisation began
in 1773.
“According to reliable information, the Jews in the Grand Duchy are
all Germans and want to be Germans.... The religious toleration which
used to prevail in Poland and the possession of certain qualities which
were lacking in the Poles, enabled the Jews in the course of centuries to
develop activities which penetrated deep into Polish life”, namely, into
88 FREDERICK ENGELS
Polish purses. “As a rule they have a thorough command of both lan
guages, although they, and their children from the earliest years, speak
German at home.”
The unexpected sympathy and recognition which Polish

Jews have lately received in Germany has found official
expression in this passage. Maligned wherever the influence
of the Leipzig fair extends as the very incarnation of hag
gling, avarice and sordidness, they have suddenly become
German brethren; with tears of joy honest Michael presses
them to his bosom, and Herr Stenzel lays claim to them on
behalf of the German nation as Germans who want to re
main Germans.
Indeed, why should not Polish Jews be genuine Germans?
Do not “they, and their children from the earliest years,
speak German at home”? And what German at that!
Incidentally, we would point out to Herr Stenzel that he
might just as well lay claim to the whole of Europe and
half America, and even part of Asia. German, as everyone
knows, is the universal language of the Jews. In New York
and Constantinople, in St. Petersburg and Paris “the Jews,
and their children from the earliest years, speak German at
home”, and some of them even a more classical German than
the Poznan Jews, the “kindred” allies of the Netze brethren.
The report goes on to present the national relations in
terms that are as vague as possible and as favourable as
possible to the alleged half a million Germans consisting
of German Poles, Netze brethren, and Jews. It says that
German peasants own more land than the Polish peasants
(we shall see how this has come to pass), and that since the
first partition of Poland enmity between Poles and Germans,
especially Prussians, reached its highest degree.
“By the introduction of its exceptionally rigidly regulated political
and administrative orders” (what excellent style!) “and their strict
enforcement, Prussia in particular seriously disturbed the old customs
and traditional institutions of the Poles.”
Not only the Poles but also the other Prussians, and espe
cially we from the Rhine, can tell a tale about the “rigidly
regulated” and “strictly enforced” measures of the worthy
Prussian bureaucracy, measures which “disturbed” not

only the old customs and traditional institutions, but also
the entire social life, industrial and agricultural production,
commerce, mining, in short all social relations without
exception. But Herr Stenzel refers here not to the bureau
cracy of 1807-48, but to that of 1772-1806, to the officials of
genuine, dyed in the wool, Prussianism, whose baseness,
corruptibility, cupidity and brutality were clearly evident
in the treacherous acts of 1806. These officials are supposed
to have protected the Polish peasants against the nobles and
received in return nothing but ingratitude; of course the
officials ought to have understood “that nothing, not even
the good things granted or imposed, can compensate for the
loss of national sovereignty”.
We too know the way in which quite recently the Prussian
officials used “to grant and impose everything”. What Rhine
lander, who had dealings with newly arrived officials from
the old Prussian lands, did not have an opportunity to admire
their inimitable, obtrusive priggishness, their impudent med
dlesomeness, their overriding insolence and that combina
tion of narrow-mindedness and infallibility. True, with us,
in most cases, these old Prussian gentry soon lost some of
their roughness for they had no Netze brethren, no secret
inquisition, no Prussian law and no floggings—deficiency
which even brought many of them to an early grave. We
do not have to be told what havoc they wrought in Poland,
where they could indulge in floggings and secret inquisitions
to their heart’s content.
In short, the arbitrary Prussian rule won such popularity
that “already after the battle of Jena, the hatred of the
Poles found vent in a general uprising and the ejection of
the Prussian officials”. This, for the time being, put an end
to the bureaucratic rule.
But in 1815 it returned in a somewhat modified form.
The “best”, “reformed”, “educated”, “incorruptible” official
dom tried their hand at dealing with these refractory Poles.
“The founding of the Grand Duchy of Poznan was not conducive to
the establishment of cordial relations, since... at that time the King of
Prussia could not possibly agree to have any single province set up as
90 FREDERICK ENGELS
an entirely independent unit, thus turning his state, as it were, into a

federal state.”
Thus according to Herr Stenzel, the King of Prussia could
“not possibly agree” to keep his own promises and the trea
ties of Vienna.52
‘‘In 1830, when the sympathies which the Polish nobility showed for
the Warsaw uprising caused anxiety, and systematic efforts were made
ever since by means of various arrangements” (!)—“notably by buying
up the Polish landed estates, dividing them and handing them over to
the Germans—gradually to eliminate the Polish nobility altogether, the
latter’s resentment against Prussia increased.”
“By means of various arrangements”! By prohibiting
Poles from buying land brought under the hammer, and
similar measures, which Herr Stenzel covers with the cloak
of charity.
What would Rhinelanders say if with us, too, the Prussian
government were to prohibit Rhinelanders from buying land
put up for sale by order of the court. Sufficient pretexts
could easily be found, namely: in order to amalgamate the
population of the old and new provinces; in order that the
natives of the old provinces could share in the blessings of
parcellation and of the Rhenish laws; in order that Rhine
landers be induced to emigrate to the old provinces and
implant their industries there as well, and so on. There are
enough reasons to bestow Prussian “colonists” on us too.
How would we look upon people who bought our land for
next to nothing while competition was excluded, and who
did it moreover with the support of the government; people
who were thrust upon us for the express purpose of accustom
ing us to the intoxicating motto “With God for King and
Country”?
After all we are Germans, we speak the same language
as the people in the old provinces. Yet in Poznan those
colonists were sent methodically, with unabated persistence,
to the demesnes, the forests and the divided estates of the
Polish nobility in order to oust the native Poles and their
language from their own country and to set up a truly
Prussian province, which was to surpass even Pomerania
in black and white fanaticism.53
In order that the Prussian peasants in Poland should not

be left without their natural masters, they were sent the
flower of Prussian knighthood, men like Tresckow and
Luttichau, who also bought landed estates for a song, and
with the aid of government loans. In fact, after the Polish
uprising of 1846,54 a joint-stock company was formed in
Berlin, which enjoyed the gracious protection of the highest
personages in the land, and whose purpose was to buy up
Polish estates for German knights. The poor starvelings
from among the Brandenburg and Pomeranian aristocracy
foresaw that trials instituted against the Poles would ruin
numerous Polish squires, whose estates would shortly be
sold off dirt-cheap. This was a real godsend for many a
debt-ridden Don Ranudo55 from the Uckermark. A fine estate
for next to nothing, Polish peasants who could be thrashed,
and what is more, a good service rendered to King and
Country—what brilliant prospects!
Thus arose the third German immigration into Poland.
Prussian peasants and Prussian noblemen settled throughout
Poznan with the declared intention, supported by the govern
ment, not of Germanising, but of Pomeranising Poznan.
The German Poles had the excuse of having contributed in
some measure to the promotion of commerce, the Netze
brethren could boast that they had reclaimed a few bogs,
but this last Prussian invasion has no excuse whatever. Even
parcellation was not consistently carried through, the Prus
sian aristocrats following hard on the heels of the Prussian
peasants.
[11]
Cologne, August 11. In the first article we have examined

the “historical foundation” of Stenzel’s report in so far as
he deals with the situation in Poznan before the revolution.
Today we proceed to Herr Stenzel’s history of the revolu
tion and counter-revolution in Poznan.
“The German people, who at all times is filled with compassion for
all the unfortunate” (so long as this compassion costs nothing), always
deeply felt how greatly its princes wronged the Poles.”
92 FREDERICK ENGELS
Indeed, “deeply felt” within the calm German heart,

where the feelings are so “deeply” embedded that they
never manifest themselves in action. Indeed, “compassion”,
expressed by a few alms in 1831 and by dinners and balls
in aid of the Poles, lasting just long enough to have a dance
and drink champagne for the benefit of the Poles, and to
sing “Poland is not yet lost”.56 But when were the Germans
prone to do something really decisive, to make a real
sacrifice!
“The Germans honestly and fraternally proffered their hand to
expiate the wrongs their princes had perpetrated.”
If it were possible to “expiate” anything with sentimental
phrases and dull tub-thumping, then the Germans would
emerge as the purest people in the world.
“Just at the moment, however, when the Poles shook hands” (that is,
took the fraternally proffered hand) “the interests and aims of the two
nations already diverged. The Poles’ only thought was for the restora
tion of their old state at least within the boundaries that existed before
the first partition of 1772.”
Surely, only the unreasoning, confused, haphazard enthu
siasm, which from time immemorial has been the principal
adornment of the German national character, could have
caused the Germans to be surprised by the Polish demands.
The Germans wanted to “expiate” the injustice the Poles
had suffered. What started this injustice? The earlier treach
eries apart, it certainly started with the first partition of
Poland in 1772. How could this be “expiated”? Of course,
only by restoration of the status quo existing before 1772,
or at least by the Germans returning to the Poles what they
had robbed them of since 1772. But this was against the
interests of the Germans? Well, if we speak of interests,
then it can no longer be a question of sentimentalities like
“expiation”; here the language of harsh, unfeeling practice
should be used, and we should be spared rhetorical flourishes
and expressions of magnanimity.
Moreover, firstly, the Poles did not “only think” of the
restoration of the Poland of 1772. In any case what the
Poles did “think” is hardly our concern. For the time being
they demanded only the restoration of the whole of Poznan
and mentioned other eventualities only in case of a German-

Polish war against Russia.
Secondly, “the interests and aims of the two nations
diverged” only in so far as the “interests and aims” of
revolutionary Germany in the field of international rela
tions remained exactly the same as those of the old, absolut
ist Germany. If Germany’s “interest and aim” is an alliance
with Russia, or at least peace with Russia at any price, then
of course everything in Poland must remain as it was
hitherto. We shall see later, however, to what extent the
real interests of Germany are identical with those of Poland.
Then follows a lengthy, confused and disconcerted pas
sage, in which Herr Stenzel expatiates on the fact that the
German Poles were right when they wanted to do justice
to Poland, but at the same time to remain Prussians and
Germans. Of course it is of no concern to Herr Stenzel
that the “when” excludes the “but” and the “but” the
“when”.
Next comes an equally lengthy and confused historical
recital, in which Herr Stenzel goes into detail in an attempt
to prove that, owing to the “diverging interests and aims of
the two nations” and the ensuing mutual enmity which was
steadily growing, a bloody clash was unavoidable. The
Germans adhered to the “national” interests, the Poles
merely to the “territorial” interests, in other words, the
Germans demanded that the Grand Duchy should be divided
according to nationalities, the Poles wanted the whole of
their old territory.
This is again not true. The Poles asked for restoration
and at the same time stated that they were quite willing to
relinquish the frontier districts with a mixed population
where the majority are Germans and want to join Germany.
The inhabitants, however, should not be declared German or
Polish by the Prussian officials at will, but according to their
own wishes.
Herr Stenzel goes on to assert that Willisen’s mission was
of course bound to fail because of the (alleged, but nowhere
existing) resistance of the Poles to the cession of the predom
inantly German districts. Herr Stenzel disposed of the
94 FREDERICK ENGELS
statements of Willisen about the Poles and those of the

Poles about Willisen. These published statements prove the
opposite. But this happens if “one is a man who”, as Herr
Stenzel says, “has studied history for many years and deems
it his duty never to speak an untruth and never to conceal
anything”.
With the same truthfulness which never conceals anything,
Herr Stenzel easily passes over the cannibalism perpetrated
in Poznan, the base and perfidious violation of the Conven
tion of Jaroslawiec,57 the massacres of Trzemeszno, Miloslaw
and Wreschen, the destructive fury of a brutal soldiery
worthy of the Thirty Years’ War, and does not say a word
about it.
Now Herr Stenzel comes to the four partitions of Poland
recently effected by the Prussian government. First the Netze
district and four other districts were torn away (April 14);
to this were added certain parts of other districts. This ter
ritory with a total population of 593,390 was incorporated
in the German Confederation on April 22. Then the city
and fortress of Poznan together with the remainder of the
left bank of the Warta were also included, making an addi
tional 273,500 persons and bringing the combined population
of these lands to double the number of Germans living in
the whole of Poznan even according to Prussian estimates.
This was effected by order in council on April 26, and
already on May 2 they were admitted to the German Con
federation. Now Herr Stenzel pleads with the Assembly
that it is absolutely essential for Poznan to remain in
German hands, that Poznan is an important, powerful for
tress, with a population of over 20,000 Germans (most of
them Polish Jews) who own two-thirds of all the landed
property, etc. That Poznan is situated in the midst of a
purely Polish territory, that it was forcibly Germanised, and
that Polish Jews are not Germans, does not make the slight
est difference to men who “never speak an untruth and
never suppress a truth”, to historians of Herr Stenzel’s
calibre.
In short, Poznan, for military reasons, should not be
relinquished. As though it were not possible to raze the
fortress, which, according to Willisen, is one of the greatest

strategic blunders, and to fortify Breslau instead. But ten
million (incidentally this is again not true—barely five mil
lion) have been invested, and it is of course more advan
tageous to keep this precious work of art with 20 to 30
square miles of Polish land into the bargain.
With the “city and fortress” of Poznan in one’s hands,
it will be all the easier to seize still more.
“But to keep the fortress it will be necessary to secure its ap
proaches from Glogau, Kiistrin and Thorn as well as a fortified area
facing the east” (it need be only 1,000 to 2,000 paces wide, like that of
Maestricht facing Belgium and Limburg). “This,” continues Herr Stenzel
with a smile of satisfaction, “will at the same time ensure undisturbed
possession of the Bromberg canal; but numerous areas with a pre
dominantly Polish population will have to be incorporated into the
German Confederation.”
It was for all these reasons that Pfuel von Hbllenstein,58
the well-known philanthropist, carried through two new
partitions of Poland, thus meeting all the desires of Herr
Stenzel and incorporating three-fourths of the Grand Duchy
into Germany. Herr Stenzel is the more grateful for this
procedure, since the revival of Louis XIV’s chambers of
reunion59 with augmented powers must evidently have
demonstrated to this historian that the Germans have learned
to apply the lessons of history.
According to Herr Stenzel, the Poles ought to find con
solation in the fact that their share of the land is more
fertile than the incorporated territory, that there is con
siderably less landed property in their part than in that
of the Germans and that “no unbiased person will deny
that the lot of the Polish peasant under a German govern
ment will be far more tolerable than that of the German
peasant under a Polish government”! History provides some
curious examples of this.
Finally, Herr Stenzel tells the Poles that even the small
part left to them will enable them, by practising all the
civic virtues,
“to befittingly prepare themselves for the moment, which at present
is still shrouded in the mists of the future, and which, quite pardonably,
96 FREDERICK ENGELS
they are trying—perhaps too impatiently—to precipitate. One of their

most judicious fellow-citizens exclaimed very pertinently, ‘There is a
crown which is also worthy of your ambition, it is the civic crown? A
German would perhaps add: It does not shine, but it is solid!”
“It is solid!” But even more “solid” are the real reasons
for the last four partitions of Poland by the Prussian govern
ment.
You worthy German—do you believe that the partitions
were undertaken in order to deliver your German brothers
from Polish rule; to have the fortress of Poznan serve as a
bulwark protecting you from any attack; to safeguard the
roads of Kiistrin, Glogau and Bromberg, and the Netze
canal? What a delusion.
You were shamefully deceived. The sole reason for the
recent partitions of Poland was to replenish the Prussian
treasury.
The earlier partitions of Poland up to 1815 were annexa
tions of territory by force of arms; the partitions of 1848
are robbery.
And now, worthy German, see how you have been
deceived!
After the third partition of Poland the estates of the big
Polish feudal lords and those of the Catholic clergy were
confiscated by Frederick William II in favour of the state.
As the Declaration of Appropriation issued on July 28,
1796, says, the estates of the Church in particular “consti
tuted a very considerable part of landed property as a
whole”. The new demesnes were either managed on the
King’s account or leased, and they were so extensive that
34 crown-land offices and 21 forestry divisions had to be set
up for their administration. Each of these crown-land offices
was responsible for a large number of villages; for example,
altogether 636 villages came under the ten offices of the
Bromberg district, and 127 were administered by the Mogilno
crown-land office.
In 1796, moreover, Frederick William II confiscated the
estates and woodlands of the convent at Owinsk and sold
them to the merchant von Tresckow (forefather of the brave
Prussian troop leader in the last heroic war60). These estates
comprised 24 villages with flour mills and 20,000 morgen

*
of forest land, worth at least 1,000,000 thaler.
Furthermore, the crown-land offices of Krotoschin, Roz-
drazewo, Orpiszewo and Adelnau, worth at least two million
thaler, were in 1819 made over to the Prince of Thurn und
Taxis to compensate him for the post-office privileges in
several provinces which had become part of Prussia.
Frederick William II took over all these estates on the
pretext that he could administer them better. Nevertheless,
these estates, the property of the Polish nation, were given
away, ceded or sold, and the proceeds flowed into the
Prussian treasury.
The crown lands in Gnesen, Skorzencin and Trzemeszno
were broken up and sold.
Thus 27 crown-land offices and forestry divisions, to a
value of twenty million thaler at the very least, still remain
in the hands of the Prussian government. We are prepared
to prove, map in hand, that all these demesnes and forests—
with very few exceptions, if any at all—are located in the
incorporated part of Poznan. To prevent this rich treasure
from reverting to the Polish nation it had to be absorbed
into the German Confederation, and since it could not go
to the German Confederation, the German Confederation
had to come to it, and three-fourths of Poznan were incor
porated.
That is the true reason for the four famous partitions
of Poland within two months. Neither the protests of
this or that nationality nor alleged strategic reasons were
decisive—the frontier was determined solely by the posi
tion of the demesnes, and the rapacity of the Prussian gov
ernment.
While German citizens were shedding bitter tears over
the invented sufferings of their poor brothers in Poznan,
while they were waxing enthusiastic about the safety of the
Eastern Marches, and while they allowed themselves to be
provoked to anger against the Poles by false reports about
* An old German land measure, varying in different localities between

0.25 and 1.23 hectares.—Tr.
7—509
98 FREDERICK ENGELS
Polish barbarities, the Prussian government acted on the

quiet, and feathered its nest. This German enthusiasm
without rhyme or reason merely served to disguise the dirtiest
deed in modern history.
That, my worthy German, is how you are treated by your
responsible ministers!
Actually however you ought to have known this before
hand. Whenever Herr Hansemann has a hand in something,
it is never a matter of German nationality, military necessity
or suchlike empty phrases, but always a matter of cash pay
ment and of net profit.
[HI]
Cologne, August 19. We have examined in detail Herr

Stenzel’s report, which forms the basis of the debate. We
have shown that he falsifies both the earlier and the more
recent history of Poland and of the Germans in Poland, that
he confuses the whole issue, and that Stenzel the historian
is not only guilty of deliberate falsification but also of gross
ignorance.
Before dealing with the debate itself we must take another
look at the Polish question.
The problem of Poznan taken by itself is quite meaning
less and insoluble. It is a fragment of the Polish problem and
can only be solved in connection with and as a part of it.
Only when Poland exists again will it be possible to determine
the borders between Germany and Poland.
But can and will Poland exist again? This was denied
during the debate.
A French historian said: Il y a des peuples necessaires—
there are necessary nations. The Polish nation is undoubt
edly one of the necessary nations of the nineteenth century.
But for no one is Poland’s national existence a greater
necessity than it is for us Germans.
What is the main support of the reactionary forces in
Europe since 1815, and to some extent even since the first
French revolution? It is the Russian-Prussian-Austrian
Holy AllianceAnd what holds the Holy Alliance togeth
er? The partition of Poland, by which all the three allies

have profited.
The tearing asunder of Poland by the three powers is
the tie which links them together; the robbery they jointly
committed makes them support each other.
From the moment the first robbery of Polish territory
was committed Germany became dependent on Russia.
Russia ordered Prussia and Austria to remain absolute
monarchies, and Prussia and Austria had to obey. The efforts
to secure control—efforts which were in any case feeble and
timid, especially on the part of the Prussian bourgeoisie—
failed entirely because of the impossibility of breaking away
from Russia, and because of the support which Russia offered
the feudalist-absolutist class in Prussia.
Moreover, as soon as the Allies attempted to introduce
the first oppressive measures the Poles not only rose to
fight for their independence, but simultaneously came out
in revolutionary action against their own internal social
conditions.
The partition of Poland was effected through a pact
between the big feudal aristocracy of Poland and the three
partitioning powers. It was not an advance, as the ex-poet
Herr Jordan contends, it was the last means the big aristoc
racy had to protect itself against a revolution, it was reac
tionary to the core.
Already the first partition led quite naturally to an alliance
of the other classes, i.e., the nobles, the townspeople and to
some extent the peasants, both against the oppressors of
Poland and against the big Polish aristocracy. The constitu
tion of 179162 shows that even then the Poles clearly under
stood that their independence in foreign affairs was insepa
rable from the overthrow of the aristocracy and from the
agrarian reform within the country.
The big agrarian countries between the Baltic and the
Black seas can free themselves from patriarchal feudal bar
barism only by an agrarian revolution, which turns the peas
ants who are enthralled or liable to labour services into
free landowners, a revolution which would be similar to
the French Revolution of 1789 in the countryside. It is to the
7*
100 FREDERICK ENGELS
credit of the Polish nation that it was the first of all its
agricultural neighbours to proclaim this. The first attempted
reform was the constitution of 1791; during the uprising
of 1830 Lelewel declared the agrarian revolution to be the
only means of saving the country, but the parliament recog
nised this too late; during the insurrections of 1846 and
1848 the agrarian revolution was openly proclaimed.
From the day of their subjugation the Poles came out
with revolutionary demands, thereby committing their
oppressors still more strongly to a counter-revolutionary
course. They compelled their oppressors to maintain the
patriarchal feudal structure not only in Poland but in all their
other countries as well. The struggle for the independence
of Poland, particularly since the Cracow uprising of 1846,
is at the same time a struggle of agrarian democracy—the
only form of democracy possible in Eastern Europe—against
patriarchal feudal absolutism.
So long, therefore, as we help to subjugate Poland, so
long as we keep a part of Poland tied to Germany, we our
selves remain tied to Russia and to the Russian policy, and
shall be unable to eradicate patriarchal feudal absolutism
in Germany. The creation of a democratic Poland is a pri
mary condition for the creation of a democratic Germany.
But the restoration of Poland and the settlement of her
frontiers with Germany is not only necessary, it is the most
easily solvable of all the political problems which have
arisen in Eastern Europe since the revolution. The struggle
for independence of the diverse nationalities jumbled togeth
er south of the Carpathians is much more complicated and
will lead to far more bloodshed, confusion and civil
wars than the Polish struggle for independence and the
establishment of the border line between Germany and
Poland.
Needless to say, it is not a question of restoring a seeming
ly independent Poland, but of restoring the state upon a
viable foundation. Poland must have at least the dimensions
of 1772, she must comprise not only the territories but
also the estuaries of her big rivers and a large seaboard at
least on the Baltic.
The Germans could have secured all this for Poland and
at the same time protected their own interests and their
honour, if after the revolution they had had the courage,
for their own sake, arms in hand, to demand that Russia
relinquish Poland. Owing to the commingling of Germans
and Poles in the border regions and especially along the
coast, it goes without saying—and this would create no
difficulties—that both parties would have had to make some
concessions to one another, some Germans becoming Polish
and some Poles German.
After the indecisive German revolution, however, the
courage for so resolute an action was lacking. It is all very
well to make florid speeches about the liberation of Poland
and to welcome passing Poles at railway stations, offering
them the most ardent sympathies of the German people
(to whom had these sympathies not been offered?); but to
start a war with Russia, to endanger the European balance
of power and, to cap all, hand over some scraps of the
annexed territory—only one who does not know the Germans
could expect that.
And what would a war with Russia have meant? A war
with Russia would have meant a complete, open and effec
tive break with the whole of our disgraceful past, the real
liberation and unification of Germany, and the establishment
of democracy on the ruins of feudalism, on the wreckage of
the short-lived bourgeois dream of power. War with Russia
would have been the only possible way of vindicating our
honour and our interests with regard to our Slav neighbours,
notably the Poles.
But we were philistines and have remained philistines. We
made several dozen small and big revolutions, of which we
ourselves took fright even before they were accomplished.
We talked big, but carried nothing through. The revolution
narrowed our mental horizon instead of broadening it. All
problems were approached from the standpoint of the most
timid, most narrow-minded, most illiberal philistinism, to
the detriment, of course, of our real interests. From the
angle of this petty philistinism, the major issue of Poland’s
liberation was reduced to the piddling slogan calling for
reorganisation of a part of the Province of Poznan, while

our enthusiasm for the Poles turned into shrapnel and lunar
caustic.
War with Russia, we repeat, was the only possible means
of upholding Germany’s honour and Germany’s interests.
We shrank from it and the inevitable happened—the reac
tionary military, beaten in Berlin, raised their head again in
Poznan; under the pretext of saving Germany’s honour and
national integrity they raised the banner of counter-revolu
tion and crushed our allies, the revolutionary Poles—and for
a moment the hoodwinked Germans exultantly cheered their
victorious enemies. The new partition of Poland was accom
plished, and only the sanction of the German National
Assembly was still missing.
The Frankfurt Assembly still had a chance to mend
matters: it should have excluded the whole of Poznan from
the German Confederation and left the border question open
until it could be discussed with a restored Poland d’ egal a
egal.
But that would be asking too much of our professors,
lawyers and pastors who sit in the Frankfurt National
Assembly. The temptation was too great. These peaceful
burghers, who had never fired a rifle, were, by simply rising
or remaining seated, to conquer for Germany a country of
500 square miles and to incorporate 800,000 Netze brethren,
German Poles, Jews and Poles, even though this was to be
done at the expense of the honour and of the real, lasting
interests of Germany—what a temptation! They succumbed
to it, they endorsed the partition of Poland.
What the motives were, we shall see tomorrow.
Written by Engels
Neue Rheinische Zeitung Nos. 70,
73 and 81,
August 9, 12 and 20, 1848
THE ITALIAN LIBERATION STRUGGLE
AND THE CAUSE OF ITS PRESENT FAILURE
With the same celerity with which they were expelled

from Lombardy in March, the Austrians have now returned
in triumph and have already entered Milan.
The Italian people spared no pains. They were prepared
to sacrifice life and property to complete the work they had
begun and win national independence.
But this courage, enthusiasm and readiness to make sacri
fices were nowhere matched by those who stood at the helm.
Overtly or covertly, they did everything to use the means
at their disposal, not for the liberation of the country from
the harsh Austrian tyranny, but to paralyse the popular
forces and, in effect, to restore the old conditions as soon as
possible.
The Pope,
* who was worked on more and more every day
and won over by the Austrian and Jesuitical politicians, put
all the obstacles in the way of the Mamiani ministry which
he, in conjunction with the “Blacks” and the “Black-Yel
lows”63 could find. The ministry itself delivered highly
patriotic speeches in both chambers, but did not have the
energy to carry out its good intentions.
The government of Tuscany distinguished itself by fine
words and even fewer deeds. But the arch-enemy of Italian
liberty among the native princes was and remains Karl
Albert. The Italians should have repeated and borne in mind
every hour of the day the saying: Heaven protect us from
our friends and we shall protect ourselves against our ene
mies. They hardly needed to fear Ferdinand of Bourbon,
he was unmasked long ago. Karl Albert, on the other hand,
let himself be acclaimed everywhere as “la spada d’Italia”
(the sword of Italy) and the hero whose rapier was Italy’s
best guarantee of freedom and independence.
* Pius IX.-Ed.
His emissaries went all over Northern Italy portraying

him as the only man who could and would save the country.
To enable him to do this, however, it was necessary to set
up a North Italian kingdom. Only this could give him the
power required not only to oppose the Austrians but to drive
them out of Italy. The ambition which had first made him
join forces with the Carbonari,64 whom he had afterwards
betrayed, this ambition became more inflamed than ever and
made him dream of a plenitude of power and magnificence
before which the splendour of all the other Italian princes
would very soon pale. He thought that he could appropriate
the entire popular movement of 1848 and use it in the
interests of his own miserable self. Filled with hatred and
distrust of all truly liberal men, he surrounded himself with
people more or less loyal to absolutism and inclined to
encourage his royal ambitions. He placed at the head of
the army generals whose intellectual superiority and political
views he did not have to fear, but who neither enjoyed the
confidence of the soldiers nor possessed the talent required
to wage a successful war. He pompously called himself the
“liberator” of Italy while making it a condition that those
who were to be liberated accept his yoke. Seldom was a man
so favoured by circumstances as he was. His greed, his desire
to possess as much as he could led in the end to his losing
everything he had gained. So long as there was no firm
decision that Lombardy would join Piedmont, so long as
the possibility of a republican form of government still
existed, he remained in his entrenchments and did not move
against the Austrians, although they were relatively weak
at the time. He let Radetzky, d’Aspre, Welden, and others
seize the towns and fortresses of the Venetian provinces one
by one and did not stir a finger. Only when Venice sought
the refuge of his crown did he deign to give his help. The
same applies to Parma and Modena. Radetzky meanwhile
had mustered strength and made all preparations for an
attack which, in view of the inability and blindness of Karl
Albert and his generals, led to a decisive victory. The out
come is well known. Henceforth Italians can and will no
longer entrust their liberation to a prince or king. On the
ITALIAN LIBERATION STRUGGLE 105
contrary, in order to save themselves they must completely

discard this useless “spada d’Italia” as quickly as possible.
If they had done this earlier, and had superannuated the
King with his system and all the hangers-on, and had
formed a democratic union, it is likely that by now there
would have been no more Austrians in Italy. Instead, the
Italians not only bore all the hardships of a war waged
with fury and barbarity by their enemies and suffered the
heaviest sacrifices in vain, but were left, defenceless, to the
tender mercies of the vindictive Metternich-Austrian reac
tionaries and their soldiery. Anyone reading Radetzky’s
manifestos to the people of Lombardy and Welden’s mani
festos to the Roman legations will understand that to the
Italians Attila and his Hun hordes would have appeared
merciful angels. The reaction and restoration have triumphed.
The Duke of Modena, called “it carnefice” (the hangman),
who loaned the Austrians 1,200,000 florins for war purposes,
has returned as well. The people, in their magnanimity, have
so often made a stick for their own back, that it is time they
got wiser and learned something from their enemies.
Although, during his previous reign, the Duke had impris
oned, hanged and shot thousands of people for their political
convictions, the Modenese let him depart unmolested. Now
he has returned to discharge his sanguinary princely office
with redoubled zeal.
The reaction and restoration have triumphed, but only for
a time. The people are so deeply imbued with the revolu
tionary spirit that they cannot be held in check for long.
Milan, Brescia and other towns showed in March what this
spirit is capable of. The excessive suffering inflicted upon
them will lead to a new rising. By taking into account the
bitter experience of the past months, Italy will be able to
avoid new delusions and to secure her independence under
a single democratic banner.
Written by Engels
on August 11, 1848
August 12, 1848
THE ZEITUNGS-HAL LEON THE RHINE PROVINCE
Cologne, August 26. The Berliner Zeitungs-Halle®> carries

the following paragraph:
“We recently had occasion to mention that the time has come when
the spirit which for so long has held together the old political entities
is gradually vanishing. As regards Austria hardly anyone will call this
in question, but in Prussia, too, the signs of the times confirming our
observation are becoming daily more manifest, and we cannot turn a
blind eye to them. There is at present only one interest capable of tying
the various provinces to the Prussian state, namely, that of developing
liberal political institutions and jointly establishing and promoting a
new and free mode of social relations. Silesia, which is making vigorous
advances on the road to political and social progress, will hardly be
happy in Prussia unless Prussia as a state is entirely adequate to these
aspirations. As regards the Province of Saxony we know only too well
that ever since its incorporation into the Prussian state it has resented it
at heart. And as to the Rhineland, surely everybody will still remember
the threats made by the Rhenish deputies prior to March 18, which
helped to precipitate the turn of events. There is a growing spirit of
alienation in this province. New evidence of this is provided in a now
rather widely distributed leaflet which contains no mention of the pub
lisher or place of publication.”
The leaflet referred to by the Zeitungs-Halle is presum
ably known to all our readers.
What must please us is the view—which is at last advanced
by at least one Berliner—that Berlin does not play the role
of Paris as far as either Germany or the Rhineland in
particular is concerned. Berlin is beginning to realise that
it cannot govern us, cannot acquire the authority befitting
a capital city. Berlin has amply proved its incompetence
during the indecisive March revolution, during the storming
of the armoury and during the recent disturbances.66 To the
irresolution displayed by the people of Berlin is added a
THE ZEITVNGS-HALLE ON THE RHINE PROVINCE 107
complete lack of talent in all parties. Since February the

whole movement has not produced a single man capable of
leading his party. The spirit in this “capital of the spirit”
is indeed very willing but just as weak as the flesh. The
Berliners even had to import their Hansemann, their Camp
hausen and their Milde from the Rhine or Silesia. Far from
being a German Paris, Berlin is not even a Prussian Vienna.
It is not a metropolis, it is a “seat of the court”.
It is, however, noteworthy that even in Berlin people are
coming to the conclusion, long widespread in the Rhine
land, that German unity can come about only as a result of
the disintegration of the German so-called great powers.
We have never concealed our views on this point. We are
not enraptured with either the past or present glory of
Germany, with either the wars of independence or the
“glorious victories of German arms” in Lombardy and
Schleswig. But if Germany is ever to achieve anything she
must unite, she must become one state in deed as well as
in word. And to bring this about it is necessary above all
that there should be “neither an Austria nor a Prussia”.67
Incidentally, “the spirit” which “for so long held togeth
er” us and the old Prussian provinces was a palpable,
crude spirit; it was the spirit of 15,000 bayonets and a
number of cannon. It was not for nothing that military units
of Silesian Poles and Kasubians were stationed here on the
Rhine, and that our young men had to serve in guards regi
ments in Berlin. This was done not in order to reconcile us
with the other provinces, but to stir up hatred between the
provinces and to exploit the national enmity between the
Germans and Slavs, and the regional hatred of every petty
German province against all the neighbouring provinces, in
the interests of patriarchal feudal despotism. Divide et
impera!
It is indeed time to put an end to the fictitious role assigned
to the Berliners by “the provinces”, i.e., by the junkerdom
of the Uckermark and Further Pomerania, in their panic-
stricken declarations, a role which the Berliners promptly
accepted. Berlin is not and will never become the seat of the
revolution, the capital of democracy. Only the imagination
of the knights of Brandenburg, terrified at the prospect of

bankruptcy, the debtor’s prison and the lamppost, could
ascribe to Berlin such a role, and only the coquettish vanity
of the Berliners could believe that it represented the prov
inces. We acknowledge the March revolution, but only for
what it really was. Its greatest shortcoming is that it has not
revolutionised the Berliners.
The Zeitungs-Halle believes that the disintegrating Prus
sian state can be cemented by means of liberal institutions.
On the contrary. The more liberal the institutions are, the
freer will it be for the heterogeneous elements to separate,
and the clearer will become the necessity of dissociation and
the incompetence of the politicians of all parties in Berlin.
We repeat, the Rhineland by no means objects to remain
ing together with the old Prussian provinces within Germany,
but trying to compel it to remain for ever within Prussia,
whether it be an absolutist, a constitutional or a democratic
Prussia, is tantamount to making Germany’s unity impos
sible, tantamount even to losing for Germany—we express
the general attitude of the people—a large and beautiful
territory by attempting to keep it for Prussia.
Written by Engels
August 27, 1848
MEDIATION AND INTERVENTION.
RADETZKY AND CAVAIGNAC
The armistice68 concluded as the result of Karl Albert’s

treachery will expire in about three weeks (on September 21).
France and Britain have offered to act as mediators. The
Spectateur republicain, Cavaignac’s paper, writes that Aus
tria has not yet stated whether she will accept or decline the
offer. France’s dictator is getting annoyed over the discour
tesy of the Austrians and threatens armed intervention if by
a given date the Viennese cabinet does not reply, or rejects
mediation. Will Austria allow a Cavaignac to prescribe the
peace terms to her, especially now after the victory over
democracy in Vienna and over the Italian “rebels”? Austria
understands perfectly well that the French bourgeoisie wants
“peace at any price”, that the freedom or bondage of the
Italians is altogether a matter of complete indifference to
the bourgeoisie and that it will agree to anything so long
as it is not openly humiliated and thus reluctantly compelled
to draw the sword. It is said that Radetzky will pay a short
visit to Vienna in order to say the decisive word about
mediation. He does not have to travel to Vienna to do that.
His policy has now prevailed, and his opinion will be none
the less weighty for his remaining in Milan. If Austria were
to accept the basis for peace proposed by England and
France, she would do so not because she is afraid of Cavai
gnac’s intervention but for much more pressing and com
pelling reasons.
The Italians were just as much deluded by the March
events as the Germans. The former believed that foreign
rule at any rate was now done with; the latter thought that
the old system was buried for good and all. However, the
foreign rule in Italy is worse than ever, and in Germany
the old system has recovered from the few blows it sustained
in March and it acts with greater ferocity and vindictive
ness than ever before.
The Italians are now making the mistake of expecting sal
vation from the present government of France. Only the fall
of this government could save them. The Italians are fur
ther mistaken when they regard the liberation of their coun
try as feasible while democracy in France, Germany and
other countries continues to lose ground. Reaction, to whose
blows Italy has succumbed, is not merely an Italian phenom
enon, it is a European phenomenon. Italy alone cannot pos
sibly free herself from the grip of this reaction, least of all
by appealing to the French bourgeoisie, which is a true pillar
of reaction in Europe as a whole.
Before reaction can be destroyed in Italy and Germany,
it must be routed in France. A democratic social republic
must first be proclaimed in France and the French proletar
iat must first subjugate its bourgeoisie, before a lasting
democratic victory is conceivable in Italy, Germany, Poland,
Hungary and other countries.
Written by Engels
on August 31, 1848
September 1, 1848
THE ANTWERP DEATH SENTENCES
Cologne, September 2. Belgium, the model constitutional

state, has produced further brilliant proof of the excellence
of her institutions. Seventeen death sentences resulting from
the ridiculous Risquons-Tout affair! Seventeen death sen
tences to avenge the humiliation inflicted upon the prudish
Belgian nation by a few imprudent men, a few hopeful fools,
who attempted to raise a small corner of the constitutional
cloak! Seventeen death sentences—what savagery!
The Risquons-Tout incident is well known. Belgian work
ers in Paris joined forces to attempt a republican invasion
of their country. Belgian democrats came from Brussels to
support the venture. Ledru-Rollin assisted as much as he
could. Lamartine, the “noble-minded” traitor, who was not
sparing of fine words and ignoble deeds as far as both the
foreign and French democrats were concerned—Lamartine,
who prides himself on having conspired with the anarchists,
like a lightning conductor with the lightning—Lamartine at
first supported the Belgian Legion the better to be able
later to betray it. The Legion set out. Delescluze, Prefect of
the Department du Nord, sold the first column to Belgian
railway officials; the train which carried them was treacher
ously hauled into Belgian territory right into the midst of
the Belgian bayonets. The second column was led by three
Belgian spies (we were told this by a member of the Paris
Provisional Government, and the course of events confirms
it), and these treacherous leaders brought it into a forest on
Belgian territory, where an ambush of loaded guns was wait
ing for it. The column was shot down and most of its mem
bers were captured.
This tiny episode of the 1848 revolution—an episode

which assumed a farcical aspect as a result of the many
betrayals and the magnitude ascribed to it in Belgium—
served the Brussels prosecutor as a canvas on which to em
broider the most colossal plot that was ever devised. Old
General Mellinet, the liberator of Antwerp, Tedesco and
Ballin, in short the most resolute and most active democrats
of Brussels, Liege and Ghent were implicated. Mr. Bavay
would even have Mr. Jottrand of Brussels dragged into it,
had not the latter known things and possessed documents
whose publication would greatly compromise the entire Bel
gian government, the wise Leopold included.
Why were these democrats arrested, why were these
monstrous proceedings started against men who knew as
much about the whole thing as the jurymen who faced
them? It was meant to scare the Belgian bourgeoisie and,
under cover of this scare, to collect the excessive taxes and
forced loans, which are the cement of the glorious Belgian
political edifice, and the payments on which were rather
behindhand.
In short, the accused were arraigned before the Antwerp
jury, the elite of the Flemish faro-playing fraternity, who
lack both the elan of French political dedication and the
cool assurance of grandiose English materialism, i.e., before
those dried-cod merchants who spend their whole life vege
tating in philistine utilitarianism, in the most short-sighted
and timid profiteering. The great Bavay knew his men and
appealed to their fear.
Indeed, had anyone ever seen a republican in Antwerp?
Now thirty-two of the monsters faced the terrified men of
Antwerp, and the trembling jury in concert with the wise
bench consigned seventeen of the accused to the tender
mercies of Article 86 and others of the Code penal, i.e., the
death sentence.
Mock trials were also held during the Reign of Terror in
1793, and convictions based on other facts than those officially
stated did occur, but even the fanatical Fouquier-Tinville did
not conduct a trial so distinguished by clumsy barefaced lies
and blind partisan hatred. Moreover, is Belgium in the grip
THE ANTWERP DEATH SENTENCES 113
of a civil war and are the armies of half Europe assembled at

her frontiers conspiring with the rebels, as was the case in
France in 1793? Is the country in danger? Has a crack ap
peared in the crown? On the contrary, no one intends to
subjugate Belgium, and the wise Leopold still drives every
day without an escort from Laeken to Brussels and from
Brussels to Laeken.
What has the 81-year-old Mellinet done to be sentenced
to death by jury and judges? The old soldier of the French
republic saved the last spark of Belgian honour in 1831. He
liberated Antwerp and in return Antwerp condemns him to
death! His only sin is that he defended his old friend Becker
against the insinuations of the Belgian official press and did
not change his friendly attitude towards Becker even when
the latter was plotting in Paris. Mellinet was in no way
connected with the plot. And because of this he is without
further ado sentenced to death.
As to Ballin, he was a friend of Mellinet’s, often visited
him, and was seen in the company of Tedesco in a coffee
house. Reason enough to sentence him to death.
And finally Tedesco. Had he not visited the German
Workers’ Association, did he not associate with people on
whom the Belgian police had planted stage daggers? Had
he not been seen with Ballin in a coffee-house? The case
was established—Tedesco had provoked the great battle of
Risquons-Tout—off to the scaffold with him!
And so with the others.
We are proud of being able to call many of these “conspir
ators”, sentenced to death only because they are democrats,
our friends. If the venal Belgian press slings mud at them,
then we, at least, want to vindicate their honour before the
face of German democracy; if their country disowns them,
we want to acclaim them.
When the president of the court pronounced the sentence
of death, they passionately exclaimed: “Long live the
republic!” Throughout the whole procedure and the reading
of the sentence they behaved with truly revolutionary stead
fastness.
As against this we read in the wretched Belgian press:
8—509
“The verdict,” writes the Journal d’Anvers, “has caused no more of

a sensation in the city than the entire trial, which aroused hardly any
interest. Only among the working classes” (read: the proletarian rabble)
“can one find sentiments hostile to the paladins of the republic; the rest
of the population hardly took any notice of it. The attempt to bring
about a revolution does not cease to appear absurd even after the death
sentence, which, in any case, no one believes will be executed.”
To be sure, if an interesting spectacle were to be staged
allowing the citizens of Antwerp to watch the guillotining
of seventeen republicans headed by old Mellinet, their liber
ator, then they would certainly have taken notice of the trial.
The savagery of the Belgian government, the Belgian jury
and law courts lies precisely in the fact that they play with
death sentences.
The Liberal Liegeois says: “The government wanted to show its
strength, but it has merely demonstrated its savagery."
But then that has always been the lot of the Flemish nation.
Written by Engels
September 3, 1848
THE DANISH-PRUSSIAN ARMISTICE
Cologne, September 9. Again we revert to the Danish

armistice—we are given time to do this owing to the
thoroughness of the National Assembly, which, instead of
taking prompt and energetic decisions and getting new
ministers appointed, allows the committees to deliberate in
the most leisurely manner and leaves the solution of the
government crisis to God—a thoroughness which barely con
ceals “our dear friends’ lack of courage”.69
The war in Italy was always unpopular with the demo
cratic party, and has for a long time been unpopular even
with the democrats of Vienna. The storm of public indigna
tion over the war of extermination in Poznan could be
staved off only for a few weeks by means of falsifications
and lies on the part of the Prussian government. The street
fighting in Prague, despite all the efforts of the national
press, excited sympathy among the people towards the
defeated, but not towards the victors. The war in Schleswig-
Holstein, however, from the outset was popular also among
the people. What is the reason?
Whereas in Italy, Poznan and Prague the Germans were
fighting the revolution, in Schleswig-Holstein they were
supporting it. The Danish war is the first revolutionary war
waged by Germany. We therefore advocated a resolute con
duct of the Danish war, from the very beginning, but this
does not in any way denote kinship with the sea-girt bour
geois beer-garden enthusiasm.
A sad thing for Germany that her first revolutionary war
is the most ridiculous war ever waged.
But come to the point. The Danish nation is in commer
cial, industrial, political and literary matters completely
»♦
dependent on Germany. It is well known that the real

capital of Denmark is not Copenhagen but Hamburg; that
for a whole year the Danish government copied all the
United Provincial Diet experiments conducted by the Prus
sian government, which passed away on the barricades; that
Denmark obtains all her literary as well as material fare via
Germany, and that apart from Holberg, Danish literature
is a poor imitation of that of Germany.
Impotent though Germany has been from time immemo
rial, she has the satisfaction of knowing that the Scandina
vian nations, and especially Denmark, have fallen under her
sway, and that compared with them she is even revolution
ary and progressive.
Do you require proofs? Then read the polemics carried
on by the Scandinavian nations against each other ever since
the concept of Scandinavianism arose. Scandinavianism is
enthusiasm for the brutal, sordid, piratical, Old Norse na
tional traits, for that profound inner life which is unable to
express its exuberant ideas and sentiments in words, but can
express them only in deeds, namely, in rudeness towards
women, perpetual drunkenness and the wild frenzy of the
Berserker alternating with tearful sentimentality.
Scandinavianism and the theory of kinship with sea-girt
Schleswig-Holstein appeared simultaneously in the states of
the King of Denmark. The two concepts are correlated; they
evoked each other and were in conflict with each other,
thereby asserting their existence.
Scandinavianism was the pattern of the Danes’ appeals
for Swedish and Norwegian support. But as always happens
with the Christian-Teutonic nation, a dispute immediately
arose as to who was the genuine Christian-Teuton, the true
Scandinavian. The Swede contended that the Dane had
become “Germanised” and had degenerated, the Norwegian
said the same of the Swede and the Dane, and the Icelander
of all three. Obviously, the more primitive a nation is, the
more closely its customs and way of life resemble those of the
Old Norse people, the more “Scandinavian” it must be.
The Christiania Morgenbladet™ for November 18, 1846,
is lying in front of us. This charming sheet contains the
THE DANISH-PRUSSIAN ARMISTICE 117
following amusing passages in an article on Scandinavian

ism.
After stating that the whole concept of Scandinavianism
is nothing but an attempt by the Danes to create a movement
in their own interest, the paper says:
“What have these gay vivacious people in common with the ancient,
gloomy and melancholy world of warriors [med den gamle, alvorlige og
vemodsfulde Kjampeverden)? How can this nation, which—as even a
Danish writer admits—has a docile and gentle disposition, believe itself
to be spiritually related to the tough, lusty and vigorous men of a past
age? And how can these people with their soft southern accent imagine
that they speak a northern tongue? Although the main trait of our
nation and the Swedes, like that of ancient Northerners, is that our
feelings are kept hidden in the innermost part of the soul, and not given
outward expression, nevertheless these sentimental and affectionate peo
ple, who can so easily be astonished, moved and swayed and who wear
their hearts upon their sleeves, nevertheless these people believe that
they are of a northern cast and that they are related to the two other
Scandinavian nations!”
The Morgenbladet attributes the degeneration of the
Danes to their association with Germany and the spread of
German traits in Denmark. The Germans have indeed
“lost their most sacred asset, their national character; but feeble and
insipid though the German nation is, there is another nation still more
feeble and insipid, namely, the Danes. While the German language is
being ousted in Alsace, Vaud and on the Slav border” (!the services of
the Netze brethren remained unnoticed at the time) “it has made enor
mous progress along the Danish border.”
The Danes, we are told, now had to oppose their nation
ality to the Germans and for this purpose they invented
Scandinavianism. The Danes were unable to resist,
“for the Danish nation, as we have said before, was essentially Ger
manised, although it did not adopt the German language. The writer of
these lines has seen it admitted in a Danish paper that the Danish nation
does not differ essentially from the German nation."
Thus the Morgenbladet.
Of course, it cannot be denied that the Danes are a more
or less civilised nation. Poor Danes!
By the same right under which France took Flanders,
Lorraine and Alsace, and will sooner or later take Belgium
—by that same right Germany takes over Schleswig; it is
the right of civilisation as against barbarism, of progress as

against static stability. Even if the agreements were in
Denmark’s favour—which is very doubtful—this right
carries more weight than all the agreements, for it is the
right of historical evolution.
So long as the Schleswig-Holstein movement remained a
purely legal philistine agitation of a civic and peaceful
nature it merely filled well-meaning petty bourgeois with
enthusiasm. When, before the outbreak of the February
revolution, the present King of Denmark at his accession
promised a liberal constitution for all his states, envisaging
the same number of deputies for the duchies as for Denmark,
and the duchies were opposed to this, the petty-bourgeois
parochial nature of the Schleswig-Holstein movement
became distastefully conspicuous. The issue, at that time, was
not so much union with Germany—did a Germany exist at
that time?—as separation from Denmark and establishment
of a small independent parochial state.
But then came the revolution, which imparted to the
movement a different character. The Schleswig-Holstein
party was forced either to attempt a revolution or to perish.
It quite correctly chose the revolution. The Danish promises,
which were very favourable before the revolution, were quite
inadequate after the revolution; union with Germany—for
merly an empty phrase—now acquired meaning. Germany
made a revolution and as usual Denmark copied it on a small
provincial scale.
The Schleswig-Holstein revolution and the Provisional
Government to which it gave rise behaved at first still in a
rather philistine way, but the war soon compelled them to
adopt a democratic course. This government, whose members
are all moderate liberal worthies, formerly kindred spirits
of Weicker, Gagern and Camphausen, has given Schleswig-
Holstein laws which are more democratic than those of any
other German state. The Kiel Provincial Assembly is the
only German assembly based on universal suffrage and
direct elections. The draft constitution which the govern
ment submitted to it was the most democratic constitution
ever drawn up in the German language. As a result of the
THE DANISH-PRUSSIAN ARMISTICE 119
revolutionary war, Schleswig-Holstein, which had always

trailed behind Germany in political matters, suddenly
acquired more progressive institutions than the rest of Ger
many.
The war we are waging in Schleswig-Holstein is there
fore a truly revolutionary war.
And who, from the outset, supported Denmark? The three
most counter-revolutionary powers in Europe—Russia, Eng
land and the Prussian government. As long as it was possible
the Prussian government merely pretended to be waging a
war—this is evidenced by Wildenbruch’s Note, by the alacrity
with which the Prussian government, on the representations
of England and Russia, ordered the withdrawal from Jut
land, and finally by the two armistice agreements. Prussia,
England and Russia are the three powers which have greater
reason than anyone else to fear the German revolution and
its first result—German unity: Prussia because she would
thereby cease to exist, England because it would deprive
her of the possibility of exploiting the German market, and
Russia because it would spell the advance of democracy not
only to the Vistula but even as far as the Dvina and the
Dnieper. Prussia, England and Russia have conspired against
Schleswig-Holstein, against Germany and against the revo
lution.
The war that may now arise from the decisions taken at
Frankfurt would be a war waged by Germany against Prus
sia, England and Russia. This is just the kind of war that
the flagging German movement needs—a war against the
three great counter-revolutionary powers, a war which would
really cause Prussia to merge into Germany, which would
make an alliance with Poland an indispensable necessity and
would lead to the immediate liberation of Italy; a war
which would be directed against Germany’s old counter
revolutionary allies of 1792-1815, a war which would “im
peril the fatherland” and for that very reason save it by
making the victory of Germany dependent on the victory of
democracy.
The bourgeois and titled landowners at Frankfurt should
not deceive themselves—if they decide to reject the armistice
they will be setting the seal to their own downfall, just as

the Girondins did during the first revolution when they took
part in the events of August 10 and voted for the death of
the ex-King, thereby preparing their own downfall on
May 31. If, on the other hand, they accept the armistice,
they will still be sealing their own downfall: they will be
placing themselves under the jurisdiction of Prussia and
cease to have any say in things. It is up to them to choose.
The news of Hansemann’s downfall probably reached
Frankfurt before the vote was taken. This may influence the
vote significantly, especially since it is expected that a gov
ernment of Waldeck and Rodbertus will follow who, as we
know, recognise the sovereignty of the National Assembly.
The future will show. But we repeat—Germany’s honour
is in bad hands.
Written by Engels
September 10, 1848
THE CRISIS AND THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION71
[I]
Cologne, September 11. Anyone reading the reports from
Berlin printed below can judge for himself whether we pre
dicted the course of the government crisis correctly. The
ministers resigned and it seems that the camarilla did not
approve of the government’s plan to dissolve the Assembly
of conciliation and to use martial law and guns in order to
remain in office. The titled landowners from the Branden
burg backwoods are thirsting for a conflict with the people
and a repetition of the Parisian June scenes in the streets
of Berlin, but they will never fight for the Hansemann gov
ernment, they will fight for a government of the Prince of
Prussia. The choice will fall on Radowitz, Vincke and simi
lar reliable men who are strangers to the Berlin Assembly
and are in no way committed to it. The government of the
Prince of Prussia which is to be bestowed on us will com
prise the cream of the Prussian and Westphalian knights
associated for form’s sake with a few bourgeois worthies
from the extreme Right, such as Beckerath and his like,
to whom will be assigned the conduct of the prosaic com
mercial side of the business of state. Meanwhile hundreds
of rumours are being spread, Waldeck or Rodbertus is per
haps summoned, and public opinion is misled, while at the
same time military preparations are being made to come
out openly at the appropriate moment.
We are facing a decisive struggle. The concurrent crises
at Frankfurt and Berlin and the latest decisions of the two
Assemblies compel the counter-revolution to give its last
battle. If the people in Berlin dare to spurn the constitu
tional principle of majority rule, if they confront the 219
members of the majority with twice as many guns, if they
122 KARL MARX
dare to defy the majority not only in Berlin but also in

Frankfurt by presenting to them a government which is
quite unacceptable to either of the two Assemblies—if they
thus provoke a civil war between Prussia and Germany, then
the democrats know what they have to do.
HI]
Cologne, September 12. Although already by midday we

may receive news of the definite formation of an imperial
government as described by us yesterday and confirmed
from other quarters, the government crisis in Berlin con
tinues. There are only two solutions to this crisis:
Either a Waldeck government, recognition of the author
ity of the German National Assembly and recognition of
popular sovereignty;
Or a Radowitz-Vincke government, dissolution of the
Berlin Assembly, abolition of the revolutionary gains, a
sham constitutionalism or even the United Provincial Diet.
Don’t let us shut our eyes to the fact that the conflict
which has broken out in Berlin is a conflict not between the
conciliators and the ministers, but between the Assembly,
which for the first time steps forth as a constituent assembly,
and the Crown.
The point is whether or not it will have the courage to
dissolve the Assembly.
But has the Crown the right to dissolve the Assembly?
True, in constitutional states the Crown in case of disputes
has the right to dissolve the legislative chambers convened
on the basis of the constitution and to appeal to the people
by means of new elections.
Is the Berlin Assembly a constitutional, legislative cham
ber?
It is not. It has been convened “to come to an agreement
with the Crown on the Prussian constitution”, it has been
convened not on the basis of a constitution, but on that of a
revolution. It received its mandate by no means from the
Crown or from the ministers answerable to the Crown, but
from those who elected it and from the Assembly itself. The
THE CRISIS AND THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 123
Assembly was sovereign as the legitimate expression of the

revolution, and the mandate which Herr Camphausen jointly
with the United Provincial Diet prepared for it in the shape
of the electoral law of April 8 was nothing but a pious wish,
and it was up to the Assembly to decide about it.
At first the Assembly more or less accepted the theory of
agreement. It realised that in doing so it had been cheated
by the ministers and the camarilla. At last it performed a
sovereign act, stepping forth for a moment as a constituent
assembly and no longer as an assembly of conciliators.
Being the sovereign Assembly of Prussia, it had a perfect
right to do this.
A sovereign assembly, however, cannot be dissolved by
anybody, and cannot be given orders by anybody.
Even as a mere assembly of conciliation, even according
to Herr Camphausen’s own theory, it has equal status with
the Crown. Both parties conclude a political treaty, both
parties have an equal share of sovereignty—that is the
theory of April 8, the Camphausen-Hansemann theory, the
official theory recognised by the Crown itself.
If the Assembly and the Crown have equal rights, then
the Crown has no right to dissolve the Assembly.
Otherwise, to be consistent, the Assembly would also have
the right to depose the King.
The dissolution of the Assembly would therefore be a
coup d’etat. And how people reply to a coup d’etat was
demonstrated on July 29, 1830, and February 24, 1848.72
One may say the Crown could again appeal to the same
voters. But who does not know that today the voters would
elect an entirely different assembly, an assembly which would
treat the Crown with much less ceremony?
Everyone knows that after the dissolution of this Assem
bly it will only be possible to appeal to voters of an entirely
different kind from those of April 8, that the only elections
possible will be elections carried through under the tyranny
of the sword.
Let us have no illusions—
If the Assembly wins and succeeds in setting up a Left
ministry, then the power of the Crown existing alongside
124 KARL MARX
the Assembly is broken, then the King is merely a paid

servant of the people and we return again to the morning
of March 19—provided the Waldeck ministry does not betray
us, as did many a ministry before it.
If the Crown wins and succeeds in setting up a govern
ment of the Prince of Prussia, then the Assembly will be
dissolved, the right of association abolished, the press muz
zled, an electoral law based on property qualifications intro
duced, and, as we have already mentioned, even the United
Provincial Diet may be reinvoked—and all this will be done
under cover of a military dictatorship, guns and bayonets.
Which of the two sides will win depends on the attitude
of the people, especially that of the democratic party. It is
up to the democrats to choose.
We have again the situation of July 25. Will they dare
to issue the decrees being devised in Potsdam? Will the
people be provoked to make the leap from July 26 to
February 24 in a single day?
The will to do it is certainly there, but what about the
courage!
[HI]
Cologne, September 13. The crisis in Berlin has advanced

a step further. The conflict with the Crown, which yesterday
could still be described as inevitable, has actually taken
place.
Our readers will find below the King’s reply to the resig
nation of the ministers.73 By this letter the Crown itself
comes to the fore, sides with the ministers and opposes the
Assembly.
It goes even further—it forms a cabinet outside the As
sembly, it nominates Beckerath, who represents the extreme
Right at Frankfurt and who, as everyone knows, will never
be able to count on the support of the majority in Berlin.
The King’s message is counter-signed by Herr Auerswald.
Let Herr Auerswald, if he can, justify the fact that he thus
uses the Crown to cover up his ignominious retreat, that at
one and the same time he tries to hide behind the constitu
tional principle as far as the Chamber is concerned and

tramples the constitutional principle by compromising the
Crown and invoking the republic.
Constitutional principle! shout the ministers. Constitu
tional principle! shouts the Right. Constitutional principle!
faintly echoes the Kolnische Zeitung.
“Constitutional principle!” Are these gentlemen really so
foolish as to believe that it is possible to extricate the Ger
man people from the storms of 1848, and from the imminent
threat of collapse of all traditional institutions, by means of
the Montesquieu-Delolme worm-eaten theory of division of
powers, by means of worn-out phrases and long exploded
fictions.
“Constitutional principle!” But the very gentlemen who
are out to save the constitutional principle at any price
should realise first of all that at a provisional stage it can
only be saved by energetic action.
“Constitutional principle!” But the vote of the Berlin As
sembly, the clashes between Potsdam and Frankfurt, the dis
turbances, the reactionary attempts, the provocations of the
military—has all this not shown long ago that despite all
the empty talk we are still on revolutionary ground, and the
pretence that we have already reached the stage of an es
tablished, a complete constitutional monarchy only leads to
collisions, which have already brought the “constitutional
principle” to the brink of the abyss?
Every provisional political set-up following a revolution
calls for dictatorship, and an energetic dictatorship at that.
From the very beginning we blamed Camphausen for not
having acted in a dictatorial manner, for not having im
mediately smashed up and removed the remains of the old
institutions. While thus Herr Camphausen indulged in con
stitutional fancies, the defeated party strengthened its po
sitions within the bureaucracy and in the army, and occa
sionally even risked an open fight. The Assembly was con
vened for the purpose of agreeing on the terms of the con
stitution. It existed as an equal party alongside the Crown.
Two equal powers under a provisional arrangement! It was
this division of powers with the aid of which Herr Camp
126 KARL MARX
hausen sought “to save freedom”—it was this very division

of powers under provisional arrangement that was bound
to lead to conflicts. The Crown served as a cover for the
counter-revolutionary aristocratic, military and bureaucratic
camarilla. The bourgeoisie stood behind the majority of the
Assembly. The cabinet tried to mediate. Too weak to stand
up for the bourgeoisie and the peasants and overthrow the
power of the nobility, the bureaucracy and the army chiefs
at one blow, too unskilled to avoid always damaging the
interests of the bourgeoisie by its financial measures, the
cabinet merely succeeded in compromising itself in the eyes
of all the parties and bringing about the very clash it sought
to avoid.
The one important factor in any unconstituted state of
affairs is the salut public, the public welfare, and not this
or that principle. There is only one way in which the gov
ernment could avoid a conflict between the Assembly and
the Crown and that is by recognising the public welfare as
the sole principle, even at the risk of the government itself
coming into conflict with the Crown. But it preferred “not
to compromise” itself in Potsdam. It never hesitated to
employ public welfare measures (mesures de salut public),
dictatorial measures, against the democratic forces. What
else was the application of the old laws to political crimes,
even after Herr Marker had recognised that these articles
of the Civil Code ought to be repealed? What else were the
wholesale arrests in all parts of the kingdom?
But the cabinet carefully refrained from intervening a-
gainst the counter-revolution in the name of public welfare.
It was this half-heartedness of the government in face of
the counter-revolution, which became more menacing with
every day, that compelled the Assembly itself to prescribe
measures of public welfare. If the Crown represented by the
ministers was too weak, then the Assembly itself had to in
tervene. It did so by passing the resolution of August 9.74 It
did so in a still rather mild form, by merely warning the
ministers. The ministers simply took no notice of it.
Indeed, how could they have agreed to it? The resolution
of August 9 flouted the constitutional principle, it is an
encroachment made by the legislative power on the execu

tive power, it undermines the division of powers and the
mutual control, which are essential in the interests of free
dom, it turns the Assembly of conciliation into a National
Convention.
There follows a running fire of threats, a vociferous ap
peal to the fears of the petty bourgeois and the prospect of a
reign of terror with guillotines, progressive taxes, confisca
tions and the red flag.
To compare the Berlin Assembly with the Convention.
What irony!
But these gentlemen were not altogether wrong. If the
government goes on the way it has been doing, we shall
have a Convention before long—not merely for Prussia, but
for Germany as a whole—a Convention which will have to
use all means to cope with the civil war in our twenty Ven
dees and with the inevitable war with Russia. At present,
however, we merely have a parody of the Constituent As
sembly.
But how have the ministers who invoke the constitutional
principle upheld this principle?
On August 9, they calmly allowed the Assembly to break
up in the belief that the ministers would carry out the
resolution. They had no intention of making known to the
Assembly their refusal to do so, and still less of resigning
their office.
They ruminated on the matter for a whole month and
finally, when threatened with parliamentary questions, they
curtly informed the Assembly that it was self-evident that
they would not put the resolution into effect.
When the Assembly thereupon instructs the ministers,
nevertheless, to put the resolution into effect, they take
refuge behind the Crown, and cause a rupture between the
Crown and the Assembly, thus pushing matters towards a
republic.
And these gentlemen still talk about the constitutional
principle!
To sum up:
The inevitable conflict between two powers having equal
128 KARL MARX
rights in a provisional arrangement has broken out. The

cabinet was unable to govern with sufficient energy; it has
failed to take the necessary measures of public welfare. The
Assembly has merely performed its duty in demanding that
the cabinet do its duty. The cabinet declares this to be an
encroachment upon the rights of the Crown and discredits
the Crown at the very moment of its resignation. The Crown
and the Assembly confront each other. The “agreement” has
led to disagreement, to conflict. It is possible that arms will
decide the issue.
The side that has the greater courage and consistency
will win.
[IV]
Cologne, September 15. The government crisis has once

again entered a new phase, due, not to the arrival and vain
efforts of the impossible Herr Beckerath, but to the army
revolt in Potsdam and Nauen. The conflict between democ
racy and aristocracy has broken out even within the guard
regiments. The soldiers consider that the resolution carried
by the Assembly on the 7 th liberates them from the tyranny
of their officers; they send letters of greeting and thanks
to the Assembly.
This has wrenched the sword from the hands of the
counter-revolutionaries. They will not dare now to dissolve
the Assembly, and since this cannot be attempted, they will
have to give in, carry out the resolution of the Assembly
and form a Waldeck cabinet.
It is quite possible that the soldiers in revolt at Potsdam
will save us a revolution.
Written by Marx
Neue Rheinische Zeitung
Nos. 100, 101, 102 and 104,
September 12, 13, 14 and 16,
1848
FREEDOM OF DEBATE IN BERLIN
Cologne, September 16. Ever since the beginning of the

crisis the counter-revolutionary press keeps alleging that the
deliberations of the Berlin Assembly are not free from in
terference. In particular, the well-known correspondent “G”
of the Kolnische Zeitung,15 who also discharges his duties
only “temporarily pending the appointment of a successor”,76
refers with obvious fear to the “8,000 to 10,000 strong fel
lows” in the Kastanienwaldchen who “morally” support their
friends of the Left. The Uossische,1'1 Spenersche™ and other
newspapers have set up a similar wail, and on the 7 th of
this month Herr Reichensperger has even tabled a motion
frankly demanding that the Assembly be removed from
Berlin (to Charlottenburg perhaps?).
The Berliner Zeitungs-Halle™ publishes a long article in
which it tries to refute these accusations. It declares that the
large majority obtained by the Left was by no means in
consistent with the former irresolute attitude of the Assem
bly. It can be shown
“that the voting of the 7th could have taken place without conflicting
with the former attitude even of those members who previously voted
always for the cabinet, that it was indeed from their point of view in
perfect harmony with their former position.. ..” The members who came
over from the centre parties “had laboured under a delusion; they ima
gined that the ministers carried out the will of the people; they had
taken the endeavours of the ministers to restore law and order for an
expression of their own will, i.e., that of the majority of deputies, and
had not realised that the ministers could accede to the popular will only
when it did not run counter to the will of the Crown, and not when it
was opposed to it”.
The Zeitungs-Halle thus “explains” the striking phenom
enon of the sudden change in the attitude of so many
9—509
deputies by ascribing it to the notions and delusions of these

deputies. The thing could not be presented in a more in
nocent way.
The paper admits, however, that intimidations did occur.
But it says,
“if outside influences did have any effect, it was only that they par
tially counterbalanced the ministerial misrepresentations and artful temp
tation, thus enabling the many weak and irresolute deputies to follow
their natural vital instinct....”
The reasons which induced the Zeitungs-Halle thus moral

ly to justify the vacillating members of the centre parties in
the eyes of the public are obvious. The article is written for
these gentlement of the centre parties rather than for the
general public. For us, however, these reasons do not exist,
since we are privileged to speak plainly, and since we sup
port the representatives of a party only as long and in so
far as they act in a revolutionary manner.
Why should we not say it? The centre parties certainly
were intimidated by the masses on September 7; we leave
it open whether their fear was well founded or not.
The right of the democratic popular masses, by their
presence, to exert a moral influence on the attitude of con
stituent assemblies is an old revolutionary right of the peo
ple which could not be dispensed with in all stormy periods
ever since the English and French revolutions. History owes
to this right almost all the energetic steps taken by such
assemblies. The only reason why people dwell on the “legal
basis” and why the timorous and philistine friends of the
“freedom of debate” lament about it is that they do not
want any energetic decisions at all.
“Freedom of debate”—there is no emptier phrase than
this. The “freedom of debate” is, on the one hand, impaired
by the freedom of the press, by the freedom of assembly
and of speech, and by the right of the people to take up
arms. It is impaired by the existing state power vested in the
Crown and its ministers—the army, the police and the so-
called independent judges, who depend, however, on every
promotion and every political change.
FREEDOM OF DEBATE IN BERLIN 131
The freedom of debate is always a phrase denoting simply

independence of all influences that are not recognised in
law. It is only the recognised influences, such as bribery,
promotion, private interests and fear of a dissolution of the
Assembly, that make the debates really “free”. In times of
revolution, however, this phrase becomes entirely meaning
less. When two forces, two parties in arms confront each
other, when a fight may start any moment, the deputies have
only this choice:
Either they place themselves under the protection of the
people, in which case they will put up occasionally with a
small lecture;
Or they place themselves under the protection of the
Crown, move to some small town, deliberate under the pro
tection of bayonets and guns or even a state of siege, in
which case they will raise no objections when the Crown
and the bayonets dictate their decisions to them.
Intimidation by the unarmed people or intimidation by
an armed soldiery—that is the choice before the Assembly.
The French Constituent Assembly transferred its sessions
from Versailles to Paris. It would be quite in character
with the German revolution if the Assembly of conciliation
were to move from Berlin to Charlottenburg.
September 17, 1848
RATIFICATION OF THE ARMISTICE
Cologne, September 19. The German National Assembly

has ratified the armistice. We were not mistaken: “Germany’s
honour has fallen into bad hands.”*
The vote was taken amidst uproar and complete darkness,
when the benches of the deputies were thronged with stran
gers, diplomats, etc. A majority of two forced the Assembly
to vote simultaneously on two entirely different questions.
The armistice was carried. Schleswig-Holstein sacrificed,
“Germany’s honour” trampled under foot and the merging
of Germany in Prussia decided by a majority of 21 votes.
On no other issue has there been such a clear expression
of public opinion. On no other issue have the gentlemen of
the Right so openly admitted that they uphold a cause which
is indefensible. In no other issue were Germany’s interests
so unequivocal and so obvious as in this. The National As
sembly has made its decision—it has pronounced the death
sentence upon itself and upon the so-called central authority
created by it. If Germany had a Cromwell it would not be
long before he would say: “You are no Parliament.... De
part, I say.... In the name of God,—go!”80
There is talk of the impending withdrawal of the Left.
If it had courage, this poor derided Left, which has been
fisted by the majority and called to order on top of it by the
noble Gagern. Never has a minority been so insolently and
consistently maltreated as has been the Frankfurt Left by
the noble Gagern and his 250 champions of the majority.
If only it had courage!
* See this volume, p. 120.—Ed.

RATIFICATION OF THE ARMISTICE 133
Lack of courage is ruining the entire German movement.

The counter-revolution as well as the revolutionary party
lack the courage for the decisive blows. All Germans,
whether on the right or on the left, know now that the
present movement must lead to terrible clashes, to bloody
battles, fought either to suppress it or to carry it through.
But instead of courageously facing these unavoidable battles
and fighting them out with a few rapid and decisive blows,
the two parties—the party of the counter-revolution and that
of movement—have virtually come to an agreement to put
them off as long as possible. It is due to this constant resort
to petty expedients, to trivial concessions and palliatives, to
these attempts at mediation, that the unbearable and un
certain political situation has led everywhere to numerous
isolated uprisings, which can only be liquidated by way of
bloodshed and the curtailment of rights already won. It is
this fear of struggle that gives rise to thousands of minor
clashes making the year 1848 exceptionally sanguinary and
so complicating the position of the contending parties that
in the end the struggle will be the more violent and de
structive. But “our dear friends’ lack of courage”!
The crucial struggle for Germany’s centralisation and
democratic organisation cannot possibly be avoided. Every
day brings it nearer despite all attempts to play it down
and compromise. The complex situation in Vienna, Berlin
and Frankfurt demands a decision, and if everything should
fail because of German timidity and indecision, we shall be
saved by France. The consequences of the June victory are
now taking shape in Paris—the royalists are getting the
better of Cavaignac and his “pure republicans” in the Na
tional Assembly, in the press and in the clubs; a general
uprising is threatening to break out in the legitimist South;
Cavaignac has to resort to Ledru-Rollin’s revolutionary
remedies, i.e., to departmental commissioners invested with
extraordinary powers; it was with the greatest difficulty
that he managed to defend himself and his government in
Parliament last Saturday. Another such division, and Thiers,
Barrot and company, the men in whose interests the June
victory was won, will possess a majority, Cavaignac will be
thrown into the arms of the red republic, and the struggle
for the republic’s existence will start.
If Germany’s irresoluteness should persist, the new phase
of the French revolution will also be a signal for a fresh
outbreak of open struggle in Germany, a struggle which we
hope will take us a little further and will at least free Ger
many from the traditional fetters of her past.
Written by Engels
September 20, 1848
THE UPRISING IN FRANKFURT
[I]
Cologne, September 19, 7 p.m. The German-Danish ar
mistice has raised a storm. A sanguinary revolt has begun
in Frankfurt. The workers of Frankfurt, Offenbach and
Hanau, and the peasants of the surrounding districts, have
staked their life to defend Germany’s honour betrayed by
the National Assembly to a Prussian government which has
ignominiously resigned.
The outcome of the struggle is still uncertain. Until yes
terday evening the soldiers apparently made little progress.
In Frankfurt, apart from the Zeil and perhaps a few other
streets and squares, artillery is of little use, and cavalry of
hardly any use. In this respect the people are in an advan
tageous position. Citizens of Hanau, armed with weapons
from the arsenal they had stormed, have come to their as
sistance, as have also peasants from numerous villages in
the vicinity. Yesterday evening the military probably num
bered about 10,000 men and very little artillery. Large rein
forcements of peasants must have arrived during the night,
and considerably smaller ones of soldiers, the immediate
vicinity being denuded of troops. The revolutionary temper
of the peasants in the Odenwald, Nassau and the Electorate
of Hesse precluded further withdrawals; it is likely that
communications have been interrupted. If today the insur
gents are still holding out, then the whole of the Odenwald,
Nassau, the Electorate of Hesse and Rhenish Hesse will take
up arms, the entire population between Fulda, Koblenz,
Mannheim and Aschaffenburg will be in arms, and there are
insufficient troops available to crush the uprising. And who
will answer for Mainz, Mannheim, Marburg, Cassel and
Wiesbaden—towns in which hatred of the army has reached
its highest pitch as a result of the bloody excesses of the so-

called Federal troops? Who will answer for the peasants on
the Rhine, who can easily prevent troop movements along the
river?
We admit, nevertheless, that we have little hope of the
courageous insurgents being able to win the day. Frankfurt
is too small a town, the number of troops is disproportion
ately large, and the well-known counter-revolutionary senti
ments of the local petty bourgeoisie are too great to allow
us to be very hopeful.
But even if the insurgents are defeated, this will settle
nothing. The counter-revolution will become arrogant, it will
enslave us for a time by introducing martial law, by sup
pressing freedom of the press, and banning the clubs and
public meetings; but before long the crowing of the Gallic
cock81 will announce the hour of liberation, the hour of
revenge.
[II]
Cologne, September 20. The news from Frankfurt is

beginning to confirm our fears of yesterday. It seems certain
that the insurgents have been ejected from Frankfurt, and
that now they are holding only Sachsenhausen, where they
are said to be strongly entrenched. A state of siege has been
declared in Frankfurt; anyone caught carrying weapons or
resisting the “Federal Authority” is to be court-martialed.
Thus the gentlemen in the Paulskirche are now on an
equal footing with their colleagues in Paris. They can now
at their leisure and under the rule of martial law reduce
the fundamental rights of the German people to a “mini
mum”.
The railway line to Mainz is torn up in many places, and
the post arrives either late or not at all.
It appears that artillery decided the outcome of the fight
in the wide streets and enabled the army to attack the
fighters on the barricades from the rear. Additional factors
were the zeal with which the petty bourgeois of Frankfurt
opened their houses to the soldiers, thus giving them every
THE UPRISING IN FRANKFURT 137
advantage in the street-fighting, and the superior strength

of the troops, swiftly brought up by rail, over the peasant
contingents, who arrived slowly on foot.
But even if the fight has not been renewed in Frankfurt
itself, it certainly does not mean that the rising has been
crushed. The angry peasants are not likely to put their
weapons down forthwith. Though they may not be able to
break up the National Assembly, they still have enough at
home that has to be cleared away. The storm that was re
pelled outside the Paulskirche can spread to six or eight
petty residences and to hundreds of manor-houses. The
peasant war begun this spring will not come to an end until
its goal, the liberation of the peasants from feudalism, has
been achieved.
What is the reason for the persistent victory of “order”
throughout Europe and for the series of recurrent defeats of
the revolutionary party from Naples, Prague and Paris to
Milan, Vienna and Frankfurt?
All parties know that the struggle impending in all civi
lised countries is quite different from, infinitely more signifi
cant than, all previous revolutions; in Vienna and Paris, in
Berlin and Frankfurt, in London and Milan the point at
issue is the overthrow of the political rule of the bourgeoisie,
an upheaval whose immediate consequences horrify all portly,
stockjobbing bourgeois.
Is there a revolutionary centre anywhere in the world
where the red flag, the emblem of the militant, united pro
letariat of Europe, has not been found flying on the bar
ricades during the last five months?
The fight in Frankfurt against the Parliament of the com
bined landowners and the bourgeoisie was likewise waged
under the red flag.
The reason for all these defeats is that every uprising that
now takes place is a direct threat to the political existence of
the bourgeoisie, and an indirect threat to its social existence.
The people, largely unarmed, have to fight not only the
well-armed bourgeoisie but also the organised power of the
bureaucratic and military state which the bourgeoisie has
taken over. The people, who are unorganised and poorly
armed, are confronted by all the other social classes, who are
well organised and fully armed. That is the reason why up
to now the people have been defeated and will continue to be
defeated until their opponents are weakened either through
dissension, or because the army is engaged in war—or until
some important event impels the people to begin a desperate
fight and demoralises their opponents.
Such an event is impending in France.
Hence we need not give up hope, even though during the
last four months the barricades everywhere have been de
feated by grape-shot. On the contrary, every victory of our
opponents was at the same time a defeat for them, for it
divided them and, ultimately, gave control not to the con
servative party that was victorious in February and March,
but in each case to the party that had been overthrown in
February and March. Only for a short time did the victory
won in Paris in June establish the rule of the petty bour
geoisie, the pure republicans; hardly three months have
passed and the big bourgeoisie, the constitutional party, is
threatening to overthrow Cavaignac and drive the “pure
ones” into the arms of the “reds”. This will happen in
Frankfurt too—the victory will benefit, not the respectable
gentlemen from the centre parties, but those of the Right. The
bourgeoisie will have to give pride of place to the gentle
men representing the military, bureaucratic and aristocratic
state and will very soon taste the bitter fruit of victory.
May it do them good! Meanwhile we shall await the mo
ment when the hour of liberation for Europe will have struck
in Paris.
Written by Engels
Neue Rheinische Zeitung
Nos. 107 (supplement) and 108,
September 20 and 21, 1848
REVOLUTION IN VIENNA
Cologne, October 11. In its first issue (for June 1) the

Neue Rheinische Zeitung wrote of a revolution (on May 25)
in Vienna. Today, when we resume publication for the first
time after the break caused by the declaration of martial
law in Cologne, we bring news of the much more important
Viennese revolution of October 6 and 7. Detailed reports
on the events in Vienna compel us today to omit all ana
lytical articles. Only a few words of comment, therefore,
on the revolution in Vienna. Our readers will see from
the reports of our Vienna correspondent"' that the bour
geoisie’s distrust of the working class threatens, if not to
wreck the revolution, at least to hamper its development.
However that may be, the repercussions of this revolution
in Hungary, Italy and Germany completely upset the plan
of campaign devised by the counter-revolution. The flight
from Vienna of the Emperor and of the Czech deputies82
compels the Viennese bourgeoisie to continue the fight
unless it is prepared to surrender unconditionally. The
dreams of the Frankfurt Assembly, which is just now
engaged in presenting us Germans with
a national jail and a common whip,^
have been rudely interrupted by the events in Vienna, and
the government at Berlin is beginning to doubt the efficacy
of martial law as a panacea. Martial law, like the revolu
tion, is making a round-the-world tour. A large-scale ex
periment has just been made to impose martial law on a
whole country, Hungary. This attempt has called forth a
revolution in Vienna instead of a counter-revolution in
Miiller-Tellering.—Ed.
140 KARL MARX
Hungary. Martial law will not recover from this setback.

Its reputation has been permanently ruined. By an irony of
fate, simultaneously with Jellachich, Cavaignac, the hero
of martial law in the West, has been singled out for attack
by all the factions who were saved in June by his grape-
shot. Only by resolutely going over to the revolution will
he be able to hold out for some time.
Following the latest news from Vienna, we publish
several reports sent on October 5, because they reflect the
hopes and fears current in Vienna about the fate of Hungary.
Written by Marx
October 12, 1848
THE PARIS REFORME ON THE SITUATION
IN FRANCE
Cologne, November 2. Even before the June uprising we

repeatedly exposed the illusions of the republicans who cling
to the traditions of 1793, the republicans of the Reforme
(of Paris). Under the impact of the June revolution and the
movement to which it gave rise the utopian republicans
gradually had their eyes opened.
A leading article in the Reforme for October 29 reflects
the conflict between the old delusions of the party and the
new facts.
The Reforme says:
“In our country the fights waged to seize the reins of government
have long been class wars, struggles of the bourgeoisie and the people
against the nobility when the first republic came into being; the sacri
fices of the armed people without, and rule of the bourgeoisie within dur
ing the empire; the attempt to restore feudalism under the older branch
of the Bourbons; finally, in 1830, the triumph and rule of the bourgeoi
sie—that is our history.”
The Reforme adds with a sigh:
“We certainly regret that we have to speak of classes, of ungodly
and hateful divergences, but these divergences exist and we cannot
overlook this fact.”
That is to say: up to now the Reforme in its republican
optimism saw only “citoyens” but it has been so hard
pressed by history that the splitting up of the “citoyens”
into “bourgeois” and “proletaires” can no longer be dis
missed by any effort of imagination.
The Reforme continues:
“The despotism of the bourgeoisie was broken in February. What
did the people demand? Justice for all and equality. That was its pri
mary slogan, its primary desire. The wishes of the bourgeoisie, whose
142 KARL MARX
eyes had been opened by the flash of lightning, were at first the same
as those of the people.”
The paper’s views on the February revolution are still
based on the speeches of that time. The despotism of the
bourgeoisie, far from having been broken during the
February revolution, was completed by it. The Crown, the
last feudal aureole, which concealed the rule of the bour
geoisie, was cast aside. The rule of capital emerged un
adulterated. Bourgeoisie and proletariat fought against a
common enemy during the February revolution. As soon
as the common enemy was eliminated, the two hostile classes
held the field of battle alone and the decisive struggle be
tween them was bound to begin. People may ask, why did the
bourgeoisie fall back into royalism, if the February
revolution brought bourgeois rule to its completion? The
explanation is a simple one. The bourgeoisie would have
liked to return to the period when it ruled without being
responsible for its rule; when a puppet authority standing
between the bourgeoisie and the people had to act for it
and to serve it as a cloak. A period when it had, as it
were, a crowned scapegoat, which the proletariat hit when
ever it aimed at the bourgeoisie, and against which the bour
geoisie could join forces with the proletariat whenever that
scapegoat became troublesome and attempted to establish
itself as an authority in its own right. The bourgeoisie could
use the King as a kind of lightning-conductor protecting it
from the people, and the people as a lightning-conductor
protecting it from the King.
Since the illusions, some of them hypocritical, some
honest, which became widespread immediately after the
defeat of Louis Philippe, are mistakenly accepted by the
Reforme as facts, the developments following those days in
February appear to it as a series of errors, awkward acci
dents, that a great man adequate to the needs of the moment
could have avoided. As though Lamartine, the jack-o’-
lantern, had not been the true man of the moment.
The Reforme bemoans the fact that the true man, the
great man, has not yet appeared, and the situation gets
worse every day.
THE PARIS REFORME ON THE SITUATION IN FRANCE 143
“On the one hand the industrial and commercial crisis grows; on the
other hand hatred grows and all strive towards contradictory goals.
Those who were oppressed before February 24 seek their ideal of happi
ness and freedom in the conception of an entirely new society. The only
concern of those who governed under the monarchy is to regain their
realm in order to exploit it with redoubled harshness.”
Now what is the attitude of the Reforme towards these
sharply antagonistic classes? Does it realise even vaguely
that class contradictions and class struggle will disappear
only with the disappearance of classes?
No. Just now it admitted that class contradictions exist.
But class contradictions are based on economic foundations,
on the existing mode of material production and the condi
tions of commerce resulting from it. The Reforme knows no
better way of changing and abolishing these contradictions
than to disregard their real basis, that is, these very mate
rial conditions, and to withdraw into the hazy blue heaven
of republican ideology, in other words, into the poetic
February period, from which it was violently ejected by
the June events. It writes:
“The saddest aspect of these internal dissensions is the
obliteration, the loss of the patriotic, national sentiments’’,
i.e., of just that patriotic and national enthusiasm which
enabled both classes to veil their distinct interests, their
conditions of life. When they did that in 1789, their real
contradictions were not yet developed. What at that time
was an adequate expression of the real position, is today
merely an escape from the existing situation. What had
substance then, is today just a relic.
“France,” concludes the Reforme, “evidently suffers from a deep-
seated malady, but it is curable. It is caused by a confusion of ideas and
morals, by a neglect of justice and equality in social relations, and by
depravity resulting from egoistical teaching. The means for reorganisa
tion must be sought in this sphere. Instead people have recourse to mate
rial means.”
The Reforme presents the whole case as a matter of
“conscience”, and moral twaddle is then used as a means
to solve everything. The antithesis of bourgeoisie and prole
tariat accordingly derives from the ideas of these two
classes. And where do these ideas derive from? From the
144 KARL MARX
social relations. And where do these relations derive from?

From the material, economic conditions of life of the hostile
classes. According to the Reforme, if the two classes are
no longer conscious of their real position and their real
contradictions, and become intoxicated with the opium of
the “patriotic” sentiments and phrases of 1793, then their
difficulties will be solved. What an admission of helpless
ness!
Written by Marx
November 3, 1848
THE LATEST NEWS FROM VIENNA,
BERLIN AND PARIS
Cologne, November 4. The outlook brightens.

There is no direct news yet from Vienna. But even accord
ing to the official Prussian papers, it is clear that Vienna
has not surrendered and that Windischgratz deliberately or
as a result of a misunderstanding had given to the world
a false telegram. The “good” press, like an orthodox, multi
lingual echo, has willingly repeated the message although it
has tried hard to mask its malicious glee behind a woebe
gone countenance. Stripped of all their fantastic and self-
contradictory trash, the reports from Silesia and Berlin
bring out the following facts. By October 29 the imperial
bandits had obtained control only of a few suburbs. The
reports received up till now do not show that they have
gained a foothold in Vienna itself. The whole story of
Vienna’s surrender boils down to a few treasonable procla
mations of the Vienna town council. The advanced guard
of the Hungarian army attacked Windischgratz on October
30, and was said to have been driven back. On October 31
Windischgratz resumed the shelling of Vienna—without
result. His army is now between the Viennese and the over
80,000-strong Hungarian army. Windischgratz’s infamous
manifestos called forth uprisings or at least very threaten
ing movements in all provinces. Even the Czech fanatics
in Prague, the neophytes of Slovanska Lipa,84 have awak
ened from their wild dreams and declared for Vienna
against the imperial Schinderhannes.85 Never before has the
counter-revolution dared to proclaim its plans with such
fatuous brazenness. Even at Olmiitz, that Austrian Koblenz,86
the crowned idiot can feel the ground shaking beneath his
feet. The fact that the troops are led by the world-famed
10—509
146 KARL MARX
*Sipehsalar Jellachich—whose name is so great that “at the

flash of his sabre the frightened moon hides behind the
clouds" and “the roar of cannon” always “points the way”
in which he must hurriedly decamp—leaves no doubt that
the people of Hungary and Vienna
Horsewhip that scum into the Danube River,
Go castigate that overweening rabble,
Those starveling beggars, all so tired of living,
That horde of miscreants, rogues and vagabonds,
Croatian riff-raff, abject peasant hirelings,
That vomit, spewed up by a glutted homeland
For desperate ventures and for certain doom.
Later reports will give appalling details of the crimes
perpetrated by Croats and other knights “of law and order
and constitutional freedom”. The European bourgeoisie en
sconced in stock exchanges and other convenient observa
tion posts will loudly acclaim the gory spectacle; the same
wretched bourgeoisie that broke into screams of moral
indignation because of a few harsh acts of popular justice
and with a thousand voices unanimously anathemised the
“murderers” of honest Latour and noble Lichnowski.
The Poles, avenging the Galician murders, are once more
advancing at the head of the liberators of Vienna, just as
they march at the head of the Italian people and every
where act as high-minded generals of the revolution. Three
cheers for the Poles'.
The Berlin camarilla, intoxicated with the blood of Vienna,
blinded by the pillars of smoke rising from the burning-
suburbs, stunned by the Croats’ and Hungarians’ shouts of
victory, has dropped its cloak. “Peace has been restored
in Berlin.” We shall see.
Finally, from Paris come the first subterranean rumbles
announcing the earthquake that will bury the genteel re
public under its own ruins.
Ihe outlook brightens.
Written by Marx
November 5, 1848
* Commander-in-Chief.—Ed.
THE VICTORY OF THE COUNTER
REVOLUTION IN VIENNA
Cologne, November 6. Croatian freedom and order has

won the day, and this victory was celebrated with arson,
rape, looting and other atrocities. Vienna is in the hands
of Windischgratz, ]ellachich and Auersperg. Hecatombs of
victims are sacrificed on the grave of the aged traitor Latour.
The gloomy forecasts of our Vienna correspondent
* have
come true, and by now he himself may have become a victim
of the butchery.
For a while we hoped Vienna could be liberated by Hun
garian reinforcements, and we are still in the dark regard
ing the movements of the Hungarian army.
Treachery of every kind prepared the way for Vienna’s
fall. The entire performance of the Imperial Diet and the
town council since October 6 is a tale of continuous treach
ery. Who are the people represented in the Imperial Diet
and the town council?
The bourgeoisie.
A part of the Viennese National Guard openly sided with
the camarilla from the very beginning of the October revo
lution. Towards the end of the October revolution another
part of the National Guard in collusion with the imperial
bandits fought against the proletariat and the Academic
Legion. To which strata do these groups of the National
Guard belong?
To the bourgeoisie.
The bourgeoisie in France, however, headed the counter
revolution only after it had broken down all obstacles to
the rule of its own class. The bourgeoisie in Germany
meekly joins the retinue of the absolute monarchy and of
* Muller-Tellering. See Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 127, October 27,

1848.—Ed.
10’
148 KARI. MARX
feudalism before securing even the first conditions of exist

ence necessary for its own civic freedom and its rule. In
France it played the part of a tyrant and made its own
counter-revolution. In Germany it acts like a slave and
carries out the counter-revolution for its own tyrants. The
bourgeoisie in France won its victory in order to humble the
people. In Germany it humbled itself to prevent the victory
of the people. History presents no example of greater
wretchedness than that of the German bourgeoisie.
Who fled from Vienna in large numbers leaving their
wealth to be watched over by the magnanimous people, the
people whom, in reward for their watchman’s duties, they
maligned while away and whose massacre they witnessed
on their return?
The bourgeoisie.
Whose innermost secrets were revealed by the thermom
eter which dropped whenever the people of Vienna showed
signs of life, and rose whenever the people were in the
throes of death? Who used the runic script of the stock
exchange quotations?
The bourgeoisie.
The “German National Assembly” and its “central author
ity” have betrayed Vienna. Whom do they represent?
Mainly the bourgeoisie.
The victory of “Croatian order and freedom” at Vienna
depended on the victory of the “genteel” republic in Paris.
Who won the day in June?
The bourgeoisie.
European counter-revolution began its debaucheries with
its victory in Paris.
In February and March armed force was beaten every
where. Why? Because it represented only the government.
After June it was everywhere victorious because the bour
geoisie everywhere had come to a secret understanding with
it, while retaining official leadership of the revolutionary
movement and introducing all those half measures which
by the very nature of things were bound to miscarry.
The national fanaticism of the Czechs was the most
powerful instrument the Viennese camarilla possessed. The
VICTORY OF COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN VIENNA 149
allies are already at loggerheads. In this issue our readers

will find the protest of the Prague delegation against the
insolent rudeness with which it was greeted in Olmiitz.
This is the first symptom of the struggle which is going
to break out between the Slav party and its hero ]ellachich
on the one hand, and the party of the plain camarilla, which
stands above all nationality, and its hero Windischgratz
on the other. Moreover the German peasants in Austria are
not yet pacified. Their voice will be loudly heard above
the caterwauling of the Austrian nationalities. And from a
third quarter the voice of the Tsar, the friend of the people,
reaches as far as Pest; his henchmen are waiting for the
word of command in the Danubian principalities.
Finally, the last decision of the German National As
sembly at Frankfurt, which incorporates German Austria
into the German empire, should lead to a gigantic conflict,
unless the German central authority and the German Na
tional Assembly see it as their task to enter the arena in
order to be hissed off the boards by European public. For
all their pious resignation the struggle in Austria will assume
gigantic dimensions such as world history has never yet
witnessed.
The second act of the drama has just been performed in
Vienna, its first act having been staged in Paris under the
title of The June Days. In Paris the Guarde mobile, in
Vienna “Croats”—in both cases lazzaroni, lumpen-proletar
iat hired and armed—were used against the working and
thinking proletarians. We shall soon see the third act per
formed in Berlin.
Assuming that arms will enable the counter-revolution to
establish itself in the whole of Europe, money would then
kill it in the whole of Europe. European bankruptcy, national
bankruptcy would be the fate nullifying the victory. Bayo
nets crumble like tinder when they come into contact with
the salient “economic” facts.
But developments will not wait for the bills of exchange
drawn by the European states on European society to expire.
The crushing counter-blow of the June revolution will be
struck in Paris. With the victory of the “red republic” in
150 KARL MARX
Paris, armies will be rushed from the interior of their coun

tries to the frontiers and across them, and the real strength
of the fighting parties will become evident. We shall then
remember this June and this October and we too shall ex
claim:
Vae victis!
The purposeless massacres perpetrated since the June and
October events, the tedious offering of sacrifices since
February and March, the very cannibalism of the counter
revolution will convince the nations that there is only one
way in which the murderous death agonies of the old society
and the bloody birth throes of the new society can be short
ened, simplified and concentrated, and that way is revolu
tionary terror.
Written by Marx
November 7, 1848
THE CRISIS IN BERLIN87
Cologne, November 8. The situation looks very compli

cated, but it is very simple.
The King, as the Neue Preussische Zeitung89 correctly
notes, stands “on the broad foundation” of his “hereditary
divine” rights.
On the other side, the National Assembly has no founda
tion whatever, its purpose being to constitute, to lay the
foundation.
Two sovereign powers.
The connecting link between the two is Camphausen, and
the theory of agreement.
When these two sovereign powers are no longer able to
agree or do not want to agree, they become two inimical
sovereign powers. The King has the right to throw down
the gauntlet to the Assembly, the Assembly has the right
to throw down the gauntlet to the King. The greater right
is on the side of the greater might. Power is tested in struggle.
The test of the struggle is victory. Each of the two powers
can prove that it is right only by its victory, that it is wrong
only by its defeat.
The King until now has not been a constitutional king.
He is an absolute monarch who decides for or against consti
tutionalism.
The Assembly until now has not been a constitutional
but a constituent assembly. It has so far attempted to con
stitute constitutionalism. It can continue or discontinue its
attempts.
Both the King and the Assembly temporarily acquiesced
in the constitutional ceremonial.
152 KARL MARX
The King’s demand that a Brandenburg cabinet be

appointed at his pleasure in defiance of the majority of the
Chamber, is the demand of an absolute monarch.
The Chamber’s presumption to send a deputation straight
to the King forbidding the formation of a Brandenburg
cabinet, is the presumption of an absolute Chamber.
The King and the Assembly have sinned against constitu
tional convention.
The King and the Chamber have both retreated to their
original sphere, the King deliberately, the Chamber un
wittingly.
The King is at an advantage.
Right is on the side of might.
Legal phrases are on the side of impotence.
A Rodbertus cabinet would be the cipher in which plus
and minus neutralise each other.
Written by Marx
November 9, 1848
NEW INSTITUTIONS—PROGRESS
IN SWITZERLAND
Berne, November 9. The new legislative Federal As

sembly, consisting of the Swiss National Council and the
Council of States, has been meeting here since the day before
yesterday. The city of Berne has gone out of its way to give
them brilliant and fascinating reception. There has been
music, festive processions, illuminations, the boom of cannon
and the peal of bells—nothing has been forgotten. The
sessions began the day before yesterday. In the National
Council, which is elected by universal suffrage and according
to the number of inhabitants (Berne has returned 20 deputies,
Zurich 12, the smallest cantons two or three), the great
majority of deputies are liberals of a radical hue. The de
cidedly radical party is strongly represented, and the con
servatives have only six or seven seats out of over a hundred.
The Council of States, which is made up of two deputies
from each canton and one deputy from each demicanton, on
the whole resembles the last Diet as regards composition and
character. The old cantons have once again returned several
true separatists,89 and as a result of the indirect elections, the
reactionary element, though definitely in a minority, is
nevertheless more strongly represented in this Council than
it is in the National Council. As a matter of fact, by abolish
ing binding mandates90 and invalidating half votes, the
Council of States has been turned into a rejuvenated version
of the Diet and has been pushed into the background by the
creation of the National Council. It plays the thankless role
of a senate or a chamber of peers, the role of heir to the
mature wisdom and sober judgment of the forefathers, acting
as a drag on the National Council which is assumed to be
excessively fond of innovation. This dignified and sedate
institution already shares the fate of similar bodies in Eng
land and America, and the now defunct one in France. Even
before it has shown any signs of life it is looked down upon
by the press and overshadowed by the National Council.
Practically no one talks about the Council of States, and if
it did make itself talked about it would be still worse for it.
Although the National Council is supposed to represent
the entire Swiss “nation”, it has already at its first session
given proof of typically Swiss discord and hair-splitting,
even if not of petty cantonal spirit. Three votes had to be
taken to elect a president, although there were only three
candidates with any serious chances, and all three of them
from Berne. The three gentlemen in question were Ochsen-
bein, Funk and Neuhaus; the first two represent the moderate
radical party of Berne, the third the moderate liberal, semi
conservative party. In the end Ochsenbein was elected by
50 votes out of 93, that is, with a very narrow majority.
One can understand the Zurich and other Moderados^ pre
ferring the wise and very experienced Herr Neuhaus to
Herr Ochsenbein, but the fact that Herr Funk, who re
presents exactly the same political colouring as Herr Ochsen
bein, should have been put forward as a competing candidate
and received support in two votings, shows how unorganised
and undisciplined the parties still are. At any rate the elec
tion of Ochsenbein means that the Radicals gained a victory
in the first contest of the parties. In the subsequent election
of a vice-president, five votes had to be taken to produce
an absolute majority. On the other hand, the staid and
experienced Council of States almost unanimously elected
the Moderado Furrer from Zurich as its president in the first
round of voting. These two elections amply illustrate how
different a spirit obtains in the two Chambers and that they
will soon move in different directions and enter into conflict
with each other.
The choice of a federal capital will be the next interesting
issue to be debated. It will be interesting for the Swiss be
cause the financial interests of many of them are involved,
and interesting for people abroad because this debate will
reveal most clearly to what extent the old parochial patriot
ism, the petty cantonal narrow-mindedness has been finished
NEW INSTITUTIONS—PROGRESS IN SWITZERLAND 155
with. The competition is most intense between Berne, Zurich

and Lucerne. Berne would like to see Zurich satisfied with
the federal university, and Lucerne with the federal court
of law, but in vain. Berne at any rate is the only suitable
city, being the point where German and French Switzer
land merge, the capital of the largest canton and the rising
centre of the whole Swiss movement. But in order to become
a real centre, Berne must also possess the university and the
federal court. But try and explain that to the Swiss, whose
fanaticism for their cantonal town has been roused! It is
quite possible that the more radical National Council will
vote for radical Berne, the sedate Council of States for the
sedate, wise and prudent Zurich. An extremely difficult
situation will then arise.
There has been considerable unrest in Geneva during the
last three weeks. The reactionary patricians and bourgeois,
who, from their villas, keep the villages around Geneva in
almost feudal dependence, managed with the help of their
peasants to push through all their three candidates in the
elections to the National Council. But the [local] authorities
declared the elections invalid, as more ballot-papers were
returned than had been issued. Only this measure was able
to pacify the revolutionary workers of Saint-Gervais, groups
of whom were already marching through the streets and
shouting “y4wx armes!" The attitude of the workers in the
course of the week that followed was so menacing that the
bourgeois preferred not to vote at all rather than provoke a
revolution with the inevitable scenes of horror; especially
since the government threatened to resign if the reactionary
candidates were once more elected. The Radicals meanwhile
altered their list of candidates, to which they added some
more moderate names, made up for lost canvassing time,
and obtained 5,000 to 5,500 votes in the new elections, that
is, almost a thousand more than the reactionaries had re
ceived in the previous round. The three reactionary can
didates got hardly any votes; General Dufour, who received
the highest number, managed to poll 1,500 votes. Elections
to the Great Council were held a week later. The city elected
44 Radicals, and the countryside, which had to return
46 councillors, elected almost exclusively reactionaries. The

Revue de Geneve®2 is still arguing with the bourgeois papers
as to whether all 46 are reactionary or half a dozen of them
will vote for the Radical government. We shall soon know.
Still greater confusion may reign in Geneva; for if the
government, which is here elected directly by the people, is
forced to resign, then a situation similar to that obtaining
during the second elections to the National Council might
easily result, and a Radical government would be confronted
by a reactionary majority in the Great Council. It is more
over certain that the workers of Geneva are only waiting for
an opportunity to secure the threatened gains of 184793 by
a new revolution.
On the whole, compared with the early forties, Switzer
land has made considerable progress. This is nowhere so
striking as among the working class. Whereas this old spirit
of parochial narrow-mindedness and pedantry still holds
almost undivided sway among the bourgeoisie and especially
in the old patrician families, or has, at best, assumed more
modern forms, the Swiss workers have developed to a re
markable degree. Formerly, they kept aloof from the Ger
mans and displayed the most absurd “free Swiss” national
arrogance, complained about the “foreign rogues” and
showed no interest whatever in the contemporary movement.
Now this has changed. Ever since working conditions have
deteriorated, ever since Switzerland has been democratised,
and especially since the minor riots have given place to
European revolutions and battles such as those waged in
Paris in June and in Vienna in October—ever since then
the Swiss workers have been drawn more and more into the
political and socialist movements, have fraternised with
foreign workers, especially German workers, and have
abandoned their “free Swiss attitude”. In the French part
of Switzerland and in many of her German districts, Ger
mans and German Swiss are members of the same workers’
association on an equal footing, and associations consisting
mainly of Swiss workers have decided to join the proposed
organisation of German Democratic Associations which has
partially been set up. Whereas the extreme Radicals of
NEW INSTITUTIONS—PROGRESS IN SWITZERLAND 157
official Switzerland dream at best of the one and indivisible

Helvetian republic, Swiss workers often express the view
that the whole of little Switzerland’s independence will go
to the dogs in the impending European storm. And this is
said quite calmly and indifferently, without a word of regret,
by these proletarian traitors! All the Swiss I have met
expressed great sympathy for the Viennese, but among the
workers it amounted to real fanaticism. No one speaks about
the National Council, the Council of States, the riot of the
priests in Fribourg,94 but Vienna is on everybody’s lips all
day long. One would think that Vienna were again the
capital of Switzerland as it was in the days before Wilhelm
Tell, that Switzerland belonged again to Austria. Hundreds
of rumours were bruited about, dilated upon, called in ques
tion, believed, refuted, and all possible aspects were
thoroughly discussed. And when, at last, the news of the
defeat of the heroic Viennese workers and students and of
Windischgratz’s superior strength and barbarity was definite
ly confirmed, the effect on these Swiss workers was as great
as though their own fate had been decided in Vienna and
their own country had succumbed. Though this feeling is not
yet a universal one, it is steadily gaining ground among the
Swiss proletariat, and the fact that it already exists in many
localities is, for a country like Switzerland, a great advance.
Written by Engels
November 15, 1848
COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN BERLIN
ID
Cologne, November 11. The Pfuel cabinet was a “mis
understanding”; its real meaning was the Brandenburg
cabinet. The Pfuel cabinet was the table of contents, the
Brandenburg cabinet the content itself.
Brandenburg in the Assembly and the Assembly in Bran
denburg.^
Thus runs the epitaph of the House of Brandenburg.'^
The Emperor Charles V was admired because he had had
himself buried while still alive.97 To have a bad joke en
graved on one’s tombstone is to go one better than Charles V
and his criminal code.98
Brandenburg in the Assembly and the Assembly in
Brandenburg!
A King of Prussia once put in an appearance in the
Assembly. That was not the real Brandenburg. The Marquis
of Brandenburg who appeared in the Assembly the day
before yesterday was the real King of Prussia.
The guardroom in the Assembly, the Assembly in the
guardroom—that means: Brandenburg in the Assembly, the
Assembly in Brandenburg!
Or will the Assembly in Brandenburg—Berlin, as is well
known, is situated in the Province of Brandenburg—be
master of the Brandenburg in the Assembly? Will Branden
burg seek the protection of the Assembly as a Capet once
did in another Assembly."
Brandenburg in the Assembly and the Assembly in Bran
denburg is an ambiguous expression, which is equivocal and
portentous.
As we know, it is much easier for nations to get the better
of kings than of legislative assemblies. History gives us a
whole list of abortive revolts of the people against national
COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN BERLIN 159
assemblies. It knows only two important exceptions to this

rule. The English people in the person of Cromwell dis
solved the Long Parliament, and the French people in the
person of Bonaparte dissolved the legislative body. But the
Long Parliament had long ago become a Rump, and the
legislative body a corpse.
Have the kings been more fortunate in their revolts against
legislative assemblies than the people?
Charles I, James II, Louis XVI, and Charles X are hard
ly promising progenitors.
There are luckier ancestors in Spain and Italy however.
And recently in Vienna?
But one must not forget that a Congress of Nations was
in session in Vienna and that the representatives of the
Slavs, apart from the Poles, went over to the imperial camp
with flying colours.100
The struggle of the camarilla in Vienna against the Diet
was at the same time a struggle of the Slav Diet against the
German Diet. It was not Slavs, however, who seceded in the
Berlin Assembly, it was slaves, and slaves do not constitute
a party; at best they are camp-followers of a party. The
members of the Right101 who left the Berlin Assembly have
not strengthened the enemy camp, they have infected it
with a fatal malady called treason.
The Slav party carried the day in Austria together with
the camarilla. It will now fight the camarilla over the spoils.
If the Berlin camarilla wins it will not have to share the
victory with the Right or to defend it against the Right-, the
Right will be given a tip—and kicks.
The Prussian Crown is right when it confronts the As
sembly as an absolute Crown. But the Assembly is wrong
because it does not confront the Crown as an absolute as
sembly. To begin with it should have arrested the ministers
as traitors, traitors to the sovereignty of the people. It should
have proscribed and outlawed all officials who obey orders
others than those of the Assembly.
But the political weakness characterising the actions of
the National Assembly in Berlin may become a source ol
civic strength in the provinces.
160 KARL MARX
The bourgeoisie would have liked to transform the feudal

monarchy into a bourgeois monarchy by peaceful means.
After depriving the feudal party of armorial bearings and
titles, which are offensive to its civic pride, and of the dues
appertaining to feudal property, which violate the bourgeois
mode of appropriation, the bourgeoisie would have liked to
unite with the feudal party and together with it enslave the
people. But the old bureaucracy does not want to be reduced
to the status of a servant of a bourgeoisie for whom, until
now, it had been a despotic tutor. The feudal party does not
want to see its marks of distinction and interests burnt at
the altar of the bourgeoisie. Finally, the Crown sees in the
elements of the old feudal society—a society of which it is
the crowning excrescence—its true, native social ground,
whereas it regards the bourgeoisie as alien artificial
soil which bears it only under the condition that it withers
away.
The bourgeoisie turns the intoxicating ‘"divine right” into
a sober legal title, the rule of blood into the rule of paper,
the royal sun into a plebeian gas lamp.
Royalty, therefore, was not taken in by the bourgeoisie.
Its reply to the partial revolution of the bourgeoisie was a
full-fledged counter-revolution. Its cry: Brandenburg in the
Assembly and the Assembly in Brandenburg drove the bour
geoisie once more into the arms of the revolution, into the
arms of the people.
While admitting that we do not expect the bourgeoisie
to answer in a manner befitting the occasion, we must say,
on the other hand, that in its rebellion against the National
Assembly the Crown, too, resorts to hypocritical half mea
sures and hides its head under the constitutional veil at the
very moment when it tries to cast off this irksome veil.
Brandenburg makes the German central authority give
him the order for his coup d’etat. The regiments of the
Guards marched into Berlin by order of the central authority.
The Berlin counter-revolution is carried out by order of
the German central authority. Brandenburg orders the
Frankfurt [Assembly] to give him this order. It denies its
sovereignty at the very moment when it wants to establish
it. Herr Bassermann of course jumped at the opportunity to

play the servant as master. But he has the satisfaction of
seeing the master in his turn play the servant.
Whatever the outcome in Berlin may be, the dilemma is:
either the King or the people, and with the cry, Branden
burg in the Assembly and the Assembly in Brandenburg,
the people will be victorious.
We may have to go through a hard school, but it is a
preparatory school for a fidl-fledged revolution.
[II]
Cologne, November 11. European revolution is taking a

circular course. It started in Italy and assumed a European
character in Paris; the first repercussion of the February
revolution followed in Vienna; the repercussion of the
Viennese revolution took place in Berlin. European counter
revolution struct its first blow in Italy, at Naples; it assumed
a European character in Paris in June; the first repercussion
of the June counter-revolution followed in Vienna; it comes
to a close and discredits itself in Berlin. “The crowing of
the Gallic cock in Paris will once again rouse Europe.
But in Berlin the counter-revolution is bringing itself into
disrepute. Everything becomes disreputable in Berlin, even
counter-revolution.
In Naples the lazzaroni are leagued with the monarchy
against the bourgeoisie.
In Paris the greatest struggle ever known in history is
taking place. The bourgeoisie is leagued with the lazzaroni
against the working class.
In Vienna we have a flock of nationalities who imagine
that the counter-revolution will bring them emancipation.
In addition—the secret spite of the bourgeoisie against the
workers and the Academic Legion; discord within the Civil
Guard itself; finally, attacks by the people supplying a
pretext for the attacks by the Court.
Nothing like that is happening in Berlin. The bourgeoisie
and the people are on one side and the drill-sergeants on
the other.
11—509
162 KARL MARX
Wrangel and Brandenburg, two men who have no head,

no heart, no opinions, nothing but moustaches
* —such is the
antithesis of the querulous, self-opinionated, irresolute Na
tional Assembly.
Will-power—be it even that of an ass, an ox, a police
man—is all that is needed to tackle the weak-willed
grumblers of the March revolution. And the Prussian Court,
which has just as little will-power as the National Assembly,
seeks out the two most stupid men in the monarchy and
tells these lions: represent will-power. Pfuel still had a few
grains of brain. But absolute stupidity makes even the
grumblers of the March achievements flinch.
"With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain,”102
exclaims the perplexed National Assembly.
These Wrangels and Brandenburgs, these blockheads who
can want because they have no will of their own, because
they only want what they are ordered, and who are too
stupid to question the orders they are given with a falter
ing voice and trembling lips—they, too, have discredited
themselves because they did not get down to skull-breaking,
the only job these battering-rams are good for.
Wrangel does not go beyond confessing that he recognises
pnly a National Assembly that obeys orders. Brandenburg
is given a lesson in parliamentary behaviour, and after
having shocked the Chamber with his crude, repulsive jargon
appropriate to a drill-sergeant, he allows the National As
sembly “to tyrannise the tyrant” and carries out its orders
by humbly begging for permission to speak, though he had
just attempted to usurp this right.
1 had rather be a tick in a sheep
Than such a valiant ignorance.103
Berlin’s calm attitude delights us; the ideals of the Prus
sian drill-sergeants prove unavailing against it.
But the National Assembly? Why does it not use its power
to proscribe? Why does it not outlaw the Wrangels? Why
* The term “Schnurrbart" (moustache) in eighteenth-century student

slang stood also for policeman.—Ed.
does not one of the deputies step into the midst of Wrangel’s
bayonets to outlaw him and address the soldiers?
Let the Berlin National Assembly turn over the leaves
of the Moniteur,VVl the Moniteur for 1789-95.
And what should we do at the present time?
We should refuse to pay taxes. A Wrangel and a Bran
denburg understand—for these creatures learn Arabic from
the Hyghlans105—that they wear a sword and get a uniform
and a salary. But where the sword, the uniform and the
salary come from—that they do not understand.
There is only one means for securing the defeat of
the monarchy, and that is to do it before the advent of the
anti-June revolution, which will take place in Paris in De
cember.106
The monarchy defies not only the people, but the bour
geoisie as well.
Defeat it therefore in a bourgeois manner.
How can one defeat the monarchy in a bourgeois manner?
By starving it into surrender.
And how can one starve it into surrender?
By refusing to pay taxes.
Consider it well. No princes of Prussia, no Brandenburgs
and Wrangels produce the bread for the army. It is you
who produce even the bread for the army.
[HI]
Cologne, November 13. Just as once the French National

Assembly, on finding its official meeting place closed,
had to hold its session in the tennis-court, so now the Prus
sian National Assembly has to meet in the shooting-
gallery. 107
A resolution passed in the shooting-gallery declares Bran
denburg a traitor. The text, as received from our Berlin
correspondent (who signs his articles.), is contained in our
special edition issued this morning, but it is not mentioned
in the report published in the Kolnische Zeitung.108
However, we have just received a letter from a member
of the National Assembly in which he writes:
u*
164 KARL MARX
“The National Assembly (i.e., 242 members) unanimously declared

that by introducing this measure (dissolution of the Civil Guard)
Brandenburg has committed high treason, and every person who actively
or passively assists in carrying through this measure is to be regarded
as a traitor."
Dumont’s reliability is well known.
Since the National Assembly has declared Brandenburg
a traitor, the obligation to pay taxes ceases automatically.
No taxes are due to a government that commits high treason.
Tomorrow we shall tell our readers in greater detail how
in England, the oldest constitutional country, a refusal to
pay taxes operated during a similar conflict.109 Incidentally,
the traitorous government itself has shown the people the
right way when it immediately refused to pay taxes (allow
ances, etc.) to the National Assembly in order to starve it
into submission.
The aforementioned deputy writes further:
“The Civil Guard will not hand over their arms."
A fight therefore seems inevitable and it is the duty of
the Rhineland to hasten to the assistance of the Berlin Na
tional Assembly with men and weapons.
Written by Marx
Neue Rheinische Zeitung Nos.
141, 141 (second edition) and
142, November 12 and 14, 1848
APPEAL
OF THE DEMOCRATIC DISTRICT COMMITTEE
OF THE RHINE PROVINCE110
Proclamation
Cologne, November 14. The Rhenish District Committee

of Democrats calls upon all democratic associations in the
Rhine Province immediately to convene their associations
and organise everywhere popular meetings in order to en
courage the entire population of the Rhine Province to refuse
to pay taxes, since this is the most effective measure of
protest against the arbitrary acts committed by the govern
ment against the assembly of Prussian elected representatives.
It is necessary to advise against any violent resistance
in the case of taxes collected under a writ of execution, but
it can be recommended that at public sales people should
refrain from bidding.
In order to agree on further measures, the District Com
mittee is of the opinion that a congress of deputies from
all associations should be held, and herewith invites them
to meet on Thursday, November 23, at 9 a.m. (in Eiser’s
Hall, Komodienstrasse, Cologne).
Cologne, November 14, 1848
For the District Committee

Karl Marx Schneider II
November 15, 1848
IMPEACHMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT
The town of Brandenburg refuses to have anything to

do with the Brandenburg cabinet and has sent a letter of
thanks to the National Assembly.
Statements issued throughout the country recognise only
the government of the National Assembly.
The cabinet has again committed high treason by defying
the Habeas Corpus Act111 and proclaiming a state of siege
without the assent of the National Assembly and by expel
ling the National Assembly from the shooting-gallery at
the point of the bayonet.
The seat of the National Assembly is the people and
not this or that heap of stones. If it is driven out of Berlin
it will meet elsewhere, in Breslau, Cologne, or any other
place it thinks fit. It has declared this in the resolution it
passed on the 13th.
The Berliners scoff at the state of siege and are in no
way intimidated by it. Nobody is handing over his arms.
Armed men from various parts of the country are hurry
ing to the assistance of the National Assembly.
The Guard regiments have refused to obey orders. More
and more soldiers are fraternising with the people.
Silesia and Thuringia are in revolt.
We, however, appeal to you, citizens—send money to
the democratic Central Committee in Berlin. But pay no
taxes to the counter-revolutionary government. The Na
tional Assembly has declared that refusal to pay taxes is
justified in law. It has not yet passed a resolution on this
out of consideration for the civil servants. A starvation diet
IMPEACHMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT 167
will make these officials realise the power of the citizenry

and will make good citizens of them.
Starve the enemy and refuse to pay taxes! Nothing is
sillier than to supply a traitorous government with the means
to fight the nation, and the means of all means is money.
Written by Marx
on November 15, 1848
Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 143
(special edition),
November 15, 1848
NO TAX PAYMENTS!
Cologne, November 16. All the Berlin newspapers, with

the exception of the Preussische Staats-Anzeiger,112 Vossi-
sche Zeitung,113 and Neue Preussische Zeitung,111 have failed
to arrive.
The Civil Guard in the wealthy south-western district of
Berlin has been disarmed, but only there. It is the same bat
talion that dastardly murdered the engineering workers on
October 31.115 The disarming of this battalion strengthens the
the popular cause.
The National Assembly was again driven out of the
Kollnische Rathaus116 by force of arms. It assembled then
in the Mielenz Hotel, where finally it unanimously (by 226
votes') passed the following resolution on the non-payment
of taxes:
“So long, as the National Assembly is not at liberty to continue its
sessions in Berlin, the Brandenburg cabinet has no right to dispose of
government revenues and to collect taxes.
“This decree comes into force on November 17.
The National Assembly, November 15.”
From today, therefore, taxes are abolished! It is high
treason to pay taxes. Refusal to pay taxes is the primary
duty of the citizen!
Written by Marx
(special supplement),
November 17, 1848
APPEAL117
Cologne, November 18. The Rhenish District Committee

of Democrats calls upon all democratic associations in the
Rhine Province to have the following measures decided
upon and carried through:
1. Since the Prussian National Assembly itself has ruled
that taxes are not to be paid, their forcible collection must
be resisted everywhere and in every way.
2. In order to repulse the enemy the local militia must
be organised everywhere. The cost of weapons and ammu
nition for impecunious citizens is to be defrayed by the
community or by voluntary contributions.
3. The authorities are to be asked everywhere to state
publicly whether they recognise the decisions of the Na
tional Assembly and intend to carry them out. In case
of refusal committees of public safety are to be set up,
and where possible this should be done with the consent of
the local councils. Local councils opposed to the Legisla
tive Assembly should be re-elected by a universal vote.
Cologne, November 18
For the Rhenish District Committee of Democrats

Karl Marx Karl Schapper Schneider II
(second edition),
November 19, 1848
THE ASSEMBLY AT FRANKFURT
Cologne, November 22. The resolution of the Berlin As

sembly regarding the refusal to pay taxes has been declared
unlawful and void by the Frankfurt Parliament. It has thus
sided with Brandenburg, with Wrangel, with specific Prus-
sianism. Frankfurt has moved to Berlin, and Berlin to
Frankfurt. The German Parliament is in Berlin, and the
Prussian Parliament in Frankfurt. The Prussian Parliament
has become a German Parliament, and the German one has
become Brandenburg’s Prussian Parliament. Prussia was to
have merged into Germany, now the German Parliament
at Frankfurt wants Germany to be merged into Prussia.
German Parliament! Whoever spoke of a German Parlia
ment after the grave events in Berlin and Vienna. After the
death of Robert Blum no one gave another thought to the
life of the noble Gagern. Who cared a hang about a Schmer-
ling after the setting up of the Brandenburg-Manteuffel
ministry! The professors who “made history” for their own
amusement had to allow the shelling of Vienna, the murder
of Robert Blum and the barbarity of Windischgratz! The
gentlemen who were so greatly concerned about the cultural
history of Germany left the practical application of culture
in the hands of a Jellachich and his Croats! While the
professors were evolving the theory of history, history ran
its stormy course without bothering about the professorial
history.
The resolution passed the day before yesterday has
destroyed the Frankfurt Parliament. The resolution has
driven it into the arms of the traitor Brandenburg. The
Parliament at Frankfurt is guilty of high treason, it must
be brought to trial. If a whole people rises to protest against
an arbitrary act of a king, and if this protest is made in

an entirely legal way—by refusing to pay taxes—and an
assembly of professors declares—without being at all com
petent to do so—that the refusal to pay taxes, this revolt
of the whole people, is unlawful, then this assembly places
itself outside the law, it commits high treason.
It is the duty of all members of the Frankfurt Assembly
who voted against this resolution to resign from this “de
ceased Federal Diet”. It is the duty of all democrats to
elect these resigned “Prussians” to the German National
Assembly at Berlin in place of the “Germans” who have
left. The National Assembly in Berlin is not a “fragment”,
it is a complete entity, for it constitutes a quorum. But the
Brandenburg Assembly at Frankfurt will become a “frag
ment”, for the inevitable resignation of the 150 deputies
will surely be followed by many others who do not wish
to set up a Federal Diet at Frankfurt. The Frankfurt Parlia
ment! It fears a red republic and decrees a red monarchy.
We do not want a red monarchy, we do not want the crimson
crown of Austria to extend its sway over Prussia, and we
therefore declare that the German Parliament is guilty of
high treason. Nay, we do it too much honour; we impute
to it a political importance which it has long since lost.
The severest judgment has already been passed upon it—
disregard of its rulings and total oblivion.
Written by Marx
November 23, 1848
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITALY
Cologne, November 29. After six months of democracy’s

almost uninterrupted defeats, after a series of unprecedented
triumphs for the counter-revolution, there are at last indica
tions of an approaching victory of the revolutionary party.
Italy, the country whose uprising was the prelude to the
European uprising of 1848 and whose collapse was the
prelude to the fall of Vienna—Italy rises for the second
time. Tuscany has succeeded in establishing a democratic
government, and Rome has just won a similar government
for itself.
London, April 10; Paris, May 15 and June 25; Milan,
August 6; Vienna, November I118—these are the four im
portant dates of the European counter-revolution, the four
milestones marking the stages of its latest triumphal march.
Not only was the revolutionary power of the Chartists
broken in London on April 10, but the revolutionary propa
ganda impact of the February victory was for the first
time broken. Those who correctly assess the position of
England and the role she plays in modern history were not
surprised that the continental revolutions passed over her
without leaving a trace for the time being. England, a
country which, through her industry and commerce, domi
nates all those revolutionary nations of the Continent and
nevertheless remains relatively independent of her customers
because she dominates the Asian, American and Australian
markets; a country in which the contradictions of present
day bourgeois society, the class struggle of the bourgeoisie
and the proletariat, are most strongly developed and are
most acute, England more than any other country follows
her own, independent, course of development. The fumbling
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITALY 173
approach of continental provisional governments to the

solution of problems and the abolition of contradictions is
not required in England, for she is more competent in
dealing with and solving them than any other country.
England does not accept the revolution of the Continent;
when the time comes England will prescribe the revolution
to the Continent. That is England’s position and the neces
sary consequence of her position, and hence the victory of
“order” on April 10 was understandable. But who does
not remember that this victory of “order”, this first counter
blow to the blows of February and March, gave fresh
support to the counter-revolution everywhere and raised
daring hopes in the hearts of those known as conservatives.
Who does not remember that everywhere throughout
Germany the action of London’s special constables was
immediately accepted as a model by the entire Civil Guard.
Who does not remember the impression made by this first
proof that the movement which had broken out was not
unconquerable.
On May 15, Paris promptly provided its counterpart to
the victory of the English party that wants to maintain the
status quo. The outermost waves of the revolutionary flood
were stemmed on April 10; on May 15 its force was broken
at its very source. April 10 demonstrated that the February
movement was not irresistible; May 15 demonstrated that
the insurrection could be checked in Paris. The revolution
defeated at its centre was of course bound to succumb at
the periphery as well. And this happened to an increasing
extent in Prussia and the smaller German states. But the
revolutionary current was still strong enough to secure two
victories of the people in Vienna, the first also on May 15,
the second on May 26, while the victory of absolutism in
Naples, likewise won on May 15, acted because of its
excesses rather as a counterbalance to the victory of order
in Paris. Something was still missing, though. Not only had
the revolutionary movement to be defeated in Paris, but
armed insurrection had to be divested of the spell of its
invincibility in Paris itself; only then could the counter
revolution feel safe.
174 KARL MARX
And that happened at Paris in a battle lasting four days,

from June 23 to 26. Four days of gun-fire put an end to
the impregnability of the barricades and the invincibility
of the armed people. What did Cavaignac demonstrate by
his victory if not that the laws of warfare are more or less
the same in a street and in a defile, when faced by a barri
cade or by an entanglement or bastion? That 40,000 undisci
plined armed workers, without guns or howitzers and with
out deliveries of ammunition, can withstand a well-organised
army of 120,000 experienced soldiers and 150,000 men of
the National Guard supported by the best and most numer
ous artillery and abundantly supplied with ammunition
for no more than four days? Cavaignac’s victory was the
most brutal suppression of the smaller force by a force numer
ically seven times as big; it was the most inglorious victory
ever won, the more inglorious for the blood that it cost
despite the overwhelmingly superior forces. Nevertheless it
was regarded with amazement as if it were a wonder, for
this victory won by superior forces divested the people of
Paris and the Paris barricades of the aura of invincibility.
By defeating 40,000 workers, Cavaignac’s 300,000 men de
feated not only the 40,000 workers, but, without realising
it, defeated the European revolution. We all know that
from that day an impetuous storm of reaction set in. There
was nothing now to restrain it; the people of Paris were
defeated with shell and grape-shot by conservative forces,
and what could be done in Paris could be repeated else
where. Nothing remained to democracy after this decisive
defeat but to make as honourable a retreat as possible and
defend its positions foot by foot in the press, at public
meetings and in parliaments—positions which could no
longer be held.
The next great blow was the fall of Milan. The recapture
of Milan by Radetzky was indeed the first European event
following the June victory in Paris. The double-headed
eagle on the spire of the Milan Cathedral signified not only
the fall of Italy as a whole, it also signified the restora
tion of Austria, the restoration of the stronghold of Euro
pean counter-revolution. Italy crushed and Austria resur-
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITALY 175
reefed—what more could the counter-revolution demand!

Indeed, with the fall of Milan there was a slackening of
revolutionary energy in Italy for a time, Mamiani was over
thrown in Rome, the democrats were defeated in Piedmont;
and simultaneously the reactionary party raised its head
again in Austria and from its centre, Radetzky’s headquar
ters, it began with renewed courage to spread the net of its
intrigues over all provinces. Only then did Jellachich
assume the offensive, only then was the great alliance of
the counter-revolution with the Austrian Slavs completed.
I say nothing of the brief intermezzi in which the coun
ter-revolution gained local victories and conquered separate
provinces, of the setback in Frankfurt, and so on. They are
of local, perhaps national, but not European significance.
Finally, the work that was begun on the day of Custozza119
was completed on November 1—just as Radetzky had
marched into Milan so did Windischgratz and Jellachich
march into Vienna. Cavaignac’s method was employed, and
employed successfully, against the largest and most active
focus of German revolution. The revolution in Vienna, like
that in Paris, was smothered in blood and smoking ruins.
But it almost seems as if the victory of November 1 also
marks the moment when the retrogressive movement reaches
the turning point and a crisis occurs. The attempt step by
step to repeat the bold exploit of Vienna in Prussia has
failed. Even if the country should forsake the Constituent
Assembly, the most the Crown can expect is merely a partial
victory which will decide nothing, and at any rate the first
discouraging effect of the Viennese defeat has been miti
gated by the crude attempt to copy it in every detail.
While Northern Europe has either been forced back
again into the servitude of 1847 or is struggling to make
safe the gains won during the first months against the at
tacks of the counter-revolution, Italy is suddenly rising
again. Leghorn, the only Italian city which the fall of Milan
spurred on to a victorious revolution, Leghorn has at last
imparted its democratic elan to the whole of Tuscany and
has succeeded in setting up a radically democratic cabinet,
more radical than any that ever existed under a monarchy,
176 KARL MARX
and more radical even than many a government formed in

a republic. This government responded to the fall of Vienna
and the restoration of Austria by proclaiming an Italian
Constituent Assembly. The revolutionary fire-brand which
this democratic government has thus hurled into the midst
of the Italian people has kindled a fire: in Rome the people,
the National Guard and the army have risen to a man,
have overthrown the evasive, counter-revolutionary cabinet
and secured a democratic cabinet, and first among the
demands they succeeded in putting through is a government
based on the principle of Italian nationality, namely, the
sending of delegates to the Italian Constituent Assembly as
proposed by Guerazzi.
Piedmont and Sicily will undoubtedly follow suit. They
will follow just as they did last year.
And then? Will this second resurrection of Italy within
three years—like the preceding one—herald the dawn of
a new upsurge of European democracy? It almost looks
as if it will. For the time of counter-revolution has expired.
France is about to throw herself into the arms of an adven
turer in order to escape the rule of Cavaignac and Marrast;
Germany is more divided than ever; Austria is overwhelmed;
Prussia is on the eve of civil war. All the illusions of
February and March have been ruthlessly crushed beneath
the swift tread of history. Indeed, the people have nothing
more to learn from any further victories of the counter
revolution!
It is up to the people, when the occasion arises, to apply
the lessons of the past six months at the right moment and
fearlessly.
Written by Marx
November 30, 1848
THE COUP D’ETAT
OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION
Cologne, December 7. The National Assembly has been

dissolved. The representatives of the people have been
dispersed “by the grace of God”.
The reason given by the government for this act of
violence adds bitter contempt to the coup d’etat carried
through with such insolence.120
The National Assembly now reaps the fruits of its peren
nial weakness and cowardice. For months it allowed the
conspiracy against the people to do its work unmolested,
to grow strong and powerful, and hence it has now become
its first victim.
The people, too, is now suffering for its sins, committed
out of magnanimity, or rather stupidity, in March and even
in April and May, and finally for its so-called “passive
resistance”. It is now to be hoped that it has learned its
lesson. Its next victory will put an end to the policy of
“agreement” and to all other phrases and hypocrisies.
Written by Marx
December 8, 1848
THE BOURGEOISIE
AND THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION
[I]
Cologne, December 9. We have never concealed the fact
that we do not proceed from a legal basis, but from a revolu
tionary basis. Now the government has for its part aban
doned the false pretence of a legal basis. It has taken its
stand on a revolutionary basis, for the counter-revolutionary
basis, too, is revolutionary.
§ 6 of the law of April 6, 1848, ordains:
“The right to approve all laws as well as to determine the national
budget and to pass taxes must in any case belong to the future re
presentatives of the people.”
§ 13 of the law of April 8, 1848, reads:
“The Assembly convened on the basis of this law is called upon
to establish the future Constitution by agreement with the Crown and
during its lifetime to exercise the prerogatives of the former Imperial
Diet, in particular regarding the passing of taxes.”
The government sends this Assembly of conciliators to

the devil, imposes a so-called constitution121 upon the country
and levies taxes which the representatives of the people had
refused to grant it.
The Camphausen epic, a sort of pompous legal ]obsiad,vn
was brought to an abrupt end by the Prussian government.
In retaliation the great Camphausen, the author of this epic,
continues coolly to deliberate in Frankfurt as envoy of this
same Prussian government, and goes on scheming with the
Bassermanns in the interests of that same Prussian govern
ment. This Camphausen, who invented the theory of agree
ment in order to preserve the legal basis, that is, in order
first of all to cheat the revolution of the respect that is due
to it, at the same time invented the mines which were
THE BOURGEOISIE AND THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 179
later to blow up the legal basis together with the theory of

agreement.
This man provided for indirect elections, which produced
an assembly to which, at a moment of sudden revolt, the
government could shout: Prop tard! He recalled the Prince
of Prussia, the head of the counter-revolution, and even
resorted to an official lie to transform Prince’s flight into
an educational journey.123 He abolished neither the old
Prussian laws dealing with political crimes nor the old
courts. Under his government the old bureaucracy and the
old army gained time to recover from their fright and to
reorganise their whole structure. All the leading personalities
of the old regime were left untouched in their positions.
Under Camphausen the camarilla carried on a war in
Poznan, while he himself carried on a war in Denmark.
The Danish war was intended as a channel to draw off the
superabundant patriotism124 of the German youth, on whom
after their return the police inflicted fitting disciplinary
punishment. This war was to give some popularity to General
Wrangel and his infamous regiments of the Guards and in
general to rehabilitate the Prussian army. This purpose
achieved, the sham war had to be ended at any price by
a disgraceful armistice, which was once again negotiated
at Frankfurt between the same Camphausen and the German
National Assembly. The outcome of the Danish war was the
appointment of the “Commander-in-Chief of the two Bran
denburgs"125 and the return to Berlin of the regiments of
the Guards which had been driven out in March.
And the war which the Potsdam camarilla waged in
Poznan under the auspices of Camphausen!
The war in Poznan was more than a war against the
Prussian revolution. It was the fall of Vienna, the fall of
Italy, the defeat of the heroes of June. It was the first
decisive victory gained by the Russian Tsar over the Euro
pean revolution. And all this was done under the auspices
of the great Camphausen, the thinking friend of history,126
the knight of the great debate, the champion of negotiation.
Under Camphausen and with his help the counter-revolu
tion seized all important positions; it prepared an army
12*
180 KARL MARX
ready for action while the Assembly of conciliators debated.

Under Hansemann-Pinto,[21 the Minister of Action, the old
police force was fitted out with new uniforms, and the bour
geoisie waged a war—as bitter as it was petty—against
the people. The conclusion from these premises was drawn
under Brandenburg’s rule. The only things needed for this
were a moustache and sword instead of a head.
When Camphausen resigned we exclaimed:
He has sown reaction as interpreted by the bourgeoisie,
he will reap reaction as interpreted by the aristocracy and
absolutism.
We have no doubt that His Excellency, the Prussian
envoy Camphausen, at this moment regards himself a feudal
lord and has come to a peaceable agreement with his “mis
understanding”.
One should not, however, commit the error of ascribing
initiatives of world historical significance to such mediocri
ties as a Camphausen and a Hansemann. They were nothing
but the instruments of a class. Their language, their actions,
were merely the official echo of the class which brought
them to the forefront. They were simply the big bour
geoisie placed in the forefront.
The members of this class formed the liberal opposition
in the late United Provincial Diet of blessed memory, which
Camphausen resurrected for a moment.
The gentlemen of this liberal opposition have been re
proached with having deserted their principles after the
March revolution. This is a fallacy.
The big landowners and capitalists—and they were the
only ones to be represented in the United Provincial Diet—
in short the money-bags, became wealthier and more edu
cated. With the development of bourgeois society in Prussia,
in other words, with the development of industry, trade and
agriculture, the old class distinctions had, on the one hand,
lost their material basis.
The aristocracy itself was largely bourgeoisified. Instead
of dealing in loyalty, love and faith, it now dealt primarily
in beetroot, liquor and wool. Its tournaments were held on
the wool market. On the other hand, the absolutist state,
which in the course of development lost its old social basis,

became a restrictive fetter for the new bourgeois society
with its changed mode of production and its changed require
ments. The bourgeoisie had to claim its share of political
power, if only by reason of its material interests. Only the
bourgeoisie itself could legally assert its commercial and
industrial requirements. It had to wrest the administration
of these, its “most sacred interests'’ from the hands of an
antiquated bureaucracy which was both ignorant and
arrogant. It had to demand control over the national wealth,
whose creator it considered itself. Having deprived the bu
reaucracy of the monopoly of so-called education and con
scious of the fact that it possesses a far superior knowledge
of the real requirements of bourgeois society, the bourgeoisie
had also the ambition to secure for itself a political status
in keeping with its social status. To attain this aim it had
to be able freely to debate its own interests and views and
the actions of the government. It called this “freedom of the
press". The bourgeoisie had to be able to enter freely into
associations. It called this the “right of free association". As
the necessary consequence of free competition, it had like
wise to demand religious liberty and so on. Before March
1848 the Prussian bourgeoisie was rapidly moving towards
the realisation of all its aims.
The Prussian state was in financial difficulties. Its bor
rowing power was exhausted. This was the secret reason
for the convocation of the United Provincial Diet. Although
the government struggled against its fate and ungraciously
dissolved the United Provincial Diet, lack of money and of
credit facilities would inevitably have driven it gradually
into the arms of the bourgeoisie. Those who are kings by
the grace of God have always bartered their privileges for
hard cash, as did the feudal barons. The first great act
of this historic deal in all Christian Germanic states was
the emancipation of the serfs; the second act was the consti
tutional monarchy. “L’argent n’a pas de maitre", but the
maitres cease to be maitres as soon as they are demonetised.
And so the liberal opposition in the United Provincial
Diet was simply the bourgeoisie in opposition to a political
182 KARL MARX
form that was no longer appropriate to its interests and

needs. In order to oppose the Court, the bourgeoisie had to
court the people.
It may have really imagined that its opposition was for
the people.
Obviously, the rights and liberties which the bourgeoisie
sought for itself could be demanded from the government
only under the slogan: popular rights and popular liberties.
This opposition, as we have said, was rapidly moving
towards its goal when the February storm broke.
[II]
Cologne, December 11. When the March flood—a flood

in miniature—subsided it left on the surface of Berlin no
prodigies, no revolutionary giants, but traditional creatures,
thickset bourgeois figures—the liberals of the United Pro
vincial Diet, the representatives of the conscious Prussian
bourgeoisie. The main contingents for the new ministries
were supplied by the Rhineland and Silesia, the provinces
with the most advanced bourgeoisie. They were followed by
a whole train of Rhenish lawyers. As the bourgeoisie was
pushed into the background by the feudal aristocracy, the
Rhineland and Silesia were replaced in the cabinets by the
old Prussian provinces. The only link of the Brandenburg
cabinet with the Rhineland is through a single Elberfeld
Tory. Hansemann and von der Heydt! These two names
exemplify the whole difference between March and Decem
ber 1848 for the Prussian bourgeoisie.
The Prussian bourgeoisie reached the political summit,
not by means of a peaceful deal with the Crown, as it had
desired, but as the result of a revolution. It was to defend,
not its own interests, but those of the people—for a popular
movement had prepared the way for the bourgeoisie—against
the Crown, in other words, against itself. For the bourgeoisie
regarded the Crown simply as a cloak provided by the grace
of God, a cloak that was to conceal its own profane interests.
The inviolability of its own interests and of the political
forms appropriate to these interests, expressed in constitu
tional language, is inviolability of the Crown. Hence the en

thusiasm of the German bourgeoisie and in particular of the
Prussian bourgeoisie for the constitutional monarchy. Al
though the February revolution together with its repercus
sions in Germany was welcomed by the Prussian bourgeoisie,
because the revolution had placed the helm of state into its
hands, it also upset the plans of the bourgeoisie, because its
rule was thus bound by conditions which it neither wanted
nor was able to fulfil.
The bourgeoisie did not raise a finger; it simply allowed
the people to fight for it. Hence the rule it was called upon
to exercise was not the rule of a commander who has de
feated his adversary, but the rule of a committee of public
safety which has been entrusted by the victorious people
with the protection of its interests.
Camphausen was still clearly aware of this embarrassing
position, and the weakness of his cabinet was entirely due to
this feeling and the circumstances that gave rise to it. Even
the most shameless actions of his government are therefore
tinctured by a sort of shamefaced blush. Open shamelessness
and insolence were Hansemanris privileges. The red com
plexion is all that distinguishes these two artists from one
another.
The March revolution in Prussia should not be confused
either with the English revolution of 1648 or with the French
one of 1789.
In 1648 the bourgeoisie was allied with the modern aris
tocracy against the monarchy, the feudal aristocracy and the
established church.
In 1789 the bourgeoisie was allied with the people against
the monarchy, the aristocracy and the established church.
The model for the revolution of 1789 (at least in Europe)
was only the revolution of 1648; that for the revolution of
1648 only the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain.128
Both revolutions were a century ahead of their model not
only in time but also in substance.
In both revolutions the bourgeoisie was the class that
really headed the movement. The proletariat and the non
bourgeois strata of the middle class had either not yet
184 KARL MARX
evolved interests which were different from those of the

bourgeoisie or they did not yet constitute independent classes
or class divisions. Therefore, where they opposed the bour
geoisie, as they did in France in 1793 and 1794, they fought
only for the attainment of the aims of the bourgeoisie, albeit
in a non-bourgeois manner. The entire French terrorism was
just a plebeian way of dealing with the enemies of the bour
geoisie, absolutism, feudalism and philistinism.
The revolutions of 1648 and 1789 were not English and
French revolutions, they were revolutions in the European
fashion. They did not represent the victory of a particular
social class over the old political system-, they proclaimed the
political system of the new European society. The bour
geoisie was victorious in these revolutions, but the victory
of the bourgeoisie was at that time the victory of a new
social order, the victory of bourgeois ownership over feudal
ownership, of nationality over provincialism, of competition
over the guild, of partitioning [of the land] over primogen
iture, of the rule of the landowner over the domination of
the owner by the land, of enlightenment over supersti
tion, of the family over the family name, of industry over
heroic idleness, of bourgeois law over medieval privileges.
The revolution of 1648 was the victory of the seventeenth
century over the sixteenth century; the revolution of 1789
was the victory of the eighteenth century over the seventeenth.
These revolutions reflected the needs of the world at that
time rather than the needs of those parts of the world where
they occurred, that is, England and France.
There has been nothing of this in the Prussian March
revolution.
The February revolution actually abolished the constitu
tional monarchy and nominally abolished the rule of the
bourgeoisie. The Prussian March revolution ought to have
nominally established a constitutional monarchy and ac
tually established the rule of the bourgeoisie. Far from
being a European revolution it was merely a weak repercus
sion of a European revolution in a backward country. In
stead of being ahead of its century, it was over half a cen
tury behind its time. From the very outset it was a secondary
phenomenon, and it is well known that secondary diseases

are harder to cure and are liable to cause more harm than
the primary diseases do. It was not a question of establishing
a new society, but of resurrecting in Berlin a society that had
expired in Paris. The Prussian March revolution was not
even a national, German revolution; from the very start it
was a provincial Prussian revolution. In Vienna, Cassel, Mu
nich and various other towns provincial uprisings took place
alongside it and competed with it.
Whereas 1648 and 1789 gained boundless self-confidence
from the knowledge that they were leading the universe, it
was the ambition of the Berlin [revolution] of 1848 to con
stitute an anachronism. Its light is like that of the stars
which reaches us, the inhabitants of the Earth, only after the
bodies from which it had emanated have been extinct for
a hundred thousand years. The March revolution in Prussia
was, on a small scale—just as it did everything on a small
scale—such a star for Europe. Its light was that of a social
body which had long since disintegrated.
The German bourgeoisie developed so sluggishly, timidly
and slowly that at the moment when it menacingly confront
ed feudalism and absolutism, it saw menacingly pitted
against itself the proletariat and all sections of the middle
class whose interests and ideas were related to those of the
proletariat. The German bourgeoisie found not just one class
behind it, but all Europe hostilely facing it. Unlike the
French bourgeoisie of 1789, the Prussian bourgeoisie, when
it confronted monarchy and aristocracy, the representatives
of the old society, was not a class speaking for the whole
of modern society. It had been reduced to a kind of estate
as clearly distinct from the Crown as it was from the people,
with a strong bend to oppose both adversaries and irresolute
towards each of them individually because it always saw
both of them either in front of it or behind it. From the first
it was inclined to betray the people and to compromise with
the crowned representatives of the old society, for it already
belonged itself to the old society; it did not advance the
interests of a new society against an old one, but represented
refurbished interests within an obsolete society. It stood at
186 KARL MARX
the helm of the revolution not because it had the people

behind it but because the people drove it forward; it stood
at the head because it merely represented the spleen of an
old social era and not the initiatives of a new one. A stratum
of the old state that had failed to break through and was
thrown up on the surface of the new state by the force of an
earthquake; without faith in itself, without faith in the people,
grumbling at those above, frightened of those below,
egoistical towards both and aware of its egoism; revolution
ary with regard to the conservatives and conservative with
regard to the revolutionaries. It did not trust its own slogans,
used phrases instead of ideas, it was intimidated by the
world storm and exploited it for its own ends; it displayed
no energy anywhere, but resorted to plagiarism everywhere,
it was vulgar because unoriginal, and original in its vulgar
ity; haggling over its own demands, without initiative, with
out faith in itself, without faith in the people, without a his
toric mission, an abominable dotard finding himself con
demned to lead and to mislead the first youthful impulses of
a virile people so as to make them serve his own senile in
terests—sans eyes, sans ears, sans teeth, sans everything—
this was the Prussian bourgeoisie which found itself at the
helm of the Prussian state after the March revolution.
[HI]
Cologne, December 15. The theory of agreement, which

the bourgeoisie, on attaining power in the person of the
Camphausen cabinet, immediately publicised as the “broad
est” basis of the Prussian contrat social, was by no means an
empty theory; on the contrary, it grew on the tree of "gold
en" life.
The sovereign by the grace of God was by no means
vanquished by the sovereignty of the people as a result of
the March revolution. The Crown, the absolute state, was
merely compelled to come to an agreement with the bour
geoisie, its old rival.
The Crown offers the aristocracy as a sacrifice to the bour
geoisie, the bourgeoisie offers the people as a sacrifice to the
Crown. Under these circumstances the monarchy becomes

bourgeois and the bourgeoisie monarchical.
Only these two powers exist since the March revolution.
They use each other as a sort of lightning-conductor against
the revolution. Always, of course, on the “broadest demo
cratic basis”.
Herein lay the secret of the theory of agreement.
The oil and wool merchants129 who formed the first cabinet
after the March revolution took pleasure in protecting the
exposed Crown with their plebeian wings. They were highly
delighted at having gained access to the Court and reluc
tantly driven by pure magnanimity to abandon their austere
Roman pose, i.e., the Roman pose of the United Provincial
Diet, to use the corpse of their former popularity to fill the
chasm that threatened to engulf the throne. Camphausen
plumed himself on being the midwife of the constitutional
throne. The worthy man was evidently deeply moved by his
own action, his own magnanimity. The Crown and its follow
ers reluctantly suffered this humiliating protection and made
bonne mine a mauvais jeu, hoping for better days to come.
The bourgeois gentilhomme was easily taken in by a few
honeyed words and curtsies from the partly disintegrated
army, the bureaucracy that trembled for its positions and
salaries, and the humiliated feudals, whose leader was en
gaged in a constitutional educational journey.
The Prussian bourgeoisie was nominally in control and did
not for a moment doubt that the powers of the old state had
placed themselves unreservedly at its disposal and had be
come offshoots of its own omnipotence.
Not only in the cabinet but throughout the monarchy the
bourgeoisie was intoxicated with this delusion.
Did not the army, the bureaucracy and even the feudal
lords act as willing and obedient accomplices in the only
heroic deeds the Prussian bourgeoisie performed after the
March revolution, namely, the often sanguinary machina
tions of the Civil Guard against the unarmed proletariat?
Did not the subdued district governors and penitent major-
generals listen with admiration to the stern patriarchal
admonitions which the local councillors addressed to the
188 KARL MARX
people—the only efforts, the only heroic deeds of which

these local councillors, the local representatives of the bour
geoisie (whose obtrusive servile vulgarity the Windischgrat-
zes, Jellachiches and Weldens afterwards repaid with kicks)
were capable after the March revolution? Could the Prus
sian bourgeoisie have doubted after this that the former ill-
will of the army, bureaucracy and feudal aristocracy had
been transformed into respectful loyalty to the bourgeoisie,
the magnanimous victor who had put a curb both upon itself
and upon anarchy?
Clearly the Prussian bourgeoisie now had only one duty—
to settle itself comfortably in power, get rid of the trouble
some anarchists, restore “law and order” and retrieve the
profit lost during the storms of March. It was now merely
a question of reducing to a minimum the costs of its rule
and of the March revolution which had brought it about.
The weapons which, in its struggle against the feudal society
and the Crown, the Prussian bourgeoisie had been compelled
to demand in the name of the people, such as the right
of association and freedom of the press, were they not bound
to be broken in the hands of a deluded people who no longer
needed to use them to fight for the bourgeoisie and who
revealed an alarming inclination to use them against the
bourgeoisie?
“The bourgeoisie was convinced that evidently only one
obstacle stood in the way of its agreement with the Crown,
in the way of a deal with the old state, which was resigned
to its fate, and that obstacle was the people—puer robustus
sed malitiosus,i3° as Hobbes says. The people and the revo
lution^.
The revolution was the legal title of the people; the vehe
ment claims of the people were based on the revolution. The
revolution was the bill drawn by the people on the bour
geoisie. The bourgeoisie came to power through the revolu
tion. The day it came to power was also the day this bill
became due. The bourgeoisie had to protest the bill.
Revolution in the mouth of the people meant: you, the
bourgeois, are the Comite du salut public, the Committee of
Public Safety, to whom we have entrusted the government
in order that you should defend our interests, the interests

of the people, in face of the Crown, but not in order that
you should come to an agreement with the Crown regarding
your own interests.
Revolution was the people’s protest against an arrange
ment between the bourgeoisie and the Crown. The bour
geoisie that was making arrangements with the Crown had
therefore to protest against the revolution.
And that was done under the great Camphausen. Rhe
March revolution was not recognised. The National Repre
sentatives at Berlin set themselves up as representatives of
the Prussian bourgeoisie, as the Assembly of conciliators, by
rejecting the motion recognising the March revolution.
The Assembly sought to undo what had been done. It
vociferously declared to the Prussian people that the people
did not come to an agreement with the bourgeoisie in order
to make a revolution against the Crown, but that the pur
pose of the revolution was to achieve an agreement between
the Crown and the bourgeoisie against the people! Thus was
the legal title of the revolutionary people annulled and a
legal basis secured for the conservative bourgeoisie.
Rhe legal basis!
Briiggemann, and through him the Kolnische Zeitung,
have prated, fabled and moaned so much about the “legal
basis”, have so often lost and recovered, punctured and
mended that “legal basis”, tossed it from Berlin to Frankfurt
and from Frankfurt to Berlin, narrowed and widened it,
turned the simple basis into an inlaid floor and the inlaid
floor into a false bottom (which, as we know, is the prin
cipal device of performing conjurors), and the false bottom
into a bottomless trapdoor, so that in the end the legal basis
has turned for our readers into the basis of the Kolnische
Zeitung-, thus, they could confuse the shibboleth of the Prus
sian bourgeoisie with the private shibboleth of Herr Joseph
Dumont, a necessary invention of the Prussian world history
with the arbitrary hobby-horse of the Kolnische Zeitung,
and regard the legal basis simply as the basis on which the
Kolnische Zeitung arises.
The legal basis, namely, the Prussian legal basis'.
190 KARL MARX
The legal basis on which Camphausen, the knight of the

great debate, the resurrected phantom of the United Pro
vincial Diet and the Assembly of conciliators, moved after
the March revolution—is it the constitutional law of 1815131
or the law of 1820 regarding the Provincial Diet,132 or the
edict of 1847,133 or the electoral and agreement law of
April 8, 1848134?
Il is none of these.
“Legal basis” simply meant that the revolution failed to
gain firm ground and the old society did not lose its ground;
that the March revolution was an “occurrence” that acted
merely as a “stimulus” towards an “agreement” between
the throne and the bourgeoisie, preparations for which had
long been made within the old Prussian state, and the need
for which the Crown itself had expressed in its royal decrees,
but had not, prior to March, considered as “urgent”. In
short, the “legal basis” meant that after the March revolu
tion the bourgeoisie wanted to negotiate with the Crown
on the same footing as before the March events, as though
no revolution had taken place and the United Provincial
Diet had achieved its goal without a revolution. The “legal
basis” meant that the revolution, the legal title of the peo
ple, was to be ignored in the contrat social between the gov
ernment and the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie deduced its
claims from the old Prussian legislation, in order that the
people should not deduce any claims from the new Prussian
revolution.
Naturally, the ideological cretins of the bourgeoisie, its
journalists, and such like, had to pass off this palliative of
the bourgeois interests as the real interests of the bourgeoisie,
and persuade themselves and others to believe this. The
phrase about the legal basis acquired real substance in the
mind of a Briiggemann.
The Camphausen government fulfilled its task, the task of
being an intermediate link and a transitional stage. It was
the intermediate link between the bourgeoisie which had
risen on the shoulders of the people and the bourgeoisie which
no longer required the shoulders of the people; between the
bourgeoisie which apparently represented the people in face
of the Crown and the bourgeoisie which really represented

the Crown in face of the people; between the bourgeoisie
emerging from the revolution and the bourgeoisie which had
emerged as the core of the revolution.
In keeping with its role, the Camphausen government
coyly and bashfully confined itself to passive resistance
against the revolution.
Although it rejected the revolution in theory, in practice
it resisted only its encroachments and tolerated only the re
establishment of the old political authorities.
The bourgeoisie in the meantime believed that it had
reached the point where passive resistance had to turn into
open attack. The Camphausen cabinet resigned not because
it had committed some blunder or other, but simply because
it was the first cabinet following the March revolution,
because it was the cabinet of the March revolution and by
virtue of its origin it had to conceal that it represented the
bourgeoisie under the guise of a dictatorship of the people.
Its dubious beginnings and its ambiguous character still im
posed on it certain conventions, restraints and considerations
with regard to the sovereign people which were irksome to
the bourgeoisie, and which a second cabinet originating
directly from the Assembly of conciliators would no longer
have to reckon with.
Its resignation therefore puzzled the arm-chair politicians.
It was followed by the Hansemann government, the govern
ment of action, as the bourgeoisie intended to proceed from
the period when it passively betrayed the people to the
Crown to the period of active subjugation of the people to
its own rule in agreement with the Crown. The government
of action was the second government after the March revo
lution; that was its whole secret.
[IV]
Cologne, December 29.
“Gentlemen, business is business!”135
In these few words Hansemann epitomised the whole
liberalism of the United Provincial Diet. This man was
192 KARL MARX
bound to become the head of a government based on the

Assembly of conciliators, a government which was to turn
passive resistance to the people into an active attack on the
people, the government of action.
No Prussian government contained so many middle-class
names. Hansemann, Milde, Marker, Kiihlwetter, Gierke!
Even von Auerswald, the label presentable at Court, belonged
to the liberal aristocracy of the Konigsberg opposition which
paid homage to the bourgeoisie. Roth von Schreckenstein
alone represented the old bureaucratic Prussian feudal
nobility among this rabble. Roth von Schreckenstein! The
surviving title of a vanished novel about robbers and knights
by the late Hildebrandt.™ But Roth von Schreckenstein was
merely the feudal setting for the bourgeois jewel. Roth von
Schreckenstein in a middle-class government meant this,
spelled out in capital letters: the Prussian feudalists, the army
and bureaucracy are guided by the newly arisen star, the
Prussian middle class. These powerful figures have placed
themselves at its disposal, and the middle class has set them
up in front of its throne, just as bears were placed in front
of the rulers of the people on old heraldic emblems. Roth von
Schreckenstein is merely intended to be the bear of the
middle-class government.
On June 26 the Hansemann government presented itself
to the National Assembly. Its actual existence began in July.
The June revolution was the background of the government
of action, just as the February revolution formed the back
ground of the government of mediation.
The bloody victory of the Paris bourgeoisie over the pro
letarians of Paris was used against the people by the Prus
sian bourgeoisie, just as the bloody victory of the Croats at
Vienna was used against the bourgeoisie by the Prussian
Crown. The suffering of the Prussian bourgeoisie after the
Austrian November was retribution for the suffering of the
Prussian people after the French June. In their short-sighted
narrow-mindedness the German philistines mistook them
selves for the French bourgeoisie. They had overturned no
throne, they had not abolished feudal society, still less its
last vestiges, they did not have to uphold a society they them
selves had created. After the June events, as after those of

February, they believed, as they had since the beginning of
the sixteenth century and during the eighteenth century, that
they would be able in their traditional crafty money-making
manner to pocket three-quarters of the profit produced by
someone else’s labour. They had no inkling of the fact that
behind the French June lurked the Austrian November and
behind the Austrian November, the Prussian December. They
did not suspect that whereas in France the throne-shattering
bourgeoisie was confronted by only one enemy, the proletar
iat, the Prussian bourgeoisie, grappling with the Crown,
possessed only one ally—the people. Not because these
two groups have no hostile and contradictory interests,
but because they are still welded together by the same in
terests in face of a third power which oppresses them both
equally.
The Hansemann government regarded itself as a govern
ment of the June revolution. In contrast to the “red robbers”,
the philistines in every Prussian town turned into
“respectable republicans”, without ceasing to be worthy
royalists, and occasionally overlooking the fact that the
“reds” wore white-and-black cockades.137
In his speech from the throne on June 26, Hansemann
gave short shrift to Camphausen’s mysteriously nebulous
“monarchy on the broadest democratic basis”.
“Constitutional monarchy based on the two-chamber sys
tem and the joint exercise of legislative power by the
two chambers and the Crown”—that was the dry formula to
which he reduced the portentous motto of his enthusiastic
predecessor.
“Modification of the most essential conditions that are incompatible
with the new constitution, liberation of property from the fetters that
hamper its most advantageous utilisation in a large part of the monar
chy, reorganisation of the administration of justice, reform of fiscal
legislation and particularly annulment of tax exemptions, etc.” and
above all “strengthening of the state which is necessary for safeguarding
the freedom which has been wdn” (by the citizens) “against reaction”
(i.e., using the freedom in the interests of the feudal aristocracy) “and
anarchy” (i.e., using the freedom in the interests of the people) “and
for restoring the shaken trust”
13—509
194 KARL MARX
—such was the government’s programme, the programme of

the Prussian bourgeoisie in office, whose classical representa
tive is Hansemann.
In the United Provincial Diet Hansemann was the most
bitter and the most cynical adversary of trust, for—“gentle
men, business is business!” Hansemann in office proclaimed
the “restoration of the shaken trust” a foremost necessity,
for—this time he addressed the people as previously he had
addressed the throne—for
“Gentlemen, business is business!"
Previously it was a question of the trust that gives money,

this time it was of the trust that makes money; then it was a
matter of feudal trust, the sincere trust in God, King and
Country, now it was bourgeois trust, trust in trade and com
merce, in interest-bearing capital, in the solvency of one’s
commercial friends, that is, commercial trust; it is not a mat
ter of faith, love or hope, but of credit.
Hansemann’s words: “restoration of the shaken trust”, ex
pressed the fixed idea of the Prussian bourgeoisie.
Credit depends on the confidence that the exploitation of
wage labour by capital, of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie,
of the petty bourgeois by the big bourgeois, will continue in
the traditional manner. Hence any political move of the pro
letariat, whatever its nature, unless it takes place under the
direct command of the bourgeoisie, shakes this trust, impairs
credit. “Restoration of the shaken trust” when uttered by
Hansemann signifies:
Suppression of every political move of the proletariat and
of all social strata whose interests do not completely coin
cide with the interests of the class which believes itself to be
standing at the helm of state.
Hansemann accordingly placed the “strengthening of the
state” side by side with the “restoration of the shaken trust”.
But he mistook the character of this “state”. He sought to
strengthen the state which served credit and bourgeois trust,
but he strengthened the state which demands trust and if
necessary extorts this trust with the help of grape-shot,
because it has no credit. He wanted to economise on the
costs of bourgeois rule but has instead burdened the bour

geoisie with the exorbitant millions which the restoration of
Prussian feudal rule costs.
He told the workers quite laconically that he had an
excellent remedy for them. But before he could produce it
the “shaken trust” must first of all be restored. To restore
this trust the working class had to give up all political activ
ity and interference in the business of state and revert to its
former habits. If it followed his advice and trust were
restored, this mysterious potent remedy would prove effec
tive if only because it would no longer be required or appli
cable, since in this case the malady itself—the upset of
bourgeois law and order—would have been eliminated. And
what need is there of a medicine when there is no malady?
But if the people obstinately stuck to their purpose, very
well, then he would “strengthen the state”, the police, the
army, the courts, the bureaucracy, and would set his bears
on them, for “trust” had become a “business question”, and:
"Gentlemen, business is business!"
Hansemann’s programme, even though he may smile about

it, was an honest programme, a well-intentioned pro
gramme.
He wanted to strengthen the power of the state not only
against anarchy, that is, against the people, he wanted to
strengthen it also against reaction, that is, against the Crown
and feudal interests in case they attempted to assert them
selves against the bourgeoisie’s purse and their “most essen
tial", that is, their most modest, political claims.
The very composition of the government of action ex
pressed a protest against this “reaction”.
It differed from all previous Prussian cabinets in that
its real Prime Minister was the Minister of Finance. For
centuries the Prussian state had carefully concealed the fact
that the departments of war, internal and foreign affairs,
church and educational matters and even the treasury of
the royal household as well as faith, hope and charity de
pended on profane financial matters. The government of
action placed this tiresome bourgeois truth uppermost by
is*
196 KARL MARX
placing Herr Hansemann at its head, a man whose ministe

rial programme like his opposition programme may be sum
marised in the words:
“Gentlemen, business is business!”
The monarchy in Prussia became a “money affair”.

Now let us pass on from the programme of the govern
ment of action to its actions.
It really carried out its threat of “strengthening the state”
against '"anarchy”, that is, against the working class and all
sections of the middle class who did not stick to the pro
gramme of Herr Hansemann. It can even be said that, apart
from increasing the tax on beet-sugar and spirits, this reaction
against so-called anarchy, i.e., against the revolutionary
movement, was the only serious action of this government of
action.
Numerous lawsuits against the press based on Prussian
law or, where it did not exist, on the Code penal,138 numer
ous arrests on the same “sufficient grounds” (Auerswald’s
formula), introduction of a system of constables in Berlin139
at the rate of one constable per every two houses, police
interference with the freedom of association, the use of
soldiers against unruly citizens and of the Civil Guard
against unruly workers, and the introduction, by way of
deterrent, of martial law—all these events of Hansemann’s
Olympiad are still vividly remembered. No details need be
mentioned.
This aspect of the efforts of the government of action was
summarised by Kiihlwetter in the following words:
“A state that wants to be really free must have a really large police
force as its executive arm,”
to which Hansemann muttered one of his usual remarks:

“This would also greatly help to restore trust and revive the rather
slack commercial activity."
The government of action accordingly “strengthened”

the old Prussian police force, the judiciary, the bureaucracy
and the army, who, since they receive their pay from the
bourgeoisie, also serve the bourgeoisie, as Hansemann

thought. At any rate, they were “strengthened".
On the other hand, the temper of the proletariat and
bourgeois democrats is expressed by one event. Because a
few reactionaries maltreated a few democrats in Charlot
tenburg, the people stormed the residence of the Prime
Minister in Berlin. So popular had the government of action
become. The next day Hansemann tabled a law against
riotous gatherings and public meetings. This shows how
cunningly he intrigued against reaction.
Thus the actual, tangible, popular activity of the govern
ment of action was purely policemanic in character. In the
eyes of the proletariat and the urban democrats this cabinet
and the Assembly of conciliators, whose majority was rep
resented in the cabinet, and the Prussian bourgeoisie, the
majority of whom constituted the majority in the Assembly
of conciliation, represented the old, refurbished police and
bureaucratic state. To this was added resentment against the
bourgeoisie, because it governed and had set up the Civil
Guard as an integral part of the police.
The “achievement of the March events”, as the people
saw it, was that the liberal gentlemen of the bourgeoisie,
too, took police duties upon themselves. There was thus a
twin police force.
Not the actions of the government of action, but the
drafts of its organic laws show clearly that it “strengthened"
the “police"—the ultimate expression of the old state—and
spurred it into action only in the interest of the bourgeoisie.
In the bills relating to local government, jury, and Civil
Guard, introduced by the Hansemann cabinet, property in
one form or another always forms the demarcation line
between lawful and unlawful territory. All these bills con
tain the most servile concessions to royal power, for the
bourgeois cabinet believed that the wings of royalty had
been clipped and that it had become its ally; but as a con
solation the ascendancy of capital over labour is all the more
ruthlessly emphasised.
The Civil Guard Law approved by the Assembly of con
ciliation was turned against the bourgeoisie and had to pro
198 KARL MARX
vide a legal pretext for disarming it. According to the fancy

of its authors, however, it was to become valid only after
the promulgation of the Law on Local Government and of
the constitution, that is, after the consolidation of the rule
of the bourgeoisie. The experience which the Prussian bour
geoisie gained in connection with the Civil Guard Law may
contribute to its enlightenment and show it that for the time
being all its actions that are meant to be directed against the
people are only directed against itself.
As far as the people are concerned, the Hansemann min
istry is in practice epitomised by the old Prussian police
man, and in theory by the offensive Belgian differentiation140
between bourgeois and non-bourgeois.
Now let us pass on to another section of the ministerial
programme, to anarchy against reaction.
In this respect the ministry can boast more pious wishes
than real deeds.
Among the pious bourgeois wishes are the partition and
sale of demesnes to private owners, the abandonment of
banking to free competition, the conversion of the Seehand-
lungiil into a private institution, etc.
It was unfortunate for the government of action that all
its economic attacks against the feudal party took place
under the aegis of a forced loan, and that in general its
attempts at reformation were seen by the people merely as
financial expedients devised to replenish the treasury of the
strengthened “state”. Hansemann thus won the hatred of one
party without winning the approval of the other. And it has
to be admitted that he only ventured to attack feudal priv
ileges when money matters closest to the Minister of Fi
nance, when money matters as understood by the Ministry
of Finance, became pressing. In this narrow sense he told the
feudal lords:
Thus even his positive middle-class efforts directed against

the feudalists reveal the same police taint as his negative
measures designed to “revive commercial activity”. For in the
language of political economy the police is called exchequer.
The increase in the beet-sugar and liquor duties which Han

semann passed through the National Assembly roused the
indignation of the money-bags standing with God for King
and Country in Silesia, Brandenburg, Saxony, East and West
Prussia, etc. But while this measure angered the industrial
landowners in the old Prussian provinces, it caused no less
displeasure among the middle-class distillers in the Rhine
Province, who perceived that their conditions of competition
compared with those of the old Prussian provinces had
become even more unfavourable. And to crown all, it an
gered the workers in the old provinces, for whom it simply
meant, and could only mean, a rise in the price of a prime
necessity. This measure therefore merely amounted to replen
ishing the treasury of the “strengthened state”. This example
suffices, since it is the only action against the feudalists ac
tually taken by the government of action, the only bill of
this nature which really became law.
Hansemann’s “bills” abrogating all exemptions from
graduated and land taxes,ii2 and his projected income-tax
caused the landowning votaries of “God, King and Country”
to rave as if stung by the tarantula. They denounced him as
a communist and even today the Prussian Knight of the
*
Cross crosses itself three times at the mention of Hanse
mann’s name. That name sounds like Fra Diavolo143 to it.
The repeal of all exemptions from the land-tax, the only
important measure to be introduced by a Prussian minister
during the glorious reign of the Assembly of conciliators,
failed because of the principled narrow-mindedness of the
Left. Hansemann himself had justified this narrow-minded
ness. Was the Left to provide new financial resources for the
cabinet of the "strengthened state" before the completion and
promulgation of the constitution?
The bourgeois cabinet par excellence was so unlucky that
its most radical measure had to be frustrated by the radical
members of the Assembly of conciliators. It was so barren
that its whole crusade against feudalism merely resulted in
a tax increase, which was equally odious to all classes, and
An allusion to the Kreuz-Zeitung.—Ed.

200 KARL MARX
its entire financial acumen brought forth a forced loan-, two

measures, which ultimately only provided subsidies for the
campaign of the counter-revolution against the bourgeoisie.
But the feudal aristocrats were convinced of the “nefarious”
intentions of the bourgeois cabinet. Thus even the financial
struggle of the Prussian bourgeoisie against feudalism mere
ly proved that owing to its unpopularity and impotence it
was only able to collect money against itself and—gentlemen,
business is business!
Just as the bourgeois cabinet succeeded in equally offend
ing the urban proletariat, the middle-class democrats and
the feudal nobility, so did it manage to alienate and an
tagonise even the peasants oppressed by feudalism, and in
this it was eagerly supported by the Assembly of conciliators.
It has to be remembered after all that during half of its
existence the Assembly was appropriately represented by the
Hansemann cabinet and that the bourgeois martyrs of today
were yesterday the train-bearers of Hansemann.
During Hansemann’s rule Patow introduced a bill abol
ishing feudal obligations (see the criticism of it we published
earlier). It was a most wretched concoction of the helpless
bourgeois desire to abolish feudal privileges, those “condi
tions that are incompatible with the new constitution”, and
of bourgeois fear of revolutionarily infringing on any kind
of property whatever. Wretched, timid and narrow-minded
egoism blinded the Prussian bourgeoisie to such an extent
that it repulsed the peasantry, its most needed ally.
On June 3 deputy Hanow moved
“that all pending proceedings which concern landowner-peasant re
lations and the commutation of services be immediately discontinued at
the request of one of the sides until the promulgation of a new law
based on just principles”.
Not until the end of September, that is, four months later,
under the Pfuel cabinet, did the Assembly of conciliation pass
a bill designed to discontinue pending proceedings between
landowners and peasants, after rejecting all liberal amend
ments and retaining the “reservation about the provisional
establishment of current obligations” and the “collection of
dues and arrears in dispute”.
In August, if we are not mistaken, the Assembly of con

ciliators declared that Nenstiel's motion that “labour services
be abolished immediately" was not urgent. Could the peas
ants be expected to consider it an urgent matter for them
to take up the cudgels for this Assembly of conciliators,
which had thrown them back into conditions worse than
those they had actually won after the March events?
The French bourgeoisie began by emancipating the
peasants. Together with the peasants it conquered Europe.
The Prussian bourgeoisie was so preoccupied with its most
narrow, immediate interests that it foolishly lost even this
ally and turned it into a tool of the feudal counter-revolu
tionaries.
The official history of the dissolution of the middle-class
cabinet is well known.
Under its protective arm, the “state” was “strengthened”
to such an extent and the popular energy so weakened that
even on July 15 the Dioscuri Kiihlwetter and Hansemann
were obliged to send a warning against reactionary machina
tions of civil servants, and especially chiefs of rural
districts, to all district governors in the monarchy; that later
an “Assembly of the nobility and big landowners for the
protection" of their privileges144 met in Berlin alongside the
Assembly of conciliators; and that finally, in opposition to
the so-called Berlin National Assembly, a “diet of local
communities for the protection of the threatened property
rights of landlords”, a body originating in the Middle Ages,
was convoked in Upper Lusatia on September 4.
The energy expended by the government and the so-called
National Assembly against these increasingly menacing
counter-revolutionary symptoms found adequate expression
in paper admonitions. The bourgeois cabinet reserved bayo
nets, bullets, prisons and constables exclusively for the people
“so as to restore the shaken trust and revive commercial
activity".
The incidents at Schweidnitz,145 where the troops in fact
murdered the bourgeoisie in the person of the Civil Guard,
finally roused the National Assembly from its apathy. On
August 9 it braced itself for a heroic deed, that of the Stein-
202 KARL MARX
Schultze army order,146 whose most drastic measure of coer

cion was an appeal to the tact of the Prussian officers. A
measure of coercion indeed! Did not royalist honour forbid
the officers to follow the dictates of bourgeois honour?
On September 7, a month after the Assembly of concilia
tors had passed the Stein-Schultze army order, it once more
decided that its resolution was a real resolution and should
be carried out by the ministers. Hansemann refused to do
this and resigned on September 11, after having appointed
himself a bank director at a yearly salary of 6,000 thaler,
for—gentlemen, business is business!
Finally, on September 25, the Assembly of conciliators
gratefully agreed to Pfuel's thoroughly watered-down for
mula of acceptance of the Stein-Schultze army order, which
by that time Wrangel’s parallel army order147 and the large
number of troops concentrated around Berlin had turned
into a bad joke.
A mere glance at these dates and the history of the Stein-
Schultze army order suffices to show that the army order
was not the real reason for Hansemann’s resignation. Is it
likely that Hansemann, who did not shy at recognising the
revolution, should have shied at this paper proclamation?
Are we to believe that Hansemann, who, whenever the port
folio slipped from his fingers, always picked it up again, has
this time, in a fit of virtuous exasperation, left it on the
ministerial benches to be hawked about? No, our Hansemann
is no fanatic. Hansemann was simply deceived, just as in
general he was the representative of the deceived bour
geoisie. He was given to understand that on no account
would he be dropped by the Crown. He was made to lose
his last semblance of popularity in order that the Crown
should at last be able to sacrifice him to the malice of the
country squires and get rid of this middle-class tutelage.
Moreover, the plan of campaign agreed upon with Russia
and Austria required that the cabinet should be headed by a
general appointed by the camarilla from outside the Assem
bly of conciliators. The old “state” had been sufficiently
“strengthened” under the bourgeois cabinet to venture on
this coup.
Pfuel was a mistake. The victory of the Croats at Vienna

made even a Brandenburg a useful tool.
Under the Brandenburg cabinet the Assembly of con
ciliators was ignominiously dispersed, fooled, derided, hu
miliated and hunted, and the people, at the decisive moment,
remained indifferent. The defeat of the Assembly was the
defeat of the Prussian bourgeoisie, of the constitutionalists,
hence a victory for the democratic party, however dear it
had to pay for that victory.
And the imposed constitution?
It had once been said that never would a “piece of pa
per” be allowed to come between the King and his people.148
Now it is said, there shall only be a piece of paper between
the King and his people. The real constitution of Prus
sia is the state of siege. The imposed French constitution
had only one article—the 14th, which invalidated it.149
Every article of the imposed Prussian constitution is an ar
ticle 14.
By means of this constitution the Crown imposes new
privileges—that is, upon itself.
It permits itself to dissolve the Chambers indefinitely. It
permits ministers in the interim to issue any desired law
(even those affecting property and so forth). It permits
deputies to impeach ministers for such actions, but at the
risk, under martial law, or being classed as “internal en
emies”. Finally, it permits itself, should the stock of the
counter-revolution go up in the spring, to replace this neb
ulous “piece of paper” by a Christian-Germanic Magna
Charta organically growing out of the distinctions of the
medieval estates, or to drop the constitutional game alto
gether. Even in this case the conservative bourgeois would
fold their hands and pray:
‘“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed
be the name of the Lord!"
The history of the Prussian middle class, and that of the
German middle class in general between March and De
cember shows that a purely middle-class revolution and the
establishment of bourgeois rule in the form of a constitution
al monarchy is impossible in Germany, and that the only
204 KARL MARX
alternatives are either a feudal absolutist counter-revolu

tion or a social republican revolution.
The viable section of the bourgeoisie is bound to awake
again from its apathy—this is guaranteed above all by the
staggering bill which the counter-revolution will present it
with in the spring and, as our Hansemann so thoughtfully
says:
Written by Marx
165, 169, 170 and 183,
December 10, 15, 16 and 31,
1848
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT
Cologne, December 31. Never was a revolutionary move

ment opened with such an edifying overture as the revolu
tionary movement of 1848. The Pope gave it the blessing
of the Church, and Lamartine’s aeolian harp vibrated with
tender philanthropical tunes on the words of fraternite, the
brotherhood of members of society and nations.
Welcome all ye myriad, creatures!
Brethren, take the kiss of love!™
Driven out of Rome, the Pope at present is staying at

Gaeta under the protection of the tigerish idiot Ferdinand;
Italy’s “ iniciatore'’l5i conspires against Italy with Austria,
Italy’s traditional mortal enemy, whom in happier days he
threatened to excommunicate. The recent French presiden
tial elections have given statistical proof of the unpopular
ity of Lamartine, the traitor. There has been no event more
philanthropic, humane, and weak than the February and
March revolutions, nothing more brutal than the inevitable
consequences of this humanity of weakness. The proofs are
Italy, Poland, Germany, and above all, those who were
defeated in June.
But the defeat of the French workers in June was the
defeat of the June victors themselves. Ledru-Rollin and
the other men of the Mountain152 were ousted by the party
of the National, the party of the bourgeois republicans; the
party of the National was ousted by Thiers-Barrot, the
dynastic opposition; these in turn would have had to make
way for the legitimists if the cycle of the three restorations
had not come to an end, and if Louis Napoleon was some
thing more than an empty ballot-box by means of which the
French peasants announced their entry into the revolution
206 KARL MARX
ary social movement, and the French workers their con

demnation of all leaders of the preceding periods—Thiers-
Barrot, Lamartine and Cavaignac-Marrast. But let us note
the fact that the inevitable consequence of the defeat of the
revolutionary French working class was the defeat of the
republican French bourgeoisie, to which it had just suc
cumbed.
The defeat of the working class in France and the victory
of the French bourgeoisie at the same time signified the
renewed suppression of the nationalities, who had responded
to the crowing of the Gallic cock with heroic attempts to
liberate themselves. Prussian, Austrian and English Sbirri
once more plundered, ravished and murdered in Poland,
Italy and Ireland. The defeat of the working class in
France and the victory of the French bourgeoisie was at
the same time the defeat of the middle classes in all Euro
pean countries where the middle classes, united for the
moment with the people, responded to the crowing of the
Gallic cock with sanguinary insurrections against feudalism.
Naples, Vienna, Berlin. The defeat of the working class
in France and the victory of the French bourgeoisie was at
the same time a victory of East over West, the defeat of
civilisation by barbarism. The suppression of the Romanians
by the Russians and their tools, the Turks, began in Wal
lachia; Croats, pandours, Czechs, serezhans
* and similar
rabble throttled German liberty in Vienna, and the Tsar is
now omnipresent in Europe. The overthrow of the bour
geoisie in France, the triumph of the French working class,
and the liberation of the working class in general is there
fore the rallying-cry of European liberation.
But England, the country that turns whole nations into
her proletarians, that spans the whole world with her enor
mous arms, that has already once defrayed the cost of a
European Restoration, the country in which class contradic
tions have reached their most acute and shameless form—
England seems to be the rock which breaks the revolution
* Mounted troops in the Austrian army who were notorious for their
cruelty.—Ed.
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 207
ary waves, the country where the new society is stifled

before it is born. England dominates the world market. Any
upheaval in economic relations in any country of the Euro
pean continent, in the whole European continent without
England, is a storm in a teacup. Industrial and commercial
relations within each nation are governed by its intercourse
with other nations, and depend on its relations with the
world market. But the world market is dominated by
England and England is dominated by the bourgeoisie.
Thus, the liberation of Europe, whether brought about
by the struggle of the oppressed nationalities for their inde
pendence or by overthrowing feudal absolutism, depends
on the successful uprising of the French working class.
Every social upheaval in France, however, is bound to be
thwarted by the English bourgeoisie, by Great Britain’s
industrial and commercial domination of the world. Every
partial social reform in France or on the European conti
nent as a whole, if designed to be lasting, is merely a pious
wish. Only a world war can break old England, as only
this can provide the Chartists, the party of the organised
English workers, with the conditions for a successful rising
against their powerful oppressors. Only when the Chartists
head the English government will the social revolution pass
from the sphere of utopia to that of reality. But any
European war in which England is involved is a world war,
waged in Canada and Italy, in the East Indies and Prus
sia, in Africa and on the Danube. A European war will be
the first result of a successful workers’ revolution in France.
England will head the counter-revolutionary armies, just
as she did during the Napoleonic period, but the war itself
will place her at the head of the revolutionary movement
and she will repay the debt she owes to the revolution of
the eighteenth century.
The table of contents for 1849 reads: Revolutionary rising
of the French working class, world war.
Written by Marx
January 1, 1849
A BOURGEOIS DOCUMENT
Cologne, January 4. In England, where the rule of the

bourgeoisie has reached the highest stage of development,
public charity too, as we know, has assumed the most noble
and magnanimous forms. In England’s workhouses—those
public institutions where the redundant labour population
is allowed to vegetate at the expense of bourgeois society—
charity is cunningly combined with the revenge which the
bourgeoisie wreaks on the wretches who are compelled to
appeal to its charity. Not only do the poor devils receive
the bare and most meagre means of subsistence, hardly
sufficient for physical reproduction, their activity, too, is
restricted to a form of revolting, unproductive, meaningless
drudgery, such as work at the treadmill, which deadens
both mind and body. These unfortunate people have com
mitted the crime of having ceased to be an object of exploi
tation yielding a profit to the bourgeoisie—as is the case
in ordinary life—and having become instead an object of
expenditure for those born to derive benefit from them;
like so many barrels of alcohol which, left unsold in the
warehouse, become an object of expenditure to the dealer.
To bring home to them the full magnitude of their crime,
they are deprived of everything that is granted to the
lowest criminal—association with their wives and children,
recreation, talk—everything. Even this “cruel charity” is
due not to enthusiasm but to thoroughly practical and
rational reasons. On the one hand, if all the paupers in
Great Britain were suddenly thrown into the street, bour
geois order and commercial activity would suffer to an
alarming extent. On the other hand, British industry has
alternate periods of feverish over-production, when the
A BOURGEOIS DOCUMENT 209
demand for hands can hardly be satisfied, and the hands

are nevertheless to be obtained as cheaply as possible, fol
lowed by periods of slack business, when production is far
larger than consumption and it is difficult to find useful
employment even at half pay for half the labour army. Is
there a more ingenious device than the workhouse for main
taining a reserve army in readiness for the favourable
periods while converting them in these pious institutions
during unfavourable commercial periods into unresisting
machines without will, without aspirations and require
ments?
The Prussian bourgeoisie differs favourably from the
English bourgeoisie, since it opposes British political arro
gance reminiscent of pagan Rome with Christian humility
and meekness and cringes in worshipful reverence before
throne, altar, army, bureaucracy and feudalism; instead of
displaying the commercial energy which conquers whole
continents, it engages in Chinese pedantry appropriate to
imperial citizens, and tries to confound the impetuous titanic
spirit of inventiveness in industry by clinging staunchly and
virtuously to the traditional semi-guild routine. But the
Prussian bourgeoisie approaches its British ideal in one
respect—in its shameless maltreatment of the working class.
That, as a body, it in general lags behind the British bour
geoisie, is due simply to the fact that, on the whole, as a
national class, it has never achieved anything of importance
and never will, because of its lack of courage, intelligence
and energy. It does not exist on a national scale, it exists
only in provincial, municipal, local, private forms, and in
these forms it confronts the working class even more ruth
lessly than the English bourgeoisie. Why is it that since the
Restoration the people longed for Napoleon, whom they
had just before that chained to a lonely rock in the Medi
terranean? Because it is easier to endure the tyranny of a
genius than that of an idiot. Thus the English worker can
feel a certain national pride in face of the German worker,
because the master who enslaves him enslaves the whole
world, whereas the master of the German worker, the
German bourgeois, is himself everybody’s servant, and
14—509
210 KARL MARX
nothing is more galling and humiliating than to be the

servant of a servant.
We publish here without any alterations the “Worker’s
Card”, which proletarians engaged on municipal works have
to sign in the good city of Cologne; this historical document
shows the impudence with which our bourgeoisie treats the
working class.
WORKER’S CARD
§ 1. Every worker must strictly obey the instructions and orders of
all municipal supervisors, who have been sworn in as police officers.
Disobedience and insubordination will entail immediate dismissal.
§ 2. No worker is allowed to move from one section to another or
to leave the building-site without the special permission of the super
visor.
§ 3. Workers purloining wheelbarrows, carts or other equipment
from another section in order to use them in their work will be dis
missed.
§ 4. Drunkenness, disturbance of the peace, and the starting of
squabbles, quarrels and fights entail immediate dismissal.—In appro
priate cases moreover legal proceedings will be taken against the cul
prits.
§ 5. A worker arriving ten minutes late at his place of work will be
given no work on that particular half day; if this should occur three
times he may be debarred from work.
§ 6. If workers are dismissed at their own request or by way of
punishment, they will receive their wages at the next regular pay-day
in accordance with the work done.
§ 7. A worker’s dismissal is noted in the Worker’s Card.—Should
the dismissal be by way of punishment, the worker, according to the
circumstances, is barred from re-employment either at the same place
of work or at all municipal works.
§ 8. The police are always to be informed when workers are dis
missed by way of punishment and of the reasons for their dismissal.
§ 9. Should workers have any complaints to make against the build
ing-site supervisor, these are to be lodged with the town surveyor
through an elected delegation of three workers. This officer will examine
the cause of the complaint on the spot and give his decision.
§ 10. The working hours are from six thirty in the morning to
twelve noon and from one o’clock in the afternoon till evening dark
ness sets in. (Wonderful style!)
§ 11. The worker is employed on these conditions.
§ 12. Payment is made on the building-site on Saturday afternoon.
The sworn building-site supervisor, for the present [....] whose in
structions have to be obeyed.
A BOURGEOIS DOCUMENT 211
Cologne
Signature Assigned to section of . . .
of the worker
or sign and has, etc.
{
Signature of the building-site
supervisor
Could the Russian edicts of the Autocrat of all the Rus-

sias be couched in more Asiatic terms?
The municipal, and even “all municipal supervisors, who
have been sworn in as police officers”, must be “strictly
obeyed”. “Disobedience and insubordination will entail
immediate dismissal.” That is first of all passive obedience.
Then, according to § 9, the workers have the right to
complain to “the town surveyor”. The decisions of this pasha
are irrevocable and directed, of course, against the workers,
if only for hierarchical reasons. And once this decision has
been taken and the municipal interdict laid upon the work
ers, woe to them, for they will then be placed under police
surveillance. The last semblance of bourgeois freedom
disappears, for, according to § 8, “the police are always to
be informed when workers are dismissed by way of punish
ment and of the reasons for their dismissal”.
But gentlemen, if you dismiss a worker, if you terminate
a contract by which he gives his labour for your wages,
what on earth has the police to do with this cancellation
of a civil agreement? Is the municipal worker a convict?
Have you denounced him to the police because he did not
pay due deference to you, his hereditary, most wise and
noble-minded masters? Would you not deride the citizen
who denounced you to the police for having broken some
delivery contract, or failed to pay a bill when it was due,
or drunk too much on New-Year’s eve? Of course you
would! But as regards the worker you are bound by no
civil agreement, you lord it over him with the caprice of
the lords by the grace of God! You make the police, on your
behalf, keep a record of his conduct.
Under § 5, a worker arriving ten minutes late is punished
with the loss of half a day’s labour. What a punishment in
comparison with the offence! You are centuries late, but the
14*
212 KARL MARX
worker is not allowed to arrive ten minutes after half past

six without losing half a working day.
Finally, in order that this patriarchal arbitrariness should
not be in any way restricted and the worker be entirely
dependent on your whim, you have left the mode of punish
ment, as far as possible, to the discretion of your uniformed
servants. Dismissal and denunciation to the police is, accord
ing to § 4, to be followed in “appropriate cases”, that is, in
cases which you will be pleased to regard as appropriate, by
“legal proceedings against the culprits”. Under § 5, the
worker who arrives late for the third time, i.e., ten minutes
after half past six, “may" be debarred altogether. In case
of dismissal by way of punishment, § 7 states, the worker,
“according to the circumstances, is barred from re-employ
ment either at the same place of work or at all municipal
works”, and so on and so forth.
What scope for the whims of the annoyed bourgeois is
given in this criminal code of our municipal Catos, these
great men who grovel before Berlin!
This model law shows what sort of Charter our bourgeoi
sie, if it stood at the helm of state, would impose on the
people.
Written by Marx
January 5, 1849
MONTESQUIEU LVI
[I]
Cologne, January 20. The “honourable” Joseph Dumont
allows an anonymous writer, who is not paid by him but
pays him and who in the feuilleton seeks to work upon the
primary voters, to address the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in
the following way:
“The Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the Organ of Democracy, has been
pleased to take notice of the article published in this paper under the
title “To the Primary Voters”, and to state that they were borrowed
from the Neue Preussische Zeitung.
“In face of this lie, we simply declare that these articles are paid for
as advertisements, and that, with the exception of the first one borrowed
from the Parlaments-Korrespondenz, they were written in Cologne and
their author has up to now not even seen, let alone read, the Neue
Preussische Zeitung.”
We understand how important it is for Montesquieu LVI
to authenticate his property. We also understand how im
portant for Herr Dumont is the statement that he is “paid”
even for the leaflets and advertisements which he sets up,
prints and distributes in the interest of his class, the bour
geoisie.
As for the anonymous writer, he is aware of the French
saying: “Les beaux esprits se rencontrent.” It is not his
fault that his own intellectual products and those of the
Neue Preussische Zeitung and of the “Prussian Associa
tions”153 are as alike as two peas.
We have never read his advertisements in the Kblnische
Zeitung, but the leaflets produced by Dumont’s printing
house and sent to us from various quarters, we deemed
worthy of a casual glance. Now, however, comparison has
shown us that the same stuff plays the simultaneous role of
advertisement and leaflet.
214 KARL MARX
In order to atone for the injustice we have done to the

anonymous Montesquieu LVI we have imposed upon our
selves the harsh penance of reading all his advertisements
in the Kolnische Zeitung and making his intellectual private
property available to the German public as “common
property”.
Here is wisdom!
Montesquieu LVI is chiefly concerned with the social
question. He has found the “easiest and simplest way” to
solve it, and he extols his Morrison pill with the unctuous,
naively shameless pathos of a quack.
“The easiest and simplest way to achieve this however” (that is, the
solution of the social question) “is to accept the constitution imposed on
December 5, 1848, revise it, then make everyone swear allegiance to it,
and thus to establish it. This is our only way to salvation. Consequently,
any man who has a sympathetic heart for the misery of his poor
brothers, who wants to feed the hungry and clothe the naked . . . anyone,
in short, who wants to solve the social question ... should not vote
for anyone who is opposed to the constitution” (Montesquieu LVI).
Vote for Brandenburg, Manteuffel, Ladenberg, and the

social question will be solved in the “simplest” and “easiest
way”! Vote for Dumont, Camphausen, Wittgenstein or else
for minor gods such as Compes and Mevissen—and the
social question will be solved! The “social question” for a
vote'. He who “wants to feed the hungry and clothe the
naked” should vote for Hansemann and Stupp! One social
question less for each vote! Acceptance of the imposed
constitution—that is the solution of the social problem'.
We do not for a moment doubt that neither Montesquieu
LVI nor his patrons in the Citizens’ Associations154 will wait
for the imposed constitution to be accepted, revised,155 sworn,
and promulgated before “feeding the hungry and clothing
the naked”. Appropriate measures have already been taken.
During the last few weeks circulars have been distributed
in which capitalists inform craftsmen, shopkeepers, and
others that, considering the present state of affairs and the
revival of credit, the rate of interest, for philanthropical
reasons, has been raised from 4 to 5 per cent. First solution
of the social question!
MONTESQUIEU LVI 215
The municipal council of Cologne has in the same spirit

drawn up a “Worker s Card” for the unfortunate people
who must either starve or sell their hands to the city (cf.
No. 187 of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
).
* It will be re
membered that under this Charter, imposed on the workers,
the worker who has lost his job is bound by contract to
place himself under police surveillance. Second solution of
the social question!
Shortly after the March events, the municipal council
established an eating-house in Cologne at cost prices, beau
tifully furnished, with fine rooms that could be heated, etc.
After the imposition of the constitution other premises were
substituted for this, premises managed by the poor-law
administration, where there is no heating, no crockery,
where food may not be consumed on the spot and where
a quart of indescribable gruel costs eight pfennigs. Third
solution of the social question!
While they ruled Vienna the workers guarded the banks,
the houses and the wealth of the bourgeois, who had fled.
These same bourgeois, on their return, denounced these
workers to Windischgratz as “robbers” who ought to be
hanged. Unemployed who applied to the municipal council
were put into the army to fight Hungary. Fourth solution
of the social question!
In Breslau the wretched people who were obliged to seek
refuge in the poor house were calmly exposed to cholera
by the municipal council and the government who deprived
them of the most essential physical necessaries of life, and
took notice of the victims of their cruel charity only when
they themselves were attacked by the disease. Fifth solu
tion of the social question!
In the Berlin association “with God for King and
Country”, a supporter of the imposed constitution declared
that it was distressing that in order to further one’s inter
ests and plans one still had to pay compliments to the
“proletariat”.

216 KARL MARX
That is the solution of the “solution of the social ques

tion”!
“The Prussian spies are so dangerous because they are
never paid but are always hoping to be paid,” says our
friend Heine. And the Prussian bourgeois are so dangerous
because they never pay but always promise to pay.
An election costs the English and French bourgeois quite
a lot of money. Their corrupt practices are well known. The
Prussian bourgeoisie are very shrewd! They are much too
virtuous and upright to dip into their pocket; they pay with
the “solution of the social question". And that costs noth
ing. Montesquieu LVI, however, as Dumont officially as
sures us, pays at least for the advertisements in the Kolni-
sche Zeitung and appends—gratis—the solution of the
“social question".
The practical part of our Montesquieu’s petites oeuvres
thus boils down to the following: vote for Brandenburg,
Manteuffel, Ladenberg! Elect Camphausen and Hansemann!
Send us to Berlin, let our people establish themselves there.
That is the solution of the social question.
The immortal Hansemann has solved these problems.
First, the establishment of law and order to revive credit.
Then, the solution of the “social question” with powder
and shot, as in 1844, when “my dear Silesian weavers ought
to be helped”.
Hence, vote for the advocates of the imposed constitu
tion!
But Montesquieu LVI accepts the imposed constitution
only to be able afterwards to “revise” and “swear alle
giance to it”!
Montesquieu, my good man! Once you have accepted the
constitution you can revise it only on its own basis, that is,
in so far as it suits the King and the second Chamber con
sisting of country squires, financial magnates, high-ranking
officials and clerics. The only possible revision has been
judiciously indicated in the imposed constitution itself. It
consists in abandoning the constitutional system and restor
ing the former Christian-Germanic system of estates.
After the acceptance of the imposed constitution this is
MONTESQUIEU LVI 217
the only possible and only permitted revision, which cannot

have escaped the shrewd Montesquieu.
Thus the essays of Montesquieu LVI, in their practical
part, amount to this: vote for Hansemann and Camphau
sen! Vote for Dumont and Stupp! Vote for Brandenburg
and Manteuffel! Accept the imposed constitution! Elect del
egates who accept the imposed constitution—and all this
under the pretext of solving the “social question”.
What the hell does the pretext matter to us, when it is
a question of the imposed constitution.
But our Montesquieu of course prefaces his practical
instructions for the solution of the “social question”, the
quintessence of his monumental work, with a theoretical
part. Let us examine this theoretical part.
The profound thinker explains first what the “social
questions” are.
“And so, what, in effect, is the social question?
“Human beings must and want to live.
“To live they need dwellings, clothes and food.
“Dwellings and clothes are not produced by nature at all, and only
a scanty and by no means sufficient amount of food grows naturally.
“Hence man himself must procure everything to satisfy these needs.
“This he does by labour.
“Labour, therefore, is the first condition of our life; without labour
we cannot live.
“Among primitive peoples everybody built his own hut, made his own
clothes from animal skins and gathered fruit for his meals. That was
the primitive state.
“But if man needs nothing beyond shelter, clothes and food, if he
satisfies merely his physical wants, then he remains at the same level
as the animals, for animals can do this too.
“But man is a higher being than an animal, he needs more, he needs
joy, he must raise himself to moral values. But he can do that only if
he lives in society.
“But when men began to live in societies entirely new conditions
arose. They soon perceived that work was much easier when each in
dividual performed only one particular job. Thus, one made clothes,
another built houses, a third provided food, and the first gave the
second what he lacked. The various estates of men thus developed
automatically, one becoming a hunter, another a craftsman, and a third
a cultivator. But men did not stop at this, for humanity must go for
ward. People began to invent. They invented spinning and weaving,
they learned to forge iron and tan hides. The more inventions were
218 KARL MARX
made the more diverse did the crafts become, and the easier did farming
become with the aid of the plough and spade which the handicrafts
gave it. All helped each other and co-operated. Then intercourse started
with neighbouring peoples; one people had what the other needed, and
the latter possessed things which the former lacked. These were ex
changed. Thus trading arose, that is, a new branch of human activity.
Thus culture advanced step by step; from the first clumsy inventions
through the centuries down to the inventions of our day.
“Thus, science and art arose among men and life became richer and
more varied. The physician treated the sick, the clergyman preached,
the merchant traded, the farmer tilled the land, the gardener grew flow
ers, the mason built houses, for which the carpenter made the furni
ture, the miller ground flour from which the baker baked bread. Every
thing was interconnected, no one could live in isolation, nobody could
satisfy all his needs himself.
“These are the social relations.
“They have arisen quite naturally of their own accord. And if today
you make a revolution which destroys the very foundations of these
relations, and if tomorrow you start life anew, then relations exactly
the same as the present ones will arise again. This was so for thousands
of years among all the nations on earth. And if anyone draws a distinc
tion between the workers and the bourgeoisie this is a big lie. We all
work, each in his own way, each according to his strength and abili
ties. The physician works when he visits the sick, the musician when
he plays a dance tune, the merchant when he writes his letters. Ev
eryone works, each at his job.”
Here is wisdom! He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

What, then, in effect is the physiological question?
Every material being presupposes a certain weight,
density, etc. Every organic body consists of various compo
nent parts, each of which performs its own special func
tion, and reciprocal interaction takes place between the
organs.
“These are physiological relations.”
Montesquieu LVI cannot be denied an original talent for
simplifying science. He ought to be granted a patent (with
out government guarantee).
The products of labour cannot be produced without la
bour. One cannot reap without sowing, one cannot have
yarn without weaving, etc.
Europe will bend in admiration before the great genius
who here, in Cologne, without any aid from the Neue Preuss-
ische Zeitung has himself brought these truths to light.
MONTESQUIEU LVI 219
In their work men enter into certain relations with one

another. There takes place a division of labour which may
be more or less diversified. One person bakes, another forges
iron, one person agitates, another howls,156 Montesquieu
LVI writes and Dumont prints. Adam Smith, acknowledge
thy master!
The discoveries that labour and the division of labour
are essential conditions of every human society enable
Montesquieu LVI to draw the conclusion that the existence
of “various estates" is quite natural, that the distinction
between “bourgeoisie and proletariat” is a “big lie", that
even if a “revolution" were completely to destroy the
existing “social relations” today, “relations exactly the
same as the present ones will arise again", and finally that
for anyone who has “a sympathetic heart for the misery of
his poor brothers” and who wishes to gain the respect of
Montesquieu LVI, it is absolutely necessary to elect dele
gates in keeping with the ideas of Manteuffel and the im
posed constitution.
“This was so for thousands of years among all the na
tions on earth”!! In Egypt there was labour and division
of labour—and castes-, in Greece and Rome labour and
division of labour—and free men and slaves- in the Middle
Ages labour and division of labour—and feudal lords and
serfs, guilds, estates, etc. In our day there is labour and
division of labour—and classes, one of which owns all
means of production and all means of subsistence, while the
other lives only so long as it sells its labour, and it sells its
labour only so long as the employing class enriches itself by
purchasing this labour.
Is it not obvious, therefore, that “for thousands of years
the same conditions existed among all the nations on earth"
as in Prussia today, since labour and division of labour
always existed in one form or another? Or is it, on the
contrary, not evident that it is the continuously changing
method of labour and division of labour which is constantly
transforming social relations and property relations?
In 1789 the bourgeois did not tell feudal society that an
aristocrat should remain an aristocrat, a serf a serf and a
220 KARL MARX
guildsman a guildsman—because there is no society without

labour and division of labour. There is no life without
breathing of air. Hence, argues Montesquieu LVI, breathe
the stuffy air and do not open any window.
One must possess the naively clumsy insolence of a
German imperial philistine grown grey in crass ignorance
to contribute oracular pronouncements upon problems on
which our century is breaking its teeth, after having
rammed the first elements of political economy—labour and
division of labour—in a superficial and distorted manner into
his inert head.
“There is no society without labour and division of
labour.
"Hence
“Elect advocates of the imposed Prussian constitution,
and only advocates of the imposed constitution, as dele
gates.”
This epitaph will be inscribed in large letters on the
walls of the magnificent marble mausoleum which a grateful
posterity will feel obliged to erect for Montesquieu LVI (not
to be confused with Henry CCLXXXIV of Reuss-Schleiz-
)
Greiz-Lobenstein-Eberswalde
* who solved the social ques
tion.
Montesquieu LVI does not conceal from us “where the
difficulty lies” and what he intends to do as soon as he is
proclaimed a lawgiver.
“The state," he teaches, “must see to it that everybody receives
sufficient education to be able to learn something useful in this world."
Montesquieu LVI has never heard that under existing

conditions the division of labour replaces complex labour
by simple labour, the labour of adults by that of children,
the labour of men by that of women, the labour of the
independent workers by automatons; that, with the develop
ment of modern industry, the education of workers becomes
An allusion to Henry LXXII, Prince of Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebers-

dorf.—Ed.
MONTESQUIEU LVI 221
unnecessary and impossible. We refer the Montesquieu of

Cologne neither to Saint-Simon nor to Fourier but to
Malthus and Ricardo. This worthy should first acquaint
himself with the rudiments of present-day conditions before
trying to improve them and making oracular utterances.
“The community must take care of people who have been reduced
to poverty as a result of illness or old age.”
And if the community itself is reduced to poverty which

will be the inevitable result of the 100-million tax and the
recurrent imposition of martial law together with the new
constitution?
“When new inventions or commercial crises destroy entire industries
the state must come to their assistance and find remedies.”
Though he may be little versed in the things of this world,

it can hardly have escaped the Montesquieu of Cologne that
“new inventions” and commercial crises are features just
as permanent as Prussian ministerial decrees and legal
basis. New inventions, especially in Germany, are only
introduced when competition with other nations makes it
vital to introduce them; and should the newly arising
branches of industry be expected to ruin themselves in
order to render assistance to the declining ones. The new
industries that come into being as a result of inventions
come into being precisely because they can produce more
cheaply than the declining industries. What the deuce would
be the advantage if they had to feed the declining industries?
But it is well known that the state, the government, only
seems to give. It has to be given first in order to give. But
who should do the giving, Montesquieu LVI? The declining
industry, so that it decline even faster? Or the rising indus
try, so that it wither on the stem? Or those industries that
have not been affected by the new inventions, so that they
go bankrupt because of the invention of a new tax? Think
it over carefully, Montesquieu LVI!
And what about the commercial crises, my dear man?
When a European commercial crisis occurs the Prussian
state is above all anxious to extract the last drops, by means
222 KARL MARX
of distraint, etc., from the usual sources of revenue. Poor

Prussian state! In order to neutralise the effect of commer
cial crises, the Prussian state would have to possess, in addi
tion to national labour, a third source of income in Cloud-
Cuckoo-Land. If royal New-Year’s greetings, Wrangel’s
army orders or Manteuffel’s ministerial decrees could indeed
conjure up money, then the “refusal to pay taxes” would
not have caused such panic among the Prussian “trusty and
well-beloved subjects”, and the social question, too, would
have been solved without an imposed constitution.
It will be remembered that the Neue Preussische Zeitung
called our Hansemann a communist because he intended to
do away with exemption from taxation. In Cologne our
Montesquieu, who has never read the Neue Preussische Zei
tung, has all by himself conceived the idea of calling every
one a “communist” and “red republican” who endangers the
imposed constitution. Therefore, vote for Manteuffel, or you
are not only personal enemies of labour and the division of
labour, but also communists and red republicans. Acknowl
edge Briiggemann’s latest “legal basis” or renounce the Code
civil.157
Figaro, tu n’aurais pas trouve (a!
More about Montesquieu LVI tomorrow.
[II]
Cologne, January 21. With the sly petty cunning of an

experienced horse-dealer, Montesquieu LVI seeks to sell the
“gift horse”, the imposed constitution, to the primary voters.
He is the Montesquieu of the horse-fair.
Anyone not wanting the imposed constitution wants a
republic, and not just a republic, but a red republic! Un
fortunately, the issue in our elections is least of all a re
public, or a red republic; it is simply this:
Do you want the old absolutism together with a refur
bished system of social estates, or do you want a bourgeois
system of representation? Do you want a political constitu
tion in keeping with the “existing social relations” of past
MONTESQUIEU LVI 223
centuries, or do you want a political constitution in keeping

with the “existing social relations” of your century?
In this case, therefore, it is least of all a matter of fighting
against bourgeois property relations similar to the struggle
that is taking place in France and is in the offing in
England; rather it is a question of a struggle against a
political constitution which endangers “bourgeois property
relations” by surrendering the helm of state to the repre
sentatives of “feudal property relations”, to the King by the
grace of God, the army, the bureaucracy, the country
squires, and a few financial magnates and philistines who
are allied with them.
Beyond a doubt, the imposed constitution has solved the
social question in keeping with the views of these gentlemen.
What is the “social question’ as understood by the civil
servant? It is the maintenance of his salary and his present
position, which is superior to the people.
What is the “social question” as understood by the no
bility and its big landowners? It is the maintenance of the
hitherto existing feudal rights of the landowners, seizure
of the most lucrative posts in the army and civil service
by the families of the landed nobility, and finally direct
alms from the public purse. Apart from these palpable
material and therefore “most sacred” interests of the gentle
men “with God for King and Country”, it is for them, of
course, also a question of preserving those social privileges
which distinguish their species from the inferior species of
the bourgeois, peasants and plebeians. The old National
Assembly was dispersed because it dared to touch these
“most sacred interests”. As we have already indicated, these
gentlemen, by “revision” of the imposed constitution, under
stand simply the introduction of a system of social estates,
that is to say, a form of political constitution representing the
“social” interests of the feudal aristocracy, the bureaucracy
and the monarchy by the grace of God.
We repeat, there is not the slightest doubt that the
imposed constitution solves the “social question” according
to the ideas of the aristocracy and bureaucracy, in other
words, it presents these gentlemen with a form of govern-
224 KARL MARX
ment which ensures the exploitation of the people by these

demigods.
But has the imposed constitution solved the “social ques
tion” from the standpoint of the bourgeoisie? In other words,
does the bourgeoisie receive a political form enabling it
freely to run matters concerning its class as a whole, i.e.,
the interests of commerce, industry and agriculture, to make
the most productive use of public funds, to manage the
state apparatus as cheaply as possible, to protect national
labour effectively abroad, and within the country to open
up all springs of national wealth silted by feudal mud?
Does history provide a single example showing that under
a king imposed by the grace of God, the bourgeoisie ever
succeeded in attaining a form of government in keeping with
its material interests?
In order to establish a constitutional monarchy it was
twice compelled to get rid of the Stuarts in Britain, and the
hereditary Bourbons in France and to expel William of
Orange from Belgium.158
What is the reason?
A hereditary king by the grace of God is not a particular
individual but the physical representative of the old society
within the new society. Political power in the hands of
a king by the grace of God is political power in the
hands of the old society existing now merely as a ruin; it
is political power in the hands of the feudal estates, whose
interests are profoundly antagonistic to those of the bour
geoisie.
But it is the “King by the grace of God” who forms the
basis of the imposed constitution.
Just as the feudal strata of society regard the monarchy
by divine right as their political apex, so does the monarchy
by divine right regard the feudal estates as its social founda
tion, the well-known “monarchical wall”.
Therefore, whenever the interests of the feudal lords and
of the army and bureaucracy controlled by them clash with
the interests of the bourgeoisie, the monarchy by divine right
will invariably be impelled to a coup d’etat and a revolu
tionary or counter-revolutionary crisis will arise.
MONTESQUIEU LVI 225
Why was the National Assembly ejected? Only because

it upheld the interests of the bourgeoisie as against the
interests of feudalism; because it wanted to abolish feudal
relations, which impede agriculture, to subordinate the army
and bureaucracy to trade and industry, to stop the squan
dering of public funds and abolish aristocratic and bureau
cratic titles.
All these matters chiefly and directly affected the interests
of the bourgeoisie.
Thus, coup d’etats and counter-revolutionary crises are
vital to the existence of the monarchy by the grace of
God, which the March and similar events compelled to eat
humble pie and reluctantly to accept a pseudo-bourgeois
monarchy.
Can credit ever revive again under a form of government
whose inevitable climax are coup d’etats, counter-revolution
ary crises and states of siege?
What a delusion!
Bourgeois industry must burst the chains of absolutism
and feudalism. A revolution against both only demonstrates
that bourgeois industry has reached a level when it must
either secure an appropriate political form or perish.
The system of bureaucratic tutelage consolidated by the
imposed constitution spells death for industry. It is suffi
cient to look at the Prussian administration of mines, the
factory regulations, etc. When an English manufacturer
compares his costs of production with those of a Prussian
manufacturer, he will always first of all note the time losses
which the Prussian manufacturer incurs because he has to
observe bureaucratic rules.
What sugar-refiner does not remember the Prussian trade
agreement with the Netherlands in 1839?159 What Prussian
factory owner does not blush at the memory of 1846, when
the Prussian government in deference to the Austrian govern
ment banned exports to Galicia for a whole province, and
when one bankruptcy after another occurred in Breslau the
Prussian government declared with astonishment that it
had had no idea that so important an export trade was
carried with Galicia, etc.!
15—509
226 KARL MARX
Men of the same type are placed at the helm of state

by the imposed constitution, and this “gift” itself comes
from the same men. Consequently, examine it twice.
The Galicia adventure draws our attention to another
point.
At that time the counter-revolutionary Prussian govern
ment in league with Austria and Russia sacrificed Silesian
industry and Silesian trade. This manoeuvre will be con
stantly repeated. The banker of the Prussian-Austrian-
Russian counter-revolution, from which the monarchy by
the grace of God with its monarchical walls will always
have to seek outside support, is England. The same England
is German industry’s most dangerous opponent. These two
facts, we believe, speak for themselves.
At home, an industry fettered by bureaucracy and an
agriculture fettered by feudal privileges; abroad, a trade
sold by the counter-revolution to England—such is the fate
of Prussia’s national wealth under the aegis of the imposed
constitution.
The report of the “Financial Commission” of the dispersed
National Assembly has thrown sufficient light on the divine
management of national wealth.
The report however mentions only by way of example
the sums taken from the treasury to support the tottering
monarchical walls and gild foreign pretenders to the abso
lute monarchy (Don Carlos). But this money, purloined from
the pockets of the rest of the citizens to enable the aristoc
racy to live in appropriate style and to keep the “pillars”
of the feudal monarchy well buttressed, is only of secon
dary importance compared with the state budget imposed
simultaneously with Manteuffel’s constitution. The main fea
tures of the imposed state budget are, first of all, a strong
army to enable the minority to rule the majority; as large an
army as possible of officials so that as many of them as
possible, by virtue of their private interests, are alienated
from the common interest; unproductive employment of
public funds in order that wealth, as the Neue Preussische
Zeitung says, should not make the subjects presumptuous;
immobilisation wherever possible of public funds instead of
MONTESQUIEU LVI 227
employing them in industry in order that at predictable

moments of crisis the government by divine right indepen
dently confront the people. The basic principle of the im
posed Prussian constitution is to use the taxes for maintain
ing the state as an oppressive, independent and sacred force
contraposed to industry, commerce and agriculture, instead
of degrading it by turning it into a profane tool of bour
geois society.
The gift is worthy of the donor. The constitution is of a
piece with the present Prussian government that presented
it. To get an idea of this government’s hostility towards the
bourgeoisie it is sufficient to point to its proposed trade reg
ulations. On the pretext of advancing towards association
the government attempts to return to the guild system.
Competition compels the manufacturer to produce as cheaply
as possible and therefore on a constantly increasing scale,
i.e., with more capital, with a continuously expanding divi
sion of labour and constantly increasing use of machinery.
Every new division of labour depreciates the traditional
skill of the craftsmen, every new machine ousts hundreds of
workers, production on a larger scale, that is, with more
capital, ruins small trade and petty-bourgeois enterprise.
The government promises to protect the handicrafts against
the factories, acquired skills against division of labour, and
small capital against big capital, by means of feudal guild
practices. Thus, the German nation, particularly the Prus
sian, which is barely able to withstand English competition,
is to become its defenceless prey, forced to accept a form
of trade organisation that is incompatible with modern
means of production and is already burst wide open by
modern industry.
We are certainly the last people to desire the rule of
the bourgeoisie. We were the first in Germany to raise
our voice against the bourgeoisie when today’s “men of
action” were spending their time complacently in petty
squabbles.
But we say to the workers and the petty bourgeois: it is
better to suffer in the contemporary bourgeois society,
whose industry creates the means for the foundation of a
15*
228 KARL MARX
new society, that will liberate you all, than to revert to a

bygone society, which, on the pretext of saving your classes,
thrusts the entire nation back into medieval barbarism.
But medieval estates and conditions are, as we have seen,
the social foundation of the government by the grace of
God. This government is unsuitable for modern bourgeois
society. It necessarily tries to create a society in its own
image. It is entirely consistent, when it attempts to replace
free competition by the guild system, mechanical spinning
by the spinning-wheel and the steam plough by the hoe.
Why is it then that, under these circumstances, the Prus
sian bourgeoisie, in contrast to its French, English and
Belgian predecessors, proclaims as its shibboleth the imposed
constitution (and with it the monarchy by divine right, the
bureaucracy and the landowning nobility)?
The commercial and industrial sections of the bourgeoi
sie throw themselves into the arms of the counter-revolu
tion for fear of the revolution. As though counter-revolu
tion were not the overture to revolution.
There is moreover a section of the bourgeoisie that, quite
indifferent to the interests of its class as a whole, pursues
its own particular interests, which may even be inimical to
those of its class.
These are financial magnates, big creditors of the state,
bankers, and rentiers, whose wealth increases proportionate
ly to the poverty of the people, and finally men whose
business depends on the old political structure, e.g., Dumont
and his literary lumpen-proletariat. These are also ambi
tious professors, lawyers and similar persons, who can only
hope to obtain respectable posts in a state where betrayal
of the people’s interests to the government is a lucrative
business.
These are certain manufacturers who do well out of their
transactions with the government; contractors whose con
siderable profits depend on the general exploitation of the
people; philistines who would lose their importance if
political life were conducted on a larger scale; local coun
cillors who under cover of the old institutions arrange their
private shady affairs at the expense of the public; oil-mer
MONTESQUIEU LVI 229
chants who at the price of their betrayal of the revolution

have become Excellencies and Knights of the Eagle; bank
rupt cloth-merchants and speculators in railway-shares who
have become royal bank directors,100 etc., etc.
“It is they who are the advocates of the imposed con
stitution.” If the bourgeoisie has a sympathetic heart for
these poor brothers and if it wants to be worthy of the
respect of Montesquieu LVI, then it should elect delegates
in keeping with the imposed constitution.
Written by Marx
201 and 202,
January 21 and 22, 1849
THE TRIAL OF THE RHENISH
DISTRICT COMMITTEE OF DEMOCRATS161
[Karl Marx’s Speech Delivered on February 8, 1849J
Gentlemen of the jury, if this action had been brought

before December 5, I could have understood the charge
made by the public prosecutor. Now, after the 5th of
December, I do not understand how he dares to invoke
against us laws which the Crown itself has trampled in
the dirt.
On what does the public prosecutor base his criticism of
the National Assembly and the resolution not to pay taxes?
On the laws of April 6 and 8, 1848. And what did the
government do on December 5, when it arbitrarily imposed
a constitution and a new electoral law on the country? It
tore up the laws of April 6 and 8, 1848. These laws are no
longer valid for the supporters of the government, so why
should they still be valid for the opponents of the govern
ment? On December 5 the government took its stand on a
revolutionary basis, namely, on a counter-revolutionary
basis. It is now confronted only by revolutionaries or ac
complices. Even the mass of citizens who act on the basis
of the existing law, who uphold the existing law in face of
infringements of that law, have been turned into rebels by
this government. Before December 5 opinion concerning the
removal of the National Assembly, its dispersal and the
introduction of a state of siege in Berlin could have been
divided. After December 5 it is a well-established fact that
these measures were intended to usher in the counter
revolution and that therefore every means could be used
against a group that itself no longer recognised the condi
tions under which it governed and consequently could no
longer be recognised as a government by the country. Gen
tlemen, the Crown could have preserved at least the sem
TRIAL OF RHENISH DEMOCRATS 231
blance of legality, but it has not deigned to do so. It could

have dispersed the National Assembly and then let the cabi
net come forward and tell the country: “We have dared to
carry out a coup d’etat—circumstances have forced us to do
it. We have disregarded the convention of the law, but there
are moments of crisis when the very existence of the state
is at stake. At such moments there is only one inviolable
law—the existence of the state. There was no valid con
stitution when we dispersed the Assembly. Therefore no
constitution could be infringed. But there existed two
organic laws—those of April 6 and 8, 1848. Actually
there is only one organic law, the electoral law. We
ask the country to carry through elections in accor
dance with this law. We, the responsible government, will
then appear before the Assembly that has emerged from
these primary elections. This Assembly, we trust, will
recognise that the coup d’etat was an act of deliverance
necessitated by circumstances. It will subsequently sanc
tion the coup d’etat. It will declare that we infringed a
legal form in order to save the country. Let it pass judg
ment on us.”
If the cabinet had done that, it would have had a sem
blance of right to arraign us. The Crown would have kept
a semblance of legality, but it could not or would not do it.
The March revolution, as seen by the Crown, was a harsh
fact. One harsh fact can be erased only by another harsh
fact. By rejecting new elections on the basis of the law of
April 1848, the cabinet renounced its own responsibilities,
thereby repudiating also the bar towards which it was re
sponsible. At the very outset it turned the appeal of the
National Assembly to the people into a mere pretence, a
fiction, a deception. By inventing a first Chamber based on
the property qualification as an integral part of the Legis
lative Assembly, the cabinet tore up the organic laws, de
parted from the legal basis, falsified the elections and pre
vented the people from passing any judgment on the “act
of deliverance” of the Crown.
And so, gentlemen, the fact cannot be denied, and no
future historian will deny it—the Crown has made a revo
232 KARL MARX
lution, it has overthrown the existing legal system, it can

not appeal to the laws it has itself so scandalously annulled.
After successfully carrying out a revolution one can hang
one’s opponents, but one cannot convict them. Defeated
enemies can be put out of the way, but they cannot be ar
raigned as criminals. After a revolution or counter-revolu
tion has been consummated the invalidated laws cannot be
used against the defenders of these laws. This would be a
cowardly pretence of legality which you, gentlemen, will
not sanctify by your verdict.
I have already told you, gentlemen, that the government
has falsified the sentence which the people passed on the
“act of deliverance of the Crown”. The people nevertheless
has already decided against the Crown and for the Nation
al Assembly. The elections to the second Chamber are the
only lawful elections because they alone were based on the
law of April 8, 1848. Practically all the deputies who were
for the refusal to pay taxes were re-elected to the second
Chamber, many of them even two or three times. Schnei
der II, my codefendant, is himself deputy for Cologne.
Thus, the question of the National Assembly’s right to vote
for the refusal to pay taxes has virtually been decided
already by the people.
But quite irrespective of this most authoritative judgment,
you will agree with me, gentlemen, that in the present case
no crime in the ordinary sense of the word has been com
mitted, in this case no infringement of the law falling within
your jurisdiction has occurred at all. Under ordinary con
ditions the existing laws are enforced by the public author
ities; whoever infringes these laws or prevents the public
authorities from enforcing them is a criminal. In the pres
ent case one public authority has infringed the law, another
public authority, it makes no difference which, has upheld
it. The struggle between these two political powers lies
neither within the sphere of civil law, nor within the sphere
of criminal law. The question of who was in the right, the
Crown or the National Assembly, is a matter for history.
All the juries, all the courts of Prussia cannot decide it.
Only one power can supply the answer—history. I do not
understand, therefore, how, on the basis of the Code penal,

we could be placed in the dock.
That this was a struggle between two powers, and only
power can decide between two powers—that, gentlemen, has
been declared by both the revolutionary and the counter
revolutionary press. This was proclaimed even by the organ
of the government a short time before the struggle was
decided. The Neue Preussische Zeitung, the organ of the
present government, clearly realised this. A few days be
fore the crisis it said approximately the following: It is no
longer a question of right but of power, and the old mon
archy by the grace of God will show that it still has this
power. The Neue Preussische Zeitung correctly understood
the situation. Power against power. Victory would decide
for one or the other. The counter-revolution carried the
day but we have seen only the first act of the drama. The
struggle in England lasted over twenty years. Charles I
came out on top several times and ended up on the scaffold.
Who, gentlemen, can guarantee to you that the present
cabinet and the officials who acted and continue to act as
its tools will not be convicted of high treason by this Cham
ber or its successors?
Gentlemen, the public prosecutor has tried to base his
accusation on the laws of April 6 and 8. I have been com
pelled here to demonstrate to you that it is these laws which
acquit us. But I make no secret of the fact that I have never
recognised these laws and never will. They never had any
validity for the deputies elected by the people, still
less could they prescribe the course of the March revo
lution.
How did the laws of April 6 and 8 come into being? By
agreement between the government and the United Pro
vincial Diet. It was an attempt to maintain continuity with
the old legal system and to play down the revolution which
had done away with the system. Men like Camphausen
thought it important to preserve a semblance of legal con
tinuity. And how did they preserve this semblance? By a
series of obvious and absurd contradictions. Let us for a
moment adopt the old legal point of view. Was not the
234 KARL MARX
very existence of Minister Camphausen, a responsible min

ister, a minister who had not climbed the bureaucratic
ladder, unlawful? The position of Camphausen, the respon
sible Prime Minister, was unlawful. This officer, who does
not exist in law, convenes the United Provincial Diet to
have it pass laws it was not legally competent to pass. This
inconsistent and self-contradictory playing with formalities
was called legal advance, or maintenance of the legal
basis!
But let us leave aside the form, gentlemen. What was the
United Provincial Diet? It represented old decaying social
relations. It was against these relations that the revolution
was directed. And the representatives of the vanquished
society are asked to endorse organic laws designed to rec
ognise, guide and organise the revolution against this old
society. What an absurd contradiction! The Diet was over
thrown together with the old monarchy.
On this occasion we are confronted by the so-called legal
basis. It is the more necessary for me to deal with this
point since we are justly regarded as opponents of the legal
basis, and since the laws of April 6 and 8 owe their exis
tence to the formal recognition of the legal basis.
The Diet represented primarily big landed property.
Big landed property was indeed the foundation of medi
eval, feudal society. Modern bourgeois society, our own
society, is however based on industry and commerce.
Landed property itself has lost all its former conditions of
existence, it has become dependent on commerce and indus
try. Agriculture, therefore, is carried on nowadays on
industrial lines, and the old feudal lords have now become
producers of cattle, wool, corn, beetroots, spirits, etc., i.e.,
people who trade in industrial products just as any other
merchant. However much they may cling to their old preju
dices, they are in fact being turned into bourgeois, who
manufacture as much as possible and as cheaply as possible,
who buy where they can get goods at the lowest price and
sell where they can obtain the highest price. The mode of
living, production and income of these gentlemen therefore
gives the lie to their traditional pompous notions. Landed
property, as the predominant social factor, presupposes a

medieval mode of production and commerce. The United
Provincial Diet represented this medieval mode of produc
tion and commerce which had long since ceased to exist,
and whose protagonists, though they clung to the old privi
leges, likewise enjoyed and exploited the advantages of the
new society. The new bourgeois society, grounded on an
entirely different foundation, on a changed mode of pro
duction, was bound to seize also political power, which had
to be wrenched from the hands of those who represented
the interests of a declining society, a political power, whose
whole structure had been built up on the soil of entirely
different material conditions of society. Hence the revolution.
The revolution was consequently directed as much against
the absolute monarchy, the supreme political expression of
the old society, as against the representatives of the estates,
who stood for a social system that had been long ago de
stroyed by modern industry or, at most, for the presumptuous
ruins of the dissolved estates which bourgeois society was
overtaking and pushing into the background more and more
every day. How then was the idea conceived to allow the
United Provincial Diet, the representative of the old society,
to dictate laws to the new society which asserted its rights
through the revolution?
Allegedly in order to maintain the legal basis. But what
do you understand by maintaining the legal basis? To main
tain laws belonging to a bygone social era and framed by
representatives of vanished or vanishing social interests, who
consequently give the force of law only to these interests,
which run counter to the public needs. Society is not founded
upon the law; this is a legal fiction. On the contrary, the
law must be founded upon society, it must express the com
mon interests and needs of society—as distinct from the
caprice of the individuals—which arise from the material
mode of production prevailing at the given time. This Code
Napoleon, which I am holding in my hand, has not created
modern bourgeois society. On the contrary, bourgeois society,
which emerged in the eighteenth century and developed
further in the nineteenth, merely finds its legal expression
236 KARL MARX
in this Code. As soon as it ceases to fit the social conditions,

it becomes simply a bundle of paper. You cannot make the
old ways the foundation of the new social development, any
more than these old laws created the old social conditions.
They were engendered by the old conditions of society
and must perish with them. They are bound to change with
the changing conditions of life. To maintain the old laws
in face of the new needs and demands of social develop
ment is essentially the same as hypocritically upholding the
out-of-date particular interests of a minority in face of the
up-to-date interests of the community. This maintenance of
the legal basis aims at asserting minority interests as if they
were the predominant interests, when they are no longer
dominant; it aims at imposing on society laws which have
been condemned by the conditions of life in this society, by
the way the members of this society earn their living, by
their commerce and their material production; it aims at
retaining legislators who are concerned only with their
particular interests; it seeks to misuse political power in
order forcibly to place the interests of a minority
above the interests of the majority. The maintenance
of the legal basis is therefore in constant conflict with
the existing needs, it hampers commerce and industry, it
prepares the way for social crises, which erupt in political
revolutions.
That is what adherence to the legal basis and the main
tenance of the legal basis really mean. Relying on these
phrases about the legal basis, which arise either from
conscious deceit or unconscious self-deception, the United
Provincial Diet was convoked, and this Diet was made to
frame organic laws for the National Assembly the need for
which was created by the revolution and which owed its
existence to the revolution. And on the strength of these
laws the National Assembly is to be judged!
The National Assembly represented modern bourgeois
society as against feudal society, which is represented in
the United Provincial Diet. It was elected by the people for
the purpose of independently enacting a constitution to fit
the conditions of life, which had come into conflict with the
old political organisation and laws. It was thus from the

very beginning a sovereign, constituent assembly. The fact
that it nevertheless condescended to the views of the concil
iators, was mere formal courtesy towards the Crown, mere
ceremony. I need not here go into the question whether the
Assembly—as far as the people are concerned—had the
right to take a stand for conciliation. It considered that a
collision with the Crown should be averted by a display of
goodwill on both sides.
One thing is certain, however—that the laws of April 6
and 8, which were agreed with the United Provincial Diet,
were formally invalid. The only material significance they
have is that they state and lay down the conditions under
which the National Assembly could really express the sov
ereign will of the people. The laws passed by the United
Provincial Diet were merely a formula by which the Crown
was saved the humiliation of having to proclaim: 1 have
been defeated!
Now, gentlemen of the jury, I shall examine more closely
the speech of the public prosecutor.
He says:
“The Crown ceded part of the power which had been wholly in its
hands. Even in the ordinary course of things a deed of renunciation does
not go beyond what is clearly stated in the words of renunciation. The
law of April 8, 1848, neither grants the National Assembly the right to
refuse to vote taxes, nor stipulates that Berlin must necessarily be the
seat of the National Assembly.”
Gentlemen, power lay broken in the hands of the Crown,

and the Crown gave up power in order to save the frag
ments. You will remember that immediately after his
accession to the throne, the King formally pledged his word
of honour at Kbnigsberg and Berlin not to concede consti
tutional government. You will remember that when opening
the United Provincial Diet in 1847 the King solemnly swore
that he would not allow a piece of paper to come between
him and his people. After the March events of 1848, and
even in the imposed constitution, the King proclaimed him
self a constitutional monarch. He has put this paper, this
piece of abstract, outlandish flummery, between himself and
238 KARL MARX
his people. Will the public prosecutor dare to assert that

in conceding the agreement or the constitution, the King
voluntarily contradicted in so manifest a way his own
solemn declarations, that in the eyes of the whole of Europe
he voluntarily committed so glaring an inconsistency! The
King made the concessions which the revolution compelled
him to make. Neither more nor less.
The popular analogy which the public prosecutor has
made unfortunately proves nothing. It is true, that if I
renounce anything, I renounce only what I have expressly
renounced. If I made you a gift, it would indeed be impu
dent if, on the basis of the deed of gift, you tried to compel
me to undertake further obligations. But after the March
events it was the people that made the gift and the Crown
which received it. Obviously, the nature of the gift must be
interpreted in accordance with the intentions of the giver
and not those of the receiver, i.e., in accordance with the
intentions of the people and not those of the Crown.
The absolute power of the Crown was shattered. The
people had won the day. The two sides concluded a truce
and the people was cheated. The public prosecutor himself
has taken pains to demonstrate at some length that the
people was deceived. To challenge the right of the National
Assembly to refuse to vote taxes, the public prosecutor has
explained to you in detail that if there was something of
this kind in the law of April 6, 1848, it was certainly no
longer to be found in the law of April 8, 1848. The interval
of two days was thus used to deprive the representatives of
the people of the rights which had been conceded to them two
days earlier. Could the public prosecutor have more strik
ingly compromised the honesty of the Crown, could he have
more irrefutably proved the intention to deceive the people?
The public prosecutor says further:
“The right to adjourn and prorogue the National Assembly is a
prerogative of the executive power recognised in all constitutional
countries.”
As to the right of the executive to transfer the meeting

place of the legislative chambers, I would like to ask the
public prosecutor to cite even a single law or example in

support of his claim. In England, for instance, under an
old historical privilege, the King could convoke Parliament
anywhere he pleased. There is no law stating that London
is the legal seat of Parliament. As you know, gentlemen,
in England the most important political liberties are gener
ally sanctioned not by Statute Law but by Common Law;
such, for instance, is the case with the freedom of the press.
But should an English ministry take it into its head to trans
fer Parliament from London to Windsor or Richmond, it
is sufficient to put the idea into words to realise how impos
sible it is.
True, in countries that have a constitutional government,
the Crown has the right to prorogue Parliament. But it
must not be forgotten that on the other hand all constitu
tions specify for how long the chambers can be prorogued
and when they have to be summoned again.—Prussia has
no constitution, one still has to be drafted; no legal time
limit for summoning a prorogued chamber exists, conse
quently no prorogation right of the Crown exists.'—Other
wise the Crown could prorogue the Chamber for ten days,
for ten years, or for ever. How could one be sure that the
chambers would ever be summoned or allowed to meet for
any length of time? The existence of the chambers juxta
posed with the Crown would be left to the discretion of
the Crown, the legislative power—if one could speak of
legislative power in this context—would have become
a sham.
Gentlemen, this example shows where any attempt to
compare the conflict between the Prussian Crown and the
Prussian National Assembly with the conditions obtaining
in constitutional countries leads to. It leads to the mainte
nance of the absolute monarchy. On the one hand, the rights
of a constitutional executive power are conferred upon the
Crown, on the other, there is no law, no tradition, no or
ganic institutions able to impose on it the restrictions proper
to a constitutional executive power. The representatives of
the people are expected to play the role of a constitutional
chamber in relation to an absolute monarchy!
240 KARL MARX
Is there any need to explain that in the case under con

sideration it was not a matter of an executive power vis-a-
vis a legislative power, that the constitutional division of
powers cannot be applied to the Prussian National Assembly
and the Prussian Crown? Let us disregard the revolution
and consider only the official theory of agreement. Even
according to this theory two sovereign powers confronted
each other. That is beyond any doubt. One of these two
powers was bound to break the other. Two sovereign pow
ers cannot function simultaneously, side by side, in one
state. This is an absurdity, like the squaring of the circle.
Material force had to decide the issue between the two
sovereign powers. But it is not our task here to go into the
question of whether agreement was possible or impossible.
It is sufficient that two powers entered into relations with
each other in order to conclude an agreement. Camphausen
himself admitted that agreement might not be achieved.
From the rostrum he spoke to the advocates of agreement
of the danger that faced the country if they did not come
to terms. The danger was implied in the initial relationship
between the conciliatory National Assembly and the Crown,
and afterwards an attempt is made to hold the National
Assembly responsible for this danger by denying this initial
relationship and by turning the Assembly into a constitu
tional chamber\ It is an attempt to overcome a difficulty
by abstracting from it.
Gentlemen, I think I have shown you that the Crown
had no right either to adjourn or to prorogue the Assembly
of conciliators.
But the public prosecutor did not confine himself to exam
ining whether the Crown had the right to adjourn the Na
tional Assembly; he has tried to prove that this adjourn
ment was expedient. “Would it not have been expedient,”
he exclaims, “if the National Assembly had obeyed the
Crown and moved to Brandenburg?” According to the
public prosecutor, the expediency of such an act was due
to the position of the Chamber itself. The Chamber was not
free in Berlin, and so forth.
But is it not obvious what purpose the Crown pursued in
ordering this removal? Had not the Crown itself divested

all officially advanced reasons for the removal of any
semblance of veracity? It was not a question of freedom of
deliberation, but of whether the Assembly be dissolved and
a constitution imposed, or whether a spurious Assembly be
created by summoning more docile representatives. When,
unexpectedly, a sufficient number of deputies arrived in
Brandenburg to form a quorum, the pretence was abandoned
and the National Assembly was dissolved.
Incidentally, it goes without saying that the Crown had
no right to declare the National Assembly either free or
unfree. No one but the National Assembly itself could decide
whether it had the necessary freedom of deliberation or not.
It would be most convenient for the Crown if it could
declare that the National Assembly was not free, that it
was irresponsible and to ban it, whenever the Assembly
passed resolutions the Crown disliked.
The public prosecutor has also spoken about the govern
ment’s duty to protect the dignity of the National Assembly
against the terrorism of the Berlin populace.
This argument sounds like a satire on the government. I
will not speak here of its treatment of individuals, of men
who, after all, were the elected representatives of the people.
It sought to humiliate them in every possible way, they
were prosecuted in a most infamous way and a sort of wild
chase was organised against them. But let us leave aside
individuals. How was the dignity of the National Assembly
and of its work maintained? Its archives were given over
to the military who used the documents comprised in the
various departments, the royal messages, draft laws and
preliminary studies, as spills to light pipes with, burned
them in stoves, and trampled on them.
Not even the formalities of a legal warrant were observed;
the archives were seized without even an inventory being
drawn up.
It was part of a plan to destroy this work so dear to
the people, in order to make it easier to vilify the Na
tional Assembly and to quash the planned reforms which
were abhorrent to the government and aristocracy. Is
16—509
242 KARL MARX
it not simply ridiculous to assert after all this that

the government transferred the National Assembly
from Berlin to Brandenburg out of tender concern for
its dignity?
Now I come to the statement of the public prosecutor
regarding the formal validity of the resolution to refuse
payment of taxes.
The public prosecutor says that in order to make the reso
lution on the tax refusal formally valid, the Assembly should
have submitted it to the Crown for sanctioning.
But, gentlemen, the Crown itself did not face the Assem
bly, it was represented by the Brandenburg cabinet. Con
sequently, according to the absurd claim of the public pros
ecutor, the Assembly should have reached an agreement
with the Brandenburg cabinet to proclaim that cabinet
guilty of high treason and to prevent it from collecting
taxes. What meaning can this demand have other than that
the National Assembly should submit unconditionally to
every request of the Brandenburg cabinet?
Another reason why the tax refusal resolution was for
mally invalid, says the public prosecutor, was that a motion
can become law only after the second reading.
On the one hand, when dealing with the National Assem
bly they ignored important forms of procedure which ought
to have been binding and, on the other, they expected the
National Assembly to observe even the most unimportant
formalities. As simple as that! A bill objectionable to the
Crown is passed in the first reading, after which the second
reading is prevented by force of arms, and the Bill remains
invalid because there was no second reading. The public
prosecutor does not take into consideration the exceptional
state of affairs that obtained when, threatened with bayo
nets in their meeting hall, the deputies passed this resolu
tion. The government commits one arbitrary act after anoth
er. It flagrantly violates the principal laws, the Habeas
Corpus Act, and the Civil Guard Law.162 It arbitrarily
establishes an unlimited military despotism under the guise
of martial law. It sends the deputies to the devil, and while
on the one hand impudently infringing all laws, it, on the
other hand, demands the most punctilious observation of

even the rules of procedure.
Gentlemen, I do not know whether it is deliberate mis
representation—I am far from assuming this on the part of
the public prosecutor—or merely ignorance when he says:
“The National Assembly did not want any negotiations"
and it “did not seek any negotiations”.
If the people blame the Berlin National Assembly for
anything, it is for its desire for negotiations. If the deputies
themselves regret anything, it is their desire for reconcilia
tion. It was this desire for reconciliation which gradually
alienated the Assembly from the people, caused it to lose
all its positions, and finally, when it was not backed by the
nation, exposed it to the attacks of the Crown. When at
last it wanted to make a stand it found itself alone and
powerless, precisely because it had not made that stand
and asserted itself at the right time. It first manifested this
desire for reconciliation when it renounced the revolution
and sanctioned the theory of agreement, when it degraded
itself by turning from a revolutionary National Assembly
into a dubious society of conciliators. It carried the weakness
for negotiation to extremes when it accepted Pfuel’s pseudo
recognition of Stein’s army order as valid. The publication
of this army order was itself a farce, since it could only
be regarded as a comical echo of Wrangel’s army order.
Nevertheless, instead of going beyond it, the Assembly
snatched at the attenuated interpretation of the Pfuel cabi
net, which made the order meaningless. To avoid any
serious conflict with the Crown, the Assembly accepted the
feeble semblance of a demonstration against the old reac
tionary army as a real demonstration. It seriously pretended
to regard what was not even a pseudo-solution of the con
flict as the real solution of the conflict. So little did the
Assembly want to fight, so keen was it on negotiations—
and the public prosecutor describes it as pugnacious and
quarrelsome.
Need I mention another symptom showing the concilia
tory nature of this Chamber? You will remember the agree
ment between the National Assembly and Pfuel about the
16*
244 KARL MARX
law suspending commutations.

* If the Assembly was unable
to destroy the enemy in the army, then it was above all nec
essary to win a friend in the peasantry. But it refrained
from attempting even this. To negotiate, to avoid a conflict
with the Crown, to avoid it at any cost—that was the Assem
bly’s chief concern, which it placed above even its own self
preservation. And this Assembly is blamed for not wanting
to negotiate, not attempting to negotiate!
It tried to negotiate even when the conflict had broken
out. You know the pamphlet by Unruh,163 a man of the
Centre. You will have seen from it that every attempt was
made to avoid a clash; that deputations were sent to the
Crown and were turned away; that some deputies tried to
argue with the ministers and were superciliously and arro
gantly rebuffed; that the Assembly offered to make conces
sions and that these were derided. Even at the time when it
could only be a matter of preparing for war, the Assembly
still wanted to make peace. And the public prosecutor ac
cuses this Assembly of not wanting to negotiate and not
attempting to negotiate!
The Berlin National Assembly clearly nursed extravagant
illusions and did not understand its own position and its
conditions of existence, when before the conflict and even
during the conflict it believed that an amicable arrangement
and reconciliation with the Crown was still possible and
worked towards it.
The Crown did not want and could not want reconcilia
tion. Gentlemen of the jury, let us not deceive ourselves
concerning the nature of the struggle which began in March
and was later waged between the National Assembly and
the Crown. It was not an ordinary conflict between a cabinet
and a parliamentary opposition, it was not a conflict between
men who were ministers and men who wanted to become
ministers, it was not a struggle between two political parties
in a legislative chamber. It is quite possible that members
of the National Assembly belonging to the minority or the

majority believed that this was so. The decisive factor,

however, is not the opinion of the deputies, but the real
historical position of the National Assembly as it emerged
both from the European revolution and the March revolution
it engendered. What took place here was not a political
conflict between two parties within the framework of one
society, but a conflict between two societies, a social conflict,
which assumed a political form; it was the struggle of the
old feudal bureaucratic society with modern bourgeois
society, a struggle between the society of free competition
and the society of the guilds, between the society of land
ownership and the industrial society, between a religious
society and a scientific society. The political expression
corresponding to the old society was the Crown by the grace
of God, the bullying bureaucracy and the independent army.
The social foundation corresponding to this old political
power consisted of privileged aristocratic landownership
with its enthralled or partially enthralled peasants, the small
patriarchal or guild industries, the strictly separated estates,
the sharp contradiction between town and country and,
above all, the domination of the countryside over the town.
The old political power—the Crown by the grace of God, the
bullying bureaucracy, the independent army—realised that
its essential material basis would disappear from under its
feet, as soon as any change was made in the basis of the old
society, privileged aristocratic landownership, the aristocracy
itself, the domination of the countryside over the town, the
dependent position of the rural population and the laws cor
responding to these conditions of life, such as the parish
regulations, the criminal law. The National Assembly made
such an attempt. On the other hand that old society realised
that political power would be wrenched from its hands, as
soon as the Crown, the bureaucracy and the army lost their
feudal privileges. The National Assembly wanted to abolish
these privileges. It is not surprising, therefore, that the army,
the bureaucracy and the nobility joined forces in urging
the Crown to effect a coup de main, and it is not surprising
that the Crown, knowing that its own interests were closely
interlinked with those of the old feudal bureaucratic society,
246 KARL MARX
allowed itself to be impelled to a coup d’6tat. For the Crown

represented feudal aristocratic society, just as the National
Assembly represented modern bourgeois society. The con
ditions of existence in modern bourgeois society require that
the bureaucracy and the army, which controlled commerce
and industry, should become their tools, be reduced to mere
organs of bourgeois intercourse. This society cannot tolerate
that restrictions are placed on agriculture by feudal privi
leges and on industry by bureaucratic tutelage. This is
contrary to free competition, the vital principle of this
society. It cannot tolerate that foreign trade relations should
be determined by considerations of the palace’s internation
al policies instead of by the interests of national produc
tion. It must subordinate fiscal policy to the needs of pro
duction, whereas the old state has to subordinate production
to the needs of the Crown by the grace of God and the
patching up of the monarchical walls, the social pillars of
this Crown. Just as modern industry is indeed a leveller,
so modern society must break down all legal and political
barriers between town and country. Modern society still
has classes, but no longer estates. Its development lies in
the struggle between these classes, but the latter stand
united against the estates and their monarchy by the grace
of God.
The monarchy by the grace of God, the supreme political
expression, the supreme political representative of the old
feudal bureaucratic society, is consequently unable to make
any sincere concessions to modern bourgeois society. Its
own instinct of self-preservation, and the society which
backs it and on which it leans will constantly impel it to
retract the concessions it has made, to maintain its feudal
character and to risk a counter-revolution. Counter-revolu
tion is a constantly recurrent condition of existence for the
Crown after every revolution.
On the other hand, modern society, too, cannot rest until
it has shattered and abolished the political power, the tra
ditional official power, by which the old society is forcibly
preserved. For the rule of the Crown by the grace of God
is the rule of antiquated social strata.
Hence no peace is possible between these two societies.

Their material interests and needs bring them into mortal
combat. One side must win, the other must lose. That is the
only possible reconciliation between them. Neither can there
be peace between the supreme political representatives of
these two societies, between the Crown and the representa
tives of the people. Thus, the National Assembly had only
the choice of either yielding to the old society or standing
up to the Crown as an independent force.
Gentlemen, the public prosecutor has described the refusal
to pay taxes as a measure “which shakes the foundations of
society”. The refusal to pay taxes has nothing to do with
the foundations of society.
Generally speaking, why do taxes, the granting or the
refusal of taxes, play such an important role in the history
of constitutionalism? The reason is very simple. Just as
serfs purchased privileges from the feudal lords with ready
money, so did entire nations purchase privileges from feu
dal monarchs with ready money. Monarchs needed money
for their wars with foreign nations and especially for their
struggle against the feudal lords. The more trade and
industry developed the greater grew their need for money.
But the third estate, the middle classes, grew to the same
extent and disposed of increasing financial resources; and
in the same degree they purchased liberties from the mon
archs by means of taxes. To make sure of these liberties
they retained the right at definite intervals to renew the
monetary obligations, i.e., the right to vote or to refuse to
vote taxes. You can trace the details of this development
especially well in English history.
Tn medieval society, therefore, taxes were the only bond
between the emerging bourgeois society and the ruling feu
dal state, a bond which compelled the state to make con
cessions to bourgeois society, to meet its needs and adjust
itself to its growth. In modern states this right to grant and
refuse taxes has been turned by bourgeois society into a
means of controlling the government, the body administer
ing its common interests.
You will find therefore that partial tax refusal is an in
248 KARL MARX
tegral part of every constitutional mechanism. This type of

tax refusal operates whenever a budget is rejected. The
current budget is voted only for a definite period; moreover
after being prorogued the chambers must be reconvened
after a very short interval. It is thus impossible for the
Crown to make itself independent. Rejection of a budget
means a definite tax refusal if the cabinet does not win a
majority in the new chamber or if the Crown does not
nominate a cabinet in accordance with the wishes of the
new chamber. The rejection of a budget is therefore the par
liamentary form of a refusal to pay taxes. This form could
not be employed in the conflict under consideration because
a constitution did not yet exist, but had first to be produced.
But a refusal to pay taxes as it occurred here, a refusal
which not only rejects a new budget but prohibits even the
payment of current taxes, is by no means exceptional. It
happened very frequently in the Middle Ages. Even the
old German Imperial Diet and the old feudal Diets of
Brandenburg passed resolutions refusing to pay taxes. Nor
is there any lack of examples in modern constitutional
states. The refusal to pay taxes led in Britain in 1832 to the
downfall of Wellington’s cabinet. And in Britain it was not
Parliament which decided to refuse taxes, but the people
which proclaimed and carried out this decision on its own
authority. Britain, however, is the historic land of consti
tutionalism.
Far be it from me to deny that the English revolution,
which brought Charles I to the scaffold, began with a re
fusal to pay taxes or that the North American revolution,
which ended with the Declaration of Independence from
Britain, started with a refusal to pay taxes. The refusal to
pay taxes can be the harbinger of unpleasant events in
Prussia too. It was not John Hampden, however, who
brought Charles I to the scaffold, but only the latter’s own
obstinacy, his dependence on the feudal estates, and his
presumptuous attempt to use force to suppress the urgent
demands of the emerging society. The refusal to pay taxes
is merely a sign of the dissidence that exists between the
Crown and the people, merely evidence that the conflict
between the government and the people has reached a

menacing degree of tensity. It is not the cause of the discord
or the conflict, it is merely an expression of this fact. At
the worst, it leads to the overthrow of the existing govern
ment, the existing political system. The foundations of
society are not affected by this. In the present case, more
over, the refusal to pay taxes was a means of society’s self-
defence against a government which threatened its founda
tions.
Finally, the public prosecutor accuses us of having gone
further in the incriminating document than the National
Assembly itself. He says, “For one thing, the National As
sembly did not publish its resolution.” Gentlemen, am I to
give a serious reply to the accusation that the decision not
to pay taxes was not even published in the Statute Book?
Furthermore, unlike us, the National Assembly did
not incite to the use of force and in general did not take a
revolutionary stand, but wanted to remain on the basis
of the law.
The public prosecutor previously described the National
Assembly as unlawful, now he considers it lawful—in each
case to present us as criminals. But if the collection of taxes
is declared unlawful, am I not obliged to resist by force
the exercise by force of this unlawful action? Even from
this standpoint, therefore, we were entitled to repel force
by force. Incidentally, it is quite correct that the National
Assembly wanted to act on a purely legal basis, by resorting
to passive resistance. Two roads were open to it, the revo
lutionary road—it did not take it, those gentlemen did not
want to risk their necks—or the refusal to pay taxes which
did not go beyond passive resistance. It took the second
road. But to give effect to its refusal to pay taxes the people
would have had to take a revolutionary stand. The con
duct of the National Assembly could by no means serve as
a criterion for the people. The National Assembly, as such,
has no rights; the people has merely entrusted it with the
defence of its own rights. If the Assembly does not act in
accordance with the mandate it has received, then this
mandate lapses. The people then takes the stage itself and
250 KARL MARX
acts on its own authority. If, for example, a national as

sembly were to sell itself to a treacherous government, the
people would have to kick them out, both the government
and the assembly. If the Crown makes a counter-revolu
tion, the people has the right to reply with a revolution.
It does not require the sanction of a national assembly to
do this. The fact that the Prussian government is attempt
ing a treasonable assault has been stated by the National
Assembly itself.
Gentlemen of the jury, to sum up briefly, the public pros
ecutor cannot charge us under the laws of April 6 and 8,
1848, when these laws have been torn up by the Crown.
These laws by themselves are not decisive, as they were
arbitrarily concocted by the United Provincial Diet. The
resolution of the National Assembly regarding the refusal
to pay taxes had the force of law both formally and
materially. We went further than the National Assembly
in our appeal. This was our right and our duty.
In conclusion, I repeat that we have seen only the first
act of the drama. The struggle between the two societies,
the medieval and the bourgeois society, will again be
waged in political forms. As soon as the Assembly meets,
the same conflicts will arise again. The Neue Preussische
Zeitung, the organ of the government, already prophesies—
the same people have voted again, that means the Assembly
will have to be dispersed a second time.
Whatever new path the new National Assembly may
choose, the inevitable result will be—either complete victory
of the counter-revolution or a new successful revolution. It
may be that the victory of the revolution is possible only
after the counter-revolution is consummated.

231 and 232,
February 25 and 27, 1849
Published also in a separate
pamphlet entitled Zwei politische
Prozesse, Koln, 1849,
Verlag der Expedition der Neuen
Rheinischen Zeitung
THE PROCLAMATION OF A REPUBLIC
IN ROME164
The Italian Constituent Assembly is quite unlike the

Frankfurt National Assembly. The Italians know that the
unity of a country split into feudal principalities can only
be established by abolishing dynastic rule. The Italians led
the dance in 1848, and they are leading again in 1849. But
what progress! Italy no longer has Pius IX nor France her
Lamartine. The fantastic period of the European revolu
tion, the period of enthusiasm, goodwill and florid orations,
was fittingly concluded with fire-balls, massacres on a grand
scale and deportations. Austrian Notes, Prussian Notes and
Russian Notes were the most relevant replies to Lamartine’s
proclamations.
From their Pythian tripod of thoroughness and persever
ance the Germans are in the habit of looking down with
haughty disdain on the superficiality of the Italians. A com
parison between the Italian 1848 and the German 1848
would provide the most striking answer. In drawing this
comparison one would have to take into account that revo
lutionary Italy was kept in check by Germany and France,
whereas revolutionary Germany was not restricted in her
movements.
The republic in Rome is the beginning of the revolution
ary drama of 1849.
Written about February 21, 1849
February 22, 1849
[THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY OFFENSIVE
AND THE SUCCESSES OF THE REVOLUTION]
Cologne, May 9. The counter-revolution is advancing

with swift strides, but the revolution advances still faster.
While the counter-revolution has gained advantages in
Dresden,1^ which make its victory probable, and has man
aged to introduce a state of siege, censorship and martial law
by provoking a putsch in Breslau at the right moment, the
revolution can point to quite different victories.
We do not speak of the quickly mounting open rebellion
of the reserve army [Landwehr] in Rhenish Prussia involv
ing the most “Prussian” districts, nor of the South German
movement,166 which is being betrayed everywhere by the
governments, the bourgeoisie and the Frankfurt National
Assembly; we speak only of those great events which, coming
from outside, may give strong support and unity to the
small, separate and helpless German movements—we speak
of the Magyar and the French revolutions.
While the Magyar revolution is gaining one victory after
another, and after the next decisive battle (which was to
have taken place on May 5 or 6 at Pressburg) will move
straight on Vienna and liberate the city, France suddenly
enters a stage when the movement is developing again
openly and in broad daylight. The underground develop
ment of the past months comes to a close; the defeat of
the French army at Rome167 has exposed and discredited
the entire policy of the present government. The people
reappears upon the scene—the people, the ultimate, supreme
judge. Whether it happens at the elections or in the course
of an open revolution, the French people will shortly give
an impetus to the movement, which all Europe will feel.
COUNTER-REV. OFFENSIVE AND SUCCESSES OF REVOLUTION 253
The European dynasties will soon see that the chosen

people of the revolution has not changed; the French revo
lution of 1849 will speak to them, not in Lamartinian
phrases, but in the language of guns.
Written by Engels
(special supplement),
May 10, 1849
[SUPPRESSION OF THE NEUE RHEINISCHE
ZEITUNG}
Cologne, May 18. Some time ago Berlin demanded that

the local authorities reintroduce a state of siege in Cologne.
They intended to use martial law to suppress the Neue
Rheinische Zeitung, but met with unexpected resistance. The
municipal authorities of Cologne then turned to the judi
ciary here in order to achieve the same purpose by arbi
trary arrests. But this failed on account of the legal scruples
of the judiciary, just as it had failed twice before on account
of the common sense of the Rhenish juries.168 There was
nothing for it but to resort to a police ruse, and this, for the
time being, has achieved its purpose. The “Neue Rheinische
Zeitung” ceases publication for the present. On May 16, its
Editor-in-Chief Karl Marx received the following official
note:
“The tendency of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung to provoke in its
readers contempt for the present government, and incite them to violent
revolutions and the setting up of a social republic has become stronger
in its latest pieces” (!). “The right of hospitality” (!) “which he so
disgracefully abused, is therefore to be withdrawn from its Editor-in-
Chief, Dr. Karl Marx, and since he has not obtained permission to
prolong his stay in these states he is ordered to leave them within 24
hours. If he should not comply with this demand, he is to be conveyed
across the border.
Cologne, May 11, 1849.
Royal Government
Moeller
“[Addressed to] Herr Geiger, Royal Police Director, here.”
Why these absurd phrases, these official lies?

The trend and tone of the latest pieces of the Neue Rhei
nische Zeitung do not differ a whit from its first “trial
piece”. In that “first piece” we wrote among other things:
“Herr Hiiser’s idea (in Mainz) is but part of the larger
SUPPRESSION OF NEUE RHEINISCHE ZEITUNG 255
plan of the Berlin reactionaries, who would like ... to de

liver us defenceless ... into the hands of the army.”*
Well, gentlemen, what do you say now?
As to our tendency, did not the government know it?
Have we not declared before the jury that it was now '‘the
duty of the press to undermine the whole basis of the
existing order”**? Regarding the Hohenzollern princeling
one can read the following in the issue of October 19, 1848:
“The King is consistent. He would always have been
consistent, had not the March days unfortunately interposed
that portentous piece of paper between His Majesty and
the people. At present His Majesty apparently believes
again, as he did prior to the March days, that Slavism has
‘feet of iron; perhaps the people of Vienna is the magician
who will turn the iron into clay.”***
Is that clear, gentlemen?
And the “social republic"? Have we proclaimed it only
in the “latest pieces” of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung?
Did we not speak plainly and clearly enough for those
dullards who failed to see the “red" thread running through
all our comments and reports on the European movement?
The November 7 issue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
says, “Assuming that arms will enable the counter-revolu
tion to establish itself in the whole of Europe, money would
then kill it in the whole of Europe. European bankruptcy,
national bankruptcy would be the fate nullifying the victory.
Bayonets crumble like tinder when they come into contact
with the salient ‘economic’ facts. But developments will
not wait for the bills of exchange drawn by the European
states on the new European society to expire.
“The crushing counter-blow of the June revolution will
be struck in Paris. With the victory of the ‘red’ republic in
Paris, armies will be rushed from the interior of their coun
tries to the frontiers and across them, and the real strength
* See Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 1, June 1, 1848, “Hiiser”.—Ed.
** See Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 221, February 14, 1849, “The
First Trial of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung”.—Ed.
*** See Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 120, October 19, 1848, “The King
of Prussia’s Reply to the Deputation of the National Assembly”.—Ed.
256 KARL MARX
of the fighting parties will become evident. We shall then

remember this June and this October and we too shall
exclaim:
“Uae victis!
“The purposeless massacres perpetrated since the June
and October events, the tedious offering of sacrifices since
February and March, the very cannibalism of the counter
revolution will convince the nations that there is only one
way in which the murderous death agonies of the old
society and the bloody birth throes of the new society can
be shortened, simplified and concentrated, and that way is
revolutionary terror."
*
Is that clear, gentlemen?
From the very beginning we did not consider it necessary
to conceal our views. During a polemic with the judiciary
here, we told you:
“The real opposition of the ‘Neue Rheinische Zeitung’
will begin only in the tricolour republic.”**
And at that time we were speaking with the judiciary.
We summed up the old year, 1848, in the following words
(cf. the issue of December 31, 1848):
“The history of the Prussian middle class, and that of
the German middle class in general between March and
December shows that a purely middle-class revolution and
the establishment of bourgeois rule in the form of a consti
tutional monarchy is impossible in Germany, and that the
only alternatives are either a feudal absolutist counter
revolution or a social republican revolution.”***
Did we therefore have to advance our social republican
tendency only in the “last pieces” of the Neue Rheinische
Zeitung? Did you not read our articles about the June revo
lution, and was not the essence of the June revolution the
essence of our paper?
Why then your hypocritical phrases, your attempt to
find an impossible pretext?
* See this volume, pp. 149-50.—Ed.
** See Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 129, October 29, 1848, “Public
Prosecutor ‘Hecker’ and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung”.—Ed.
*** See this volume, pp. 203-04.—Ed.
HUNGARY IN 1848-49
16 20 28
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SUPPRESSION OF NEUE RHEINISCHE ZEITUNG 257
We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from

you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for
the terror. But the royal terrorists, the terrorists by the grace
of God and the law, are in practice brutal, disdainful, and
mean, in theory cowardly, secretive, and deceitful, and in
both respects disreputable.
The Prussian official piece of paper goes even to the absurd
length of speaking about the “right of hospitality which
was disgracefully abused" by Karl Marx, the Editor-in-
Chief of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
The right of hospitality which the insolent intruders, the
anterior Russians (Borussians), forced upon us, inhabitants of
the Rhineland, on our own land—this hospitality was
indeed “disgracefully” abused by the Neue Rheinische Zei
tung. We believe that we have thereby rendered a service
to the Rhine Province. We have saved the revolutionary
honour of our homeland. From now on the Neue Preussische
Zeitung alone will enjoy the full right of citizenship in the
Rhine Province.
In parting we should like to remind our readers of the
words printed in the first issue we published in January:
“The table of contents for 1849 reads: Revolutionary
rising of the French working class, world war."''
And in the East, a revolutionary army made up of
fighters of all nationalities already confronts the alliance of
the old Europe represented by the Russian army, while from
Paris comes the threat of a “red republic”.
Written by Marx
May 19, 1849
* See this volume, p. 207.—Ed.

17—509
[HUNGARY]
Cologne, May 18. At a moment when the actual entry of

Russian troops turns the Magyar war into a European war,
we are compelled to discontinue our reports on its further
development. We can only once more present for our read
ers the course of this grand East European revolutionary
war in a brief survey.
It will be remembered that in the autumn of 1847, even
before the February revolution, the Diet at Pressburg,
under the leadership of Kossuth, adopted a number of rev
olutionary decisions, such as those providing for the sala
bility of landed property, the peasants’ right to choose their
own domicile, the commutation of feudal services, the eman
cipation of the Jews and equal taxation of all classes. On
the very day the February revolution began in Paris (Feb
ruary 22) the Diet permitted Croats and Slavonians when
dealing with their internal affairs to use their own language
for official purposes and finally, by demanding a separate
responsible ministry for Hungary, it made the first step
towards a separate Hungary.
The February revolution broke out, and with it collapsed
the resistance of the Viennese government to the demands
of the Hungarians. On March 16, one day after the Viennese
revolution, consent was given for the formation of an in
dependent Hungarian government thereby reducing the
association between Hungary and Austria to a mere per
sonal union.
The now independent Magyar revolution made rapid
progress. It abolished all political privileges, introduced
universal suffrage, did away with all feudal dues, labour
services and tithes—compensations being payable by the
HUNGARY 259
State—brought about the union with Transylvania and suc

ceeded in securing the appointment of Kossuth as Minister
of Finance and the dismissal of the rebellious Ban Jella-
chich.
Meanwhile the Austrian government recovered from the
blow. While the pseudo-responsible ministry at Vienna
remained powerless, the camarilla at the Innsbruck Court
grew steadily more powerful. It relied on the imperial army
in Italy, on the national appetite of the Czechs, Croats and
Serbs and on the stubborn narrow-mindedness of the
Ruthenian peasants.
The Serbian insurrection, instigated with the help of
money and emissaries from the Court, started in the Banat
and Bacska on June 17. On the 20th Jellachich had an
audience with the Emperor at Innsbruck and was reappointed
Ban. Jellachich returned to Croatia, renounced allegiance
to the Hungarian ministry and on August 25 declared war
against it.
The treachery of the Hapsburg camarilla was plainly
evident. The Hungarians tried once more to persuade the
Emperor to return to constitutional methods. They sent a
deputation of 200 members of the Imperial Diet to Vienna;
the Emperor was evasive. Feeling ran high. The people
demanded guarantees and brought about changes in the
government. Traitors, who sat in the Pest ministry too,
were removed, and on September 20 Kossuth was appointed
Prime Minister. But only four days later the Palatine Arch
duke Stephan, the representative of the Emperor, escaped
to Vienna and on the 26th the Emperor issued the well-
known manifesto to the Hungarians in which he declared
that the government was rebellious and dismissed it, ap
pointing the Magyarophobe Jellachich governor of Hungary
and encroaching on the most important revolutionary gains
of Hungary.
The manifesto, not having been countersigned by an
Hungarian minister, was declared null and void by Kos
suth.
Meanwhile Jellachich, taking advantage of the disorganisa
tion and treachery prevalent among the nominally Hungar
17’
ian, but in reality old imperial, officers and general staff,

advanced to Stuhlweissenburg. There he was defeated by
the Hungarian army, despite its treacherous leaders, and
driven back into Austrian territory to the very walls of
Vienna. The Emperor and the old traitor Latour then de
cided to send reinforcements to Jellachich and to reconquer
Hungary with the aid of German and Slav troops. But the
revolution broke out in Vienna on October 6, and for the
time being put an end to the royal and imperial schemes.
Kossuth immediately marched with a Magyar corps to
the assistance of the Viennese people. At the Leitha he was
prevented from moving immediately on Vienna by the
indecision of the Viennese Diet, the treachery of his own
officers and the bad organisation of his army, which con
sisted for the most part of local militia. He was finally
obliged to arrest more than a hundred officers, send them to
Pest and have a number of them shot. Only after this did he
dare to attack. But it was too late—Vienna had already fall
en, and his undisciplined local militia was thrown back at
Schwechat by the regular Austrian troops.
The truce between the imperial troops and the Magyars
lasted six weeks. While both armies did their utmost to
strengthen their forces, the Olmiitz camarilla carried out a
coup which it had been preparing for a long time. It forced
the idiot Ferdinand—who had compromised himself by
concessions to the revolution and was now useless—to abdi
cate, and placed on the throne Sophia’s son, the boy Francis
Joseph, whom it intended to use as its tool. On the basis of
the Hungarian constitution the Pest Diet rejected this
change of sovereigns.
Finally in the middle of December the war started. Hun
gary by then was practically surrounded by the imperial
army. The offensive was launched from all sides.
From Austria three army corps, no less than 90,000
strong, under the supreme command of Field-Marshal
Windischgratz advanced southward from the Danube.
Nugent with about 20,000 men marched from Styria along
the left bank of the Drave. Dahlen with 10,000 men marched
from Croatia along the right bank of the Drave to the
HUNGARY 261
Banat. Several frontier regiments, the garrison of Temesvar,

the Serbian militia and the Serbian auxiliary corps of Knica-
nin, totalling 30,000 to 40,000 men commanded by Todoro-
vich and Rukavina, fought in the Banat itself. Puchner with
20,000-25,000 men was in Transylvania as was also Malkow-
ski with 10,000-15,000 men, who had invaded it from Bu
kovina. Finally Schlick with a corps of 20,000-25,000 men
moved from Galicia towards the upper Theiss.
The imperial army thus numbered at least 200,000 regu
lar, battle-hardened troops, not counting the Slav, Romance
and Saxon local militia and National Guards who took
part in the fighting in the south and in Transylvania.
Against this colossal fighting force Hungary could pit an
army of perhaps 80,000-90,000 trained soldiers, including
24,000 men who had formerly served in the imperial army,
and in addition 50,000 to 60,000 poorly organised Honveds
and local militia. This army was commanded largely by
traitors similar to the officers Kossuth had had arrested at
the Leitha.
But whereas Austria, a country kept down by force,
financially ruined and almost moneyless, could not yield
another recruit for the time being, the Magyars still had
great resources at their disposal. The Magyars’ enthusiasm
for liberty, reinforced by their national pride, waxed strong
er every day, providing Kossuth with eager fighters in
numbers unheard-of for such a small nation of 5 million.
The Hungarian printing press placed inexhaustible financial
resources in the form of banknotes at Kossuth’s disposal and
every Magyar accepted these national assignats as if they
were hard silver coin. Rifle and gun production was in full
swing. All the army lacked was weapons, experience and
good leaders, and all this could be procured in a few
months. It was only necessary to win time, to entice the
imperial troops into the heart of the country where they
would be worn down by unceasing guerilla warfare and
weakened by having to leave behind strong garrisons and
other detachments.
Hence the plan of the Hungarians to withdraw slowly
into the interior, to train the recruits in continuous skir
mishes and as a last resort to place between themselves and

their enemies the Theiss line with its impassable swamps,
which form a natural moat around the Magyar lands.
According to all calculations, the Hungarians should
have been able to hold the area between Pressburg and
Pest for two to three months even against the superior
strength of the Austrians. But severe frosts suddenly set in
covering all rivers and swamps with a thick layer of ice
capable of bearing the weight even of heavy guns. This
deprived the terrain of all features favouring defence, and
made all fortifications built by the Magyar army useless
and liable to be outflanked. And so it happened that before
twenty days had passed the Hungarian army was thrown
back from Odenburg and Pressburg to Raab, from Raab to
Mor, from Mor to Pest, and even had to leave Pest and
withdraw beyond the Theiss at the very beginning of the
campaign.
The other corps fared no better than the main army. In
the south Nugent and Dahlen continued their advance
towards Esseg, which was occupied by the Magyars, and
the Serbs gradually approached the Maros line; in Transyl
vania Puchner joined Malkowski at Maros-Vasarhely; in
the north Schlick descended from the Carpathians to the
Theiss and made junction with Windischgratz at Miskolcz.
The Austrians seemed to have practically finished with
the Magyar revolution. They had two-thirds of Hungary
and three-fourths of Transylvania in their rear, the Hungar
ians were attacked in front, on both flanks and in the rear.
A further advance of a few miles would have enabled all
the corps of the Emperor to make junction and draw the
ring tighter until Hungary was crushed in it as in the coils
of a boa constrictor.
The thing now—while the Theiss on the front still
formed an insuperable barrier to the enemy—was to gain
some breathing space.
This was done at two points: in Transylvania by Bem,
and in Slovakia by Gbrgey. Both carried out operations
which show that they are the most gifted commanders of
our time.
HUNGARY 263
On December 29, Bem arrived at Klausenburg, the only

town in Transylvania still held by the Magyars. Here he
quickly concentrated the reinforcements he had brought
and the remnants of the defeated Magyar and Szekler
troops,169 and marched to Maros-Vasarhely, beat the Aus
trians and drove Malkowski first across the Carpathians
into Bukovina and from there into Galicia, where he pushed
on towards Stanislav. Then, swiftly turning back into
Transylvania he pursued Puchner to within a few miles of
Hermannstadt. After several skirmishes and a few swift
drives in various directions, the whole of Transylvania was
in his hands apart from two towns, Hermannstadt and
Kronstadt, and these too would have been taken if the Rus
sians had not been called in. The 10,000-strong Russian
auxiliary troops tipped the scales and forced Bem to fall
back on Szeklerland. There he organised an uprising of the
Szeklers, and with this achieved, he had the Szekler militia
engage Puchner, who had reached Schassburg, while he
bypassed Puchner’s positions, moved straight on Hermann
stadt and drove the Russians out, then defeated Puchner
who had followed him, marched on Kronstadt and entered
it without firing a shot.
Transylvania was thus won and the rear of the Magyar
army cleared. The natural defence line formed by the
Theiss now found its continuation in the Carpathian moun
tain range and the Transylvanian Alps, from the Zips to
the borders of the Banat.
Gorgey at the same time made a similar triumphal march
in North-Western Hungary. He set out with a corps from
Pest to Slovakia, for two months kept in check the corps of
Generals Gotz, Csorich and Simunich operating against him
from three directions, and finally, when his position became
untenable against their superior forces, fought his way
through the Carpathians to Eperies and Kaschau. There he
appeared in the rear of Schlick and forced him hurriedly to
abandon his position and his whole operational base and
retreat to Windischgratz’s main army, while he himself was
already marching down the Hemad to the Theiss to join the
main body of the Magyar army.
This army, which was now commanded by Dembinski,

had likewise crossed the Theiss and had repulsed the enemy
all along the line. It had reached Hatvan, six miles from
Pest, when a stronger concentration of enemy forces com
pelled it to retreat again. After offering vigorous resistance
at Kapolna, Maklar and Poroszlo it recrossed the Theiss
just at the moment when Gorgey reached the Theiss at
Tokaj. The meeting of the two corps was the signal for a
new magnificent advance of the Hungarians. Newly trained
recruits arriving from the interior strengthened the Hungar
ian army in the field. Polish and German Legions were
formed, capable leaders had been trained or enlisted, and
in place of the leaderless, unorganised mass of December,
the imperial troops were suddenly faced by a concentrated,
brave, and numerous army which was well organised and
excellently led.
The Magyars crossed the Theiss in three columns. The
right wing (Gorgey) moved northwards, outflanked the
Ramberg division, which had been following it, at Eperies
and quickly drove it through Rimaszombat towards the main
imperial army. The latter was defeated by Dembinski at
Erlau, Gyongyos, Godollo and Hatvan, and hastily retreat
ed to Pest. Finally the left wing (Vetter) dislodged Jellachich
from Kecskemet, Szolnok and Czegled, defeated him at
Jaszbereny and compelled him, too, to retreat to the walls
of Pest. There the imperial forces stood along the Danube
from Pest to Waitzen, surrounded in a wide semicircle by
the Magyars.
To avoid exposing Pest to bombardment from Ofen, the
Hungarians had recourse to their well-tried tactics of
dislodging the Austrians from their positions by manoeuvres
rather than by open frontal attacks. Gorgey captured Wait
zen and forced the Austrians to fall back beyond the Gran
and Danube; he defeated Wohlgemuth between the Gran
and Neutra, thereby relieving Komorn, which was besieged
by imperial troops. Since its line of retreat was threatened,
the imperial army had to decide on a hurried withdrawal.
Welden, the new commander-in-chief, retreated in the
direction of Raab and Pressburg, and Jellachich was obliged,
HUNGARY 265
in order to pacify his extremely refractory Croats, to

hastily retreat with them down the Danube into Slavonia.
During their retreat, which rather resembled a stampede,
Welden (and especially his rearguard commanded by
Schlick) and Jellachich suffered further considerable reverses.
While the latter’s hard-pressed corps was slowly fight
ing its way through the Tolna and Baranya districts, Wel
den was able at Pressburg to concentrate the remnants of
his army which were by no means capable of offering any
serious resistance.
Simultaneously with these astonishing victories of the
Magyars over the main Austrian army, Moritz Perczel
pressed forward from Szegedin and Tolna towards Peter-
wardein, relieved it, occupied Bacska and moved into the
Banat, in order to link up there with Bem who was advanc
ing from Transylvania. Bem had already taken Arad and
besieged Temesvar; Perczel stood at Werschetz close to the
Turkish frontier; the Banat was thus conquered in a few
days. The fortified Transylvanian mountain passes were at
the same time held by the Szeklers, the passes in upper
Hungary by the local militia, and Gorgey with a consider
able army stood at the Jablunka Pass on the Moravian-
Galician frontier.
In short, in a few more days the victorious Magyar army,
driving the remnants of the mighty Austrian Legions be
fore it, would have entered Vienna in triumph and put an
end to the Austrian monarchy for all time.
Hungary’s separation from Austria had been decided in
Debrecen on April 14; the alliance with Poland, openly
proclaimed since the middle of January, was turned into
reality by the 20,000-30,000 Poles who joined the Hunga
rian army. The alliance with the German Austrians, which
had existed since the Viennese revolution of October 6 and
the battle at Schwechat, was similarly preserved and sus
tained by the German Legions within the Hungarian army,
as well as by the fact that the Magyars were faced with
the strategic and political necessity of occupying Vienna
and revolutionising Austria so as to secure recognition of
their declaration of independence.
Thus, the Magyar war very soon lost the national character
it had had in the beginning, and assumed a clearly Euro
pean character, precisely as a result of what would seem
to be a purely national act, as a result of the declaration of
independence. Only when Hungary proclaimed her separa
tion from Austria, and thereby the dissolution of the Aus
trian monarchy, did the alliance with the Poles for the lib
eration of both countries, and the alliance with the Ger
mans for the revolutionisation of Eastern Germany acquire
a definite character and a solid basis. If Hungary were in
dependent, Poland restored, German Austria turned into
the revolutionary focus of Germany, with Lombardy and
Italy winning independence—these plans, if carried out,
would wreck the entire East European political system:
Austria would disappear, Prussia would disintegrate and
Russia would be forced back to the borders of Asia.
The Holy Alliance, therefore, had to make every effort to
stem the impending revolution in Eastern Europe—the Rus
sian armies rolled towards the Transylvanian and Galician
frontiers; Prussia occupied the Bohemian-Silesian frontier
and allowed the Russians to pass through her territory
towards Prerau, and within a few days the first Russian
army corps stood on Moravian soil.
The Magyars, who clearly understood that in a few weeks
they would have to deal with numerous fresh troops, did
not advance on Vienna as quickly as one expected at the
beginning. They could not take Vienna, as they could not
take Pest, by a frontal attack without shelling the city, and
this they were not prepared to do. Again, as at Pest, they
were compelled to resort to outflanking manoeuvres, and
this required time and the assurance that their own flanks
and rear were secure. But it was here that the Russians
menaced their rear, while if Vienna were seriously endan
gered strong detachments of Radetzky’s army could be im
mediately expected from the other direction.
The Hungarians therefore acted very wisely when, in
stead of advancing swiftly on Vienna, they confined them
selves to steadily forcing the imperial armies out of Hun
gary, enveloping them in a wide arc from the foothills of
Uljcinifdjc 3eitunig
Organ Uer Ocmafratfc
M 301. Or, Hr >• «•<• 1840.
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The last issue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung

HUNGARY 267
the Carpathians to the spurs of the Styrian Alps, dispatching

a strong corps towards Jablunka, fortifying and covering
the Galician mountain passes, attacking Ofen and rapidly
proceeding with the recruitment of 250,000 men, especially
from the reconquered western districts. In this way they
secured their flanks and rear and assembled an army which
need no more fear the Russian contingents than the once
colossal imperial army. 200,000 soldiers of this glorious
Austrian army had invaded Hungary and barely 50,000 of
them had returned; the rest were either killed, wounded,
sick, taken prisoner or had changed sides.
True, the Russians threaten to send even more gigantic
armies. Some speak of 120,000 soldiers, others of 170,000.
According to the Triester Freihafen, the mobile army in
the field is expected considerably to surpass 500,000 men.
But the Russian love of exaggeration is well known: of the
figures they give only half are on the nominal rolls, and
of the numbers on the nominal roll again less than half are
really there. If, after deducting the number of troops re
quired for the occupation of Poland, the effective Russian
aid amounts to from 60,000 to 70,000 men, the Austrians
can be glad. And the Magyars will be able to deal with
that number.
The Magyar war of 1849 has strong points of resem
blance with the Polish war of 1830-31. But the great dif
ference is that the factors which were against the Poles at
that time now act in favour of the Magyars. Lelewel, as
we know, unsuccessfully urged, first, that the mass of the
population be bound to the revolution by emancipating the
peasants and the Jews, and secondly, that all three parti
tioning powers be involved in the war and this war turned
into a European war, by raising an insurrection throughout
the old Polish territories. The Magyars started at the point
which the Poles only achieved when it was too late. The
Hungarians first of all carried through a social revolution
in their country, they abolished feudalism; their second
measure was to involve Poland and Germany in the war,
thus turning it into a European war. It started with the
entry of the first Russian corps into German territory, and
will take a decisive turn when the first French battalion

steps onto German territory.
By becoming a European war, the Hungarian war is
brought into reciprocal interaction with all other factors
of the European movement. Its course affects not only
Germany, but also France and England. The English bour
geoisie cannot be expected to let Austria become a Russian
province and it is certain that the French people will not
calmly contemplate the increasing attacks of the counter
revolution on it. Whatever the outcome of the French elec
tions, the army at any rate has declared for the revolution.
And the army today is the decisive force. If the army wants
war—and it does want it—then war it will be.
War will come. Paris is on the threshold of revolution,
whether as a result of the elections or of the army’s frater
nisation with the revolutionary party at the ballot-box.
While in Southern Germany the core of a revolutionary
army is being formed, which prevents Prussia from taking
an active part in the Hungarian campaign, France is on the
point of playing an active role in the struggle. A few weeks,
perhaps even a few days will decide everything, and the
French, the Magyar-Polish, and the German revolutionary
armies will celebrate their fraternisation on the battle-field
before the walls of Berlin.
Written by Engels
May 19, 1849
TO THE WORKERS OF COLOGNE
Finally we warn you against any putsch in Cologne. In

the military situation obtaining in Cologne you would be
irretrievably lost. You have seen in Elberfeld that the bour
geoisie sends the workers into the fire and betrays them
afterwards in the most infamous way. A state of siege in
Cologne would demoralise the entire Rhine Province, and
a state of siege would be the inevitable consequence of any
rising on your part at this moment. The Prussians will be
frustrated by your calmness.
In bidding you farewell the editors of the Neue Rheini
sche Zeitung thank you for the sympathy you have shown
them. Their last word everywhere and always will be:
emancipation of the working class'-
The Editorial Board of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
Written on May 18, 1849
May 19, 1849
NOTES
1 Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Organ der Demokratie (New Rhenish Ga

zette. Organ of Democracy)—a daily paper published in Cologne from
June 1, 1848, to May 19, 1849. As its name indicates, it was meant
to continue the tradition of the Rheinische Zeitung, which Marx
edited in 1842 and 1843. The paper was intended not only for the
Rhine Province, whose centre Cologne was, but also for Germany as
a whole. In April and May 1848, Marx and Engels did a great deal
of preparatory work, such as raising the necessary funds for the
publication of the paper by selling its shares, finding suitable corre
spondents and establishing contacts with democratic periodicals in
other countries. p. 21
2 In September 1835 the French government promulgated laws which

placed restrictions on juries and introduced severe measures against
the press, i.e., larger sums had to be deposited by periodicals, and
writers who attacked property rights and the existing political sys
tem were liable to imprisonment and heavy fines. p. 21
3 On May 19, Raveaux proposed that Prussian deputies elected to both

the Berlin and the Frankfurt assemblies should have the right to be
members of both parliaments. Auerswald, Prussian Minister of the
Interior, expressed the same point of view in the decree of May 22,
1848, which is mentioned on p. 25 of this volume.
The Berlin Assembly, i.e., the Prussian National Assembly, was
convened on May 22, 1848, “for the purpose of drafting a constitution
by agreement with the Crown” (hence Marx and Engels frequently
call it the Assembly of agreement or conciliation). The Assembly
was elected under the electoral law of April 8, 1848, by universal
suffrage and an indirect (two-stage) system of voting. Most of the
deputies belonged to the bourgeoisie or the Prussian bureaucracy, p. 23
4 Using the clashes between soldiers and citizens of Mainz as a pre

text, Hiiser, the Prussian commandant of the city, imposed martial
law. p. 23
s An expression used by the Prussian Minister of the Interior von

Rochow. p. 24
272 NOTES
6 The Preparliament, which met in Frankfurt am Main from March 31

to April 4, 1848, consisted of representatives of the German states
who were either members of existing diets or had been elected by
some association or public meeting. Most of the delegates were con
stitutional monarchists. The Preparliament passed a resolution for the
summoning of an all-German National Assembly in Frankfurt and
produced a draft of the “fundamental rights and demands of the
German people”. Although this document proclaimed certain bour
geois liberties it did not attack the basis of the semi-feudal absolutist
system prevalent in Germany at the time. p. 24
7 The seventeen “trusted men” represented the German governments
and were summoned by the Federal Diet, the central body of the
German Confederation. They met in Frankfurt am Main from March
30 to May 8, 1848, and drafted a constitution for a German empire
based on constitutional monarchical principles. p. 24
8 The Left wing of the Frankfurt National Assembly comprised two
factions: the Left, one of whose most influential leaders was Robert
Blum, and the extreme Left known as the Radical-Democratic Party.
Among the deputies belonging to this party were Arnold Ruge, Franz
Zitz and Friedrich Wilhelm Schloffel. p. 30
9 The Federal Diet, which was set up in 1815 by a decision of the

Congress of Vienna as the central agency of the German Confed
eration, consisted of representatives of the German states and had its
seat at Frankfurt am Main. It had no real power. After the March
revolution of 1848 reactionary forces tried to revive the Diet and use
it to prevent the democratic unification of Germany. p. 31
10 Heine, Deutschland. Ein Wintermarchen, Kaput XVI. p. 32
11 According to this theory, which was advanced by Camphausen and

Hansemann, the Prussian National Assembly was to prepare a con
stitution by agreement with the Crown (see Note 3). p. 35
12 This refers to the second United Provincial Diet (Vereinigter Land

tag) which was convoked on April 2, 1848, and consisted of represen
tatives of the eight Provincial Diets (based on the estate principle)
then existing in Prussia. The second United Provincial Diet passed
a law on the election of a Prussian National Assembly and sanctioned
a loan which the first United Provincial Diet had refused to grant
the government in 1847. The Provincial Diet was dissolved on April
10, 1848. p. 36
13 A Polish uprising took place in the Grand Duchy of Poznan after

the March revolution of 1848. The aim of the movement, in which
large numbers of peasants and craftsmen participated, was liberation
from the oppressive Prussian rule. At the end of March the Prussian
NOTES 273
government promised to set up a commission for the purpose of

carrying through reorganisations in the Grand Duchy (creation of a
Polish army, appointment of Poles to administrative and other posts
and recognition of Polish as an official language in Poznan). As soon
as the Poles laid down their arms, however, these promises were
broken and the Prussian army mercilessly massacred the now defence
less insurgents. p. 38
14 Wyshehrad (Vysehrad)—a southern district of Prague with an old

citadel of the same name on the right bank of the Vltava.
Hradschin (Hradcany)—the north-western district of Prague with
an old castle which dominates the rest of the city. p. 38
15 The Slavic Congress met in Prague on June 2, 1848. A struggle be

tween two trends in the national movement of the Slavs living in
subjugation in the Hapsburg empire became evident. The Right,
moderately liberal wing, which consisted of the majority of the depu
ties including Palacky and Safarik, the leaders of the Congress,
sought to solve the national problem by preserving and strengthening
the Hapsburg monarchy. The Left, democratic wing, to which Sabina,
FricS, Libelt and others belonged, was strongly opposed to this course
and wanted to act in alliance with the revolutionary and democratic
movement in Germany and Hungary. Delegates of the Left took an
active part in the Prague uprising and were subjected to cruel rep
risals. On June 16, the Right-wing delegates who remained in Prague
adjourned the Congress indefinitely. p. 38
16 Engels refers to the spontaneous rising of textile workers in Prague

towards the end of June 1844. The revolt, in the course of which
mills were destroyed and machines smashed, was brutally crushed by
Austrian troops. p. 41
17 Berliner Zeitungs-Halle—daily paper, started in Berlin in 1846; in

1848 and 1849 it was an organ of the petty-bourgeois democrats, p. 42
18 The full title of this Committee, which was set up in Vienna in May
1848, was “Committee of Citizens, the National Guard and Students
for Maintaining Safety and Order and Defending the Rights of the
People”. P- 42
19 The political group formed around the daily paper Le National
(published in Paris from 1830 to 1851) consisted of moderate bour
geois republicans headed by Armand Marrast; it was supported by the
industrial bourgeoisie and a section of the liberal intellectuals, p. 45
20 The political group that supported the French daily La Reforme
(published in Paris from 1843 to 1850) consisted of petty-bourgeois
democrats and republicans headed by Ledru-Rollin; petty-bourgeois
socialists led by Louis Blanc were also associated with it. p. 45
18—509
274 NOTES
21 Executive Committee—the government of the French Republic set up

by the Constituent Assembly on May 10, 1848, to replace the Provi
sional Government which had resigned. It existed until the establish
ment of Cavaignac’s dictatorship on June 24, 1848. p. 45
22 The Dynastic Opposition—a parliamentary group headed by Odilon
Barrot during the July monarchy (1830-48). It expressed the views
of the industrial and commercial liberal bourgeoisie and advocated
limited electoral reform, which is regarded as a means of preserving
the Orleans dynasty and averting a revolutionary outbreak. p. 46
23 The legitimists were supporters of the “legitimate” Bourbon dynasty,
which ruled in France from 1589 to 1793 and from 1814 to 1830.
They upheld the interests of the hereditary big landowners. p. 46
24 Following the revolutionary actions of the Paris workers on May 15,
1848, a law was passed banning gatherings in the streets; steps were
taken to abolish the national workshops and a number of democratic
clubs were closed. p. 48
25 The mobile guard was set up by a decree of the Provisional Govern
ment on February 25, 1848, to fight against the revolutionary masses.
These armed units consisted, mainly, of lumpen-proletarians and were
used to crush the June uprising in Paris. p. 49
26 A reference to the uprising of 1785 which deposed William of
Orange. But two years later, with the help of Prussian troops, he
again became Governor of the Netherlands. p. 60
27 Under an agreement between Britain, France and Russia the Bavarian
prince Otto, who was still a minor, was made king of Greece in
1832. He arrived in Greece accompanied by Bavarian troops and
ruled as Otto I until 1862. p. 60
28 Engels is alluding to the reactionary policy of the Holy Alliance in
which Austria, Prussia and Russia played a leading role. At a con
gress of the Holy Alliance, which began in Troppau in October
1820 and ended in Laibach in May 1821, the principle of interven
tion in the internal affairs of other states was officially proclaimed,
and the decision taken to send Austrian troops into Italy in order
to crush the revolutionary and national liberation movements there.
French intervention in Spain with similar aims was decided upon
at the Congress of Verona in 1822. p. 60
29 In the 1820s and 1830s Austria and Prussia supported the clerical
and feudal party headed by Dom Miguel, which opposed any measu
res designed to restrict absolutism in Portugal. p. 60
30 Austria and Prussia supported Don Carlos, who in 1833 started a
civil war in Spain in order to win the throne with the help of the
clerical and feudal party. p. 60
NOTES 275
31 In February 1846 preparations were being made for an uprising whose

aim was the liberation of Poland. Polish revolutionary democrats
(Dembowski and others) took the initiative in organising it. But as
a result of treachery on the part of the nobility and the arrest of the
leaders by the Prussian police a general uprising was prevented and
only local outbreaks occurred. That at Cracow was the only success
ful one; on February 22 the insurgents there set up a national gov
ernment which issued a manifesto abolishing feudal obligations. The
Cracow uprising was crushed in the beginning of March 1846 by
Austrian, Prussian and Russian troops. The three powers signed an
agreement the following November incorporating Cracow in the
Austrian empire. p. 61
32 The manifesto was issued on April 6, 1848. p. 62
33 L’Alba—an Italian democratic newspaper published from1847 to
1849. p. 62
34 On June 28, 1848, the Frankfurt National Assembly decided to set
up a provisional central authority consisting of the Vice Regent (the
Austrian Archduke Johann) and an imperial ministry. Since the cen
tral authority had neither a budget nor an army of its own it pos
sessed no real power; it supported the counter-revolutionary policy
of the German princes. p. 63
35 The last four words are from Heine’s poem Anno 1829. p. 66
36 For the background of the Prusso-Danish war see Engels’s article
“The Danish-Prussian Armistice”, this volume, pp. 115-20. p. 67
37 Fddrelandet—a Danish newspaper published in Copenhagen from
1834 to 1839 as a weekly, then as a daily. In 1848 it was a semi
official organ of the Danish government. p. 68
38 On secret orders from the Prussian King, Major Wildenbruch on
April 8, 1848, handed the Danish government a Note intimating that
Prussia was waging the war in Schleswig-Holstein not for the pur
pose of dissevering these lands from Denmark, but exclusively to
fight the “radical and republican elements in Germany”. The Prus
sian government declined to give official recognition to such a com
promising document. p. 68
39 The Sound tax was a toll which from 1425 to 1857 Denmark col
lected from all foreign vessels passing through the Sound. p. 69
40 Heine, Deutschland. Ein Wintermarchen, Kaput VIII. p. 71

41 Kolnische Zeitung—a German daily which started publication in
Cologne in 1802; during 1848-49 it supported the cowardly and
treacherous policy of the Prussian liberal bourgeoisie and con
tinuously attacked the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. p. 77
18*
276 NOTES
42 Under the Poor Law of 1834 the only relief available to the poor
was to become an inmate in one of the workhouses, known as Poor
Law Bastilles. p. 77
43 The Charlist movement began in the thirties and lasted till the fifties
of the nineteenth century. p. 78
44 La Reforme—see Note 20. p. 79
45 Le Populaire de 1841—propaganda organ of peaceful utopian com

munism published in Paris from 1841 to 1852; until 1849 it was
edited by Etienne Cabet. p. 79
46 L’Union. Bulletin des ouvriers redige et publie par eux-memes—a

monthly published by a group of workers influenced by the ideas of
Saint-Simon; it appeared in Paris from December 1843 to September
1846. p. 79
47 La Ruche populaire—a monthly dedicated to utopian socialist views,

published in Paris from December 1839 to December 1849. p. 79
48 La Fraternite de 1845. Organe du communisme—a workers’ monthly

journal supporting Babouvism, published in Paris from January 1845
to February 1848. p. 79
49 The Northern Star—an English weekly, central organ of the Char

tists, founded in 1837 by Feargus O’Connor. It was first published in
Leeds and from November 1844 in London. Engels contributed arti
cles to the paper from September 1845 to March 1848. It ceased
publication in 1852. p. 79
50 The fight for legislative restriction of the working day began in

Britain towards the end of the eighteenth century, and from the
1830s large sections of the working class were involved in it. As the
landed aristocracy counted on using this campaign in its struggle
against the industrial bourgeoisie, it supported the Ten Hours’ Bill
in Parliament. The Bill, limiting the hours of women and young
workers, was passed by Parliament on June 8, 1847. p. 80
51 A reference to the King’s repeated promises to introduce a constitu

tion in Prussia based on the estate principle. p. 84
52 The treaties signed by Russia, Prussia and Austria in Vienna on

May 3, 1815, and the final act of the Congress of Vienna signed on
June 9, 1815, pledged that representative bodies and national polit
ical institutions would be set up in all Polish lands. An assembly
representing the social estates and endowed only with advisory func
tions was convoked in Poznan. p. 90
NOTES 277
53 Black and white were the Prussian colours. p. 90
54 See Note 31. p. 91
55 A character in the comedy Don Ranudo de Colibrados by Ludwig

Holberg, the Danish writer, depicted as a stupid, arrogant, impov
erished nobleman. p. 91
56 Words from the Polish national anthem. p. 92
57 The Poznan Committee and the Prussian representative General Willi-

sen concluded the Convention of Jaroslawiec on April 11, 1848. Un
der this agreement the Polish insurgents were to lay down their
arms and disband. In return the Poles were promised the “national
reorganisation” of Poznan, i.e., the formation of a Polish army,
appointment of Poles to administrative and other posts and recog
nition of Polish as an official language. But the Convention was
treacherously broken by the Prussian administration, and the national
liberation movement in Poznan was brutally suppressed by the Prus
sian troops. p. 94
58 On the orders of the Prussian General Pfuel the participants of the

Poznan uprising who had been taken prisoner had their heads shaved
and their hands and ears branded with lunar caustic (in German
called Hbllenstein, i.e., stone of hell), hence Pfuel’s nickname, p. 95
59 The chambers of reunion (chambres de reunion) were set up by Louis

XIV in 1679-80 in order to justify and provide legal and historical
reasons for France’s claims to certain lands of neighbouring states.
These lands were subsequently occupied by French troops. p. 95
60 An ironic allusion to the war against Denmark waged in 1848 (for

particulars of this war see Engels, “The Danish-Prussian Armistice”,
this volume, pp. 115-20). p. 96
61 See Note 28. p. 98
62 The Polish constitution of 1791 reflected the aspirations of the pro

gressive sections of the nobility and urban bourgeoisie. It abolished
the liberum veto (the principle that resolutions of the parliament can
be passed only unanimously) and the elective monarchy, provided for
a government responsible to the parliament and granted the urban
bourgeoisie various political and economic rights. The constitution
was directed against feudal anarchy, it strengthened the central author
ity and restricted the rights of the feudal aristocracy. It recognised
the legal force of commutation agreements between landowners and
peasants, thus alleviating the position of peasant serfs to some extent.
p. 99
278 NOTES
63 The term “Blacks” is an allusion to the Jesuit priests; “Black-Yellows”

to the Austrians, since the colours of the Austrian flag were black
and yellow. p. 103
64 Carbonari—a secret political society organised in Italy in the early

nineteenth century to fight for national independence. p. 104
85 See Note 17. p. 106
66 Meetings and demonstrations were held in Berlin on August 21, 1848,

to protest against an assault, engineered by reactionary forces, on
members of the Democratic Club in Charlottenburg. The demonstra
tors demanded that the Auerswald-Hansemann cabinet should resign
and those involved in the incidents in Charlottenburg be punished;
they also threw stones at a building in which Auerswald and other
ministers met. The government retaliated with further repressive
measures. p. 106
67 From Ernst Moritz Arndt’s poem Der Freudenklang. p. 107
68 The armistice between Sardinia and Austria was concluded on August

9, 1848, after the capture of Milan by the Austrian army. It was
originally meant to last six weeks but was prolonged. p. 109
69 Heine, Deutschland. Ein Wintermarchen, Kaput XIX. p. 115
70 Morgenbladet—a Norwegian newspaper founded in Christiania in

1819. p. 116
71 The Neue Rheinische Zeitung published the second, third and fourth
articles of this series under the heading “The Crisis”. p. 121
72 Royal decrees issued by the King of France on July 26, 1830, abolished
freedom of the press, dissolved parliament and changed the electoral
law, thereby reducing the electorate by three-quarters. These meas
ures precipitated the French July revolution of 1830.
On February 24, 1848, King Louis Philippe of France was over
thrown. p. 123
73 In his message of September 10, 1848, Frederick William IV agreed

with the view of the ministers that the resolution passed by the Prus
sian National Assembly on September 7, 1848, was an infringement
of the “principles of constitutional monarchy” and approved the minis
ters’ decision to resign as a protest against this action of the As
sembly. p. 124
74 On August 9, 1848, the Prussian National Assembly accepted a pro
posal submitted by deputy Stein requesting the Minister of War to
issue an army order to the effect that officers were expected to
NOTES 279
demonstrate their support of a constitutional system and that those

who held different political views were bound in honour to quit the
army. Schreckenstein, the Minister of War, did not issue such an
order; Stein therefore tabled a similar motion once more, and this
was passed by the National Assembly on September 7. Thereupon
the Auerswald-Hansemann cabinet resigned. Under the Pfuel cabi
net which followed, the decree, though in a considerably weakened
form, was at last issued on September 26, 1848, but it remained on
paper. p. 126
75 See Note 41. p. 129
76 After the ministers’ resignation the King, in his message of Septem

ber 10, 1848, asked them to continue to carry out their duties pend
ing the appointment of their successors (see Note 73). p. 129
77 Vossische Zeitung—the name generally used for a Berlin daily news

paper which, since 1785, appeared under the title Koniglich privile-
girte Berlinische Zeitung von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen. Its owner
was Christian Friedrich Voss. In the 1840s it adopted a moderate
liberal stand. p. 129
78 Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen—a daily,

generally known as Spenersche Zeitung after the name of its owner;
published in Berlin from 1740 to 1874; in 1848-49 it adopted a con
stitutional monarchist stand. p. 129
79 See Note 17. p. 129
80 The words Cromwell used when dissolving the Rump Parliament on

April 20, 1653. p. 132
81 In the Einleitung zu “Kahldorf uber den Adel, in Briefen an den

Grafen M. von Moltke”, which Heine wrote in March 1831, he says
with reference to the French revolution of 1830, “The Gallic cock
has now crowed a second time, and in Germany, too, day is break
ing.” p. 136
82 On October 7, 1848, the Austrian Emperor fled from Vienna to 01-

miitz. Most of the Czech deputies of the Austrian Imperial Diet who
belonged to the Czech National Liberal Party also left Vienna and
went to Prague. p. 139
83 Heine, Der Tannhauser, Kaput 3. p. 139
84 Slovanska Lipa—a Czech national society founded towards the end

of April 1848. The leadership of the society in Prague was in the
hands of bourgeois liberals (Safarik, Gau?), who joined the counter
280 NOTES
revolution after the Prague uprising, whereas the provincial branches

were mostly led by members of the radical Czech bourgeoisie, p. 145
85 Imperial Schinderhannes—an allusion to Windischgratz. Schinder-

hannes (Jack the Skinner), a name given to Johann Buckler, a rob
ber chief living in Rhenish Hesse in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. p. 145
88 Koblenz during the French revolution was the centre of the counter
revolutionary Emigres. p. 145
87 The Pfuel ministry was dismissed by the King on November 1, 1848,

and an openly counter-revolutionary ministry headed by Brandenburg
and Manteuffel was formed. On November 9 a royal decree was
issued transferring the Prussian National Assembly from Berlin to
Brandenburg, a small provincial town. This was the beginning of the
coup d’etat which ended with the dissolution of the Assembly on
December 5, 1848. p. 151
88 The reference is to an article published under the heading “The Bran

denburg Ministry” in the Neue Preussische Zeitung on November 5,
1848.
Neue Preussische Zeitung—a daily published in Berlin from June
1848; it was the organ of the counter-revolutionary camarilla and the
Prussian landed aristocracy. The paper was popularly known as
Kreuz-Zeitung because it had an Iron Cross printed in its heading.
p. 151
89 Seven of the economically backward Catholic cantons of Switzerland

set up a Separate Federation in 1845 to resist the introduction of
progressive bourgeois measures and to defend the privileges of the
Church and the Jesuits. The Swiss Diet passed a resolution in July
1847 dissolving the Separate Federation, which thereupon took mili
tary action against the other cantons at the beginning of November.
The army of the separatists was defeated by the troops of the federal
government on November 23, 1847. p. 153
90 The deputies of the Swiss Diet—the legislative Assembly of Switzer

land up to 1848—had to act in accordance with the instructions they
received from their cantonal governments; this greatly impeded the
introduction of progressive measures. p. 153
91 During the bourgeois revolution (1820-23) in Spain, the Liberal Party

split into a Right wing, the Moderados, and a Left wing, the Exal-
tados. p. 154
92 Revue de Geneve et Journal Suisse—organ of the Radical Party, pub

lished under this title in Geneva from 1842 until 1861. p. 156
NOTES 281
93 The Swiss Diet adopted a new constitution in 1847, which gave the
central government more power, abolished the privileges of the
monasteries and banned the Jesuit Order. The bourgeoisie gained this
victory over the feudal and clerical reaction with the support of the
popular masses. p. 156
94 The riot, which took place on October 24, 1848, was organised by the
Catholic clergy and aimed at overthrowing the democratic govern
ment of this canton, which was established after the defeat of the
separatists. The rising was quickly suppressed. p. 157
95 With reference to the Brandenburg cabinet the King said: “Either
Brandenburg in the Assembly or the Assembly in Brandenburg.” In
its issue of November 9, 1848, the Neue Preussische Zeitung changed
this to: “Brandenburg in the Assembly and the Assembly in Bran
denburg.” p. 158
96 This refers to the Hohenzollerns who became hereditary margraves of
Brandenburg in 1417. p. 158
97 The Emperor Charles V, shortly before his death, is said to have
ordered his own funeral service to be performed and he took part
in these obsequies. p. 158
98 The criminal code of Charles V (Constitutio criminalis Carolina),
enacted by the Imperial Diet in Regensburg in 1532, was notorious
for its excessively cruel penalties. p. 158
99 During the uprising of August 10, 1792, which overthrew the French
monarchy, Louis XVI (Louis Capet) vainly sought protection in the
National Assembly. The Neue Rheinische Zeitung published a series
of articles under the heading “The Debates of the National Con
vention on Louis Capet, Ex-King of France” on June 19, 21, 22 and
26, and September 9, 1848. p. 158
100 The majority of Slav deputies in the Austrian Imperial Diet of

1848, who were associated with the bourgeoisie or the landowners,
sought to set up a Slav federal state within the Hapsburg monarchy.
p. 159
101 When on November 9, 1848, the Prussian National Assembly was

informed of the royal decree suspending its session and transferring
it from Berlin to Brandenburg, most Right-wing deputies obediently
left the building. p. 159
102 Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, Act III, Scene 6. p. 162
103 Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 3. p. 162
282 NOTES
104 Le Moniteur Universel—a French daily published in Paris from 1789

to 1901. It was the official government organ from 1799 to 1814
and from 1816 to 1868. During the French revolution the paper pub
lished the parliamentary reports as well as the laws and decrees of
the revolutionary government. p. 163
105 In its issue of November 3, 1848, the Kolnische Zeitung carried an

article about an imaginary African tribe, the Hyghlans, an interme
diate form between man and ape. On November 5 the Neue Rheini
sche Zeitung ridiculed the report, adding: “this discovery is at any
rate of the greatest importance for the party of the howlers” (see
Note 156) “for whom the Hyghlans will provide a fitting reinforce
ment”. p. 163
106 According to the French Constitution adopted on November 4, 1848,

the presidential elections had to take place in December 1848. The
President as the head of the executive was given wide powers by
the Constitution, which reflected the growing counter-revolutionary
trend among the ruling sections of the bourgeoisie, who had been
frightened by the June uprising of the workers of Paris. As a result
of the December elections Louis Bonaparte became President of the
Republic. p. 163
107 Despite the royal decree of November 8, 1848, transferring the ses
sions of the Prussian National Assembly from Berlin to Brandenburg,
the majority of delegates decided to continue their deliberations in
Berlin. They were thereupon expelled from the building where their
sessions had been held hitherto; from November 11 to 13 the dele
gates met in the Berlin shooting-gallery.
The historical session of the French National Assembly in the
tennis-court at Versailles took place on June 20, 1789. p. 163
108 See Note 41. p. 163
109 On November 14 and 15 the Neue Rheinische Zeitung published an

article by Georg Weerth under the heading “The Refusal to Pay
Taxes During the Struggle for the Reform Bill in England in 1832”.
p. 164
110 The Democratic District Committee of the Rhine Province, in which

Marx played a leading role, directed the activities of the democratic
organisations in the Rhine Province and Westphalia.
The Committee issued its appeal calling on the population to
refuse to pay taxes at the beginning of the counter-revolutionary
coup d’etat, even before the Prussian National Assembly had passed
a resolution to this effect. There was a wide response to the appeal
in the Rhine Province. In its second issue of November 19, 1848,
the Neue Rheinische Zeitung reported tax refusals in towns and rural
NOTES 283
communities, e.g., in Wittlich, Bernkastel, Bonn, Cologne and Neheim,

and concluded by saying: “Only the revolutionary vigour of the
provinces can safeguard Berlin, only the revolutionary vigour of the
countryside can safeguard the large provincial towns, and especially
the provincial capitals. Refusal to pay taxes (whether direct or indi
rect taxes) gives the countryside an opportunity to render an impor
tant service to the revolution.” p. 165
111 The law safeguarding personal liberty passed by the Prussian Nation
al Assembly on August 28, 1848, was called Habeas Corpus Act by
analogy with the English Act of 1679. p. 166
112 Preussischer Staats-Anzeiger—official organ of the Prussian govern

ment published in Berlin from May 1848 to July 1851. It was pub
lished as a semi-official organ of the Prussian government under the
title Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Zeitung from 1819 to April 1848.
p. 168
113 See Note 77. p. 168
1M See Note 88. p. 168
115 On October 31, 1848, a demonstration was held in Berlin as a protest

against the cruelty with which the Austrian counter-revolution crushed
the Vienna uprising. The demonstration ended when the unarmed
engineering workers were attacked by the 8th Battalion of the
Civil Guard. This incident provided the Prussian reaction with an
excuse for replacing the Pfuel cabinet by the openly counter-revolu
tionary Brandenburg cabinet. p. 168
116 The Kolnische Rathaus (Cologne town hall), where the Prussian
National Assembly met on November 14, 1848, was situated in the
centre of Berlin. In the middle of the nineteenth century this centre
was still called Kolln or Altkolln (Old Cologne). p. 168
117 This appeal led to the prosecution of Marx, Schapper and Schneider
II (see this volume, pp. 230-50). p. 169
118 On April 10, 1848, a vast Chartist demonstration was to take place
in London in connection with the presentation of the third Chartist
Petition. The Chartist gathering was dwarfed by the large number
of troops and special constables assembled by the government, and
the planned march to Parliament was called off.
On May 15, 1848, the bourgeois National Guard frustrated the
attempt of the revolutionary Paris workers to set up a Provisional
Government.
On June 25, 1848, the rising of the workers of Paris was crushed.
On August 6, 1848, Milan was occupied by Austrian troops who
defeated the national liberation movement in Northern Italy.
284 NOTES
On November 1, 1848, the troops of the Austrian Field-Marshal

Windischgratz took Vienna. p. 172
119 The Sardinian-Lombardian army was defeated by the Austrian army

under Radetzky at Custozza on July 25, 1848. p. 175
120 The royal order dissolving the Prussian National Assembly was issued
on December 5, 1848. In the ministry’s explanations accompanying
the order the Assembly is accused of having disregarded the royal
decree of November 8, ordering it to move from Berlin to Bran
denburg, a measure allegedly designed “to protect the deputies’ free
dom of deliberation from the anarchistic movements in the capital
and their terroristic influences”. p. 177
121 The imposed constitution came into force on December 5, 1848, simul
taneously with the dissolution of the Prussian National Assembly.
This constitution provided for a two-Chamber Parliament elected
by indirect suffrage. The number of citizens entitled to vote for the
first Chamber was also restricted by a high property qualification.
The wide powers which the constitution gave the Crown facilitated
the further advance of the counter-revolution. p. 178
122 Die Jobsiade. Ein komisches Heldengedicht (The Jobsiad. A Farcical

Epos) is the title of a satirical poem by Karl Arnold Kortum, p. 178
123 The Prince of Prussia was one of the most hated leaders of the
reactionary camarilla. During the March revolution he escaped to
England but returned to Berlin on June 4, 1848. On June 6, Camp
hausen sought to present the flight of the Prince as a journey under
taken for educational purposes. ' p. 179
124 The expression “superabundant patriotism” was used by Heine in

the poem Bei des Nachtwdchters Ankunft in Paris. p. 179
125 General Wrangel, who was associated with the reactionary Court
clique, was, on September 15, 1848, appointed Commander-in-Chief
of the Brandenburg military district, which at that time consisted of
two parts, the Kurmark and the Neumark. p. 179
126 This ironical epithet was given to Camphausen by Marx and Engels.
It is an allusion to Allgemeine Geschichte vom Anfang der histori-
schen Kenntniss bis auf unsere Zeiten, by Karl von Rotteck, a well-
known work at the time. Its subtitle ran: For Thinking Friends of
History. p. 179
127 An allusion to the similarity existing between the measures proposed

by Hansemann, the Prussian Minister of Finance (i.e., a compulsory
loan, as a means of stimulating the circulation of money), and the
NOTES 285
views of Pinto, the Dutch stockjobber, who regarded the stock ex
change as a factor speeding up the circulation of money. p. 180
128 The reference is to the revolt in the Netherlands from 1566 to 1609.
p. 183
129 An allusion to Camphausen, who formerly traded in oil and corn,

and to Hansemann, who started as a wool merchant. p. 187
130 Puer robustus sed malitiosus (a robust but malicious fellow)—a

modified quotation from the preface to De cive by Thomas Hobbes.
p. 188
131 A decree on the establishment of a national representative body was

issued on May 22, 1815. In it the King promised the setting up of
provisional Diets, the convocation of an all-Prussian representative
body, and a constitution. But only Provincial Diets with limited con
sultative functions were set up by a law issued on June 5, 1823.
p. 190
132 Under the National Debt Law of January 17, 1820, state loans could
only be issued with the consent of the Provincial Diet. p. 190
133 The edict of February 3, 1847, provided for the convocation of a

United Provincial Diet (Vereinigter Landtag). p. 190
134 The Electoral Law of April 8, 1848—see Note 3. p. 190
135 A quotation from Hansemann’s speech in the first United Provincial
Diet on June 8, 1847. p. 191
136 Marx is referring to Hildebrandt’s novel Kuno von Schreckenstein oder
die weissagende Traumgestalt. p. 192
137 See Note 53. p. 193
138 Code penal—the penal code adopted in France in 1810; it was intro
duced in the parts of Western and South-Western Germany which
Napoleon I conquered. It remained in force in the Rhine Province
even after its incorporation into Prussia in 1815. p. 196
139 Besides the ordinary police, a body of armed civilians was set up in
the summer of 1848 for use against popular meetings and demonstra
tions and for espionage services. These plain-clothes policemen were
called constables by analogy with the special constables in Britain,
who had played an important part in frustrating the Chartist demon
stration of April 10, 1848. p. 196
140 The bourgeois-aristocratic constitution of Belgium adopted in 1831
after the victory of the bourgeois revolution of 1830 established a
286 NOTES
high property qualification, thus depriving a considerable part of the

population of the suffrage. p. 198
141 Seehandlung (short for Preussische Seehandlungsgesellschaft—Prus

sian Maritime Trading Company) was founded as a merchant bank
in 1772 and enjoyed a number of important state privileges. It grant
ed large loans to the government and in fact acted as its banker.
In 1820 it became the bank of the Prussian state. p. 198
142 A bill revoking exemption from graduated tax payments for aristo
crats, officers, teachers and the clergy was submitted by Hansemann
to the Prussian National Assembly on July 12, 1848. A bill revoking
exemption from the land-tax was tabled by Hansemann on July
21, 1848. p. 199
443 Fra Diavolo—a sobriquet of Michele Pezza, the Italian bandit (1771-
1806). p. 199
144 A reference to the General Assembly for the Protection of the Mate
rial Interests of All Classes of the Prussian People which met in
Berlin on August 18, 1848. The Assembly, which consisted mainly of
big landowners, was convoked by the Association for the Protection
of Property and the Advancement of the Well-being of All Classes
of People. The name of the Association was changed by the General
Assembly to: Association for the Protection of the Interests of Land
owners. p. 201
445 On July 31, 1848, troops attacked the Civil Guard in Schweidnitz, a
Silesian garrison town, killing 14 people. p. 201
446 See Note 74. p. 202
447 On September 17, 1848, General Wrangel issued an army order in

which he stressed that it was his task to maintain “public order”,
threatened those “who were trying to entice the people to commit
unlawful acts” and called upon the soldiers to rally around their
officers and their King. p. 202
448 A statement to this effect was made by Frederick William IV on

April 11, 1847, when he opened the first United Provincial Diet.
p. 203
449 Article 14 of the constitution which Louis XVIII enacted in 1814

read: “The King is the head of the State ... he issues the decrees and
orders necessary for the enforcement of the law and the security of
the State.” P- 203
450 From Schiller’s An die Freude. The English translation is taken from
Poems by Schiller, “Hymn to Joy”, by Bowring, Chicago. p. 205
NOTES 287
151 After his election in 1846, Pope Pius IX initiated a number of liberal
reforms to prevent the spread of the popular movement. p. 205
152 La Montagne (The Mountain)—in 1848-51 the name was given to a

group of petty-bourgeois democrats and republicans headed by Led-
ru-Rollin. Their newspaper was La Reforme. p. 205
153 The Prussian Association for a Constitutional Monarchy was founded

in June 1848 by a section of the Prussian landowners and of the
bourgeoisie. The Association and its branches supported the counter
revolutionary policy pursued by the government. The activities of
this Association earned it in the democratic press the nickname of
“Society of Informers”. p. 213
154 Citizens’ Associations (Burgervereine} consisting mainly of liberal

bourgeois arose in Prussia after the March revolution. Their aim was
to maintain “law and order” within the framework of a constitutional
monarchy, and to combat “anarchy”, i.e., the revolutionary-democratic
movement. p. 214
155 The last article of the constitution imposed on December 5, 1848,

provided for a rewording of the constitution by the two Chambers
before its final promulgation. p. 214
156 In 1848-49 the advocates of a bourgeois constitutional system in Ger

many called the republican democrats “agitators” and these in turn
called their opponents “howlers”. p. 219
157 Code civil—the civil code adopted in France in 1804; it was intro
duced in the parts of Western and South-Western Germany conquered
by France. It remained in force in the Rhine Province even after its
incorporation into Prussia in 1815. p. 222
158 In Britain in 1649 Charles I was beheaded, and in 1688 James II

was deposed; in France the Bourbons were deposed in 1792 and
again in 1830; in Belgium the revolution of 1830 ended the rule of
William of Orange. p. 224
169 By establishing low import duties on Dutch sugar, the trade agree
ment which Prussia (on behalf of the German Customs Union) con
cluded with Holland did considerable harm to the Prussian sugar
industry and to the trade of many German towns. p. 225
160 An allusion to Camphausen and Hansemann. p. 229
161 The trial was held at the Cologne Jury Court on February 8, 1849.
Marx, Schapper and Schneider II were accused of instigation to revolt
on the basis of the Appeal issued by the Rhenish District Committee
288 NOTES
of Democrats on November 18, 1848 (see this volume, p. 169). The

jury returned a verdict of not guilty. p. 230
162 Although, under the Civil Guard Law passed by the Prussian Nation
al Assembly on October 13, 1848, the Civil Guard was completely
dependent on the government, the counter-revolutionary forces were
still afraid of it. The Berlin Civil Guard was disarmed on November
11, 1848, after Wrangel’s troops marched into Berlin. p. 242
163 Unruh, Skizzen aus Preussens neuester Geschichte, Magdeburg, 1849.

p. 244
164 A Constituent Assembly, elected in Rome on January 21, 1849, on
the basis of universal suffrage—which was won as the result of the
uprising of November 16, 1848—abolished the Pope’s temporal power
and proclaimed a republic. The Roman republic existed until July 3,
1849, when foreign intervention put an end to it. p. 251
165 An uprising which began in Dresden on May 3, 1849, was almost

completely put down by May 8. This rising marked the beginning
of the struggle in Germany for the defence of the imperial constitu
tion adopted by the Frankfurt Assembly on March 28, 1849. p. 252
166 In defence of the imperial constitution which was adopted by the

Frankfurt National Assembly but rejected by many German states
(including Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and Hanover) risings took place
in the Bavarian Palatinate, the Rhine Province and Baden early in
May 1849, the people regarded this constitution as the only surviv
ing gain of the revolution. The uprisings, however, mostly led by
petty-bourgeois democrats, were of a sporadic, spontaneous nature,
and were ruthlessly crushed by the middle of July 1849. p. 252
167 In April 1849, the French government sent an expeditionary force

into Italy to crush the Roman republic and restore the temporal
power of the Pope, but the French troops were repulsed from Rome
on April 30, 1849. P- 252
168 A reference to the trials of the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zei
tung and of members of the Rhenish District Committee of Demo
crats (held in Cologne on February 7 and 8, 1849). In both cases the
jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. p. 254
169 Szeklers—Hungarians living in the Transylvanian Alps. p. 263

NAME INDEX
A Brussels; sentenced to death in

1848, then the sentence was
Archimedes (c. 287-212 B.C.)— commuted to 30 years im
Greek mathematician and prisonment; released in 1854.
physicist.—74 — 112, 113
Arnim-Suckow, Heinrich Alexan Barrot, Camille Hyacinthe Odilon
der, Freiherr von (1798-1861)— (1791-1873)—French bourgeois
Prussian statesman, moderate politician, leader of the liberal
liberal; Minister of Foreign dynastic opposition during the
Affairs (March 21-June 19, July monarchy; from December
1848).—36 1848 to October 1849 he
d’Aspre, Constantin, Freiherr headed a ministry, which re
(1789-1850)—Austrian general. lied on the support of a
— 104 counter-revolutionary monarch
Attila (d. 453)—King of the Huns ist coalition.—133, 206
(433-53).—105 Bassermann, Friedrich Daniel
Auersperg, Karl, Graf von (1811-1855)—German politi
(1783-1859)—Austrian general, cian, moderate liberal,
commander-in-chief of the member of the Baden Land
Viennese garrison in 1848.— tag, represented the grand
147 duchy in the Federal Diet in
Auerswald, Alfred von (1797- 1848 and 1849, member of the
1870)—Prussian Minister of the Frankfurt National Assembly
Interior (March to June (Right Centre).—23
1848).—25 Bavay, Charles Victor (1801-
Auerswald, Rudolf von (1795- 1875)—Belgian officer of
1866)—Prussian statesman, justice, Attorney General at
Prime Minister and Foreign the Brussels court of appeal
Minister (June to September from 1844.—112
1848).—68, 70, 124, 192, 196 Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin
Caron de (1732-1799)—French
B playwright.—226
Becker, Felix—French poet and
Ballin, Felix (born c. 1802)— revolutionary, took part in the
Belgian merchant, radical Polish uprising of 1830-31, one
democrat, member of the of the organisers of the
Democratic Association in Belgian Legion formed in Paris
19—509
290 NAME INDEX
in February and March 1848. of 1848 and was executed after

— 113 the victory of the counter
Beckerath, Hermann von (1801- revolution.—26, 70
1870)—German banker, a Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm,
leader of the Rhenish liberal Graf von (1792-1850)—Prus
bourgeoisie, member of the sian general and statesman,
Frankfurt National Assembly President of the counter
(Right Centre), Finance revolutionary ministry from
Minister in the Imperial November 1848 to November
Government (August to 1850.—152, 158, 160, 162, 163,
September 1848).—121, 124 166, 170, 171, 180, 182, 203,
Bem, Jozef (1795-1850)—Polish 214, 216, 242
general, played an important Brilggemann, Karl Heinrich
role in the national liberation (1810-c. 1887)—German econ
movement; a leader of the omist and writer, liberal,
Polish uprising of 1830-31; editor-in-chief of the Kblni-
took part in the revolutionary sche Zeitung (1846-55).—189,
struggle in Vienna in 1848, 190, 226
and was one of the command Brutus, Marcus Junius (c. 85-
ers of the Hungarian revolu 42 B.C.)—Roman statesman.—
tionary army in 1849; subse 66
quently joined the Turkish Burgers, Heinrich (1820-1878)—
army.—262 German radical writer, in 1848
Beseler, Wilhelm Hartwig (1806- member of the Cologne section
1884)—politician, in 1848 Pre of the Communist League.—21
sident of the Provisional
Government of Schleswig- C
Holstein, Vice-President of the
Frankfurt National Assembly Cabet, Etienne (1788-1856)—
(Right Centre).—70 French lawyer and writer,
Blanc, Jean Joseph Louis utopian communist, wrote
(1811-1882)—French petty- Voyage en Icarie (1842).—79
bourgeois socialist, historian, Camphausen, Ludolf (1803-1890)
in 1848 member of the Pro —German banker, a leader of
visional Government and Pre the liberal bourgeoisie in the
sident of the Luxembourg Rhineland, member of the
Commission.—79 United Provincial Diet, Prus
Blank, Joseph Bonavita (1740- sian Prime Minister (March
1827)—German Catholic priest, to June 1848), Prussian envoy
zoologist and mineralogist, at the provisional central
professor at Wurzburg authority (July 1848-April
University.—83 1849).—35, 37, 63, 107, 118,
Blum, Robert (1807-1848)— 123, 125, 151, 178, 180, 183,
German journalist, leader of 187, 190, 193, 214, 233, 240
the Left in the Frankfurt Carlos, Don (1788-1855)—pre
National Assembly; partic tender to the Spanish throne.—
ipated in the Vienna uprising 60, 226
NAME INDEX 291
Catiline, Lucius Sergius (c. 108- ers of the Anti-Corn Law

62 B.C.)—Roman statesman, League.—81
patrician, organised a con Cockerill, John (1790-1840)—
spiracy against the aristocratic British industrialist.—86
republic.—66 Colomb, Friedrich August von
Cato, Marcus Pocius (the Elder), (1775-1854)—Prussian general,
(234-149 B.C.)—Roman states commander of a Prussian army
man and historian, upheld the corps in Poznan (1843-48).—
aristocratic privileges.—212 39
Caussidiere, Marc (1808-1861)— Compes, Josef Gerhard (1810-
French democrat, took part in 1887)—German lawyer,
the Lyons rising of 1834; Paris member of the Frankfurt
police prefect from February National Assembly from 1848
to May 1848, deputy of the to 1849 (Left Centre).—214
Constituent National Assem Cromwell, Oliver (1599-1658)—
bly; emigrated to England after English statesman, leader of
the defeat of the June upris the bourgeoisie and the sec
ing.—79 tion of the nobility allied with
Cavaignac, Louis Eugene (1802- it during the English revolu
1857)—French general and tion of the seventeenth
politician, bourgeois republican. century; Lord Protector from
—9, 44, 46, 55, 58, 109, 133, 1653 to 1658.—132, 159
138, 140, 174, 175, 176, 206. Csorich (Coric), Antun, barun de
Charles 1 (1600-1649)—King of Monte Creto (1795-1864)—
Great Britain (1625-49); Austrian general of Croatian
executed.—159, 233, 248 descent, helped to put down
Charles V (1500-1558)—King of the October rising in Vienna
Spain (1516-56), Holy Roman in 1848 and the Hungarian
Emperor (1519-56).—158 revolution of 1848-49.—263
Charles X (1757-1836)—King of
France (1824-30).—159 D
Charles Albert (1798-1849)—King
of Sardinia and Piedmont Dahlen, Hermann, Baron von
(1831-49).—102, 103, 109 Orlaburg (1828-1887)—Austrian
Charles William Ferdinand officer, fought against the
(1735-1806)—Duke of Bruns Hungarian revolution in 1848
wick (1770-1806).—60 and 1849.—260, 262
Cincinnatus, Lucius Quinctius Damesme, Edouard Adolphe
(5th century B.C.)—Roman Marie (1807-1848)—French
politician, patrician, model of general.—54
ancient Roman virtue and Delescluze, Louis Charles (1809-
simplicity.—65, 66 1871)—French petty-bourgeois
Cobden, Richard (1804-1865)— revolutionary, member of the
Manchester manufacturer, Paris Commune, killed during
Liberal statesman, advocated barricade fighting in 1871.—
Free Trade, one of the found Ill
19*
292 NAME INDEX
Delolme, Jean Louis (1740-1806) F

—Swiss statesman and jurist.
— 125 Ferdinand I (1793-1875)—
Dembinski, Henryk (1791-1864) Austrian Emperor (1835-48).—
—Polish general, took part in 259, 260
the national liberation move Ferdinand II (1810-1859)—King
ment and the rising of 1830- of Sicily and Naples (1830-59).
31.—263, 264 — 103, 205
Doggenfeld, Anton Vetter, Edler Fouquier-Finville, Antoine
von (1803-1882)—Hungarian Quentin (1746-1795)—French
general, Kossuth’s comrade-in- politician, during the French
arms and Chief of the Gen Revolution Public Prosecutor
eral Staff, 1848-49. After the of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
defeat of the revolution he —112
emigrated from Hungary.—264 Fourier, Francois Marie Charles
Dronke, Ernst (1822-1891)— (1772-1837)—French utopian
German writer, at first “true socialist.—221
socialist”, later member of the Francis V (1819-1875)—Duke of
Communist League; emigrated Modena (1846-59).—105
to England after the defeat of Francis Joseph I (1830-1916)—
the 1848 revolution.—21 Emperor of Austria (1848-
Dufour, Guillaume Henri (1787- 1916).—260
1875)—Swiss general and Frederick II (the Great) (1712-
politician, commanded the 1786)—King of Prussia (1740-
Swiss army against the 86).—87
separatists, member of the Frederick William II (1744-1797)
National Council in 1848-49. —King of Prussia (1786-97).—
—155 96
Dumont (DuMont), Joseph Frederick William HI (1770-
(1811-1861)—German journal 1840)—King of Prussia (1797-
ist, liberal, in 1831 became 1840).—84
owner of the Kolnische Zei Frederick William IV (1795-
tung.—164 1861)—King of Prussia (1840-
Duvivier, Franciade Fleurus 61).—35, 124, 237, 243, 255
(1794-1848)—French general. Funk, Alexander Ludwig (1806-
—56 1871)—Swiss liberal states
man.—154
E Furrer, ]onas (1805-1861)—Swiss
liberal statesman.—154
Engels, Friedrich (Frederick)
(1820-1895).—21 G
Esselen, Christian (1823-1859)—
German writer, democrat, in Gagern, Heinrich Wilhelm
1848 a leader of the Frankfurt August, Freiherr von (1799-
Workers’ Association and an 1880)—German liberal, Pres
editor of the Allgemeine Ar- ident of the Frankfurt Nation
beiter-Zeitung.—24 al Assembly (Right Centre),
NAME INDEX 293
President of the Imperial refusing to pay the forced

Ministry (December 1848- loan; in 1636 he refused to
March 1849).—63, 118, 132, pay ship-money which
170 Charles I levied when Parlia
Gervinus, Georg Gottfried (1805- ment refused to vote the taxes
1871)—German historian, he had asked.—248
liberal, editor of the Deutsche Hanow, Friedrich—in 1848
Zeitung (1847 to October member of the Prussian
1848), member of the Frank National Assembly (Left
furt National Assembly.—29 Centre) and in 1849 of the
Gierke—Prussian official, in 1848 Second Chamber (Left wing).
member of the Prussian —200
National Assembly (Lelt Hansemann, David Justus (1790-
Centre), Prussian Minister of 1864)—big capitalist, one of
Agriculture (March to Septem the leaders of the liberal
ber 1848).—72, 73, 74, 75, 76 Rhenish bourgeoisie, Prussian
Gorgey, Arthur (1818-1916)— Minister of Finance from
Hungarian general, com- March to September 1848.—
mander-in-chief of the 35, 70, 71, 76, 98, 107, 120,
Hungarian army (April to 123, 180, 182, 183, 191-94,
June 1849).—262-64 214, 216, 226
Gotz, Christian (1783-1849)— Heine, Heinrich (1797-1856)—
—Austrian general, fought German poet.—32, 71, 139,
against the revolution in Italy 162, 179, 216
and Hungary in 1848-49.—263 Heinrich LXXII (1797-1853)—
Guerazzi, Francesco Domenico Prince of Reuss-Lobenstein-
(1804-1873)—Italian writer, Ebersdorf, a tiny German
democrat, took part in the principality (1822-53).—65, 200
Italian revolution of 1848-49, Hergenhahn, August (1804-1874)
headed the Tuscany govern —German liberal politician,
ment in March and April 1849. member of the Frankfurt
—176 National Assembly (Right
Guizot, Francois Pierre Guil Centre), Prime Minister of
laume (1787-1874)—French Nassau (1848-49).—25
historian and statesman, Heydt, August, Freiherr von der
directed the home and foreign (1801-1874)—Elberfeld banker,
policy of France in the in Prussian statesman, Minister
terests of the big financial of Commerce (December 1848
bourgeoisie from 1840 to 1848. to 1862) and Minister of
—47 Finance (1866-69), member of
the Second Chamber.—182
H Hildebrand(t), Johann Andreas
Karl (1764-1848)—German
Hampden, John (1595-1643)— writer.—192
English statesman, Member of Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)—
the Short and Long Parlia English philosopher.—188
ments; imprisoned in 1627 for Holberg, Ludwig, Freiherr von
294 NAME INDEX
(1684-1754)—Danish writer, Kaunitz, Wenzel Anton, Furst

historian and philosopher.—91, von (1711-1794)—Austrian
116 statesman, a bitter enemy of
Hiiser, Hans Gustav Heinrich the French Revolution, a sup
von (1782-1857)—Prussian gen porter of an “enlightened”
eral, Commandant of Mainz form of absolutism.—39
(1844-49).—23, 25, 39, 254 Kersausie, Joachim Rene
Lheophile Gaillard de (1798-
J 1874)—French revolutionary,
took part in the July revolu
Jacoby, Johann (1805-1877)— tion of 1830, played a lead
German writer and politician, ing role in several secret
a leader of the Left wing in societies.—50, 51, 59
the Prussian National Assem Knicanin, Stevan Petrovic (c.
bly of 1848, member of the 1807-1855)—Serbian officer.—
Frankfurt National Assembly 261
and of the Prussian Second Kortum, Karl Arnold (1745-1824)
Chamber (extreme Left).—63, —German writer.—178
64 Kossuth, Lajos (1802-1894)—
James II (1633-1701)—King of leader of the Hungarian
Great Britain and Ireland national liberation movement,
(1685-88).—159 headed the bourgeois-demo
Jellachich (Jelacic), Josip, Graf cratic elements during the
von Buzim (1801-1859)— revolution of 1848-49, head of
Austrian general, Ban of the Hungarian revolutionary
Croatia, Slavonia and Dalma government.—258, 259, 261
tia (1848-59).—140, 146, 170, Kiihlwetter, Friedrich Christian
175, 188, 259, 264 Hubert von (1809-1882)—
Jordan, Wilhelm (1819-1904)— Prussian statesman, Minister of
German writer, in 1848 the Interior (June to Septem
member of the Frankfurt ber 1848).—192, 196
National Assembly; at first he
belonged to the Left wing, L
after the debates on Poland he
joined the Centre.—99 Ladenberg, Adalbert von (1798-
Jottrand, Lucien Leopold (1804- 1855)—member of the reac
1877)—Belgian lawyer and tionary Prussian bureaucracy,
writer, democrat, President of Minister of Culture (1848-50).
the Democratic Association in —216
Brussels (1847).—112 Lamarque, Maximilien, comte
(1770-1832)—French general,
K leader of the liberal opposition
during the restoration period
Kanitz, August Wilhelm Karl, and under the July monarchy.
Graf von (1783-1852)—Prus —52
sian general, Minister of War Lamartine, Alphonse Marie
(May to June 1848).—36 Louis de (1790-1869)—French
NAME INDEX 295
poet, historian and statesman; Belgium (1831-65).—112, 113

republican in the 1840s; Lichnowski, Felix Maria, Fiirst
Minister of Foreign Affairs von (1814-1848)—Prussian of
and real head of the Provision ficer, member of the Frankfurt
al Government in 1848.—44, National Assembly (Right
46, 111, 142, 205, 206, 251, wing), killed during the Sep
253 tember rising in Frankfurt.—
Lamoriciere, Louis Christophe 146
Leon Juchault de (1806-1865) Louis XIV (1638-1715)—King ol
—French general and polit France (1638-1715).—95
ician, played a prominent part Louis XVI (1754-1793)—King of
in the suppression of the June France (1774-92).—158, 159
rising of 1848; Minister of War Louis Philippe (1773-1850)—
(June to December 1848); Duke of Orleans, King of the
member of the Constituent As French (1830-48).—45, 46, 142
sembly.—56, 58 Lowenstein, Lipmann Hirsch (d.
Larochejafcfquelein (La Roche- 1848)—German orientalist,
jaquelein), Henri Auguste democrat, President of the
Georges, marquis de (1805- Workers’ Association in Frank
1867)—French politician, a furt in 1848.—24
leader of the legitimists, Liittichau, Christian Friedrich
member of the Constituent As Tonne, Graf von—Prussian
sembly (1848) and of the official.—91
Legislative Assembly (1849).—
48
Latour, Theodor, Graf Baillet M
von (1780-1848)—Austrian
general, Minister of War in Malkowsky von Dammwalden,
1848; killed during the October Ignaz (1784-1854)—Austrian
uprising in Vienna.—146, 260 general.—261, 262
Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre Auguste Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766-
(1807-1874)—French publicist 1834)—English divine and
and politician, a leader of the economist.—221
petty-bourgeois democrats, Mamiani della Rovere, Teren-
editor of La Reforme, member zio, Graf (1799-1885)—Italian
of the Provisional Government writer, philosopher and poli
of 1848.—44, 79, 111, 133, 205 tician, Minister of the Inte
Lelewel, Joachim (1786-1861)— rior of the Papal State from
Polish historian and revolu May to August 1848.—103,
tionary, member of the Pro 175
visional Government during Manteuffel, Otto Theodor, Frei
the Polish uprising of 1830-31, herr von (1805-1882)—Prus
member of the Executive Com sian statesman, belonged to
mittee of the Brussels Demo the aristocratic bureaucracy,
cratic Association in 1847-48. Minister of the Interior (No
— 100, 267 vember 1848 to December
Leopold 1 (1790-1865)—King of 1850), member of the Second
296 NAME INDEX
Chamber in 1849.—170, 214, tional Assembly (Right Cen

216, 219, 222, 226 tre).—214
Marat, Jean Paul (1743-1793) Miguel, Dom Maria Evaristo
—one of the leaders of the (1802-1866)—pretender to the
Jacobins during the French Portuguese throne, Regent of
Revolution.—66 Portugal (1828-34).—60
Milde, Karl August (1805-1861)
Marker (Marcker), Friedrich Au Silesian manufacturer, in 1848
gust (1804-1889)—Prussian President of the Prussian Na
statesman, Minister of Justice tional Assembly (Right wing),
from June to September 1848. Minister of Commerce (June
—126, 192 to September 1848).—107, 192
Marrast, Armand (1801-1852)— Montesquieu, Charles de Se-
French writer and politician, condat, baron de la Brede et
editor-in-chief of Le National, de (1689-1755)—French socio
member of the Provisional logist, economist and writer.—
Government and Mayor of 125
Paris, President of the Consti
tuent Assembly (1848-49).—44,
N
45, 176
Marx, Karl (1818-1883).—21, Napoleon 1 (Bonaparte) (1769-
165, 230, 254, 257 1821)—Emperor of the French
Mellinet, Francois (1768-1852)— (1804-14 and 1815).—55, 159,
Belgian general of French des 207, 235
cent, one of the leaders of the Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon
Belgian revolution of 1830 and Bonaparte) (1808-1873)—neph
of the democratic movement ew of Napoleon I, President
in Belgium; Honorary Presi of the Second Republic (1848-
dent of the Democratic Asso 52), Emperor of the French
ciation in Brussels; sentenced (1852-70).—205
to death in 1848; the sentence Nenstiel, Johann—Silesian mer
was subsequently commuted to chant, in 1848 a member of
30 years imprisonment; in the Prussian National Assem
September 1849 he was re bly (Centre).—201
leased.—112, 113, 114 Neuhaus, Johann Karl Friedrich
Metternich, Clemens Wenzel (1796-1849)—Swiss liberal,
Lothar, Furst von (1773-1859) president of the Swiss Diet in
—Austrian statesman, Foreign 1841, member of the National
Minister (1809-21) and Chan Council (1848-49).—154
cellor (1821-48), one of the Nicholas 1 (1796-1855)—Tsar of
founders of the Holy Alliance. Russia (1825-55).—149
—39, 105 Nugent, Laval, Graf von West
Mevissen, Gustav von (1815- meath (1777-1862)—Austrian
1899)—German banker, a field marshal, took part in the
leader of the Rhenish liberal suppression of the Italian and
bourgeoisie, in 1848-49 he was Hungarian revolutions of 1848-
a member of the Frankfurt Na 49.—260, 262
NAME INDEX 297
0 War from September to No

vember 1848.—95, 158, 162,
Ochsenbein, Johann Ulrich (1811- 200, 202, 243
1890)—Swiss statesman, Pre Pinto, Isaac (1715-1787)—Dutch
sident of the Confederation merchant, stockjobber and
(1847-48), President of the economist.—180
National Council (1848) and Pourtales, Albert, Graf von
member of the Federal Coun (1812-1861)—Prussian diplo
cil (1848-54).—154 mat.—70
Otto I (1815-1867)—Bavarian Prince of Prussia—see William I.
prince, King of Greece (1832- Przyluski, Leon (1789-1865)—
62).—60 Archbishop of Gnesen and
Poznan (1845-65).—84
P Puchner, Anton, Freiherr von
(1779-1852)—Austrian general.
Patow, Erasmus Robert, Freiherr —261, 262, 263
von (1804-1890)—Prussian
statesman, member of the Prus R
sian National Assembly (Right
wing) in 1848; Minister of Radetzky, Joseph, Graf (1766-
Commerce from April to June 1858)—Austrian field marshal,
1848 and Minister of Finance commander-in-chief of the
from 1858 to 1862.—73, 200 Austrian troops in Italy.—39,
Peel, Sir Robert (1788-1850)— 104, 105, 109, 174, 175, 266
British statesman, Prime Min Radowitz, Joseph Maria von
ister (1841-46), repealed the (1797-1853)—Prussian general
Corn Laws in 1846.—80 and politician, belonged to the
Pelz, Eduard (1800-1876)—Ger court camarilla, one of the
man journalist, in 1848 one leaders of the Right wing in
of the leaders of the Workers’ the Frankfurt National As
Association in Frankfurt and sembly in 1848.—121, 122
editor of the Allgemeine Ar- Ramberg, Georg Heinrich, Frei
beiter-Zeitung.—24 herr von (1786-1855)—Aus
Perczel, Moritz (1811-1899)— trian field marshal.—264
Hungarian general, took part Raspail, Francois Vincent (1794-
in the Hungarian revolution of 1878)—French scientist and
1848-49.—265 writer, republican, closely con
Perrot, Benjamin Pierre (1791- nected with the revolutionary
1865)—French general.—59 proletariat, took part in the
Pfuel, Ernst Heinrich Adolf von revolutions of 1830 and 1848,
(1779-1866)—Prussian general, member of the Constituent As
commandant of Berlin in sembly in 1848.—50
March 1848; headed the Prus Raveaux, Franz (1810-1851)—
sian troops which suppressed member of the Frankfurt
the rising in Poznan in April National Assembly (Left Cen
and May 1848; Prussian Prime tre).—25
Minister and Minister of Reichensperger, Peter Franz
20—509
298 NAME INDEX
(1818-1892)—German lawyer, 1848), prime Minister and For

in 1848 member of the Prus eign Minister (September to
sian National Assembly (Right December 1848) in the Provi
wing).—129 sional Imperial Government.—
Ricardo, David (1772-1823)— 170
English economist.—221 Schneider—in 1848 member of
Rodbertus-Jagetzow, Johann Karl the Prussian National Assem
(1805-1875)—German econom bly (Right wing, later Left
ist, leader of the Left Centre Centre).—64, 65, 66
in the Prussian National Schneider II, Karl—German
Assembly of 1848.—120, 121, lawyer, in 1848 Chairman of
152 the Cologne Democratic Society
Rukavina, Georg (Dzuro), Frie- and member of the Rhenish
herr von Vidovgrad (1777- District Committee of Dem
1849)—Austrian field marshal ocrats, counsel of Marx and
of Croatian descent.—261 Engels in the trial of the
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.—
S —164, 169, 232
Schreckenstein, Ludwig, Freiherr
Saint-Simon, Claude Henri de Roth von (1789-1858)—Prus
Rouvroy, comte de (1760-1825) sian general, member of the
—French utopian socialist.— feudal aristocracy, Minister of
221 War from June to September
Schapper, Karl (c. 1812-1870)— 1848.—192
German socialist, a leader of Schultz(e)—in 1848 member of
the League of the Just, mem the Prussian National Assem
ber of the Central Committee bly (Left wing).—202
of the Communist League, Schwerin, Maximilian Heinrich
member of the Rhenish Dis Karl, Graf von (1804-1872)—
trict Committee of Democrats. member of the Frankfurt Na
—69 tional Assembly (Right wing).
Schiller, Friedrich von (1759- —36
1805)—German poet and dra Sebastiani, Horace Francois Bas
matist.—162, 205 tien, comte (1772-1851)—
Schlick, Franz Heinrich, Graf French marshal, Foreign Mi
(1789-1862)—Austrian general. nister (1830-32), Ambassador
—261, 262, 263, 265 to London (1835-40).—47
Schlbffel, Friedrich Wilhelm Shakespeare, William (1564-
(1800-1870)—member of the 1616)—English dramatist and
Frankfurt National Assembly poet.—162
(Left wing).—24 Simunich (Simunic), Balthasar,
Schmerling, Anton, Ritter von Freiherr von (1785-1861)—
(1805-1893)—Austrian states Austrian field marshal of
man, in 1848 member of the Croatian descent.—263
Frankfurt National Assembly Smith, Adam (1723-1790)—Scot
(Right Centre), Minister of the tish economist.—81, 219
Interior (July to September Sophia (1805-1872)—Archduchess
NAME INDEX 299
of Austria, mother of Emperor —Austrian statesman of Czech

Francis Joseph I.—260 descent, one of the most in
Stein, Julius (1813-1889)—Sile fluential advisers of Emperor
sian teacher, in 1848 member Francis Joseph I, Minister of
of the Prussian National As Culture from 1849 to 1860.—
sembly (Left wing).—64, 202 41
Steinacker, Christian Karl Anton Thum und Taxis, Karl Alexan
Friedrich, Freiherr von (1781- der von (1770-1827)—German
1851)—Prussian general, com prince, hereditary imperial
mandant of the fortress of postmaster of several German
Poznan in 1846 and 1848.— states.—97
39 Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, Graf
Stenzel, Gustav Adolf Harald von (1559-1632)—commander
(1792-1854)—German historian, of the army of the Catholic
member of the Frankfurt Na League in the Thirty Years’
tional Assembly (Centre).—84, War; his troops stormed and
86, 87, 89, 90, 93, 94, 95, 98 plundered Magdeburg in 1631.
Stephan (1817-1867)—Austrian —42
Archduke, Palatine in Hunga Todorovich (Teodorovic), Kus-
ry (1847-48).—259 man—Austrian general of Ser
Stupp, Heinrich Joseph (1793- bian descent.—261
1870)—German civil servant, Trelat, Ulysse (1795-1879)—
clericalist, member of the French politician, bourgeois re
Prussian National Assembly publican; Deputy President of
(Right wing) in 1848.—214, the Constituent Assembly
217 (1848), Minister of Public
Works (May to June 1848).—
T 47
Tresckow, Hermann von (1818-
Tedesco, Victor (1821-1897)— 1900)—Prussian officer, fought
Belgian lawyer, revolutionary in the war against Denmark
democrat and socialist, co in 1848.—96
founder of the Brussels Dem Tresckow, Sigismund Otto—Ger
ocratic Association (1847); he man merchant and landowner.
was sentenced to death in the —91, 96
Risquons-Tout trial; then the
sentence was commuted to 30
years imprisonment; he was U
released in 1854.—112, 113
Thiers, Louis Adolphe (1797- Unruh, Hans Victor von (1806-
1877)—French historian and 1886)—Prussian engineer and
statesman, Prime Minister politician, in 1848 one of the
(1836 and 1840), member of leaders of the Left Centre in
the Constituent Assembly the Prussian National Assem
(1848), President of the re bly; in 1849 member of the
public (1871-73).—133, 206 Second Chamber (Left wing).
Thun, Leo, Graf von (1811-1888) —244
20*
300 NAME INDEX
V Austrian troops fighting against

the Hungarian revolution
Vetter—see Doggenfeld, Anton (April to June 1849).—104,
Vetter, Edler von. 105, 188, 265
Vincke, Georg, Freiherr von Wellington, Arthur Wellesley,
(1811-1875)—Prussian politi Duke of (1769-1852)—British
cian, a leader of the Right general and statesman, Tory
wing in the Frankfurt Nation Prime Minister (1828-30), For
al Assembly.—121, 122 eign Secretary (1834-35).—
Vogt, Karl (1817-1895)—German 248
scientist; in 1848-49 a mem Werner, Johann Peter—German
ber of the Frankfurt National lawyer, member of the Frank
Assembly (Left wing), later furt National Assembly in
became an agent of Napo 1848 (Left Centre).—26
leon III—see Herr Vogt by Wildenbruch, Ludwig von (1803-
Karl Marx (1860).—66 1874)—Prussian diplomat.—
68, 119
W William I (1772-1843)—King of
the Netherlands (1815-40).—
Waldeck, Benedikt Franz Leo 224
(1802-1870)—German lawyer William 1 (1797-1888)—Prince
and politician, in 1848 Vice- of Prussia, King of Prussia
President of the Prussian Na (1861-88), German Emperor
tional Assembly and a leader (1871-88).—121, 179
of its Left wing.—120, 121, Willisen, Karl Wilhelm, Freiherr
122, 124, 128 von (1790-1879)—Prussian gen
Wallmoden, Karl, Graf von eral, royal commissioner in
(1792-1883)—Austrian gener Poznan in 1848.—94, 95
al.—42 Windischgratz, Alfred, Furst zu
Weerth, Georg (1822-1856)— (1787-1862)—Austrian field
German poet and writer, mem marshal, commanded the troops
ber of the Communist League, which crushed the Prague
editor of the literary part of uprising in June and the Vien
the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. na uprising in October 1848;
—21 led the Austrian army against
Weicker, Karl Theodor (1790- the Hungarian revolution in
1869)—German lawyer and 1848-49.—38, 40, 145, 147,
writer, member of the Frank 149, 157, 170, 175, 188, 215,
furt National Assembly (Right 260, 262, 263
Centre) in 1848.—118 Wittgenstein, Heinrich von
Welden, Franz Ludwig, Freiherr (1800-1868)—in 1848 chairman
von (1782-1853)—Austrian of the municipal government
general, took part in the cam in Cologne and from Novem
paign against Italy in 1848; ber, member of the Prussian
commandant of Vienna (No National Assembly (Right
vember 1848 to April 1849); wing).—214
commander-in-chief of the Wohlgemuth, Ludwig, Freiherr
NAME INDEX 301
von (1788-1851)—Austrian field 1848.—70, 162, 163, 170, 179,

marshal.—264 202, 222, 243
Wolfers, Franz Anton von—
German journalist of Belgian Y
descent, member of the edito
rial board of the Kolnische Ypsilanti, Alexander (1792-
Zeitung in 1848.—77, 78 1828)—leader of the Greek
Wolf(f), Ferdinand (1812-1895) liberation movement; he orga
—German journalist, member nised the Moldavian uprising
of the Communist League.— of 1821 and after its defeat
21 fled to Austria where he was
Wolff, Wilhelm (1809-1864)— arrested and kept in prison till
German teacher and journal 1827.—60
ist, member of the Central
Committee of the Communist Z
League.—21
W rangel, Friedrich Heinrich Zitz, Franz Heinrich (1803-
Ernst, Graf von (1784-1877)— 1877)—German lawyer, mem
Prussian general, a leading ber of the Frankfurt National
member of the Prussian mili Assembly (Left wing), in 1849
tary caste, took part in the he took part in the uprising in
counter-revolutionary coup Baden and the Palatinate.—
d’etat in Berlin in November 23
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES
Allgemeines Landrecht fur die “Charte constitutionelle”, June

Preuflischen Staaten. Neue 4, 1814. In: Le Moniteur uni-
Ausg., 2 Th. in 4 Bdn., Berlin, versel No. 156, June 5, 1814.
1817.-88-89, 125-26, 196-97 —203
Arndt, Ernst Moritz, “Der Freu- Code civil—see Code Napoleon.
denklang”. In: Ernst Moritz Code Napoleon, Paris and Leip
Arndts ausgewahlte Werke, zig, 1808.—71, 222, 235
hrsg. und mit Einl. und Anm. Code penal, ou code des delits
vers, von Heinrich Meisner et des peines, Cologne, 1810.
und Robert Geerds, Bd. 1-16, —112, 196, 233
Leipzig, n.d., Bd. 3.—107 Compte rendu des seances de
Beaumarchais, [Pierre-Augustin l’Assemblee nationale, T. 1-10,
Caron] de, “La folle journee, Paris, 1849-1850. T. 2 and
ou le manage de Figaro”. In: 4.-47, 48, 53, 133
(Euvres completes, T. 5, n. p., [“Constitutio criminalis Caroli
1785.—222 na”.] In: Die Carolina und
[Benkert, Franz Georg,] Joseph ihre Vorgangerinnen. Text, Er-
Bonavita Blank’s ... kurze lauterung, Geschichte. In Ver
Lebens-Beschreibung, Wurz bindung mit anderen Gelehr
burg, 1819.—83 ten hg. und bearb. von J. Koh
Bible ler. I. “Die peinliche Gericht-
—Exodus 3, 5.—71 sordnung Kaiser Karls V. Con
—Job 1, 21.—203 stitutio criminalis Carolina”.
—Matthew 13, 12; 8, 22.—107, Kritisch hrsg. von J. Kohler
219 and Willy Scheel, Halle, 1900.
Blanc, Louis, Histoire de dix —158
ans. 1830-1840, T. 1-5, Paris, “Declaration wegen Einziehung
1841-1844.—79 und kiinftiger Verwaltung der
—Histoire de la revolution fran- geistlichen Guter, ingleichen
$aise, T. 1-2, Paris, 1847.— der Starosteien und anderer
79 konigl. Giiter in Sudpreufien
[Brodowski, Kraszewski, Potwo- und der von der ehemaligen
rowski,] Zur Beurtheilung der Republik Polen neuerlich ac-
polnischen Frage im Groflher- quirirten Provinzen”, Berlin,
zogthum Posen im Jahre 1848, July 28, 1796. In: Materialien
Berlin [1848].—84 zur Geschichte polnischer
*
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES 303
Landestheile unter preuflischer unentgeltlicher Aufhebung ver-

Verwaltung, H. 1, Leipzig, schiedener Lasten und Abga-
1861.—84, 96 ben”, July 10, 1848. In: Ste
“Entwurf einer Gemeinde-Ord- nographische Berichte iiber die
nung nebst Motiven zu ihrer Verhandlungen der zur Verein
Erklarung”, August 13, 1848. barung der preuflischen Staats-
In: Stenographische Berichte Verfassung berufenen Ver
iiber die Verhandlungen der sammlung, Beilage zum Preu-
zur Vereinbarung der preufii- flischen Staats-Anzeiger, Bd. 1,
schen Staats-Verfassung beru Berlin, 1848.-71-76
fenen Versammlung, Beilage “Der Erste Vereinigte Landtag
zum Preufiischen Staats-An- in Berlin 1847”. Hrsg. unter
zeiger, Bd. 2, Berlin, 1848.— Aufsicht des Vorstehers des
97 Central-Bureaus im Min. d.
“Entwurf eines Gesetzes, die Innern und des Bureaus des
Aufhebung der Grundsteuer- Vereinigten Landtages Kgl.
Befreiungen betreffend”, July Kanzlei-Raths Eduard Bleich,
20, 1848. In: Stenographische Th. 1-4, Berlin, 1847. Th. 1,
Berichte iiber die Verhandlun 3, 4.-191-92, 193-97, 198-200,
gen der zur Vereinbarung der 201-04, 237
preuflischen Staats-Verfassung Friedrich Wilhelm IV. [“Ant
berufenen Versammlung, Bei wort auf das Entlassungsge-
lage zum Preuflischen Staats- such der Minister”], Sanssouci,
Anzeiger, Bd. 1, Berlin, 1848. September 10, 1848. In: Neue
—99 Rheinische Zeitung No. 102,
“Entwurf eines Gesetzes, betref September 14, 1848.—124-25,
fend die Aufhebung der Klas- 129
sensteuer-Befreiungen”, July —[Neujahrsgratulation 1849 an
10, 1848. In: Stenographische das Heer.] Potsdam, January
Berichte iiber die Verhandlun 1, 1849. In: Preuflischer Staats-
gen der zur Vereinbarung der Anzeiger No. 3, January 3,
preuflischen Staats-Verfassung 1849.—223
berufenen Versammlung, Bei “Gesetz, betreffend die Sistirung
lage zum Preuflischen Staats- der Verhandlungen fiber die
Anzeiger, Bd. 1, Berlin, 1848, Regulierung der gutsherrlichen
—199 und bauerlichen Verhaltnisse
“Entwurf eines Gesetzes uber und fiber die Ablosung der
die Errichtung der Bfirger- Dienste, Natural- und Geldab-
wehr”, July 6, 1848. In: Ste gaben, sowie der fiber diese
nographische Berichte iiber die Gegenstande anhangigen Pro-
Verhandlungen der zur Ve zesse. Vom. 9. Oktober 1848”.
reinbarung der preuflischen In: Gesetz-Sammlung fur die
Staats-Verfassung berufenen Kbniglichen Preu/lischen Staa-
Versammlung, Beilage zum ten No. 45, 1848.—243
Preuflischen Staats- Anzeiger, “Gesets fiber die Errichtung der
Bd. 1, Berlin, 1848.—197 Bfirgerwehr. Vom 17. Oktober
“Entwurf eines Gesetzes wegen 1848”. In: Gesetz-Sammlung
304 INDEX OF AUTHORITIES
fur die Koniglichen Preufii- Grafen M. von Moltke’ ”, Bd.

schen Staaten No. 47, 1848.— 14.—136
196 —“Der Tannhauser”, Bd. 16.—
“Gesetz zum Schutz der person 139
lichen Freiheit. Vom 24. Sep —“Zur Beruhigung”, Bd. 17.—63
tember 1848”. In: Gesetz- Hildebrandt, C., Kuno von
Sammlung fur die Koniglichen Schreckenstein, oder die weis-
Preufiischen Staaten No. 42, sagende Traumgestalt. 2. Aufl.,
1848.—166, 242 Bd. 1-3, Quedlinburg und Leip
“Gesetzbuch uber Strafen”. Aus zig, 1840.—192
dem Franz, nach der officiel- Hobbes, Thomas, Elementa phi-
len Ausg. fibers, von Wilhelm losophica. De cive. Editio no
Blanchard, zweyte verb. Aufl., va accuratior, Basileae, 1782.
Koln, 1812.—122 —188
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, “Konigliche Ordre an das Staats-
“Prometheus”. In: Goethe’s Ministerium, betreffend die na
Werke, Bd. 1-20, Stuttgart und tionale Reorganisation des
Tubingen, 1815-1819. Bd. 2.— GroCherzogthums Posen”, Ap
121 ril 26, 1848. In: Reden, Prok-
“11 Governo provvisorio alia Na- lamationen, Botschaften, Er-
zione Germanica”, Milano, lasse und Ordres Sr. Majestat
April 6, 1848. In: Raccolta dei des Konigs Friedrich Wilhelm
decreti, avvisi, proclami, bul- IV. vom ... 6. Marz 1848
letini ec. ec. emanti dal Go bis ... 31. Mai 1851, Berlin,
verno provvisorio, dai diversi 1851.—94
comitati e da altri dal giorno “Konigliches Rescript”, October
18 Marzo in avanti, Mailand, 3, 1848. In: Wiener Zeitung
n.d.—62 No. 275, October 5, 1848.—
“Grundrechte des deutschen Vol- 259
kes”. In: Stenographischer Be Kortum, Karl Arnold, Die Job-
nefit uber die Verhandlungen siade. Ein komisches Helden-
der deutschen constituirenden gedicht. Hrsg. von F. Bober-
Nationalversammlung zu tag, Berlin und Stuttgart
Frankfurt am Main, Bd. 1-9, [1883].—178
Frankfurt a. M. und Leipzig, [“Manifest der Linken in der
1848-1849. Bd. 1-2.—136 Frankfurter Nationalversamm-
Heine, Heinrich, “Anno 1829”. lung”.] In: Neue Rheinische
In: Heinrich Heines sammt- Zeitung No. 7, June 7, 1848.—
liche Werke, Bd. 1 bis 18, 30-34
Hamburg, 1868. Bd. 16.—66 Moliere [, Jean-Baptiste], “Le
—“Bei des Nachtwachters An- bourgeois gentilhomme”. In:
kunft zu Paris”, Bd. 17.—179 CEuvres completes, T. 7, Pa
—“Deutschland. Ein Wintermar ris, 1825.—187
chen”, Bd. 7.-32, 71, 115, “Motivirtes Manifest der radikal-
133 demokratischen Partei in der
—“Einleitung zu ‘Kahldorf fiber konstituirenden Nationalver-
den Adel, in Briefen an den sammlung zu Frankfurt am
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES 305
Main”. In: Neue Rheinische —“Die Jungfrau von Orleans”,

Zeitung No. 6, June 6, 1848. Bd. 10.-162
-30-34 Shakespeare, William, Julius
“Patent die standischen Einrich Caesar.—29
tungen betreffend. Vom 3. Feb- —7roilus and Cressida.—162
ruar 1847”. In: Gesetz-Samm- “Traits de commerce entre la
lung fur die Koniglichen Preu- Prusse, la Baviere, la Saxe, le
fiischen Staaten No. 4, 1847. Wurttemberg, la Bade, la Hes-
—190 se-Electorale, la Hesse-Grand-
Patow [, Erasmus Robert von], Ducale, les Etats commant Tu
“Promemoria, betreffend die rnon de douanes et de com
Mafiregeln der Gesetzgebung, merce, dite de Thuringe, le
durch welche die zeitgemafie Nassau, et la ville libre de
Reform der guts- und grund- Francfort, d’une part, et les
herrlichen Verhaltnisse und Pays-Bas, d’autre part, le 21
die Beseitigung der noch vor- janvier 1839”. In: Gesetz-
handenen Hemmungen der Sammlung fiir die Koniglichen
Landeskultur bezweckt wird”, Preuflischen Staaten No. 10,
Berlin, June 20, 1848. In: 1839—225
Stenographische Berichte uber Unruh, [Hans Victor] von, Skiz-
die Verhandlungen der zur zen aus Preufiens neuester
Vereinbarung der preuflischen Geschichte, Magdeburg, 1849.
Staats-Verfassung berufenen —244
Versammlung, Beilage zum “Verfassungsurkunde fur den
Preufiischen Staats-Anzeiger, PreuBischen Staat”, December
Bd. 1, Berlin, 1848.—73, 200 5, 1848. In: Gesetz-Sammlung
fiir die Koniglichen Preufii-
[“Polnische Konstitution vom 3.
schen Staaten No. 55, 1848.
Mai 1791”.] In: [PotockiJ Vom
—178, 203, 213-16, 218-29,
Entstehen und Untergange der
230, 237
Polnischen Konstitution vom
“Verhandlungen der constitui-
Sten May 1791, T. 1-2, n. p.,
renden Versammlung fur
1793. T. 1—99
Preufien. 1848”, Bd. 9 (Suppl.-
Rotteck, Karl von, Allgemeine Bd.), Leipzig, 1849.—168, 169,
Geschichte vom Anfang der 230, 241-43, 249-50
historischen Kenntnifi bis auf “Verordnung, betreffend die
unsere Zeiten. Fur denkende Auflosung der zur Vereinba
Geschichtsfreunde bearb. von rung der Verfassung berufe
Karl von Rotteck. 10. Aufl., nen Versammlung. Vom 5. De-
Bd. 1-9, Freiburg im Breisgau, zember 1848”. In: Stenogra
1834.—179 phische Berichte uber die Ver
Schiller, Friedrich von, “An die handlungen der zur Verein
Freude”. In: Friedrich von barung der preufiischen Staats-
Schillers sammtliche Werke, Verfassung berufenen Ver
Bd. 1-12, Stuttgart und Tu sammlung, Beilage zum Preu-
bingen, 1812-1815. Bd. 3— flischen Staats-Anzeiger, Bd. 3,
205 Berlin, 1848—177
“Verordnung fiber die Bildung die Verhandlungen der deut-

des Vereinigten Landtages. schen constituirenden National-
Vom 3. Februar 1847”. In: versammlung zu Frankfurt am
Gesetz-Sammlung fur die Kb- Main, Bd. 1-9, Frankfurt a. M.
niglichen Preuflischen Staaten und Leipzig 1848 bis 1849.
No. 4, 1847.—190 Bd. 3.-115-20, 132
“Verordnung fiber die zu bil- “Wahlgesetz ffir die zur Verein-
dende Representation des barung der Preufiischen Staats-
Volks. Vom 22ten Mai 1815”. Verfassung zu berufende Ver-
In: Gesetz-Sammlung fur die sammlung. Vom 8. April
Koniglichen Preufiischen Staa 1848”. In: Gesetz-Sammlung
ten No. 9, 1815.—190 fiir die Koniglichen Preufii-
“Verordnung fiber einige Grund- schen Staaten No. 12, 1848.—
lagen der kfinftigen PreuCi- 122, 178, 190, 230-39, 249-50
schen Verfassung. Vom 6. Ap Weichsel, F. F., “Deutschlands
ril 1848”. In: Gesetz-Samm Einheit und der Entwurf des
lung fur die Koniglichen Deutschen Reichsgrundgeset-
Preufiischen Staaten No. 11, zes”, von den 17 Mannern des
1848.—178, 230, 231, 233- offentlichen Vertrauens fiber-
36, 237, 238, 249-50 reicht am 26. April 1848,
“Verordnung wegen der kfinfti Magdeburg, 1848.—25
gen Behandlung des gesamm- Wildenbruch [, Louis], “Note an
ten Staatsschulden-Wesens. die danische Regierung”,
Vom 17ten Januar 1820”. In: April 8, 1848. In: Stenogra-
Gesetz-Sammlung fiir die Kd- phische Berichte uber die Ver
niglichen Preufiischen Staaten handlungen der zur Verein-
No. 2, 1820.—190 barung der preufrischen Staats-
“Vorlaufiger Entwurf einer Ver Verfassung berufenen Ver-
ordnung zur Erganzung der sammlung, Beilage zum Preu-
Allgemeinen Gewerbe-Ordnung flischen Staats-Anzeiger, Bd. 1,
vom 17. Jan. 1845”. In: Kol- Berlin, 1848.—68, 119
nische Zeitung, Erste Beilage Wrangel [, Friedrich Heinrich
zu Nr. 24 vom 28. Januar, Ernst, Graf von], “Armee-
1849.-226-28 Befehl”, Potsdam, September
“Waffenstillstandsvertrag zwi- 17, 1848. In: Neue Rheinische
schen Preufien und Danemark”, Zeitung No. 109, September
Malmo, August 26, 1848. In: 22, 1848.—202, 222, 243
Stenographischer Bericht uber
Periodicals
L’Alba. Giornale politico-lette- —No. 305, November 12, 1848,
rario, Firenze, 1848.—62 Aufierordentliche Beilage.—
Berliner Zeitungs-Halle, evening 163
paper, Berlin —No. 10-17, January 12-20,
—No. 143, June 23, 1848.—42 1849.—213, 214
—No. 194, August 24, 1848.— —No. 11, January 13, 1849.—
106-08 213, 214, 216
—No. 213, September 15, 1848. —No. 24, January 28, 1849.—
— 129, 130 226-27
Berlinische Nachrichten von Koniglich privilegirte Berlinische
Staats- und gelehrten Sa- Zeitung von Staats- und ge
chen, Berlin, 1848.—129 lehrten Sachen, Berlin, 1848.
Fddrelandet No. 179, July 13, —129, 168
1848.—65 Le Liberal Liegeois, Li£ge, No.
—No. 180, July 14, 1848.—69 218, September 1, 1848.—
La Fraternite de 1845. Organe 114
du communisme, Paris, 1845- Le Moniteur Universel, Paris.—
1848.—79 163
Gesetz-Sammlung fiir die Konig Morgenbladet, Christiania, No.
lichen Preuflischen Staaten, 822, November 18, 1846.—
Berlin.—123, 249 116
—1820.—189 Le National, Paris.—45, 205
—1839.—225 Neue Preuflische Zeitung, Berlin.
—1847.—189 —168, 213, 218, 222, 226,
—1848.—166, 174, 175, 190-91, 233, 250, 257
196-97, 200, 203, 214-16, —No. 110, November 5, 1848.
218-29, 230-34, 237, 238, —151
243, 245, 248 —No. 113, November 9, 1848.
—1849.—269 —158
Journal d’Anvers et de la pro —No. 115, November 11,
vince, Anvers, No. 243, 1848.—218
August 31, 1848.—113 Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Organ
Kolnische Zeitung, Koln.—121 der Demokratie, Koln.—21,
—No. 211, July 29, 1848.— 30, 34, 62, 129, 200-02, 213,
77-82 254, 256, 266
—No. 256, September 16, 1848. —No. 1, June 1, 1848.—139,
—125 255
—No. 18, June 18, 1848.—41 Protokolle der Deutschen Bundes-

—No. 23, June 23, 1848.—167 versammlung vom Jahre
—No. 25, June 25, 1848.-200- 1848, Frankfurt am Main,
02 n.d.—91-92
—No. 26, June 26, 1848.—52 La Reforme, Paris.—45, 79, 142
—No. 52, July 22, 1848.—70 —No. 301, October 30, 1848.
—No. 107, September 20, 1848. -141-44
—20, 34 Revue de Geneve et Journal
—No. 120, October 19, 1848. Suisse, Geneve, 1848/49.—
—255 — 156
—No. 129, October 29, 1848. La Ruche populaire. Premiere
—255, 256 Tribune et Revue Mensuelle.
—No. 136, November 7, 1848. Redigee et publiec par des
—254, 255 ouvriers, Paris.—79
—No. 141, November 12, Le Spectateur republicain, Paris,
1848.—164 1848.—109
—No. 142, November 14, 1848. “Stenographische Berichte fiber
— 164 die Verhandlungen der zur
—No. 143, November 15, 1848. Vereinbarung der preuCi-
—164 schen Staats-Verfassung be-
—No. 147, November 19, 1848. rufenen Versammlung”, Bei-
—250 lage zum Preuflischen
—No. 183, December 31, 1848. Staats-Anzeiger, Bd. 1-3,
—256 Berlin, 1848.-35-37, 69, 71-
—No. 184, January 1, 1849. 76, 119, 127, 128
—257 “Stenographischer Bericht fiber
—No. 187, January 5, 1849. die Verhandlungen der
—215 deutschen constituirenden
—No. 221, February 14, 1849. Nationalversammlung zu
—257 Frankfurt am Main”.—26,
—No. 232, February 27, 1849. 63, 67, 83, 115-20, 132-34,
—237, 239-44, 247 170-71
The Northern Star, and National Triester Freihafen, Triest, 1849.
Trades' Journal, London.— —267
79 L’Union. Bulletin des ouvriers
Le Populaire de 1841. Journal redige et publie par eux-
de reorganisation, Paris.— memes, Paris, 1843-1846.—
79 79
Preuflischer Staats-Anzeiger, Vossische Zeitung—see Kbniglich
Berlin.—168 privilegirte Berlinische Zei
—No. 1, January 1, 1849.— tung von Staats- und gelchr-
222 ten Sachen.
GLOSSARY OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Adelnau—Odolan6w
Apenrade—Apenraa
Breslau—Wroclaw
Bromberg—Bydgoszcz
Eperies—Presov
Esseg/Eszek—Osijek
Glogau—Glogdw
Gran—Esztergom
Hermannstadt—Sibiu/N agy
Kaschau—KoJiice
Klausenburg—Cluj/KolozsvAr
Komorn—Komarom
Kronstadt—Bra?ow/Brass6
Kustrin—Kostrzyn
Maros—Visarhely—Tirgu—Mure?
Neutra—Nitra/Nyitra
Odenburg—Sopron
Peterwardein—Petrovaradin
Prerau—Pferov
Pressburg—Bratislava/Pozsony
Raab—Gyor
Rimaszombat—Rimavska Sobota
Schassburg—Sighisoara/Segesvar
Stuhlweissenburg—Szekcsfchervir
Szegedin—Szeged
Temesvar—Timi?oara
Thom—To run
Waitzen—V&cz
Werschetz—Vrsac/Versec
Wreschen—WrzeSnia
REQUEST TO READERS
Progress Publishers would be glad to have

your opinion of this book, its translation and
design and any suggestions you may have for
future publications.
Please send all your comments to 21,
Zubovsky Boulevard, Moscow, USSR.

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Workers of All Countries, Unite!

The translation has been made from Marx/Engels,

K. MAPKC h «t>. 3HTEJIbC

First printing 1972

Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Headings given by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism are indi­

IMPEACHMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT. By Karl Marx . . 166

The articles included in this volume were written by

Baden, Saxony, Wurttemberg and Bavaria. On March 18

own selfish interests and did nothing to improve the

national liberation into their own hands. Independence could

Naturally, the attention of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung

put forward a bold and consistent revolutionary programme.

proletariat, the peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie of the

to a head in Prussia. The counter-revolutionary government

of the German bourgeoisie. It wrote with wrath and indigna­

which directed the class struggle of the workers in Europe’s

addressed, its editors issued the battle-cry of “Emancipation

Originally the date of publication of the Neue Rheinische

Cologne, May 31. For a fortnight Germany has had a

foreseen this contingency and drawn up special regulations

*Baden, declares that these are trifles. Mainz must be left

* A pun on the words “Bassermann” and “Wassermann” (water­

©w .West mMaiMk rMAnwe w« 1. * k <m

The first issue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung

On the 25th, the flood of tabled motions caused the

proposed by Herr Werner, which settled the question of the

Cologne, June 1. Every new organ of public opinion is

immediately realised. It did not go beyond this proclamation

partly self-induced defeat would impel the democratic party

Cologne, June 6. Yesterday we acquainted our readers

This is the result of Germany’s previous history. While the

* See this volume, pp. 23-25.—Ed.

Because it is so difficult to decide “who shall be emperor”,

Cologne, June 13. At last the Assembly of conciliation has

Recognising the revolution at this moment meant recog­

Cologne, June 17. Another massacre similar to that of

However the uprising may end, a war of attrition between

tional Assembly at Frankfurt, which is afraid of its own sov­

Prague. Every day brings further confirmation of our

See this volume, pp. 38-40.—Ed.

regarded the storming of Prague simply as a prelude to the

Written by Engels on June 24,

The workers of Paris were overwhelmed by superior

of these grave events. Lamartine’s fireworks have turned

lution, because the phrases have given place to the real

republic. And that is why it frantically yells—long live the

The uprising took place in Paris on June 5-6, 1832.—Ed.

The insurgents made excellent use of this negligence by

Cavaignac was appointed dictator by a frightened Na­

town hall and made it even possible to attack the barri­

He had cut off and partly surrounded the first column in

trenched here as in a fortress. After a 12-hour bombardment

was heavy artillery used with such devastating effect as in

On the morning of the 26th the fighting was to be resumed,

Cologne, July 2. All hitherto existing rulers and their

Germans are the mainstay of the one autocrat and of the

triotic” crusades on the contrary destroy the last illusions?

Cologne, July 17. Again a “great debate”, to use an ex­

Headings given by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism are indi

of the German bourgeoisie. It wrote with wrath and indigna

* A pun on the words “Bassermann” and “Wassermann” (water

Recognising the revolution at this moment meant recog

tional Assembly at Frankfurt, which is afraid of its own sov

Cavaignac was appointed dictator by a frightened Na

town hall and made it even possible to attack the barri

Cologne, July 17. Again a “great debate”, to use an ex

On top of that we have the movement in Schleswig-Hol

Cologne, July 29. If any Rhinelander should have for

peasants now demand the revision of all commutation agree

such a high level as in England; no other country pre

following amusing passages in an article on Scandinavian

encroachment made by the legislative power on the execu

The reasons which induced the Zeitungs-Halle thus moral