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that was considered the mainstay of reactionary tendencies; and when the liberal
movement of intellectuals and students started with the avowed purpose of
advancing culture and enlightenment among the German people as a preparation for
unification, the whole-hearted hatred of this group was reserved for Russia, the
mighty prop of conservatism and reaction. In 1819 a student, Karl Sand, killed the
German writer August Kotzebue, who was suspected, not without reason, of being a
Russian spy. This terrorist act created a stir in Russia, too, where Karl Sand was
looked up to as an ideal by many of the future Decembrists, and it served as a pretext
for Metternich and the German government to swoop down upon the German
intelligentsia. The student societies, however, proved insuppressible; they grew even
more aggressive, and the revolutionary organisations in the early twenties sprung up
from their midst.
We have mentioned the Russian Decembrist movement which led to an
attempt at armed insurrection, and which was frustrated on December 14, 1825. We
must add that this was not an isolated, exclusively Russian phenomenon. This
movement was developing under the influence of the revolutionary perturbations
among the intelligentsia of Poland, Austria, France, and even Spain. This movement
of the intelligentsia had its counterpart in literature, its chief representative being
Ludwig Borne, a Jew, a famous German publicist during the period of 1818-1830 and
the first political writer in Germany. He had a profound influence upon the evolution
of German political thought. He was a thoroughgoing political democrat, who took
little interest in social questions, believing that everything could be set right by
granting the people political freedom.
This went on until 1830. In that year the July Revolution shook France, and
its reverberations set Germany aquiver. Rebellions and uprisings occurred in several
localities, but were brought to an end by some constitutional concessions. The
government made short shrift of this movement which was not very deeply rooted in
the masses.
A second wave of agitation rolled over Germany, when the unsuccessful
Polish rebellion of 1831, which also was a direct consequence of the July Revolution,
caused a great number of Polish revolutionists, fleeing from persecution, to seek
refuge in Germany. Hence a further strengthening of the old tendency among the
German intelligentsia -- a hatred for Russia and sympathy for Poland, then under
Russian domination.
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After 1831, as a result of the two events mentioned above, and despite the
frustration of the July Revolution, we witness a series of revolutionary movements
which we shall now cursorily review. We shall emphasise the events which in one way
or another might have influenced the young Engels and Marx. In 1832 this
movement was concentrated in southern Germany, not in the Rhine province, but in
the Palatinate. Just like the Rhine province, the Palatinate was for a long time in the
hands of France, for it was returned to Germany only after 1815. The Rhine province
was handed over to Prussia, the Palatinate to Bavaria where reaction reigned not less
than in Prussia. It can be readily understood why the inhabitants of the Rhine
province and the Palatinate, who had been accustomed to the greater freedom of
France, strongly resented German repression. Every revolutionary upheaval in
France was bound to enhance opposition to the government. In 1831 this opposition
assumed threatening proportions among the liberal intelligentsia, the lawyers and
the writers of the Palatinate. In 1832, the lawyers Wirth and Ziebenpfeifer arranged a
grand festival in Hambach. Many orators appeared on the rostrum. Borne too was
present. They proclaimed the necessity of a free, united Germany. There was among
them a very young man, Johann Philip Becker (1809-1886), brushmaker, who was
about twenty-three years old. His name will be mentioned more than once in the
course of this narrative. Becker tried to persuade the intelligentsia that they must not
confine themselves to agitation, but that they must prepare for an armed
insurrection. He was the typical revolutionist of the old school. An able man, he later
became a writer, though he never became an outstanding theoretician. He was more
the type of the practical revolutionist.
After the Hambach festivities, Becker remained in Germany for several years,
his occupations resembling those of the Russian revolutionists of the seventies. He
directed propaganda and agitation, arranged escapes and armed attacks to liberate
comrades from prison. In this manner he aided quite a few revolutionists. In 1833 a
group, with which Becker was closely connected (he himself was then in prison),
made an attempt at an armed attack on the Frankfort guard-house, expecting to get
hold of the arms. At that time the Diet was in session at Frankfort, and the students
and workers were confident that having arranged a successful armed uprising they
would create a furore throughout Germany. But they were summarily done away
with. One of the most daring participants in this uprising was the previously
mentioned Karl Schapper. He was fortunate in his escape back to France. It must be
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remembered that this entire movement was centred in localities which had for a long
time been under French domination.
We must also note the revolutionary movement in the principality of Hesse.
Here the leader was Weidig, a minister, a religious soul, but a fervent partisan of
political freedom, and a fanatical worker for the cause of a United Germany. He
established a secret printing press, issued revolutionary literature and endeavoured
to attract the intelligentsia. One such intellectual who took a distinguished part in
this movement was Georg Buchner (1813-1837), the author of the drama, The Death
of Danton. He differed from Weidig in that in his political agitation he pointed out
the necessity of enlisting the sympathy of the Hessian peasantry. He published a
special propaganda paper for the peasants -- the first experiment of its kind --
printed on Weidig's press. Weidig was soon arrested and Buchner escaped by a hair's
breadth. He fled to Switzerland where he died soon after. Weidig was incarcerated,
and subjected to corporal punishment. It might be mentioned that Weidig was
Wilhelm Liebknecht's uncle, and that the latter was brought up under the influence
of these profound impressions.
Some of the revolutionists freed from prison by Becker, among whom were
Schapper and Theodor Schuster, moved to Paris and founded there a secret
organisation called The Society of the Exiles. Owing to the appearance of Schuster
and other German workers who at that time settled in Paris in great numbers, the
Society took on a distinct socialist character. This led to a split. One faction under the
guidance of Schuster formed the League of the Just, which existed in Paris for three
years. Its members took part in the Blanqui uprising, shared the fate of the
Blanquists and landed in prison. When they were released, Schapper and his
comrades went to London. There they organised the Workers' Educational Society,
which was later transformed into a communist organisation.
In the thirties there were quite a few other writers alongside of Borne who
dominated the minds of the German intelligentsia. The most illustrious of them was
Heinrich Heine, the poet, who was also a publicist, and whose Paris correspondence
like the correspondence of Ludwig Borne, was of great educational importance to the
youth old Germany.
Borne and Heine were Jews. Borne came from the Palatinate, Heine from the
Rhine province where Marx and Engels were born and grew up. Marx was also a Jew.
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