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be in
possession of a correct method, that one could not limit himself to general
conclusions, that it was necessary to make a careful study of capitalist reality, in
order that one might penetrate into all the subtleties of this intricate mechanism.
Marx had a colossal task before him; this first draft, though the work of a genius, still
had to be converted into a stately edifice. But before Marx had a chance to build this
edifice, he and Engels had to go through the Revolution of 1848, which they had been
impatiently awaiting, which they had foretold, for which they had been preparing,
and in anticipation of which they had worked out the basic propositions of the
Communist Manifesto.
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CHAPTER V
THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF 1818.
MARX AND ENGELS IN THE RHINE PROVINCE.
THE FOUNDING OF THE Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
GOTSCHALK AND WILLICH.
THE COLOGNE WORKINGMEN'S UNION.
THE POLICIES AND TACTICS OF THE Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
STEFAN BORN.
MARX S CHANGE OF TACTICS.
THE DEFEAT OF THE REVOLUTION AND THE DIFFERENCE OF
OPINIONS IN THE COMMUNIST LEAGUE.
THE SPLIT.
The Communist Manifesto was published only a few days before the February
Revolution, and the organisation of the Communist League was brought to
completion
only in November, 1847. The League which was composed of the Paris,
London and Brussels circles, was only loosely connected with some smaller German
groups.
This in itself is sufficient to show that the organised forces of the German
sections of the Communist League with which Marx had to operate were quite
insignificant. The Revolution flared up in Paris on February 24, 1848. It spread
rapidly to Germany. On March 3 there was something of a popular insurrection in
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Cologne, the chief city in the Rhine province. The city authorities were forced to
address a petition to the Prussian King; they implored him to heed this disturbance
and to make some concessions. At the head of this Cologne insurrection there were
two men, Gotschalk, a physician who was very popular
among the poor and the
workers of Cologne, and the ex-officer, August Willich (1810-1878). On March 13, the
Revolution broke out in Vienna, on the 18th it reached Berlin.
During all this time Marx was in Brussels. The Belgian government, not
wishing to share the fate of the July monarchy swooped down upon the immigrants
who resided in Brussels, arrested Marx, and within a few hours conducted him out of
the country. He went to Paris. One of the heads of the provisional government of
France, Ferdinand Flocon (1800-1866), an editor of a newspaper to which Engels
was a contributor, had previously invited Marx to come, declaring that on the now
free French soil all the decrees of the old government were null and void.
The Brussels district committee, to whom the London committee had handed
over its authority after the revolutionary outbreaks on
the continent, transferred its
authority to Marx. Among the German workers who congregated in Paris in large
numbers, many dissensions arose and various groups were organised. One of these
groups was under the sway of Bakunin who, together with the German poet Georg
Herwegh (1817-1875), hatched a plan of forming an armed organisation and invading
Germany.
Marx tried to dissuade them from this enterprise; he suggested that they go to
Germany singly, and participate in the revolutionary events there. But Bakunin and
Herwegh adhered to their old plan. Herwegh organised a revolutionary legion, and
led it to the German border, where he
was completely defeated. Marx together with some comrades succeeded in
getting into Germany, where they settled in different places.
Marx and Engels went
to the Rhine province.
We must remember that the German section of the Communist League had
no organisation. There were only isolated sympathisers. What was there left for
Marx, Engels and their comrades to do? About forty years after the events described
here, Engels tried to explain to the young comrades the tactics which he and Marx
had pursued in Germany in 1848. To a question, "why did he and Marx stay in the
Rhine province, in Cologne, instead of going to Berlin?" he gave the following clear
answer: They chose the Rhine province because industrially it was the most
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developed part of Germany; because it was under the system of the Napoleonic code -
- a heritage of the French Revolution, and they could, therefore, expect greater
freedom of action, greater latitude for agitation and propaganda. Besides,
the Rhine
province had an appreciable proletarian element. True, Cologne itself was not among
the most industrialised localities in the Rhine province, but in the administrative and
every other sense, it was the centre of the province. Considering the times, its
population was considerable -- eighty thousand inhabitants. Its most importent
machine industry was sugar refining. The eau-de-Cologne industry, while important,
did not require much machinery. The textile industries distinctly lagged behind those
of Elberfeld and Barmen. At any rate, Marx and Engels had good reasons for having
chosen Cologne as their residence. They wished to keep
in touch with the whole of
Germany; they wished to found a strong journal which would serve as a tribune for
the entire country, and for this, in their opinion, Cologne was the most appropriate
place. Was it not in the same province that the first important political organ of the
German bourgeoisie had been published in 1842? All the preliminary work for the
publication of such an organ had been going on for some time. Marx and Engels
succeeded in gaining control of the publication that was being organised.
But this publication was the organ o; the democratic groups. Here is how
Engels tried to explain why they referred to it as the Organ of Democracy. There had
been no proletarian organisation, and there were only two roads they could follow --
either the immediate organisation
of a communist party, or the utilisation of the
democratic organisations that were on hand, first by uniting them all, and then by
boring from within, by criticism and propaganda, to effect a reorganisation and to
attract working men's circles that had not belonged to the democratic organisations
before. The second method was chosen. This placed Marx and Engels in a somewhat
false position in relation to the Workingmen's Union of Cologne which had been
organised by Gotschalk and Willich immediately after the third of March.
Gotschalk was a physician, very popular with the Cologne poor. He was not a
communist; in his views he rather approached Weitling and the Weitlingites. He was
a good revolutionist, but too easily swayed by moods. Personally he was a man
beyond reproach. Though not guided by a definite programme,
he was sufficiently
critical of democracy to have declared at his first public appearance at the town hall,
"I come not in the name of the people, for all these representatives are of the people;
no, I address myself to you only in the name of the labouring population." He