Notes

The "Theses on Feuerbach" were written by Karl Marx in Brussels, probably in April 1845. They are to be found in Marx's notebook of 1844-47 under the heading "1) ad Feuerbach". They were published by Engels in the Appendix to the 1888 edition of his work Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy. In the foreword to this edition Engels called this important theoretical document "Theses on Feuerbach", hence the title. To render the brief notes, which Marx had not intended for publication, more comprehensible to the reader, Engels made a number of editorial changes when preparing the "Theses" for the press. Both versions of the "Theses"—i.e., Marx's original text and that edited by Engels — have been included in this volume. The original text was first published in German and Russian in 1924 by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U., Moscow (Marx-Engels Archives, Book I); in English it was published in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology, Parts I & III, Lawrence and Wishart Ltd., London, 1938. The first English translation of the edited version was published in the Appendix to Frederick Engels, Feuerbach. The Roots of the Socialist Philosophy, Chicago, 1903. p. 3

Marx refers to the following chapters in Feuerbach's Das Wesen des Christentums: "Die Bedeutung der Creation im Judenthum" and "Der wesentliche Standpunkt der Religion". p. 3

These notes were evidently intended by Engels for Chapter I of the first volume of The German Ideology. They were first published in the language of the original by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. in 1932 (Marx/Engels Gesamtausgabe, Erste Abteilung, Band 5); in English they were published for the first time in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964. p. 11

According to the doctrine of the Saint-Simonists, every individual is endowed with love, intellect and physical activity. Hence he should receive moral, mental and physical education (cf. Doctrine de Saint-Simon. Exposition. Première année, 9th lecture). p. 12

Residual editorial notes

33 editorial note entries had no resolved in-text occurrence and remain here so no source note definition is discarded.

[22] Marseillaise, Carmagnole, Ça ira—revolutionary songs of the period of the French Revolution. The refrain of the last song was: "Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira. Les aristocrates à la lanterne!" ("Ah, it will certainly happen. Hang the aristocrats on the lamp-post!")

[23] See Note 20.

[27] This section formed originally part of Chapter III and followed directly after the passage to which Marx and Engels refer here (see this volume, pp. 173-76).

[31] During the following years, Marx and Engels changed their evaluation of the medieval peasant uprisings both as a result of their studies of the peasants' struggle against feudalism and also of the revolutionary actions of the peasants in 1848 and 1849. Engels, in particular, in his work The Peasant War in Germany (written in 1850) showed the revolutionary nature of the peasant risings and the part they played in undermining the very basis of the feudal system.

[37] The Leipzig Council— this is an allusion to the fact that the works of Bruno Bauer and Max Stirner, the two "church fathers" criticised in this section, were published in Leipzig.

[39] A reference to the potato blight of 1845 which affected Ireland, many regions of England and some parts of the Continent. It led to a failure of the potato crop and devastating famine in Ireland.

[45] The structure of this chapter parodies Stirner's manner of presenting his material. In his book Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum Stirner often interrupts his exposition with "episodical insertions" which are not directly connected with the subject-matter. Poking fun at this manner, Marx and Engels begin the chapter with a reference to Stirner's article "Recensenten Stirners" (published in Wigand's Vierteljahrsschrift, Vol. 3), which they ironically call "Apologetical Commentary". It is Stirner's reply to the criticism of his book by Szeliga, Feuerbach and Hess. Then follows a lengthy "episodical insertion", which takes up nearly the whole of this long chapter. It contains a critical analysis of Stirner's book, and only at the end of the chapter, in Section 2, do Marx and Engels return to the above-mentioned article. The structure of the "episode" corresponds to that of the book they criticised, and, just like the latter, it comprises two parts ironically entided "The Old Testament: Man", and "The New Testament: 'Ego'". The corresponding parts in Stirner's book are entitled "Der Mensch" ("Man") and "Ich" ("Ego"). In the subheadings Marx and Engels also use the names of chapters and sections of Stirner's book, in many cases giving them an ironical twist.

[47] Part One of Stirner's book, "Der Mensch" ("Man"), has the following structure: I. Ein Menschenleben (A Man's Life); II. Menschen der alten und neuen Zeit (People of Ancient and Modern Times): 1. Die Alten (The Ancients); 2. Die Neuen (The Moderns)—§ 1. Der Geist (The Spirit), §2. Die Besessenen (The Possessed), §3. Die Hierarchie (Hierarchy); 3. Die Freien (The Free Ones)— § 1. Der politische Liberalismus (Political Liberalism), §2. Der sociale Liberalismus (Social Liberalism), §3. Der humane Liberalismus (Humane Liberalism).

[54] Wasserpolacken (literally water Poles) — nickname given to the Silesian Poles in Germany.

[55] A reference to the bombardment of Chinese maritime towns and ports on the Yangtse and other rivers by the British naval and land forces during the First Opium War, Britain's war of conquest against China waged from 1839 to 1842. With this war began the transformation of China into a semi-colony.

[56] amis de la liberté'" ("Two friends of freedom")—pseudonym used by Fr. Marie Kerverseau and G. Clavelin, authors of the Histoire de la Révolution de 1789, a work in twenty volumes published in Paris at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century.

[57] " Habits bleus" ("blue coats") — a name given to the soldiers of the French Republic at the end of the 18th century because of the colour of their uniform. Ina wider sense it was applied to the Republicans as distinct from the royalists, who were called Blancs ("Whites").

[62] Tugendbund (League of Virtue)—secret political society which was founded in Prussia in 1808. Its principal aims were to foster patriotic feelings among the population and to organise the struggle for the liberation of Germany from the Napoleonic occupation and for the establishment of a constitutional system in the country. At Napoleon's request the Tugendbund was formally dissolved in 1809 by the King of Prussia but it actually continued to exist until the end of the Napoleonic wars.

[63] Cercle social — an organisation established by democratic intellectuals in Paris in the first years of the French Revolution. Its chief spokesman, Claude Fauchet, demanded an equalitarian division of the land, restrictions on large fortunes and employment for all able-bodied citizens. The criticism to which Fauchet and his supporters subjected the formal equality proclaimed in the documents of the French Revolution prepared the ground for bolder action in defence of the destitute by Jacques Roux, Théophile Leclerc and other members of the radical-plebeian "Enragés".

[66] Jeu de paume — a tennis-court in Versailles. On June 20, 1789, the deputies of the Third Estate, who on June 17 proclaimed themselves a National Assembly, met in this building (because their official meeting-place had been closed by order of the King) and took a solemn oath not to separate until they had given France a constitution. Lit de justice—sessions of the French parliaments (the supreme judicial bodies in pre-revolutionary France) in the presence of the King. Orders by the King issued at these sessions had the force of law. The reference here is to the meeting of the States-General on June 23, 1789. At this meeting the King declared the decisions adopted by the Third Estate on June 17 null and void and demanded the immediate dispersal of the Assembly, but the deputies of the Third Estate refused to obey and continued their deliberations.

[69] Free-thinkers (Freijeister — by spelling the word according to the Berlin dialect pronunciation the authors have given the name an ironical note) — an allusion to "The Free", a group of Berlin Young Hegelians which came into being in the first half of 1842. Among its principal members were Bruno Bauer, Edgar Bauer, Eduard Meyen, Ludwig Buhl and Max Stirner. The existing system was criticised by "The Free" in an abstract way, their statements were devoid of real revolutionär)' content, their ultra-radical form often compromised the democratic movement. Many of "The Free" renounced radicalism in the following years. For the criticism of "The Free" in Marx's early writings see present edition, Vol. 1, pp. 287, 390, 393-95.

[71] This refers to the movement for a democratic electoral reform whose members— republican democrats and petty-bourgeois socialists — gathered round La Réforme, an opposition newspaper published in Paris from 1843. The supporters of La Réforme were also known as the socialistic democratic party.

[73] An allusion to disturbances which took place in Catalonia at the beginning of July 1845 and were caused bv the attempt of the government to introduce a law under which one man out of five was to serve in the army. The disturbances were brutally suppressed.

[75] Dioscuri — Castor and Pollux (or in Greek Poly deuces), heroes of classical mythology, the twin sons of Zeus, by whom they were turned into the constellation Gemini (the Twins); as such they were considered to be the patrons of seamen.

[77] Banqueroute cochonne (swinish bankruptcy)—the 32nd of the 36 types of bankruptcy described by Fourier in his work Des trois unités externes published in the journal La Phalange, 1845, Vol. 1. Excerpts from this work are given by Engels in his article "A Fragment of Fourier's on Trade" (for the passage about "swinish bankruptcy" see present edition, Vol. 4, p. 638). 936

[78] Part Two of Stirner's book Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum—"Ich" ("Ego") — is subdivided as follows: I. Die Eigenheit (Peculiarity); II. Der Eigner (The Owner): 1. Meine Macht (My Power), 2. Mein Verkehr (My Intercourse), 3. Mein Selbstgenuss (My Self-Enjoyment); III. Der Einzige (The Unique).

[79] Orphanage-Francke—the nickname stems from the fact that August Hermann Francke founded an orphanage and several other philanthropic institutions for children in Halle at the end of the 17th century.

[80] The maxim "Know Thyself was written over the entrance of Apollo's temple at Delphi.

[94] This refers to the Law of 1844 which made it very difficult to obtain a divorce. The Bill was drafted in 1842 on the instructions of Frederick William IV by Savigny, one of the founders of the Historical School of Law (see Note 91), who was Prussian Minister for the Revision of Laws from 1842 to 1848.

[105] An allusion to the fact that in the summer of 1845 Stirner attempted to earn his living by selling milk since he could not exist on the proceeds from his literary work. But the undertaking proved a complete failure, and the curdled milk had to be poured down the drain.

[107] A reference to the British and Dutch East India Companies which were founded at the beginning of the 17th century. They had the monopoly of trade with the East Indies and played a decisive part in the establishment of the British and Dutch colonial empires.

[108] The Preussische Seehandlungsgesellschaft (Prussian Maritime Trading Company) was founded as a commercial and banking company in 1772 and granted a number of important privileges by the state. It advanced big loans to the government and in fact became its banker and broker.

[114] See Note 18.

[127] Neue Anekdota— collection of articles by Moses Hess, Karl Grün, Otto Lüning and other representatives of "true socialism" published in Darmstadt at the end of May 1845.

[130] Cabinet Montpensier—a reading room in the Palais-Royal, formerly a palace of the Princes of Orleans in Paris.

[133] Lettres d'un Habitant de Genève à ses Contemporains was written by Saint-Simon in 1802 and published anonymously in Paris in 1803.

[138] Le Livre nouveau (The New Book)—a manuscript containing an exposition of the Saint-Simonian doctrine. It was drawn up by the leaders of the Saint-Simonian school, which was headed by Enfantin, in the course of a series of meetings held in July 1832. Among the leaders present were Barrot, Fournel, Chevalier, Duverier and Lambert. The authors intended the book to become the "new Bible" of the Saint-Simonian doctrine. Extracts from the Livre nouveau and other information about it can be found in Reybaud's book Etudes sur les réformateurs ou socialistes modernes.

[153] In partibus infidelium—literally in parts inhabited by unbelievers. The words are added to the title of Roman Catholic bishops appointed to purely nominal dioceses in non-Christian countries. In the figurative sense, they mean "not really existing". Engels is ironically alluding to poems glorifying the future of the as yet non-existent German fleet, namely, Georg Herwegh's "Die deutsche Flotte" (1841) and Ferdinand Freiligrath's "Flotten-Träume" (1843) and "Zwei Flaggen" (1844).