March-November 1848
"Workers of all countries, unite!"
1. The whole of Germany shall be declared a single and indivisible republic.
2. Every German, having reached the age of 21, shall have the right to vote and to be elected, provided he has not been convicted of a criminal offence.
3. Representatives of the people shall receive payment so that workers, too, shall be able to become members of the German parliament.
4. Universal arming of the people. In future the armies shall be simultaneously labour armies, so that the troops shall not, as formerly, merely consume, but shall produce more than is necessary for their upkeep.
This will moreover be conducive to the organisation of labour. 5. Legal services shall be free of charge. 6. All feudal obligations, dues, corvées, tithes etc., which have hitherto weighed upon the rural population, shall be abolished without compensation.
7. Princely and other feudal estates, together with mines, pits, and so forth, shall become the property of the state. The estates shall be cultivated on a large scale and with the most up-to-date scientific devices in the interests of the whole of society.
8. Mortgages on peasant lands shall be declared the property of the state. Interest on such mortgages shall be paid by the peasants to the state.
9. In localities where the tenant system is developed, the land rent or the quit-rent shall be paid to the state as a tax.
The measures specified in Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9 are to be adopted in order to reduce the communal and other burdens hitherto imposed upon the peasants and small tenant farmers without curtailing the means available for defraying state expenses and without imperilling production.
The landowner in the strict sense, who is neither a peasant nor a tenant farmer, has no share in production. Consumption on his part is, therefore, nothing .but abuse.
10. A state bank, whose paper issues are legal tender, shall replace all private banks.
This measure will make it possible to regulate the credit system in the interest of the people as a whole, and will thus undermine the dominion of the big financial magnates. Further, by gradually substituting paper money for gold and silver coin, the universal means of exchange (that indispensable prerequisite of bourgeois trade and commerce) will be cheapened, and gold and silver will be set free for use in foreign trade. Finally, this measure is necessary in order to bind the interests of the conservative bourgeoisie to the Government.[3]
11. All the means of transport, railways, canals, steamships, roads, the posts etc. shall be taken over by the state. They shall become the property of the state and shall be placed free at the disposal of the impecunious classes.
12. All civil servants shall receive the same salary, the only exception being that civil servants who have a family to support and who therefore have greater requirements, shall receive a higher salary.
13. Complete separation of Church and State. The clergy of every denomination shall be paid only by the voluntary contributions of their congregations.
14. The right of inheritance to be curtailed. 15. The introduction of steeply graduated taxes, and the abolition of taxes on articles of consumption.
16. Inauguration of national workshops. The state guarantees a livelihood to all workers and provides for those who are incapacitated for work.
17. Universal and free education of the people. It is to the interest of the German proletariat, the petty bourgeoisie and the small peasants to support these demands with all possible energy. Only by the realisation of these demands will the millions in ber &ommumfttfd)en fyattti
in
„Proletarier aller ïànber Bereinigt (Sua)!"
1. ©an; Dcutfôïanb »irb ju einer einigen, unheilbaren Stepublit erflàrt.
2. 3eber Deutfaje, ber 21 3 « $ « «It, tft SBä&ter unb »ä$lbar, »or-ausgefegt baf) er feine Rriminalftrafe erlitten $at.
3. Die SBolWrertreter »erben befotbei, bamit auä) bei ärieiter im Parlament be« beutfct)en SBolfe« fîÇen fönne.
4. allgemeine SBolt«be»affmmg. Die Armeen ftnb in 3«t«nft 8"' gleich, ärbeiter-Slmteen, fo bafj ba« Jpeer ntr^t Mo«, »iefrütier, Berjebrt, fonbern nocb me&r probujirt, al« feine linterbattungsfoften betragen.
Diefj ift aufjerbem ein Mittet jur Drganifation ber arbeit. 5. Die ©erecbtigieiWpflege ift unentgeltlid).
6. ïltte geuballaften, alle abgaben, grofcnben, 3«$nten,ic., biebisber auf bem Sanboolte tafteten, »erben ol)ne irgenb eine Sntfcf/àbigung ab« gefcbafft.
7. Die fürftlicben unb anbern feubaten Sanbgüter, alle SBergwerfe, ©ruben, u. f. »., »erben in Staatseigentum umgewandelt. Sluf biefen Sanogiitcrn »irb ber acferbau im ©rofien unb mit ben mobernften §ilf«mitteln ber SBiffenfctjaft jum Cortheit ber ©efammtbeit betrieben.
8. Die £9BOtt)efen auf ben Bauerngütern »erben für ©taat«eigen= tyum erKart. Die 3ntereffen für jene Jpçpott)eren »erben »on ben Bauern an ben Staat gejabjt.
9. 3n ben ©egenben, »o ba« $act)t»efen entwictett ift, »irb bie ©runbrente ober ber ^adjtfayiling al« ©teuer an ben Staat gejault.
SStle biefe unter 6, 7, 8 unb 9 angegebenen 27raa§regetn »erben ge= fafjt, um öffentliche unb anbere îaften ber Bauern unb Keinen ^Säcbter ju »erminbern, obne bie jur SBeftreitung ber StaatSfoften nötigen 3J?ittet ju formalem unb oI>ne bie frobuftion felbft ju geführten.
Der eigcntlidje ©runbeigentljûmer, ber »eber Sauer nocb Siebter ifl.
bat an ber production gar reinen SKntbcil. ©eine Ronfumtion ift badei ein bfofjer Wiflbrauti).
10. Sin bie ©teile aller •pripatbanfen tritt eine ©taattibaitf, beren papier gefefclict/en Sur« bat.
Diefe 3)?a|jregcl maebt e« möglich, da« Ärebtttoefen im 3ntereffe be» ganjen SSolre« ju regeln unb untergrabt bamit bie Jperrfciaft ber gro-ßen ©elbmanner. 3«bem fie naa) unb nacb. Papiergeld an bie Stelle »on ©olb unb Silber fetjt, »er»oc>lfeilert fie ba« rnientbebrlïà)e 3nftru-ment be« bürgerlichen Serfebj:«, ba« allgemeine Xaufd)tnittei, unb er< laubt, ba« ©olb unb Silber nad) aufen bin »irfen ju taffen. Diefe SWaafjregel ift fd)lief lid) notwendig, um bie 3ntereffen ber fonfersati» »en Bourgeois an bie 9?c»olution ju fnüpfen.
11. äße Transportmittel: (Sifcnbabnen, Kanäle, Datnpffd)iffe, 2Bege, Soften, ic, nimmt ber ©taat in feine §anb. ©te »erben in ©taat«eigentb.um umgewanbclt unb ber unbemittelten Waffe jur unent-geltlicben SBerfügung geftellt.
12. 3n ber Befolbung fämmtlid)er Staatsbeamten finbet lein anbe-rer Unterfd)ieb ftatt, al« ber, pajj biejenigen mit Jamilie, alfo mit mehr Sebürfniffen, audi ein böbereä ®et)alt bejieben al« bie Uebrigen.
13. SBoflige îrenming ber Rircbe »ont Staate. Die ©eiftlicben aller Äonfeffionen »erben lebiglia) Bon ibjrcr freiwilligen ©emtinbe befolget.
14. Befchrànfung be« 8rbrcn)t«.
15. Einführung Mit ftarten ^rogreffroftettera unb abfebaffung ber flonfumtion«fteuern.
16. (ïrricbtung von ')iational»erfftätten. Der ©taat garantirt allen Arbeitern ihre Sriftenj unb »erforgt bie jur arbeit Unfähigen.
17. allgemeine, unentgeltliche Solfäcrjicbung.
g« liegt im 3»tereffe be« bcutfd)en proletariat«, be« Keinen Sürger-unb Sauernftanbc«, mit alltr Energie an berDure^feÇung obiger 2Haafj-regeln jn arbeiten. Demi nur buret) SerwirHicJung berfelben lönnen ci« ïltittionen, bie bisher in Deutfd)lanb »on einer Keinen 3<>bl au«ge= beutet mürben unb bie man weiter inberllnterbrücfung ju erbalten fuiben roirb, ju ibrem Siecryt unb ju berjenigen Waa)t gelangen, bie t^nen, al« ben Jperoorbringern alle« 3îeta)t|um«, gebührt.
Pas «Lomite:
SarlTOan. Äarl ©cbapper. ip. Bauer, g. Sngel«. 3. SWofl. 3». 333oIff.
Demands of the Communist Party in Germany, leaflet published in Cologne in 1848
Germany, who have hitherto been exploited by a handful of persons and whom the exploiters would like to keep in further subjection, win the rights and attain to that power to which they are entitled as the producers of all wealth.
The Committee: Karl Marx, Karl Schapper, H. Bauer, F. Engels,
J. Moll, W. Wolff
Endnotes
[3] At the end of 1848 or the beginning of 184-9 an abridged version of the "Demands" was published in pamphlet form by Weiler Publishers in Leipzig. The slogan at the beginning of the document, the second paragraph of point 9 and the last sentence of point 10 were omitted, and the words "The Committee" were not included among the signatories. In 1853, an abridged version of the "Demands" was printed, together with other documents of the Communist League, in the first part of the book Die Communisten-Ver schworungen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, published in Berlin for purposes of information by Wermuth and Stieber, two police officials, who staged a trial against the Communists in Cologne in 1852. Later Engels reproduced the main points of the "Demands" in his essay On the History of the Communist League, published in November 1885 in the newspaper Sozialdemokrat, and as an introduction to the pamphlet: K. Marx, Enthüllungen über den Kommunisten Prozess zu Köln, Hottingen-Zürich, 1885. English translations of the "Demands of the Communist Party in Germany" appeared in the collections: The Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels with an introduction and explanatory notes by D. Ryazanoff, Martin Lawrence, London (1930); K. Marx, Selected Works, Vol. II, ed. V. Adoratsky, Moscow-Leningrad, Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR (1936); ibid., New York (1936); Birth of the Communist Manifesto, edited and annotated, with an Introduction by D. J. Struik, International Publishers, New York, 1971, and in other publications. The letter to the editor of the Populaire and the Declaration are in Engels' handwriting. Both documents were drawn up at the end of March 1848 after Engels' arrival in Paris and reflect the struggle which the leaders of the Communist League were waging against those German petty-bourgeois emigrant leaders in Paris, Herwegh and Bornstedt among others, who intended to speed up revolution in Germany by moving in a volunteer legion organised by using private donations and subsidies from the Provisional Government of the French Republic. Appeals to enlist were accompanied by demagogic appeals to the patriotic and revolutionary sentiments of German emigrants. Marx, Engels and other members of the Central Authority of the Communist League spoke out against the adventurist nature of such plans to "export revolution" and advised German workers instead to return to their home country individually in order to take part in the revolutionary events that were brewing there. "We opposed this playing with revolution in the most decisive fashion," Engels later wrote in his work On the History of the Communist League. "To carry out an invasion, which was to import the revolution forcibly from outside, into the midst of the ferment then going on in Germany, meant to undermine the revolution in Germany itself, to strengthen the governments and to deliver the legionaries ... defenceless into the hands of the German troops." The letter and the Declaration were first published in English in the journal Science and Society, 1940, Vol. IV, No. 2. The first publication in the language of the original appeared in the collection Der Bund der Kommunisten. Dokumente und Materialien, Bd. I, 1836-1849, Berlin, 1970. The Cerman Democratic Society (below it is called the Society of German Democrats) was formed in Paris after the February revolution of 1848. The society was headed by petty-bourgeois democrats, Herwegh, Bornstedt (the latter expelled from the Communist League) and others, who campaigned to raise a volunteer legion of German emigrants with the intention of marching into