5. Statement of the Editorial Board of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
5. Statement of the Editorial Board of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung[7]
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 renewed insolence of the reactionaries foreshadows the enactment of German September Laws[8] 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 the abundant variety of news and reports that 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 Bürgers Ernst Dronke Friedrich Engels e d i t o r s Georg Weerth Ferdinand Wollt Wilhelm Wolff
Written not later than May 31, 1848
Endnotes
[7] On March 29, 1848, the supplement to No. 89 of the Trier'sche Zeitung carried a report from Paris, dated March 24, in which the activity of the German Democratic Society (see Note 3) was criticised. This article was apparendy written by one of Marx's followers in the Communist League, probably with Marx's help. The author vehemendy denounced the idea of an armed invasion of Germany by the volunteer legion and stated that the German Workers' Club associated with the Communist League had nothing to do with this venture. Deeply hurt by this article, the leaders of the German Democratic Society sent Marx a note signed by Bornstedt, Löwenfels, Bernstein, Volk and Mayer in which they demanded the author's name. The reply is published here from a copy made by Engels. After Marx had rejected their demand, one of the society's leaders, Herwegh, wrote a memorandum for the German periodicals (on April 3, 1848), in which he justified the idea of a volunteer legion and venomously attacked communists. Marx's letter was published in L'Alba on June 29, 1848, with the following introductory note by the editors: "We publish the following letter received from Cologne to show what feelings the noble-minded Germans entertain towards Italy; they ardendy wish to establish fraternal relations between the Italian and German peoples, whom European despots have tried to set against each other." The reply by the editors of L'Alba, signed by L. Alinari, is quoted in Engels' article "Germany's Foreign Policy" (see this volume, p. 167). An English translation of this letter was published in the magazine Labour Monthly No. 5, 1948, and in the collection: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Correspondence (Moscow, 1955, London, 1956). This statement of the editorial board was printed in the first number of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which appeared in the evening of May 31, but was dated June 1, 1848. (In English the statement was published in the magazine Labour Monthly No. 5, 1948, and in the collection: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Articles from the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung". 1848-49, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972.) Marx and Engels began to plan the publication of a German revolutionary paper as far back as March 1848 when they were still living in Paris. On March 26 and 28, 1848, Engels wrote about this plan to his brother-in-law Emil Blank. The publication of a proletarian newspaper was regarded by Marx and Engels as an important step towards a mass party of the German proletariat, which, they believed, should be founded on the basis of the Communist League. On their arrival in Germany, they realised that the conditions for creating such a party were not yet ripe: the German workers were disunited; their immaturity and lack of organisation made them easy prey to narrow craft and petty-bourgeois influences and particularist moods, while the Communist League, for which there was no sense in continuing secret activities during the revolution, was too weak and small in number to be instrumental in consolidating the workers. Marx and Engels realised this after studying the reports submitted by the Central Authority emissaries on the situation in the League's local communities. In this context, the role of a newspaper in influencing the masses, in their ideological and political education and consolidation, seemed peculiarly important. The paper could be used for political guidance of the activities of Communist League members, who were instructed by Marx and Engels to avail themselves of every legal opportunity and join the emerging workers' associations and democratic societies. Marx and Engels decided to publish the paper in Cologne, the capital of the Rhine Province, one of the most economically and politically advanced regions in Germany. The new paper was given the name of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung to emphasise that it was to continue the revolutionary-democratic traditions of the Rheinische Zeitung, which Marx had edited in 1842 and 1843. Taking account of the specific circumstances, with the absence of an independent mass workers' party in Germany, Marx, Engels and their followers entered the political scene as a Left, actually proletarian, wing of the democratic movement. This determined the stand of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which began to appear under the subtitle "The Organ of Democracy". When they started the paper, Marx and Engels had to cope with serious financial difficulties as well as with thé opposition from sectarian elements in the Communist League (Hess, Anneke and others), who intended to publish a purely local sheet under a similar title. In April and May 1848, Marx and Engels worked hard selling shares in the paper, finding contributors and establishing regular contacts with democratic periodicals in other countries. The editorial committee was known for its unanimity of views, well-co-ordinated work and strict division of functions. As a rule, Marx and Engels wrote the editorials formulating the paper's stand on the most important questions of the revolution. These were usually marked "*Köln" and "**Köln". Sometimes editorial articles marked with one asterisk were printed in other sections under the heading of news from Italy, France, England, Hungary and other countries. In the early months of the paper's existence Marx was fully occupied with administrative and organisational matters and most of the leading articles were written by Engels. In addition to this, Engels also contributed critical reviews of debates in the Berlin and Frankfurt National Assemblies, articles on the national liberation movements in Bohemia, Posen and Italy, and on the war in Schleswig-Holstein, revolutionary developments in Hungary and political life in Switzerland. Wilhelm Wolff contributed articles on the agrarian question, on the condition of the peasants and their movement, particularly in Silesia. He was also responsible for the current events section. Georg Weerth wrote feuilletons in verse and prose. Ernst Dronke was for some time the Neue Rheinische Zeitung correspondent in Frankfurt am Main and wrote several articles on Poland. Ferdinand Wolff was for a long time one of the paper's correspondents in Paris. The only article which Heinrich Bürgers wrote for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was almost entirely rewritten by Marx. Ferdinand Freiligrath, who became one of the paper's editors in October 1848, published his own verses. The Neue Rheinische Zeitung was a daily paper (from September 1848 it appeared every day except Monday). Its editors often published a second edition