10. Report of the Speeches Made by Marx and Engels at the General Meeting of the Democratic Society in Cologne on August 4, 1848
10. Report of the Speeches Made by Marx and Engels at the General Meeting of the Democratic Society in Cologne on August 4, 1848[346]
[...] Hereupon Dr. Marx, editor-in-chief of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, examines the principles of Herr Weitling, pronounced at the meeting of the Democratic Society held a fortnight ago,(1) and in a pithy and fairly long speech seeks to prove, on the grounds of the historical development of the revolutions that have taken place during the last few centuries, that, the separation of political and social interests assumed by Weitling is as unthinkable as their direct opposition, that, rather, the political and social interests must interpenetrate. The claim that social development retards political development was also incorrect; unfortunately, in respect of social development we Germans had only now arrived at the point which the French had already reached in the year 1789; the present contradictions could only be resolved by sharply defining them and emphasising the interests of the individual classes; only in this way, that is by using intellectual weapons, can an amicable settlement be achieved. The disregard of the position of the various strata of the population to one another, the refusal to make reciprocal concessions and wrong notions about class relations have led to the bloody outcome in Paris. The dictatorship which Weitling proposed as the most desirable constitutional form is, for similar reasons, regarded by Marx as impractical and quite unfeasible, since power cannot be attained by a single class; the intention to carry on a dictatorship in accordance with a system devised by a single brain, deserves to be called nonsensical. On the contrary, the governing power, just as the Provisional Government in Paris, must consist of the most heteroge-neous elements, which by means of an exchange of views have to agree on the most appropriate mode of administration.
Herr Engels reports on the Government's rejection of the application for citizenship of Dr. Marx.(2) As the latter was a Rhineland Prussian by birth, and as since the March revolution all political refugees have had their citizenship restored to them, this interpretation of citizenship involved injustice and breach of faith; he would thereby be regarded as a foreigner who could be expelled at any time.