Appendices
1. Permit to Leave Switzerland Issued to Frederick Engels[423]
No. 1279 Surname Christian names Place of birth Age Height
Engels, Writer
Friedrich
Barmen (Prussia)
28 years
5 foot 9(1)A inches, or 1 metre 79
centimetres
Light brown
Broad
Light brown
Brown
Small
Medium
Light brown
Round
Oval
Ruddy
Hair Forehead Eyebrows Eyes Nose Mouth Beard Chin Face Complexion Distinguishing marks Issued for the period of one year on September 11, 1849 to England via Piedmont and Spain, to reside there.
(Authorised by Department of Justice and Supervision September 11, 1849.)
Going
on
Signature of bearer
Fred. Engels*
2. Appeal for Support for German Political Refugees[424]
Ever since, accompanied by the savage din of war, "peace and order" have been re-established in Germany; ever since, atop the ruins of smouldering cities and amidst the murderous thunder of cannon, the "security of property and person" has been restored; ever since the court-martial has scarcely sufficed to consign one "rebel" after the other with smashed head to the grave; ever since the prisons have no longer proved large enough to accommodate all the "traitors"; ever since the only remaining form of justice has been martial law — since that time thousands upon thousands of people have been wandering without shelter in foreign lands.
From day to day their number grows and with it the misfortune of those without a homeland; turned away from one place to the next, they do not know in the morning where they will lay their heads that evening, nor in the evening where tomorrow's food is coming from.
There is an emigration of countless numbers filling Switzerland, France and England. Those wretched people have come from all the provinces of Germany.
Anyone who mounted the barricades in Vienna against the black and yellow(1) "league" and grappled with Jellachich's Serezhans[425]; anyone who fled from the soldiery of Wrangel and Brandenburg in Prussia; anyone who in Dresden took up the musket to defend the Imperial Constitution, and anyone who in Baden saw action as a republican soldier against the united crusading army of- the princes — whether liberal, democrat, republican or socialist: supporters of the most varied political doctrines and interests, they are all united in the same exile and the same misery.
Dressed in rags, half a nation is begging at the doors of foreigners. Our fugitive compatriots are also wandering on the cold pavement of the resplendent metropolis, London. Every ship that crosses the Channel brings from across the sea a new multitude of people without a homeland; in every street of the city one can hear the grief of an exile lamenting in our tongue.
This distress has deeply stirred many German friends of liberty in London. Therefore on September 18 of this year a general meeting was held of the German Workers' Educational Society and the refugees from our nation who had arrived here, in order to set up a Committee of Support for Democrats in Need. Those elected were:
Karl Marx, former editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung; Karl Blind, former envoy in Paris of the Baden-Palatinate Government;
Anton Füster, former member of the Austrian Imperial Diet in Vienna;
Heinrich Bauer, master shoemaker in London; and Karl Pfänder, a painter here. This Committee will render a public account every month, both at the general meeting and in the form of extracts in German newspapers. In order to avoid any misinterpretation it has been decided that no member of the Committee may draw any assistance whatsoever from the fund. Should a member of the Committee ever be in need of assistance in the future, then he will cease to be a member of the Committee.
We ask you now, friends and brothers, to do whatever lies in your power. If you are concerned that liberty, crushed and enchained, should rise again,*and if you have a feeling in your hearts for the sufferings of your best champions, then there will be no great need of exhortations from us.
All donations should be addressed to: "Heinrich Bauer, master shoemaker, 64 Dean Street, Soho Square, London." Whatever is enclosed should be marked "for the Refugee Committee".
London, September 20, 1849 The Committee of Support for German Political Refugees:
Anton Füster, Karl Marx, Karl Blind,
Heinrich Bauer, Karl Pfänder
Published in the Westdeutsche Zeitung Printed according to the Neue No. 106, September 25, 1849; Deutsche Zeitung the Neue Deutsche Zeitung No. 228, September 26, 1849; the Deutsche Londoner Published in English for the first Zeitung No. 238, September 28, 1849; time the Demokratische Zeitung No. 220, September 30, 1849, and in other newspapers
3. Receipt of the Committee of Support for German Political Refugees in London
November 13, 1849
We acknowledge receipt through Herr G. Tichen in Stettin(1) of £11.14s. for which we express our gratitude on behalf of the needy German political refugees.
London, November 13, 1849
The Committee of Support for German Political Refugees
Signed: Dr. Karl Marx, Henry Bauer, Karl Pfänder
Presse No. 208, November 23, 1849 Published in English for the first time
4. Accounts of the Committee of Support for German Refugees in London
On November 18 of this year the German Workers' Society in London held a general meeting, attended by the majority of the political refugees there, to adopt the accounts of the Committee of Support [for refugees] formed at an earlier meeting.[3]
Total receipts since September 22 of this year were:
£ s d
1. From the Workers'Society in London 2 8 4 /l 2. From the German Readers' Society in London 2 15 —
3. From the editorial board of The Northern
Star in London — 5 —
4. From Citizen Eddäus in London — 1 —
5. Collected by Citizen Siefert in London — 9 6 6. From Citizen Görringer in London 1 5 9 7. Collected by Citizen H. Bauer in London 7 1 9 8. From German workers in Paris, through
Citizen Heidecker — 12 1 9. From Huddersfield through Citizen Krepp 3 — — Expenditures on refugees from September 22 to November 18 of this year were:
£ s d 1. Kleiner 3 17 2 2. Zschinski 3 17 4 3. Fröhlich 2 2 1 4. Henser 3 7 6 5. Egener 1 19 — 6. W. Töpffer 1 11 7 7. J. Töpffer 1 4 4 8. To the refugees Blei, Bergmann, Osoba,
Wessely, Braulichy and Klein, together 2 8 10 9. To the refugee merchant Schopp
and family, against an I. O. U 4 — — 10. Costs of printing and subscription
lists 1 15 2'/ [2]
Total 26 3 '/[2] Total receipts 36 12 5l/[2] Total expenditure 26 3 /[2]
Cash in hand 10 9 5
Clothing has also been received which has been distributed to the refugees.
The above accounts were adopted unanimously by the meeting. Receipts are to hand for all expenditures and the donors from Huddersfield and Stettin who were not represented have been requested to nominate representatives in London to inspect the receipts.
As the Committee had been depleted by the departure of two members, A. Füster and K. Blind, and as, moreover, an attempt is being made here to set up a counter-committee, independent of the Workers' Society and of the refugees of the social-democratic trend, the Committee returned its mandate to the Society.
The Society thereupon resolved:
1. That the German Workers' Society, acknowledging the work of the hitherto existing Committee, appoints a new committee of five of its members under the title "Social-Democratic Committee of Support for German Refugees".[426] This Committee takes over the balance of the former Committee.
2. The Committee will give priority to members of the social-democratic party but, as far as its funds allow, will not exclude refugees of other trends from its support.
3. The Committee will present monthly accounts to the Workers' Society and will thereupon be reappointed. The accounts will be published in the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung, in The Northern Star, in the Frankfurt Neue Deutsche Zeitung, in Cologne in the Westdeutsche Zeitung, in the Norddeutsche Freie Presse in Hamburg, in the Berlin Demokratische Zeitung, in the Schweizerische National-Zeitung, in the Schnellpost and in the Staatszeitung in New York.(1)
4. Contributors will be entitled to be personally present at the monthly presentation of accounts, or, if they are not in London, to send a representative to check the books, receipts, and cash in hand.
5. The Workers' Society appoints as committee members Karl Marx, August Willich, Frederick Engels, Heinrich Bauer, Karl Pfänder.
In publishing the above accounts and the decisions of the Workers' Society, the undersigned Committee requests that contributions be sent to Heinrich Bauer, 64 Dean Street, Soho, London.
London, December 3, 1849
The Committee: Karl Marx, August Willich, Frederick Engels,
Heinrich Bauer, Karl Pfänder
Published in the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung Printed according to the West-No. 245, December 7, 1849; the Westdeutsche Zeitung deutsche Zeitung No. 173, December 12, 1849, and the Demokratische Zeitung Published in English for the first No. 258, December 15, 1849 time
5. From the Indictment of the Participants in the Uprising in Elberfeld in May 1849[427]
Besides the above-named accused, the tailor Peter Nothjung is also accused of the main crime of the attempt,[3] although he was neither on the Army Reserve Committee nor on the Public Safety Committee. He was von Mirbach's adjutant, and as such was close to the whole movement and, according to his own statement, knew its purpose. At the time of the uprising he went from Cologne, his place of residence, to Elberfeld, where he was asked by the newspaper(1)
editor Engelsand Hühnerbein, with whom he was already acquainted, to help the Military Committee [428] with the reception of the men and the writing out of billeting orders. On the same day von Mirbach appointed him his adjutant and provided him with a black, red and gold(2) sash as a mark of distinction. According to his own statement the aim of the whole movement was declared by the members of the Public Safety and Military Committees to be the recognition of the German Constitution, and for that reason the citizens should be armed. He fulfilled the functions of adjutant until von Mirbach's departure; he was arrested in the neighbourhood of Ronsdorf....
Frederick Engels, a newspaper editor, is also said to have taken part in putting up barricades. Witness Heinrich Meininghaus states in particular that a young man with spectacles and a small moustache who was pointed out to him by an armed volunteer as the editor
Engels, and who conducted himself as one of the leaders, gave the order to strengthen the barricade at the Wunderbau. The above-mentioned witnesses Simon and Sauer also speak of a young man with a small moustache and a check coat who took part in erecting the barricade in front of von der Heydt's house....
The royal arsenal at Gräfrath was repeatedly attacked and looted by armed bands during the disorders in Elberfeld. The first marches of this kind took place on May 10 and 11 but were carried out not by the Elberfeld bands, but by inhabitants of Solingen and the neighbourhood for the purpose of arming those localities and then partly supporting the uprising in Elberfeld and partly spreading it further in the province. These marches on Gräfrath are the objects of a special charge in another investigation into the disorders which took place at the same time in Solingen and the neighbourhood,[429]
whereas here it is mainly a matter of the looting of .the arsenal which was carried out on May 15 and from Elberfeld. According to statements by several persons who took part in this march, on that day the accused Karl Jansen ordered part of his detachment, some 30-40 men, to make a sortie, as he said, against Wald to get weapons there. This detachment was headed by Jansen as a captain and Wohlmeiner as a lieutenant, and the editor Engels joined the two of them. Engels and Jansen procured themselves two cart-horses on the way at the copper works and rode on them at the head of the detachment as far as the estate of the merchant Jung at Hammer-stein, where Engels exchanged his horse for Jung's saddle-horse, and both he and Jansen had riding saddles given to them. After Hammerstein, according to the statement of another of the accused, Wilhelm Rausch, Jansen gave the order to proceed to Gräfrath to see whether weapons and uniforms which they could use were to be found in the arsenal there. According to the testimony of sergeant Starke to the local army reserve administration, and of non-commissioned officer Steiniger, 6-8 riflemen in the vanguard of the detachment arrived first at the arsenal and then the armed band of 30-40 men headed by Engels and Jansen, both on horseback and armed with sabres and pistols. The detachment immediately formed up in front of the arsenal and placed sentries at the doors. Then Engels went up to sergeant Starke with his pistol drawn, asked him whether any weapons were still available and, on receiving the answer that the weapons had already been taken by force by the Solingen and Wald detachments, ordered him to go into the arsenal with him. Personal resistance by the two army men to the armed band of 30-40 would have been useless, the more so as the doors of the arsenal could not be locked as a result of the earlier attacks by the Solingen detachment. The two army men therefore had to yield to force and allow the arsenal to be entered. There Engels chose several items of armament and uniform and had them brought out into the yard. For these two receipts, not quite identical in wording, were written out over the signature of Captain Karl Jansen....
According to these, the items taken out of the arsenal consisted of haversacks, helmets, trousers, cartridge-pouches, pistols, sabres, drums, footwear, and one rifle. On Janseris order each man of the band took from these the items of clothing which fitted him and the necessary weapons. Jansen himself does not deny that he led part of his armed detachment, 36-37(3) strong, to Gräfrath for the above-mentioned purpose; he only asserts that he did so on the basis of a written order which he received from von Mirbach on the morning of May 15 for the requisition of equipment on the way to Wald via Gräfrath. He also confirms that Engels placed himself with him at the head of the detachment and, on arriving at Gräfrath, posted sentries at the arsenal doors and entered with the sergeant. He maintains that while Engels was busy in the arsenal, he himself, leaving Lieutenant Wohlmeiner with the detachment, made a reconnaissance of the terrain in the neighbourhood of the arsenal and on his return saw some of the various items of equipment already lying in the square.
... accordingly accused, namely: ... 7. Frederick Engels, Johann Gottfried Wohlmeiner and Karl Jansen
a) of having in May 1849 in Elberfeld placed themselves at the head of an armed band, or having made the relevant arrangements, plundering the state-owned arsenal in Gräfrath; or
b) of having in May 1849 with a band and with open use of force plundered various articles of equipment from the royal arsenal in Gräfrath....
6. Preliminaries to Issue of Shares in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue, Edited by Karl Marx
As is generally known, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung appeared from June 1,1848, to May 19,1849, under the editorship of Karl Marx as a daily newspaper in Cologne on the Rhine. It represented the most resolute democratic trend in Germany with such success that in spite of all suspensions and states of siege, in spite of all press trials and persecutions, hostility and obstacles of all kinds it numbered 5,600 subscribers after appearing for only eleven months. After the editorial board was twice acquitted by a jury, the Prussian Government had no other means of suppressing this dreaded paper than the use of force: When the partial uprisings in Rhenish Prussia were suppressed in May last year, the temporary rule of the sabre was used to remove the editorial board from Prussia by force and thus to make the continued appearance of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung impossible.
After taking part in the revolutionary movements of last summer, either in South Germany or in Paris, the majority of the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung assembled again in London and decided to continue the paper from there.[3] At first the paper can only appear as a review in monthly issues of approximately five sheets. But it will only fully serve its purpose of exercising an uninterrupted and lasting influence on public opinion, and create new opportunities also from the financial point of view, when the editorial board is in a position to produce issues in more rapid succession. It is therefore intended that, as soon as funds allow, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung should appear as a fortnightly of five sheets or, if possible, as a big weekly journal like the American and English weeklies and, as soon as conditions permit its return to Germany, at once to transform it again from a weekly journal into a daily newspaper.
A provisional estimate shows that with only fortnightly issues and a sale of 3,000 copies the Revue will yield an annual net profit of 1,900 talers.
To put the enterprise on a secure basis and to enable the Revue to appear fortnightly or weekly, a capital of £500 is needed, and an issue of shares for this amount is hereby opened on the following conditions:
1. Every share is worth 50 francs and will be paid up at once against a provisional receipt later exchangeable for the original share.
2. Every shareholder is liable only for the amount of his share. 3. Shareholders have the right to nominate representatives in London to inspect the conduct of the business.
4. A quarterly general meeting will be called to receive a report on the progress of the enterprise and the accounts and to take decisions on the future control of the conduct of the business. A lithographed business report will be sent to individual shareholders.
5. Profits accruing from the business will be added to the capital until the Neue Rheinische Zeitung can appear weekly. When the enterprise has prospered thus far, the profit will be divided into three equal parts, one remaining in a reserve fund, one distributed to shareholders as dividend, and the last going to the editorial board.
London, January 1, 1850
K. Schramm, Manager of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
Written with the participation of Marx and Engels
7. About Engels’ Speech at a Banquet Held on February 25, 1850, in Honour of the Second Anniversary of the February Revolution in France (From a Newspaper Report)[430]
Citizen Engels, editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, made a speech in French which he ended, amidst thunderous applause, with a toast to the June insurgents.
time
8. Accounts of the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee in London
1. Expendit ure
£ s d November 1849 16 grants @ 7s 5 12 — December 29 3 »
7s 4s
10 3 12
—
1 1 » 6s 3s
— 6 3
—
2 " 5s — 10 — 1 1 ..
5s 6d 8s
— 5 8
6
1 4 » 12s 10s 2
12 —
January 1850 20 " 7s 7 — — 1 " 2s 6d — 2 6 3 " 4s — 12 — February 1 to 23 18 " 7s 6 6 — 2 1 » 5s 2s — 10 2
—
5 " 10s 2 10 — 1 1 » 3s 13s
— 3 13
—
2 " Is 3d — 2 6 1 " Is — 1 —
114 gra nts totalling 38 13 6
Postage, stamp duty, bank charges and writing materials
Total 39 The expenses include £26 advances to various refugees, who in the meantime have found work, for the purchase of tools, chothing, etc., which they have promised to repay later.
November 19 December 1 10
15
17
February 11
20
2. Receipts
£
Balance 10 From the Workers' Society — Through the Westdeutsche Zeitung in Cologne 30 talers minuscosts 4 From German workers in Paris 2 Through Professor Turk in Rostock 16 From the Cincinnati Aid Committee 20 From workers in Schwerin 3
Total 57 Minus the above expenditures 39
9 5 3 6
1
5 10
12 6
18 — — —
10 3
18 7
Cash in hand 17 11
The above accounts were presented to the meeting of the local German Workers' Society of March 4 and were found correct. The receipts and the books of the Committee are ready at the Treasurer's for inspection by the donors or their representatives.
Since these accounts were balanced two more items have been received from Cologne and New York, which will be entered in the next account. On the other hand, the number of refugees here needing support has been greatly increased by the constant expulsions from Switzerland and France. New refugees are arriving here almost daily, most of them in a state in which they need not only the usual scanty aid but also urgent outlays for clothes. In these circumstances the funds of the undersigned Committee are used all the more the less successful the attempts to procure means to support the refugees here from other sources appear to have been, and the more often, therefore, all the refugees arriving here are at once directed to the Committee. The efforts of the German workers here and of the refugees themselves have succeeded in finding work for many of these. But a large number of jobs which are available to refugees elsewhere are for various reasons closed to them here, in particular because of the fierce competition in overcrowded London.
Moreover, the rush of new arrivals is so great that in spite of these efforts the list of persons needing support is swelling every week.
Although the greatest economy has been observed in spending the money contributed to the Committee, and regular aid can only cover the most urgent needs, because of the high prices of the necessaries of life prevailing here, the funds of the Committee were bound to shrink very rapidly in these circumstances. We must even fear that we may soon be unable to protect the local unemployed refugees from homelessness and the most extreme misery.
We are therefore appealing once more to the party in Germany itself for funds. We cry out to it that as the number and hence the need of the refugees in Switzerland and France declines, it increases in the same degree in London, and we hope that it will not come to such a pass that people who fought arms in hand for the freedom and honour of the German nation will have to beg for their bread on the street corners of London.
All contributions are requested at the address of
Mr. Henry Bauer
64 Dean Street, Soho
London
London, beginning of March 1850
The Social-Democratic Refugee Committee:
Karl Marx, Fr. Engels, H. Bauer,
A. Willich, Karl Pfänder
Published in Die Hornisse No. 67, March Printed according to the West-20, 1850 (abridged) and in the Westdeutsche deutsche Zeitung Zeitung No. 68, March 21, 1850
9. About Engels’ Speech at a Meeting of Fraternal Democrats on April 5, 1850, Commemorating Robespierre’s Birthday Anniversary (From a Newspaper Report)[431]
Frederick Engels did justice to the revolutionary spirit of the English. He pointed out that a party of Levellers[432] had already existed at the time of the English Revolution, and ended with the health of the English workers.
10. Meeting of Refugee Committee on April 8, 1850[433]
Citizen Kleiner declares that Citizen R. Schramm has assured him that he does not belong to a refugee committee, but has merely received a number of lottery tickets from Galeer in Geneva with instructions to send the money to Geneva. The other committee meets at Hillmann's, is merely posing as a committee and, he believes, has no money.
Read, approved and signed
W. Kleiner Beyerle
Citizen Gnam: Citizen Struve declares that he has no money for refugees. He has received a hundred lottery tickets from Galeer but has not yet disposed of them. Should he receive the money for them, he will either pay the money in to some committee that might be set up, or use his own judgment in giving the money to the refugees in return for a receipt. He regrets the splits that exist amongst the German émigrés; if these splits did not exist thousands of guilders would find their way here. For this reason he would advise the refugees to form a committee among themselves.
Read, approved and signed
Gnam Josef Leoni Jakob Klein
Citizen Struve then donated £ 1, which Gnam suggested should be given to the committee — at which Citizen Struve said: No, not to a committee, I am giving that to those who are here just now, and they are to divide it amongst themselves.
Gnam Josef Leoni Lucas
The minutes were written by Engels on April 8, 1850
Works, Vol. 44, second Russ. ed., 1977
11. Universal Society of Revolutionary Communists[434]
ARTICLE 1
The aim of the association is the downfall of all privileged classes, the submission of those classes to the dictatorship of the proletarians by keeping the revolution in continual progress until the achievement of communism, which shall be the final form of the constitution of the human family.
ARTICLE 2
To contribute to the realisation of this aim, the association will form ties of solidarity between all sections of the revolutionary communist party, causing national divisions to disappear according to the principle of republican fraternity.
ARTICLE 3
The founding committee of the association is constituted its Central Committee, and, wherever necessary for the accomplish-ment of the work, it will establish committees which will be in correspondence with the Central Committee.
ARTICLE 4
The number of association members is not limited, but no member may be admitted unless he has been voted in unanimously. In no case can the election be held by secret ballot.
ARTICLE 5
All the association members pledge themselves by solemn oath to preserve absolutely in these terms Article 1 of the present rules. Any modification which might lead to the weakening of the intentions expressed in Article 1 releases members of the association from their obligation.
ARTICLE 6
All the society's decisions are taken by a majority of two-thirds of the voters.
(Signed:) /. Vidil, Auguste Willich,
G.Julian Harney, Adam, Ch. Marx, F.Engels
Drawn up in mid-April 1850 Printed according to the manuscript First published in Russian (Papers of the
Marx-Engels Institute No. 1, Moscow-Translated from the French Leningrad, 1926) Published in English for the first time
12. Accounts of the Social-Democratic Refugee "Committee in London
Receipts
February 25
March 13
March 18
April 16
April 20
March
£ s d
Balance in hand i... 17 11 8 From the Social Reform Association
in London 30 18 5 From the Cologne Refugee Committee 36 — — From A. F., member of the Workers'
Society — 5 — Through Herr Wichmann in Hamburg 6 — — Through " Rempel in Bielefeld ... 3 — — " Engels of E.B.a 1 — — From several English workers — 7 —
Expenditure
53 grants @ 7s 7 ' 10s 1 -9s 6d 1 ' 2s 8V[2]d 6 -5s 2 • Is 2 -4s 1
ige and
2s
'ost ige and petty expenses
95
18 3
11 10 9 2 10 2 8 2
3
27 107[2]
Presumably Elberfeld-Barmeri.—Ed.
£ s d pril 56 grants @ 6s 16 16 — 18 ' ' 5s 4 10 — 2 ' ' 2s 6d — 5 — 14 '• ' ls6d 1 1 — 52 ' ' 7s 18 4 — 1 ' ' 8s — 8 — 54 ' ' 3s 8 2 — 49 ' ' 3s 6d 8 11 6 1 " ' 6s 4d — 6 4
Petty expenses .... — 6 5
Balance in hand
58 10
85 17 I[1]/*
H7 [2]
The Committee, set up on September 18, 1849, has since its foundation supported about a hundred refugees for shorter or longer periods, and the total sum of moneys passed through its hands amounts to £161 3s 8V2d. In addition, the Workers' Society here has catered for the exceptional needs of individual refugees by collections, found work for others and put its premises with newspapers at the disposal of all refugees.
The books and receipts concerning the above accounts, which were submitted to and adopted by the German Workers' Society, are available with the Treasurer of the Committee for inspection by the donors or their representatives.
Messrs. Struve, Bobzin, Bauer (Stolpe) and others have lately seen fit to use their names to attract from Germany adequate funds for the refugees. Accordingly they have grouped around themselves a number of refugees and formed their own committee at a meeting yesterday. It goes without saying that this renewed project to form a parallel committee can no more divert us from our work for the refugees than the earlier projects which failed.
As the accounts show, the Committee's funds are so depleted that they barely suffice for the needs of one more week. But more refugees apply for support every day. We therefore call on the German social-democratic party once again not to let down their refugees and as soon as possible to send their contributions to the Treasurer, K. Pfänder,[435] 21 King Street, Soho, London.
London, April 23, 1850
The Social-Democratic Refugee Committee:
K. Marx, President, August Willich, K. Pfänder, Frederick Engels, Heinrich Bauer
Published in the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung Printed according to the Nord-No. 265, April 26, 1850 (abridged); deutsche Freie Presse and checked the Westdeutsche Zeitung No. 104 (supple-with the Westdeutsche Zeitung ment), May 2, 1850; the Neue Deutsche Zeitung No. 106, May 3, 1850, and the Published in English for the first Norddeutsche Freie Presse No. 349, May 10, time 1850
13. The German Refugees in London
For some time funds have been coming in so scantily for the German refugees here that these latter have suffered the greatest misery. A number of them, who so far have been unable to find any work in their trade here, have been sleeping in the streets and parks for almost a week and are suffering hunger. In various quarters the differences between the committees and allegations of biassed distribution of funds have been made a pretext for not sending any money for the refugees. Messrs. Struve, Bobzin and others have contributed to this situation by declaring that the undersigned Committee supports only "Communists". \ We declare once again that we have, supported everybody without distinction who proved his status as a German refugee in need of support. Our books and receipts are there to prove it, and are available at any time for inspection by donors or their representatives. At a full meeting of the committee of Messrs. Struve, Bobzin and others, co-signatory Willich asked the refugees who had received support which of them had been asked whether he was a "Communist". Not one raised his hand!
We declare the above claims of Messrs. Struve, Bobzin and others to be lies and slander.
This declaration removes the pretext under which the London refugees have hitherto been deprived oï support from various quarters.
London, June 14, 1850
The Social-Democratic Refugee Committee: K. Marx, F. Engels, K. Pfänder,
A. Willich, H. Bauer Letters and contributions are K.Pfänder, 21 King Street, Soho,
Published in the Westdeutsche Zeitung
No. 149, June 25, 1850; Die Hornisse No. 146, June 25, 1850; the Neue Deutsche Zeitung No. 152, June 27, 1850
requested at the address of London.
14. Accounts of the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee in London for May, June and July 1850
Receipts
£ April 24 Cash in hand according to previous
account 9 May From Hanau through Citizen Schärttner, £ 13 less 7s 9d income tax 12 From an Englishman — Frankfurt am Main £5 and £20 25
46
June From Trier 2 " Paris (German workers) 1 Through Citizen Betzler —
4
July From Frankfurt am Main 30 " Cologne — " Wiesbaden (Workers' Association) 4 Hamburg (Norddeutsche Freie Presse) 11 " London Workers'Society 7 Frankfurt am Main 20 " Neustadt a.d. Haardt 4 " Hamburg (Despatch Dept. of the Freischütz)[436] 20 " La Chaux-de-Fonds 5 " Hamburg (Workers' Association of St. Georg)
104
s d
4 111/,
12 3 2 — — —
19 2'/,
2 6 18 6
6 —
11 4
10 —
11 10 9 6
10
— 17
10
11 — Expenditure
April 24 to May 30
June
July
128 grants @ 3s 6d 27 " " 3s 26 " " 2s 31 " " Is 25 " " 5s Occasional grants Shoemakers' work for refugees. Petty expenses
58 grants @ 2s 59 " " Is 25 " " ls6d Occasional gran ts Petty expenses
28 grants @ 2s 24 " " Is 93 " " 6d Occasional grants
For the refugees' board and lodging
9s 6d
£ s d 22 8 — 4 1 — 2 12 — 1 11 — 6 5 — 1 5 — — 14 — — 6 11
39 2 11
5 16 2 19 — 1 17 6 — 10 — — 11 6
11 14 —
2 16 1 4 — 2 6 6 1 6 —
£7 £5 £5 £5 £6 £6
10s — 10s —
For working equipment
Advances to refugees
Advances to a refugee with family
Petty expenses
35
Cash in hand 46
12
19
6
3'/2
58 13 9A Total expenditure 109 10 8 7* Total receipts 155 16 2 A Less expenditure 109 10 8/2
The above accounts were submitted to the meeting of the Workers' Society on July 30 of this year and were approved. Books and receipts are ready and available for inspection by the donors or their representatives.
Since in the month of June contributions received were very scanty and the need of the refugees was often unbearable, it was decided to set up a communal lodging and eating-house for them. The local Workers' Society and a section of the refugees who had already found work made it possible by their contributions to begin the execution of this plan. From funds received later the house could be provided with the necessary utensils and furniture. Up to now 18 refugees have found lodgings there and about 40 have received meals. At first the unemployed shoemakers among the refugees were used to provide their comrades with the necessary footwear. Later the Committee allocated funds and took the steps necessary to equip a common workshop for the refugees on the same premises and so to enable them to earn part of their living expenses themselves.
If the first attempt proves a success, the thing will be done on a larger scale and the public will be further informed about it at the appropriate time. The Committee expects that this double enterprise of providing aid and employment for the refugees will be supported by a great many contributions from Germany until the refugees are able to support themselves.
London, July 30, 1850
The Social-Democratic Refugee Committee:
Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, August Willich,
Karl Pfänder, Heinrich Bauer
Published in the Norddeutsche Freie Presse No. 425, August 7, 1850; the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung No. 280, August 9, 1850; Der Freischütz No. 98, August 15, 1850
15. About Engels’ Speech at a Meeting Organised by Fraternal Democrats on September 10, 1850 (From a Newspaper Report)...[437]
Mr. Engels, formerly editor of a German newspaper, and who was introduced by the Chairman (John Pettie) as one who had fought and bled for freedom, addressed the meeting. He said that about thirty months ago there had been a fine lot of gentlemen sent over to England, Louis Philippe, Prince Metternich, Prince William of Prussia, and others — and foreign patriots had thought it a disgrace to England that she should so readily shelter them. But, he said, wait — the people of England, at their own time would act justly, and had done so now. (Hear, hear!) The treatment of Haynau would produce a greater effect upon the Continent than anything which had been done in England for the last ten years.
His treatment was worse than if they had torn his epaulettes from his shoulder, or broken his sword and thenceforth he would be driven from the society of his equals with contempt (Hear, hear). There would shortly be another revolution on the Continent, and the enemies of the people who would otherwise have fled to this country, would now be afraid to do so, and would go somewhere else, probably to their friend Nicholas of Russia who would perhaps give them a small kingdom in Siberia. (Loud laughter!)
In the name of his country he thanked the people of London for their treatment of Haynau which he hoped, would be imitated in any future place the monster might visit. (Applause.)
Published in The Times No. 20591, Sep-Printed according to the Reynold's tember 11, 1850; The Morning Chronicle Weekly Newspaper No. 26139, September 12, 1850; the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung No. 285, September 13, 1850; The Northern Star No. 673, September 14, 1850; the Reynold's Weekly Newspaper No. 5, September 15, 1850, and Die Hornisse No. 218, September 18, 1850
16. Meeting of the Central Authority, September 15, 1850[438]
Present: Marx, Engels, Schramm, Pfänder, Bauer, Eccarius, Schapper, Willich, Lehmann.
Fränkel is excused. As this is an extraordinary meeting the minutes of the last meeting are not here and are therefore not read.
Marx: The Friday meeting could not take place because of a clash with a meeting of the commission of the Society.[3] As Willich has called (1) a meeting of the district, a meeting whose legality I will not go into, this meeting must be held today. I wish to make the following proposal which is in three parts:
1. The Central Authority shall be transferred from London to Cologne and its powers will be transferred to the district authority there as soon as this meeting is over. This decision shall be reported to League members in Paris, Belgium and Switzerland. The new Central Authority will itself notify members in Germany.
Explanation: I was opposed to Schapper's motion to set up a district authority in Cologne for the whole of Germany because this might disrupt the unity of the Central Authority. Our motion does away with this objection. There are a number of new reasons which support the motion. The minority in the Central Authority is in open rebellion against the majority both in the motion of censure during the last meeting, in the general meeting now called by the district as well as in the Society and among the refugees. Therefore the Central Authority cannot possibly remain here. Its unity cannot be maintained any longer, there would be a split and there would then be two leagues. As the interests of the party must come first I propose this way out.
2. The existing League Rules shall be declared null and void. The new Central Authority shall be responsible for drawing up new rules.
Explanation: The Rules of the 1847 Congress were amended by the London Central Authority in 1848. Circumstances have now changed yet again. The latest London Rules weakened the principal articles of the original Rules. Both Rules are in force in different places, in some places there are no Rules at all or there are unauthorised ones, so that there is complete anarchy in the League. Moreover the latest Rules have become public and so can no longer be used. My proposal, therefore, essentially is that effective rules be introduced in place of the present lack of rules.[439]
3. Two districts shall be formed in London to be entirely independent of each other and the only bond between them will be that they belong to the League and correspond with the same Central Authority.
Explanation: It is necessary to form two districts here for the very reason that the unity of the League must be preserved. Quite apart from personal disagreements we have witnessed also differences of principle even in the Society. In the last debate on "the position of the German proletariat in the next revolution" views were expressed by members of the minority on the Central Authority which directly clash with those in the last circular but one a and even the Manifesto.[10] A German national standpoint was substituted for the universal outlook of the Manifesto, and the national feelings of the German artisans were pandered to. The materialist standpoint of the Manifesto has given way to idealism. The revolution is seen not as the product of realities of the situation but as the result of an effort of will. Whereas we say to the workers: You have 15, 20, 50 years of civil war to go through in order to alter the situation and to train yourselves for the exercise of power, it is said: We must take power at once, or else we may as well take to our beds. Just as the democrats abused the word "people" so now the word "proletariat" has been used as a mere phrase. To make this phrase0 effective it would be necessary to describe all the petty bourgeois as proletarians and consequently in practice represent the petty bourgeois and not the proletarians. The actual revolutionary process would have to be replaced by revolutionary catchwords. This debate has finally laid bare the differences in principle which lay behind the clash of personalities, and the time for action has now arrived. It is precisely these differences that have furnished both parties with their battlecries and some members of the League have called the defenders of the Manifesto reactionaries, seeking thereby to make them unpopular, which however does not worry them in the least, as they do not seek popularity. The majority would therefore be justified in dissolving the London district and expelling the members of the minority[3] as being in conflict with the principles of the League. I do not put a motion to that effect as it would cause a pointless scandal and because these people are still Communists in their convictions even though the opinions they are now expressing are anti-communist and could at best be described as social-democratic. It is obvious, however, that it would be a mere waste of time, and a harmful one at that, for us to remain together. Schapper has often spoken of separation — very well then, I am seriously in favour of it. I think that I have found the way for us to separate without splitting the party.
I wish to state that, for my own part, I should like to have at most twelve people[440] in our district, as few as possible, and gladly leave the minority in possession of the great throng. If this proposal is accepted we shall obviously be unable to remain in the Society[13]; I shall resign from the Great Windmill Street Society(2) together with the majority. After all it is not a matter of the hostile relationship between the two groups, but, on the contrary, of eliminating the tension and so all relationships. We remain together in the League and in the party but we are not going to maintain a relationship that is plainly harmful.
Schapper: Just as in France the proletariat parts company with the Montagne[441] and La Presse so it is here also: the people who represent the party in principle part company with those who organise the proletariat. I am in favour of moving the Central Authority(3) and also of making alterations in the Rules. The Cologne members are familiar with the situation in Germany. I also think that the new revolution will produce people who will lead themselves(4) better than all those who made a name for themselves in 1848. As far as disagreements of principle are concerned, it was Eccarius who raised the question that provided the occasion for this debate. I have voiced the opinion attacked here because I am in general an enthusiast in this matter. The question at issue is whether we ourselves chop off a few heads right at the start or whether it is our own heads that will fall. In France the workers will come to power and thereby we in Germany too. Were this not the case I would indeed take to my bed; in that event I would be able to enjoy a different material position. If we come to power we can take such measures as are necessary to ensure the rule of the proletariat. I am a fanatical supporter of this view but the Central Authority favours the very opposite. You want to have nothing more to do with us — very well, let us part company now. I shall certainly be guillotined in the next revolution, nevertheless I shall go to Germany. You want two districts — very well, but that will be the end of the League. We shall meet again in Germany and then perhaps be able join forces again. Marx is a personal friend of mine but you are in favour of separation — very well, we shall each go our separate ways. But in that case there should be two leagues, one for those who work with the pen and one fori those who work in other ways. I do not share the view that the bourgeoisie in Germany will come to power and on this point I am a fanatical enthusiast — if I weren't I wouldn't give a brass farthing for the whole affair. But if there are two districts here in London, two societies and two refugee committees then we should prefer also to have two leagues and complete separation.
Marx: Schapper has misunderstood my motion. If the motion is adopted we shall separate, the two districts shall separate and the people concerned will have no relations with each other. However, they will belong to the same League and be under the same Authority.(5) You can even retain the greater part of the League membership. As for personal sacrifice, I have given up as much as anyone; but for the class and not for individuals. And as for enthusiasm, not much enthusiasm is needed to belong to a party when you believe that it is on the point of seizing power. I have always defied the momentary opinions of the proletariat. We are devoted to a party which, most fortunately for it, cannot yet come to power. If the proletariat were to come to power the measures it would introduce would be petty-bourgeois and not directly proletarian. Our party can come to power only when the conditions allow it to put its own views into practice. Louis Blanc is the best instance of what happens when you come to power prematurely.[442]
In France, moreover, it isn't the proletariat alone that gains power but the peasants and the petty bourgeois as well, and it will have to carry out not its, but their measures. The Paris Commune[443] shows that one need not be in the government to accomplish something. And incidentally why do we hear nothing from the other members of the minority, especially Citizen Willich, who approved the circular unanimously at the time? We cannot and will not split the League: we wish merely to divide the London district into two districts.
Eccarius: It was I who raised the question and it certainly was my intention to have the whole matter discussed. I have explained it in the Society why I think that Schapper's view is based on an illusion and why I do not think that our party can come to power immediately in the next revolution. Our party will then be more important in the clubs than in the government.
Citizen Lehmann walks out without comment. Citizen Willich likewise.
First part of the motion: all in favour, Schapper abstains. Second part: all in favour, Schapper abstains. Third part: all in favour, Schapper abstains. Schapper makes a protest against us all: We are now completely separated. I have my own acquaintances and friends in Cologne who follow me rather than you.
Marx: We have acted in accordance with the Rules. The resolutions of the Central Authority are valid.
After the minutes are read out both Marx and Schapper declare that they have not written to Cologne on this matter.[3]
Schapper is asked whether he has any objection to the minutes. He says he has no objection as he thinks all objections are superfluous.
Eccarius proposes that everyone should sign the minutes. Accepted. Schapper declares that he will not sign.
Dated, London, September 15, 1850 Read, approved and signed.(6)
Signed: K. Marx, Chairman of the Central Authority
F. Engels, Secretary Henry Bauer, K. Schramm, J. G. Eccarius, K. Pfänder
17. The Resolution of the Central Authority of the Communist League, September 15, 1850
1. The Central Authority will be transferred from London to Cologne and a new Central Authority will be formed by the Cologne district.
2. The existing League Rules are declared null and void and the new Central Authority is instructed to draft new ones.
3. Two districts will be formed from the existing London district. They will be independent of each other and will deal only with the common Central Authority.
Drawn up on September 15, 1850, with the participation of Marx and Engels
und Anzeiger No. 180, June 22, 1851
18. Accounts of the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee in London from August 1 to September 10, 1850[445]
Receipts
£ August Balance 46 Collected by Miss Berg 12 From the Workers' Association in St. Georg, Hamburg 2 From the same 1 From Neustadt an der Haardt 8 From Mr. C. Flory through the editorial board of the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung — September From the German Workers' Association in Paris 2 Collected by Herr John Berg 17
Total 90
10 10
10 —
Expenditure
August For the refugees' board and lodging 28 To the brushmakers' workshop 7 For leather, etc — 56grants ®6d 1 23 » " I s 1 6 " " 2 s 6 d — Various grants — 4 grants ©10s 2 Advances to refugees 8 To four refugees for the voyage to
America 5
9 3 10 — 13 6 8 — 3 — 15 — 5 6 Travelling expenses to Schleswig-£ s d Holstein 7 3 — Petty expenses, postage, bank charges,
etc _ H 3 September For board and lodging 14 4 8 39 grants of 6d — 19 6 2 " of Is _ 2 — 1 " of 10sandlof5s _ 15 _
Distributed according to the donor's
(Herr Berg's) instructions 8 15 — Advances to refugees l 18 — Petty expenses — 6 10
Total 90 3 6
Since the four undersigned members of the hitherto existing Social-Democratic Committee, oh submitting these accounts, declared their resignation from the Committee, the Society in Great Windmill Street(1) appointed a commission to check the books and receipts, which reported on the 15th that it had found everything in order.
The undersigned saw fit to leave all books and receipts concerning their administration with the hitherto treasurer, K. Pfänder, 21 King Street, Soho Square, since they had resigned not only from the Committee but from the Society and the documents cannot be dispensed with in case enquiries are made by members of the public.
Donors* are therefore requested to appoint representatives in London to inspect the books and receipts at the above-mentioned hitherto treasurer's.
London, September 18, 1850
Karl Marx, H. Bauer, K. Pfänder, Fr. Engels
Published in the Deutsche-Londoner Zeitung Printed according to the newspaper No. 287, September 27, 1850
19. Proposal from the London District of the Communist League to the Central Authority in Cologne[446]
To expel all members of the Sonderbund and in particular Schapper, Willich, Schärttner, Lehmann, Dietz (Oswald), Geben, Fränkel (the last seven by name) and to inform all League districts and communities of this decision as well as the Sonderbund in London and its leaders.[...]
1. They have communicated reports, and false reports at that, concerning the split in London to leaders of secret societies outside the League and to refugees of various nationalities.
2. They are in a state of open rebellion against the legally constituted Central Authority in Cologne; they act in defiance of the latter's decisions and have an emissary(1) travelling around Germany to found a Sonderbund.
3. They have violated, and still violate, in their relations with the members of the London district, all obligations binding on the members of secret societies.
4. They have, since the separation, broken all the laws of secret societies and to permit them to remain in the League any longer would only serve them to hasten its disintegration.
Drawn up on November 11, 1850, with Printed according to the newspaper the participation of Marx and Engels
20. Rules of the Communist League
1. The aim of the Communist League is to bring about the destruction of the old society — and the overthrow of the bourgeoisie—the spiritual, political and economic emancipation of the proletariat, the communist revolution, using all the resources of propaganda and political struggle towards this goal. In the various stages of development through which the struggle of the proletariat has to pass, the League shall represent at all times the interest of the movement as a whole, just as it shall seek at all times to unite and organise all the revolutionary forces of the proletariat within itself; as long as the proletarian revolution has not attained its ultimate goal the League shall remain secret and indissoluble.
2. Membership shall be open only to those who comply with the following conditions:
a. be emancipated from all religion, sever connections with any church organisation and not participate in any ceremony not required by civil law;
b. understand the conditions, the course of development and the ultimate goal of the proletarian movement;
c. stand aloof from all organisations and particular strivings that oppose or obstruct the progress of the League towards its goal;
d. show ability and zeal in propaganda, unswerving devotion to convictions and revolutionary energy;
e. maintain the strictest secrecy in all matters concerning the League. 3. Admission shall be granted by the unanimous vote of the community. A new member shall normally be admitted by the chairman in the presence of the whole community. Members will swear to abide unconditionally by the decisions of the League.
4. Whoever violates the conditions of membership shall be expelled. A majority vote of the community is required for the expulsion of individuals. The Central Authority can expel whole communities where expulsion has been proposed by a district community. The whole League shall be notified of expulsions and shall keep those expelled under surveillance just like any suspect individual.
5. The League is organised in communities, districts, a Central Authority and a congress.
6. A community consists of at least three members of the same locality. It shall elect a chairman, who will conduct the meetings, and a deputy, who will act as treasurer.
7. Above the communities of a country or a province there shall be a chief community, the district, to be nominated by the Central Authority. The communities shall deal directly only with their districts, the districts in turn deal with the Central Authority.
8. The communities shall meet regularly, not less than once a fortnight, they shall correspond at least once a month with their districts; the latter shall communicate with the Central Authority at least once every two months; every three months the Central Authority shall report on the state of the League.
9. The chairman and deputy of the communities and districts shall be elected for one year and can be deposed at any time by their electorate; the members of the Central Authority can only be deposed by the congress.
10. Every League member shall pay a monthly contribution whose minimum shall be determined by the congress. Half of the sums so raised will go to the districts and half to the Central Authority; they will be used to cover administration costs, the distribution of propaganda material and the dispatching of emissaries. The districts shall bear the cost of the correspondence with their communities. Contributions shall be sent every three months to the districts, which will forward half of the total income to the Central Authority and, at the same time, give an account of their income and expenditure to their communities. The Central Authority shall account to the congress for monies it has received. Extraordinary expenses shall be met by extraordinary contributions.
11. The Central Authority is the executive organ of the whole League. It shall consist of at least three members and shall be elected and augmented by the district which the congress has assigned as its seat. It shall be responsible only to the congress.
12. The congress is the legislative organ of the whole League. It shall consist of the delegates of the district assemblies, which will elect one deputy for every five communities.
13. The district assembly is the representative body of thé district. It shall be convened in the district centre regularly every quarter by the committee of the chief community to debate the affairs of the district. To this assembly each community shall send one delegate. The district assembly shall invariably be convened in the middle of July each year for the election of the League delegates.
Article 5 Community Article 6 District Article 7 Central Authority Article 8 The Congress Article 9 Admission to the League Article 10 Expulsion from the League (money....)(1)
14. A fortnight after the close of the district election assemblies the congress shall meet as a rule at the seat of the Central Authority unless the latter decides upon another venue.
15. The congress shall receive from the Central Authority, which has a seat in it but no vote, a report on all its activities and on the state of the League; it shall lay down the principles governing the policy to be followed by the League, decide upon amendments to the Rules and determine the seat of the Central Authority for the coming year.
16. In cases of emergency the Central Authority can summon an extraordinary congress which will consist in that event of the delegates last elected by the districts.
17. Disputes between individual members of the same community shall be settled conclusively by that community; disputes between members of the same district by the district community; those between members of different districts by the Central Authority; personal complaints about members of the Central Authority shall be brought before the congress. Disputes among communities belonging to the same district shall be resolved by the district community, those between communities and their district or between different districts, by the Central Authority; but in the first case an appeal may be made to the district assemblies and in the second, to the congress. The congress shall also resolve all conflicts between the Central Authority and the lower committees of the League.
21. About Engels’ Speech at a New Year’s Party of the Fraternal Democrats Society, December 30, 1850 (From a Newspaper Report)[448]
M. Engels (who, with Carl Schapper, attended as a deputation from the German Society) also responded to this sentiment, thanked them in the name of his brethren for their sympathy, and expressed his best wishes for the prosperity of the English people. He then entered into a long and elaborate statement of the causes of the failures abroad, and the consequent reaction, showing that it equally arose from the ignorance of the people and the treachery of their leaders.
NOTES
AND INDEXES
Endnotes
[423] This document dates from the time of Engels' stay in Switzerland after the defeat of the Baden-Palatinate uprising (see Note 133). At first Engels lived in Vevey, then in the latter half of August 1849 moved to Lausanne. In his letters of August 1,17 and 23, 1849, Marx invited Engels to London to take part in publishing the journal Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue, as well as in reorganising the ( ommunist League. When he received his permit to leave Switzerland, Engels decided to travel to England via Italy, since the French authorities refused him the right of transit through France. On October 6, 1849, he sailed from Genoa, and after a five-week voyage around the Iberian Peninsula, reached London some time around November 10.
[424] This and other documents published in this volume reflect Marx's efforts to gather together revolutionary forces scattered after the defeat of the 1848-49 revolution and to render support to the revolutionary refugees suffering poverty and privation in England. (On the Committee of Support for German Democrats in Need which later became the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee see Note 180.) The Appeal of the Committee of Support for German Refugees (which appeared in some of the German newspapers) evoked a response from broad democratic circles. The Workers' Committee of Support for Political Refugees set up in Cologne published a pamphlet entitled Die Westdeutsche Zeitung und die Westkalmücken. On September 28, the Workers' Association in Frankfurt, led by Weydemeyer, decided to render support to refugees and announced a collection of funds. The Hamburg newspaper Der Freischütz (No. 86, October 26, 1849) carried the following item describing the activities of the London Committee: "Appeal for Support for German Refugees signed by Karl Marx ("former editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung"), Karl Blind ("former envoy in Paris of the Baden-Palatinate Government"), Anton Füster ("former member of the Austrian Imperial Diet in Vienna" who lived for some time in Hamburg), Heinrich Bauer (master shoemaker in London) and Karl Pfänder (painter in London).—Friendly donations should be addressed to: Heinrich Bauer, 64 Dean Street, Soho Square, and marked 'for the Refugee Committee'. That the appeal yielded results is proved, inter alia, by the following receipt sent to us. "Receipt: "We acknowledge the receipt of a seven-pound bill on the London and Westminster Bank issued in the name of Herr E. Thiessen in Stettin and, on behalf of the German refugees, extend our gratitude to those who contributed. "London, October 16, 1849. The Committee of Support for German Political Refugees." "Karl Marx, Karl Blind, Heinrich Bauer, Karl Pfänder."
[425] Serezhans and other South-Slav army formations performed compulsory military service on the Austro-Turkish border. In 1848 and 1849 the Austrian authorities and Right-wing bourgeois-landowning nationalist elements drew them into the war against revolutionary Hungary.
[426] See Note 180.
[427] This document consists of excerpts from the Indictment of the participants in the Elberfeld uprising in May 1849 (see pp. 159-69 of this volume; Notes 147, 148). The trial took place between April 23 and May 7, 1850, in Elberfeld; altogether 122 people were accused. The Indictment was published in the Cologne newspaper, Westdeutsche Zeitung, during April and May. The majority of the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The document presented here reflects the official point of view of the Prussian judicial authorities, yet at the same time proves that Engels played an important part in the uprising, for which he was regarded by Prussian justice as a dangerous state criminal. It is not by chance that Marx wrote to him on August 23, 1849, urging him to leave Switzerland for London. "In any case your safety demands it. The Prussians would shoot you twice over: 1) because of Baden, 2) because of Elberfeld."
[428] This refers to the Military Commission of the Elberfeld Committee of Public Safety. The Commission was responsible for forming and equipping the insurgents' armed forces, as well as for preparing the city's defences against imminent invasion by Prussian forces. The Committee of Public Safety did all it could to obstruct and impede the work of the Military Commission.
[429] The reference is to the uprising in Solingen and the surrounding area that broke out early in May 1849 in support of the Imperial Constitution. On May 10 the insurgents stormed the arsenal at the neighbouring Gräfrath to obtain the necessary weapons. The municipal authorities were replaced by the Committee of Public Safety. A considerable number of workers took part in the Solingen uprising, but it was defeated owing to the treachery of the bourgeoisie, p. 603
[430] The banquet arranged by Blanquist refugees took place in London on February 25, 1850. It was attended by revolutionary refugees of various nationalities, including Karl Marx, Frederick Engels and Ferdinand Wolff. A report on the banquet was published in The Northern Star No. 645, March 2, 1850. Engels' toast was mentioned along with the others, but its author was not named. A more detailed report on the banquet appeared in the Westdeutsche Zeitung No. 51 (the newspaper bears the number 50, which is mistaken) on March 1, 1850, and was marked "London, February 26". This report was also reprinted in the Dresdener Zeitung No. 55, March 5, 1850. Other versions describing the banquet appeared in the Neue Deutsche ZeitungNo. 55, March 5, 1850, and in Die Hornisse No. 54, March 5, 1850. The latter mentioned that the guests included the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Marx, Engels and Wolff, that Engels raised a toast in honour of the June insurgents, and Wolff of the revolution without phraseology.
[431] The report on the meeting, published in Die Hornisse, stated that "Karl Marx, editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, was also present among the guests". The Democratic Review for May 1850 carried the report but only the following was said concerning Engels' speech: "A German exile responded and concluded an excellent speech with giving 'The Proletarians of England'". The Fraternal Democrats—an international democratic society founded in London on September 22, 1845. The society embraced representatives of the Left Chartists, German workers and craftsmen — members of the League of the Just — and revolutionary emigrants of other nationalities. Marx and Engels helped in founding this society, and later kept in constant touch with the Fraternal Democrats trying to influence the proletarian core of the society, which joined the Communist League in 1847, and through it the Chartist movement, in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. The society ceased its activities in 1853.
[432] Levellers—representatives of a radical-democratic trend during the English revolution of the mid-seventeenth century. In 1647 they became an independent group on the national scale. The Levellers wanted to transform England into a republic with a one-House Parliament elected by universal suffrage, to remove all inequalities and implement other democratic reforms.
[433] The minutes in Engels' handwriting mirror the struggle waged by the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee, led by Marx and Engels, against attempts by Rudolf Schramm, Gustav Struve and other petty-bourgeois refugees to form their own committee and to utilise the assistance to the refugees in need for political intrigues against proletarian revolutionaries (see this volume, p. 617).
[434] On the Universal Society of Revolutionary Communists see Note 277. The agreement referred to was annulled on October 9, 1850, as a result of the split in the Communist League and disagreements that arose between Marx and Engels on the one hand, and the French Blanquist refugees, who supported the sectarian faction of Willich and Schapper, on the other (see this volume, p. 484). The document was apparently written down or copied by Willich.
[1] This statement was written by Engels soon after his arrival in London from Switzerland on approximately November 10, 1849. In July 1849, Engels crossed into Switzerland, together with the retreating Baden-Palatinate insurgent army, and then left for London via Genoa by sea around the Iberian Peninsula. Marx, who had emigrated to London in August 1849, carried on extensive work there to restore the Communist League and to assist revolutionary refugees coming to England. Engels, too, immediately joined in and was brought into the League's Central Authority which Marx had restored. Engels' statement to the Chartist newspaper The Northern Starv/as prompted by articles of the petty-bourgeois journalist Karl Heinzen, with whom Marx and Engels had had a controversy as far back as 1847 (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 291-306), and the fact that Heinzen's articles were used by English Conservative circles for the persecution and expulsion of political refugees from Britain. Thus, Heinzen's pamphlet Lehren der Revolution (Lessons of the Revolution) reprinted in the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung Nos. 241 and 242 of November 9 and 16, 1849, contained gross demagogic statements compromising the German revolutionary refugees. Referring to those statements, the author of a letter published in The Times of November 23, 1849, and signed Anti-Socialist suggested to the Home Secretary that "the writer of such hellish doctrines" should be ordered "to quit the English dominions within 24 hours". Marx wrote to Joseph Weydemeyer on December 19, 1849: "You will have seen what-you-may-call-him Heinzen's inane bragging in the newspapers. This fellow, who was done for by the revolution in Germany—before that his things enjoyed a certain vogue because the petty bourgeois and the commercial traveller liked to see printed in black and white the idiocies and rodomontades they themselves might utter in tones of mystery between biscuits and cheese at the wine-shop — is endeavouring to rehabilitate himself by compromising the other refugees in Switzerland and England — those who have really worked — in the eyes of those countries' governments, by kicking up a row, and by threatening shortly to gobble up a hundred thousand of millions of men at déjeuner à la fourchette, thus earning himself a lucrative martyrdom."
[435] Heinrich Bauer, previously the treasurer of the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee, stayed in Germany until the end of May 1850. He had been sent there as an emissary of the Central Authority of the Communist League.
[436] In the same issue of Der Freischütz (No. 98, August 15, 1850) that carried the present accounts, the editors published Karl Pfänder's letter and his receipt issued in the name of the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee. At the same time, the editors voiced their perplexity at not receiving a similar receipt from the other committee (the one consisting of petty-bourgeois refugee leaders).
[437] The meeting was organised by the Fraternal Democrats society to express their solidarity with the workers who had assailed the Austrian Field Marshal Julius Haynau (see Note 359). Reports on the meeting and Engels' speech were published in several English newspapers. The most detailed account appeared in the Reynold's Weekly Newspaper No. 5, September 15, 1850. In Germany reports on this meeting were published by the Deutsche Londoner Zeitung No. 285, September 13, 1850, which wrote the following: "Engels (former editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung) expressed his heartfelt thanks to the English workers for giving such a worthy welcome to their distinguished countryman (Haynau was born in Churhessen)", and by Die Hornisse No. 218, September 18, 1850.
[438] The minutes and some of the documents that follow deal with the struggle waged by Marx and Engels and their supporters against sectarian elements in the Communist League (see Note 343). In 1852 Marx quoted an excerpt from the minutes in his pamphlet Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne (see present edition, Vol. 11). The complete text of the minutes, however, remained unknown for a long time and only in 1956 appeared in the magazine of the Amsterdam International Institute of Social History, where it was published according to the two extant copies made from the original, which has not yet been discovered. One of the copies is written by Hermann Wilhelm Haupt who, following the split in the Communist League, was sent to Cologne to report on the London decisions; the other copy is in an unknown hand (probably Wilhelm Liebknecht's). In this volume the translation has been made from the copy written by Haupt and checked against the second copy. Essential differences in wording are mentioned in footnotes.
[439] The Rules of the Communist League (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 633-38) were adopted at its Second Congress in December 1847. In the latter half of 1848, the London Central Authority of the League made changes in the Rules and gave this document the vague title of "The Rules of a Revolutionary Party". The clear formulation of the ultimate aims of the proletarian movement given in Article 1 (the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the rule of the proletariat and the foundation of communist society without classes) was replaced by a demand for a social republic. The demand to acknowledge communism was omitted from Article 2, which formulated the conditions of membership. Marx and Engels resolutely opposed these changes. On Marx's initiative, the Central Authority formed in Cologne from the local authority worked out new Rules (see this volume, pp. 634-36).
[10] The following editorial note is supplied to this passage: "Since the above letter came to hand, intelligence has reached this country of the abdication of the 'Vicar', and the resignation of his authority (?) into the hands of Austrian and Prussian commissioners. Thus has ended the Frankfort farce.— Ed. D.R." This note was presumably written by Engels.
[4 4 0] The reference is to the following Communist League members who belonged to the London district: Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, the district's President Johann Georg Eccarius, Heinrich Bauer, Hermann Wilhelm Haupt, August Hain, G. Klose, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Karl Pfänder, Konrad Schramm, Sebastian Seiler and Ferdinand Wolff.
[13] On May 28, 1849, the Prussian Government appealed to the German governments to join the Three-Kings'-League. The appeal, together with a new draft of the Imperial Constitution, revised in a counter-revolutionary spirit, was published in the German press at the end of May and the beginning of June 1849. p g
[441] See Note 50.
[442] An allusion to Louis Blanc's participation in the bourgeois Provisional Government of France from February to May 1848 (see this volume, pp. 53, 55-56).
[443] The reference is to the Paris Commune of 1789-94, which administered the French capital during the revolution. It played an important part in organising the revolutionary struggle of the masses and in implementing revolutionary measures introduced after the victory of the Jacobins on the eve of the popular uprising of August 10, 1792, up to the counter-revolutionary coup of 9 Thermidor (July 27), 1794.
[445] This document is the last account presented by the Social-Democratic Refugee Committee, which ceased its activities owing to the split in the Communist League and the resignation of Marx, Engels and their followers from the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see this volume, p. 483).
[446] The proposal to expel the representatives of the sectarian faction from the Communist League was made after the factionalists had refused to abide by the decision of the Cologne Central Authority to set up in London two independent districts of the League, directly subordinate to the Central Authority. Willich, Schapper and their followers formed their own central authority in an attempt to influence all the League organisations and isolate the supporters of Marx and Engels, whose expulsion they announced. In opposition to the Communist League, Willich and Schapper set up their own organisation, which in this and other documents is referred to as the Sonderbund, by analogy with the separatist union of seven Swiss cantons (see Note 25). On November 11, 1850, the London district formed from the supporters of Marx and Engels submitted the proposal in question to the Cologne Central Authority to expel members of the Sonderbund, and particularly its leaders, from the Communist League. The Central Authority endorsed the proposal and incorporated it in its Address of December 1. The text of the proposal has come down to us as part of this Address, which fell into the hands of the police in 1851 and later appeared in bourgeois semi-official periodicals and police-sponsored publications (see Note 444).
[448] The annual meeting and the New Year's party arranged by the Fraternal Democrats society were attended by delegations from the German Workers' Educational Society in London (Marx and Engels were no longer among its members), the Hungarian, Polish and other refugee organisations. Marx was present at the meeting together with his wife. Engels, who had come from Manchester for a few days, addressed the meeting in English.
[3] In May 1849, when the counter-revolution was on the upsurge, the Prussian Government issued an order expelling Marx and the other editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung from Prussia. This measure, prepared well in advance, was applied when the main uprisings in the Rhine Province had been virtually suppressed. On his return to Cologne in April 1848, Marx applied for Prussian citizenship which he had been forced to renounce in 1845 when he was living in Belgium as an emigrant. Despite the Cologne Magistrate's favourable reply to his application, however, the Cologne royal district authorities and the Minister of the Interior refused to grant it, and Marx remained a "foreigner", who could at any moment be accused of abusing hospitality and expelled. The royal district authorities' note to this effect followed on May 11, 1849, and on May 16 Marx was given 24 hours to leave Prussia. Weerth and Dronke, who did not enjoy Prussian citizenship either, received similar orders. Legal proceedings were instituted against Engels for his part in the Elberfeld uprising. The last issue, No. 301, of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung appeared on May 19, 1849.
[2] After the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which had been published by Marx and Engels in Cologne from June 1, 1848, till May 19, 1849, was banned Marx did not give up the idea of resuming, in one way or another, the publication of a paper that would continue the revolutionary traditions of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. He wrote about this to Engels in Switzerland on August 1, 1849, inviting him to London to help start one up. Marx succeeded in raising funds and finding a publisher, and in mid-December 1849 a contract to publish the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue was signed between the responsible publisher Konrad Schramm and Schuberth and Co., a Hamburg bookselling firm. The periodical's aims were to assess the results of the 1848-49 revolution, to reveal the nature of the new historical situation, and to develop further the proletarian party's tactics. Most of the articles and literary and international reviews were written by Marx and Engels, who also drew contributions to the Revue from their followers Wilhelm Wolff, Joseph Weydemeyer, and Johann Georg Eccarius. Issue No. 1 also carried an item by Karl Blind, "Oesterreichische und preussische Parteien in Baden", and issue No. 4 — verses by the French democrat Louis Ménard. The cover named the places of publication as London, where Marx and Engels lived at the time, Hamburg, where the journal was printed, and New York since a great number of those who had participated in the 1848-49 revolution in Germany emigrated to America, and Marx and Engels hoped to find suitable ground there for distributing the journal. Presuming the possibility of a new revolutionary upsurge, they intended shortly to make their publication a weekly, and later a daily newspaper (see this volume, pp. 605-06). This plan was not, however, carried out. Altogether six issues were published; the last issue, a double one (5-6),came out at the end of November 1850. All further attempts to continue publication were blocked by police persecution in Germany and lack of funds. Marx sent the text of the Announcement to Joseph Weydemeyer in Frankfurt am Main on December 19, 1849, with a request to publish it in the Neue Deutsche Zeitung. It was printed in Nos. 14, 23 and 31 of January 16 and 26, and February 5, 1850. It was also printed in the Berner Zeitung No. 361 of December 27, 1849; in the Westdeutsche Zeitung (published by Hermann Becker in Cologne) on January 8, 9, 11 (supplement), 12 and 13 (supplement), 1850; in the Schweizerische National-Zeitung, Basle, No. 8, January 10, 1850; in the Düsseldorfer Zeitung No. 9, January 10, 1850; in the Norddeutsche Freie Presse, Hamburg-Altona, No. 254, January 18, 1850; in Der Volksfreund, Lemgo, No. 3, January 18, 1850.