Address to the German National Assembly in Frankfurt Adopted by a Public Meeting Held in Cologne on September 7, 1848

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Written 9 September 1848


First published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 98, September 9, 1848 Printed according to the newspaper Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 7
Collection(s): Neue Rheinische Zeitung
Keywords : Armistice, Cologne, Frankfurt, Civil War, Revolution, Germany

The public meeting in Cologne at which this address was adopted in connection with the debates on the ratification of the armistice at Malmö[1] in the Frankfurt National Assembly, was convened on the initiative of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, as may be judged from the extant handwritten notes which Marx wrote later (at that time he was away). Engels apparently took part in the drafting of the address. The editorial board of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung published the text of the address in the editorial marked “Cologne, September 8” and supplied it with the following note: “Last night a public meeting was held in Rauch’s Riding School to protest against the Prussian-Danish armistice and against the Prussian civic militia law which has been partially passed. Although the posters announcing the meeting were put up only late in the morning, the large hall, which holds no fewer than two and a half thousand people, was filled to overflowing, and at least twice that number were turned away because there was no room....”

An armistice with Denmark, which has been ratified by Prussia, has been presented by the Prussian Government to the Imperial Government, and by the Imperial Government to you.

The undersigned German citizens resident in Cologne protest against this armistice, and, considering:

1. that Prussia has concluded this armistice on the basis of an authorisation issued by the Imperial Regent[2] but not countersigned by any responsible Imperial Minister, and hence legally invalid;

2. that Prussia has exceeded this authorisation in every point thus pursuing only the interests of absolutism and its own, un-German plans;

3. that no political agreement may be concluded without previous authorisation of the National Assembly;

4. that this armistice forces the victorious German troops to an ignominious retreat, instals a Danish Government in Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg, betrays to Denmark the Provisional Government, which arose from the revolution and was recognised by Germany, and all its decisions; withdraws the Schleswig troops from the German High Command and delivers Schleswig-Holstein to civil war;

5. that whereas Germany has constantly fought the revolution in Italy, Posen and Prague, the Danish war is the only one in which Germany defends the revolution against legitimism and absolutism; request you: to reject the armistice concluded by Prussia in violation of the authorisation and in defiance of the Central Authority and the National Assembly, and to defend the revolution in Schleswig-Holstein even at the risk of a European war, and never again to entrust the present Prussian Government with diplomatic negotiations on behalf of Germany; and, finally, to declare that Germany will on no account force the Danish-speaking North Schleswig to become a part of Germany against its will.

Cologne, September 7, 1848

  1. ↑ On September 16, 1848, the Frankfurt National Assembly ratified the Malmö armistice by a majority vote. This evoked profound indignation among democratic circles and the broad masses. On September 17 the citizens of Frankfurt and the surrounding neighbourhood held a mass protest meeting at which they demanded that the Assembly be dissolved and a new representative body set up. The Imperial Government countered by summoning Prussian and Austrian troops to Frankfurt. An insurrection broke out the next day, but the poorly armed people sustained a defeat despite their stubborn barricade fighting. Unrest in many parts of Germany, particularly in the Rhineland, and another attempt at a republican uprising in Baden on September 21, were an echo of the Frankfurt events.
    The first article on the Frankfurt uprising had no title because it was published in the supplement to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung which had no table of contents. The article was first published in English in the collection: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Articles from the “Neue Rheinische Zeitung”. 1848-49, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972.
  2. ↑ Archduke John of Austria.— Ed.
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