Announcement of the Convocation of the Rhenish District Congress of Democratic Associations

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The First Rhenish District Congress of Democratic Associations was held in Cologne on August 13 and 14, 1848. Marx and Engels took part in the work of the Congress.

It was proposed that regional committees should be organised of representatives of democratic associations, with their headquarters in a number of cities. The Regional Committee of the Rhine Province and Westphalia was to have its seat in Cologne. The Central Committee of the three democratic associations in Cologne (see Note 348), which was organised prior to the Congress, was confirmed as the Rhenish Regional Democratic Committee, which included, besides its President Schneider II, Marx, Schapper and Moll. Under the influence of the Communist League members — deputies to the Congress — a resolution was passed on the necessity of conducting work among the factory proletariat and also among the peasants. The Congress recommended that every possible support be rendered to the democratic press (this primarily concerned the Neue Rheinische Zeitung).

Cologne, August 4. In accordance with the decision of the Democratic Congress in Frankfurt, which resolved that Cologne should be the seat of the Executive for the Prussian Rhine Province and authorised the democratic associations there to convene a district congress for organising the democratic party in the province, the Central Committee of the associations here invites all democratically-minded associations in the Rhine Province to appoint delegates to this congress, which will take place here on Sunday, August 13. The delegates must report their arrival in the upstairs hall of the Stollwerk premises.

Schneider II, Marx

(For the Democratic Society)

Moll, Schapper (For the Workers’ Association)

Becker, Schützendorf (For the Association for Workers and Employers)

At a moment when reaction, operating under the name of itinerant “constitutional” congresses, is reviewing and concentrating its forces throughout the state, democrats do not need any more exhaustive exposition of the necessity for an energetic counterattack. They merely have to make use of the same freedoms which the Association “With God for King and Fatherland” and its branch associations enjoy.