Arrests, Neue Rheinische Zeitung, July 5, 1848

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Written 4 July 1848


MIA-banniĂšre.gif
Source: Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 7, p. 177;
Written: on July 4, 1848;
First published: in Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 35, July 5, 1848.
Collection(s): Neue Rheinische Zeitung
Keywords : Germany, Repression, Arrest

Cologne, July 4. We promised our readers yesterday that we would come back to the arrest of Dr. Gottschalk and Anneke. Up to now we have only been able to obtain greater details about Anneke’s arrest.

Six to seven policemen entered Anneke’s residence between six and seven in the morning, immediately maltreated the maid in the hall and then silently sneaked up the stairs. Three of them remained in the anteroom while four invaded the bedroom where Anneke and his wife, who is in an advanced state of pregnancy, were asleep. One of these four pillars of justice was already at this early hour somewhat unsteady, being filled with “spirit”, the true fluid of life: firewater.

Anneke asked what they wanted. He should go along with them! was the laconic answer. Anneke asked that at least his sick wife should be spared and asked the gentlemen to go into the anteroom. The gentlemen of the Holy Hermandad [1] declared that they would not leave the bedroom. They urged Anneke to dress quickly and did not even permit him to speak to his wife. Once they found themselves in the anteroom, the urging turned into assault during which one of the policemen smashed a glass door. Anneke was pushed down the stairs. Four policemen led him off to the new gaol. Three of them remained with Frau Anneke to guard her until the arrival of the Public Prosecutor.

According to the law, there must be at least one official of the court police (a police inspector or similar person) present during an arrest. Why such formalities, however, since the people possess two assemblies, one in Berlin and one in Frankfurt, to represent their rights?

Half an hour later, Public Prosecutor Hecker and Examining Magistrate Geiger came to search the house.

Frau Anneke complained that the Public Prosecutor had left the arrest to police whose brutality was unconstrained by the presence of any member of the municipal authorities. Herr Hecker declared that he had given no orders to commit brutalities. As if Herr Hecker could order brutalities!

Frau Anneke: It seems that the police were sent ahead alone so that the authorities would not have to assume the responsibility for their brutality. Besides, the arrest was not carried out according to legal procedure since none of the police produced a warrant. One of them merely pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket which Anneke was not allowed to read.

Herr Hecker “The police were judicially commanded to proceed with the arrest.” Does not the command of a judge also fall under the command of the law? The Public Prosecutor and the Examining Magistrate confiscated a mass of papers and pamphlets, including Frau Anneke’s whole briefcase, etc. Incidentally, Examining Magistrate Geiger has been designated as Police Superintendent.

Anneke was interrogated for half an hour in the evening. A supposedly seditious speech that he made during the last popular assembly at the GĂŒrzenich Hall[2]. was given as the reason for his arrest. Article 102 of the Code pĂ©nal[3] speaks of public orations which directly incite to conspiracy against the Emperor and his family or which aim at disturbing the public peace by civil war, the illegal use of armed force or open vandalism and looting. The Code does not contain the Prussian “excitement of dissatisfaction”. For lack of the Prussian law, Article 102 will be employed for the time being wherever its employment is a judicial impossibility.

A great show of military force accompanied the arrest. From four o'clock onwards the troops were confined to barracks. Bakers and artisans were allowed in but not let out again. Towards six o'clock the hussars moved from Deutz to Cologne and rode through the whole city. The new gaol was occupied by 300 men. For today, four new arrests have been announced, those of Jansen, Kalker, Esser and a fourth one. Eyewitnesses assure us that Jansen’s posters, in which he urged the workers to remain calm, were torn down from the walls by the’ police yesterday evening. Was that done in the interest of order? Or was someone looking for a pretext to carry out carefully prepared plans in the good old city of Cologne?

Chief Public Prosecutor Zweiffel is supposed to have inquired earlier at the Provincial Court of Appeal at Arnsberg whether he should arrest Anneke on the basis of his former conviction[4] and have him transported to JĂŒlich. The royal amnesty seems to have stood in the way of this well-meaning intention. The matter was referred to the Ministry.

Chief Public Prosecutor Zweiffel, moreover, is supposed to have declared that he would within a week put an end to March 19, the clubs, freedom of the press and other outrages that the evil year 1848 had brought to Cologne on the Rhine. Herr Zweiffel is not among the sceptics.

Is Herr Zweiffel perhaps combining the executive with the legislative power? Are the laurels of Chief Public Prosecutor supposed to cover the weak points of the people’s representative? Once again we will scrutinise our much beloved stenographic reports and give the public a true picture of the work of the people’s representative and Chief Public Prosecutor Zweiffel.

Those are the actions of the Government of Action, the Government of the Left Centre, the Government of transition to an old aristocratic, old bureaucratic and old Prussian Government. As soon as Herr Hansemann has fulfilled his transitory function, he will be dismissed.

The Berlin Left, however, must realise that the old regime is willing to let it keep its small parliamentary victories and large constitutional designs as long as the old regime in the meantime is able to seize all the really important positions. It can confidently recognise the revolution of March 19 inside the Chamber provided the revolution can be disarmed outside of it.

Some fine day the Left may find that its parliamentary victory coincides with its real defeat. Perhaps German development needs such contrasts.

The Government of Action recognises the revolution in principle in order to carry out the counter-revolution in practice.

  1. ↑ The Holy Hermandad — a league of Spanish cities founded at the end of the fifteenth century with the co-operation of the royal authorities who wanted to make use of wealthy townspeople in their fight against the feudal magnates in an attempt to establish royal absolutism. From the middle of the sixteenth century the armed forces of the Holy Hermandad carried out police functions. Thus the police in general has often been ironically labelled the “Holy Hermandad
  2. ↑ Anneke spoke at the meeting of the Cologne Workers’ Association which took place at the GĂŒrzenich Hall on June 25, 1848, to debate the setting up of a united commission which was to consist of representatives from the three democratic organisations of Cologne: the Democratic Society, the Workers’ Association and the Association for Workers and Employers.
    The Cologne Workers’ Association — a workers’ organisation founded by Andreas Gottschalk on April 13, 1848. Its 300 members had increased to 5,000, the majority of whom were workers and artisans, by the beginning of May. The Association was led by the President and the committee, which consisted of representatives of various trades. The newspaper Zeitung des Arbeiter-Vereines zu Köln was the organ of the Association, but from October 26 it was replaced by the Freiheit, BrĂŒderlichkeit, Arbeit. There were a number of branches of the Association. After Gottschalk’s arrest, Moll was elected President on July 6 and he held this post till the state of siege was proclaimed in Cologne in September 1848, when he had to emigrate under threat of arrest. On October 16, Marx agreed to assume this post temporarily at the request of Association members. In November Röser became acting President and on February 28, 1849, Schapper was elected President and remained in this post until the end of May 1849.
    The majority of the leading members (Gottschalk, Anneke, Schapper, Moll, Lessner, Jansen, Röser, Nothjung, Bedorf) were members of the Communist League.
    During the initial period of its existence, the Workers’ Association was influenced by Gottschalk who, sharing many of the views of the “true socialists “ ignored the historical tasks of the proletariat in the democratic revolution, carried on sectarian tactics of boycotting indirect elections to the Federal and Prussian National Assemblies and came out against support of democratic candidates in elections. He combined ultra-Left phrases with very legalistic methods Cf struggle (workers’ petitions to the Government and the City Council etc.) and supported the demands of the workers affected by craft prejudices etc. From the very beginning, Gottschalk’s tactics were resisted by the supporters of Marx an(i Engels. At the end of June a change-over took place under their influence in the activities of the Workers’ Association, which became a centre of revolutionary agitation among the workers, and from the autumn of 1848 onwards, also among the peasants. Members of the Association organised democratic and workers’ associations in the vicinity of Cologne, disseminated revolutionary literature, including the “Demands of the Communist Party in Germany”, and carried on among themselves education in scientific communism through the study of Marx’s writings. The Association maintained close contact with other workers’ and democratic organisations.
    When, in the spring of 1849, Marx and Engels took steps to organise the advanced workers on a national scale and actually started preparing for the creation of a proletarian party, they relied to a considerable extent on the Cologne Workers’ Association.
    The mounting counter-revolution and intensified police reprisals prevented further activities of the Cologne Workers’ Association to unite and organise the working masses. After the Neue Rheinische Zeitung ceased publication and Marx, Schapper and other leaders of the Association left Cologne, it gradually turned into an ordinary workers’ educational society.
  3. ↑ The Code pĂ©nal — the penal code adopted in France in 1810 and introduced into the regions of Western and South-Western Germany conquered by the French. The Code pĂ©nal and the Code civil remained in effect in the Rhine Province even after the region was annexed by Prussia in 1815. The Prussian Government attempted to reduce the sphere of its application and reintroduce the Prussian Penal Code: a whole series of laws and decrees were promulgated designed to guarantee feudal privileges. These measures, which met great opposition in the Rhineland, were annulled after the March revolution by the decrees issued on April 15, 1848
  4. ↑ On March 3, 1848, Anneke was arrested together with Gottschalk and Willich because they had helped to organise a mass meeting in Cologne. All three were accused of “incitement to revolt and founding an illegal association”. They were released from prison on March 21, 1848, on the royal amnesty
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