VI. Vogt and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung

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"Sîn kumber was manecvalt."[1]

Vogt himself claims that his "purpose" in writing his "Magnum Opus" (p. 162) is to clarify "the development of his personal attitude to this clique" (Marx and Co.). Curiously enough, he only describes conflicts that he has never experienced and only experiences conflicts that he has never described. So it is necessary to confront his tall stories with a piece of real history. Anyone who leafs through the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (June 1, 1848-May 19, 1849) will discover that in 1848 Vogt's name does not occur, apart from a single exception[2], either in its leading articles or in its correspondence columns. It will be found only in the daily reports of the parliamentary debates and to Vogt's immense satisfaction the Frankfurt reporter[3] never failed to record conscientiously the "applause" accorded to him for "the speeches delivered by himself". We saw that whereas the Right wing in Frankfurt had at their disposal the united forces of a harlequin like Lichnowski and a clown like von Vincke, the Left was forced to rely entirely on the sporadic outbreaks of farce from its one and only Vogt. We realised that he stood in need of encouragement,

"that important fellow, the children's wonder—Signor Punchinello",[4]

and so let the Frankfurt reporter have his head. After the middle of September 1848 his reports underwent a change of tone.

In the debates on the Truce of Malmö, Vogt tried to stir up a rebellion with his revolutionary rantings[5]. At the decisive moment he did his utmost to prevent the acceptance of the resolutions which had been passed by the popular assembly on the Pfingstweide and approved by a section of the extreme Left[6]. After the barricade fighting had been crushed, with Frankfurt openly transformed into an army camp and a state of siege proclaimed, this same Vogt declared on September 19 that he was in favour of urgently discussing Zachariä's resolution endorsing the measures already taken by the Imperial Ministry and expressing gratitude to the Imperial troops[7]. Before Vogt rose to speak even Venedey[8] had protested against the "urgency" of these resolutions, declaring that such a discussion at such a time was unworthy of the Assembly. But Vogt was inferior to Venedey. By way of punishment I inserted the word "windbag" into the parliamentary report[9] after the word "Vogt", as a hint to the Frankfurt reporter.

In the following October Vogt not only neglected his duty of waving his harlequin's wooden sword above the heads of the then boisterous and fiercely reactionary majority. He did not even dare to sign the protest tabled by Zimmermann of Spandau[10] on October 10 in the name of some 40 deputies, opposing the law for the protection of the National Assembly[11]. The law, as Zimmermann correctly pointed out, signalled the most shameless interference with the popular rights that had been gained in the March revolution—right of assembly, freedom of speech and of the press. Even Eisenmann[12] handed in a similar protest. But Vogt was inferior to Eisenmann. When he did venture forth again at the founding of the "Central March Association"[13] his name finally made its appearance in an article in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (December 29, 1848), in which the "March Association" was designated the "unconscious tool of the counter-revolution", its programme was critically torn to shreds and Vogt was represented as one half of the two-headed figure whose other half was Vincke. More than a decade later both "Ministers of the Future" acknowledged their affinity and chose the partition of Germany as the motto of their unity.

That our assessment of the "March Association" was correct was not only confirmed by its later "development". The Heidelberg "People's League", the Breslau "Democratic Association", the Jena "Democratic Association", etc., all rejected its importunate offers of love with' scorn, and those members of the extreme Left who had joined it confirmed our criticism of December 29, 1848, by announcing their resignation on April 20, 1849. Vogt, however, in the quiet grandeur of his soul, heaped coals of fire on our heads as can be seen from the following quotation:

Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 243, Cologne, March 10, 1849. 'The Frankfurt so-called March Association' of the so-called 'Imperial Assembly' has had the insolence to send us the following lithographed letter:

"'The March Association has decided to compile a list of all newspapers which have given us space in their columns and to distribute it to all associations with which we are connected in order that with the assistance of this association the newspapers indicated will be given preference in being supplied with any relevant announcements . In informing you herewith of this list, we believe it is unnecessary to draw your attention to the importance of the paid announcements of a newspaper as the chief source of income for the whole enterprise. [...] Frankfurt, end of February 1849.


The Managing Committee of the Central March Association'

In the enclosed list of newspapers which have given space in their columns to the March Association and to which the supporters of the March Association should give preference in supplying 'relevant announcements', one finds also the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which; in addition, is given the honour of an asterisk. We hereby announce [...] that our newspaper has never given space in its columns to the so-called March Association..., If, therefore, the March Association in its lithographed report to those newspapers which have really given it space in their columns designates our newspaper as one of its organs, this is simply calumny against the Neue Rheinische Zeitung and absurd boasting on the. part of the March Association....

To the dirty remark of the profit-greedy competition-goaded patriots about the importance of the paid announcements of a newspaper as a source of income for the whole enterprise, we, of course. do not reply. The Neue Rheinische Zeitung has always differed from the patriots not only generally but also in that it has never regarded political movement as a territory for swindlers or a source of income."[14]

Shortly after this brusque rejection of the source of income proffered by Vogt and Co. the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was tearfully held up as a model of "true German disunity" at a meeting of the Central Commercial Association[15], At the conclusion of our reply to this Jeremiad (Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 248) Vogt is described as a "provincial academic beer-blusterer and an unsuccessful Imperial Barrot"[16]. True, at that time (March 15), he had not yet compromised himself on the question of the Emperor, But we had made our minds up once and for all about Herr Vogt and could therefore regard his future treason as a foregone conclusion, even before it was clear to Vogt himself.

From then on, incidentally, we abandoned Vogt and Co. to the attentions of the young Schlöffel, who was both brave and intelligent. He had arrived in Frankfurt from Hungary early in March after which he kept us informed of all the storms in the Imperial frog-pond.

Vogt, meanwhile, had sunk so low—he himself had of course done more to bring this about than the Neue Rheinische Zeitung—that even Bassermann could venture to brand him an "apostate and renegade" in the session of April 25, 1849.[17]

F. Engels, one of the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, was forced to flee because of the part he played in the Elberfeld uprising[18], and I myself was driven out of Prussia shortly afterwards, after repeated efforts to silence me through legal proceedings had failed thanks to the jury, and after the Neue Preussische Zeitung, the organ of the coup d'état Ministry[19], had repeatedly denounced the "Chimborazo insolence[20] of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, compared to which the Moniteur of 1793 seemed ather pale" (see the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 299)[21]. Such "Chimborazo insolence" was highly appropriate in a Prussian fortress-town and at a time when the victorious counter-revolution sought to intimidate people by means of unashamed brutality.

On May 19, 1849 the last number of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (the Red Number) appeared. As long as the Neue Rheinische Zeitung existed, Vogt had endured in silence. If a parliamentarian did lodge a complaint, he did so in all modesty. For example:

"Sir, the sharp criticism in your newspaper is valued by me no less because it observes all parties and all persons with equal strictness " (see No. 219 [supplement], February 11, 1849, Wesendonck's complaint).[22]

A week after the demise of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Vogt, operating under the mantle of parliamentary immunity, finally thought he could seize his long-awaited opportunity to convert the "matter" he had accumulated deep in his heart into "energy"[23]. The position was that one of the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Wilhelm Wolff, had replaced a retired Silesian deputy[24] in the Frankfurt Assembly, which was "in the process of dissolution" at the time.[25] In order to understand the following scene in the parliamentary session of May 26, 1849, it must be borne in mind that the uprising in Dresden and the local movements in the Rhine Province had already been crushed. The Empire was about to intervene in Baden and the Palatinate, the main Russian army was marching on Hungary and, finally, the Imperial Ministry had simply quashed resolutions approved by the Assembly. On the agenda were two "Proclamations to the German Nation", the first edited by Uhland and emanating from the majority, the other stemming from the Committee of Thirty[26], whose members belonged to the Centre. Presiding over the Assembly was Reh from Darmstadt who later turned into a rabbit[27] and "detached" himself from the Assembly, which was "in complete disarray". I quote from the official stenographic report, Nos. 229, 228. Session in St. Paul's Church.[28]

Wolff from Breslau: "Gentlemen, I have registered my opposition to the Proclamation to the Nation, the proclamation that was composed by the majority and that has been read aloud here, because I think it utterly inadequate to the needs of the present time. I find it altogether too feeble. It is good enough to appear as an article in the newspapers which represent the party that has devised it, but it is not good enough for a Proclamation to the German Nation. Since a second Proclamation has now been read out I may remark in passing that I would be even more strongly opposed to it than to the first one, for reasons that I do not need to enter into here." (A voice from the Centre: "Why not?") "I am speaking solely of the majority Proclamation. It is true that it is couched in such moderate terms that even Herr Buss had little to say against it, and that is without doubt the worst recommendation for any proclamation. No, gentlemen, if you wish to have any influence on the people at all you should not address it in the manner adopted in this Proclamation. You must not speak about legality, the legal basis, etc., but of illegality just like the governments, like the Russians —and by Russians I understand the Prussians, Austrians, Bavarians and Hanoverians." (Commotion and laughter.) "All these have been subsumed under the name Russians." (Loud laughter.) "Yes, gentlemen, the Russians are represented in this Chamber too. You must tell them: 'In the same way as you adopt the legal standpoint, so do we.' This is the standpoint of force, and in parenthesis you ought to explain legality by saying that you will oppose the Russian cannon with force, with well-organised storming-parties.

If any proclamation is to be issued, issue one which begins by outlawing the first traitor to the people, the Imperial Regent."[29]

(Interruption: "Order!"—Lively applause from the gallery.)

"All the Ministers likewise." (Renewed commotion.) "Oh, I shall not let myself be intimidated: he is the first traitor to the people."

President: "I think that Herr Wolff has ignored and offended against every propriety. He cannot describe the Archducal Imperial Regent as a traitor to the people in this House and I must therefore call him to order. I must also request the galleries for the last time not to intervene further in the debate."

Wolff : "For my part, I accept the call to order and declare that it was my intention to transgress the bounds of order and to state that he and his Ministers are traitors." (From all sides of the House: "Order. This is scandalous.")

President : "I must ask you to be seated."

Wolff: "Very well, I protest. I wanted to speak here in the name of the people and to say what the people is thinking. I protest against every proclamation framed in these terms." (Great tumult.)

President : "Gentlemen, will you please allow me to speak for a moment. Gentlemen, the incident that has just taken place is, I may say, the first there has been since Parliament has been in session here." (It was indeed the first and the only incident to take place in that Debating Society.) "No speaker has ever before declared that it was his intention to disrupt the order, the very foundations of this House." (Schlöffel had replied to a similar call to order, in the session of April 25: "I accept the call to order, all the more as I hope that the time will soon come when this Assembly will be called to order in a very different way.")[30]

"Gentlemen, I deeply regret that Herr Wolff, who has only just become a member of this House, should have made his début in this manner" (Reh looks at the matter from a theatrical point of view). "Gentlemen, I have called him to order because he has permitted himself greatly to affront the respect and consideration that we owe to the person of the Imperial Regent."

The debate then proceeded. Hagen and Zachariä made long speeches, the one for and the other against the proclamation of the. majority. Finally,

Vogt from Giessen rose from his seat: "Gentlemen, allow me a few words, I shall not weary you. It is perfectly true that this Parliament is no longer what it was when it assembled last year, gentlemen, and we thank Heaven" (our Vogt of "blind faith"[31] thanks Heaven) "that it is become so " (is become, indeed![32]) "and that those who lost faith in the people and who betrayed the cause of the people at the decisive moment, have now left this Assembly! Gentlemen, I have asked permission to speak" (so the thanksgiving we have just heard was just humbug), "in order to defend the crystal-clear stream" (defence of a stream) "that flowed from the poet's soul" (Vogt is becoming soulful) "into this proclamation against the unworthy filth that has been thrown into it or hurled at it" (but the stream had already been absorbed by the proclamation), "to defend these words" (as with everything that Vogt touches, the stream has been changed into words) "against the muck that has been heaped up in this latest movement and which threatens to engulf and besmirch everything. Yes, gentlemen! That" (namely the muck) "is muck and filth" (the muck is filth!) "which is being thrown in this way" (in what way?) "at everything pure that can be imagined, and I wish to express my deep indignation"' (Vogt in deep indignation, quel tableau! [33]) "at the fact that this sort of thing" (what sort of thing?) "could have happened."[34]

And his very speech is—muck.[35] Wolff had not said a single word about Uhland's editing of the proclamation. As the President repeatedly declared, he had been called to order, he had conjured up the whole storm, because he had declared that the Imperial Regent and all his Ministers were traitors to the people and had called on Parliament to do likewise. But for Vogt the "Archducal Imperial Regent", the "worn-out Habsburg" (Vogt's Studien, p. 28) and "all his Ministers" represent "everything pure that can be imagined". With Walther von der Vogelweide he sang:

"des fürsten milte ûz ôstêrriche

fröit dem süezen rëgen gelîche

beidiu liute und ouch daz lant."[36]

Did Vogt already, even at that time, enjoy the "scientific relationship" with Archduke John that he later confessed to? (See Documents in the "Magnum Opus", p. 25.) Ten years later the same Vogt declared in the Studien (pp. 27[-28]):

"So much at least is certain: the National Assembly in France and its leaders at the time underestimated the abilities of Louis Napoleon just as the leaders of the Frankfurt National Assembly underestimated those of Archduke John, and both the old foxes made their respective detractors pay dearly for their mistake. We are far from wanting to equate the two men. The terrible ruthlessness, etc.. etc." (of Louis Bonaparte).—"All this makes him cut a tar superior figure to the old and worn-out Habsburg."[37]

During the very same session Wolff challenged Vogt to a duel with pistols—a challenge which was transmitted by deputy Würth from Sigmaringen—and when the aforesaid Vogt preferred to preserve his skin intact for the Empire[38], he threatened to thrash him. On leaving St. Paul's Church, however, Wolff discovered Charles the Bold flanked by two ladies, and bursting into laughter he left him to his fate. Although he is a wolf, with a wolf's heart and teeth, Wolff is a lamb when he sees the fair sex, His only, really quite innocuous, revenge was an article in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Revue (April issue, 1850, p. 73) entitled "Nachträgliches aus dem Reich" in which he wrote about the Ex-Imperial Regent as follows:

"In these critical days the Central March people have been extremely industrious. Before withdrawing from Frankfurt they had published an address to the various March associations and to the German people: 'Fellow-citizens! The eleventh hour has struck!' In order to assemble a people's army they issued a new proclamation 'to the German nation' from Stuttgart, and lo and behold! the hand on the Central March clock had stood still, or like the clock on Freiburg Minster, had lost the number XII. However that might be, this proclamation too began with the words: 'Fellow-citizens! The eleventh hour has struck!' Oh if only it had struck earlier, and had pierced your heads, at least at the time when Karl Vogt, the Central March hero, was pacifying the Franconian revolution[39] in Nuremberg to his own satisfaction and to the satisfaction of the wailers who were feting him[40].... The Regency set up its offices in the government building in Freiburg. The Regent Karl Vogt, who was also Foreign Minister and the incumbent of many other Ministries, once more took the well-being of the German people[41] very much to heart. Having studied their problems in long days and nights he came up with a very timely invention, that of 'Imperial Regency passports'. These passports were simple, beautifully lithographed and could be obtained gratis by anyone whose heart desired one. They only had the one small defect of being recognised as valid only in Vogt's Chancellery. It is possible that later on one or other of them will find its way into an Englishman's collection of curios."[42]

Wolff did not follow Greiner's example. Instead of "departing at once for America" as soon as the Revue "had appeared", he remained for a year in Switzerland, awaiting the revenge of the Land-Vogt.

  1. ↑ "His griefs were manifold"—an adapted line from Der Edel Stein, a collection of fables by Ulrich Bonerius.—Ed.
  2. ↑ This refers to the article "Ein Aktenstück des Märzvereins" in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 181, December 29, 1848.—Ed.
  3. ↑ Gustav Adolph Schlöffel.—Ed.
  4. ↑ Marx gives these lines in English.—Ed.
  5. ↑ Vogt's speech in the Frankfurt National Assembly on September 15, 1848, Stenographischer Bericht über die Verhandlungen der deutschen constituirenden Nationalversammlung zu Frankfurt am Main, Bd. 3, S. 2091-94.—Ed.
    Here and elsewhere, speaking of the Frankfurt National Assembly, Marx used the Assembly's verbatim reports, which were later published in book form under the heading Stenographischer Bericht über die Verhandlungen der deutschen constituirenden Nationalversammlung zu Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, 1848-1849.
  6. ↑ On August 26, 1848 Denmark and Prussia concluded an armistice in Malmö which nullified the revolutionary and democratic gains of the peoples of Schleswig and Holstein and virtually sanctioned the continuance of Danish rule there. On September 16, 1848 the Frankfurt National Assembly ratified the armistice. This decision caused an outburst of indignation in Germany's democratic circles. On September 17, 1848 a mass meeting held in the Pfingstweide meadow in the northeast suburb of Frankfurt am Main adopted a resolution demanding that the deputies who had voted for ratification should be- declared traitors and urging the Left deputies to walk out of the Assembly (Stenographischer Bericht..., Bd. 3, S. 2184). While some extreme Left deputies complied with these demands, Karl Vogt came out against them. On September 18 the popular movement in Frankfurt against the ratification of the Malmö armistice developed into an uprising which was brutally suppressed by government troops.
  7. ↑ The speeches by Vogt and Zachariä in the Frankfurt National Assembly on September 19, 1848, ibid., S. 2188.—Ed.
  8. ↑ Venedey's speech in the Frankfurt National Assembly on September 19, 1848, ibid., S. 2187.—Ed.
  9. ↑ Report on the sitting of the Frankfurt National Assembly on September 20, 1848, Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 110, September 23, 1848.—Ed.
  10. ↑ Zimmermann's speech in the Frankfurt National Assembly on October 10, 1848, Stenographischer Bericht..., Bd. 4, S. 2531.—Ed.
  11. ↑ On October 9, 1848 the Frankfurt National Assembly adopted a "Law for the Protection of the Constituent National Assembly and of the Officials of the Central Authority" ("Gesetz betreffend den Schutz der Konstituierenden Reichsversammlung und der Beamten der Zentralgewalt", Stenographischer Bericht..., Bd. 4, S. 2528-29). Under this law, insulting a deputy of the Assembly or a representative of the central authority (an Imperial Regent, a minister or any other official) was punishable by imprisonment. This was one of the repressive measures against the people introduced after the September uprising in Frankfurt.
  12. ↑ Eisenmann's speech in the Frankfurt National Assembly, ibid., pp. 2531 et seq.—Ed.
  13. ↑ The Central March Association, thus named after the March 1848 revolution in Germany, was founded in Frankfurt am Main at the end of November 1848 by Left-wing deputies to the Frankfurt National Assembly and had branches in various towns in Germany. Fröbel, Simon, Ruge, Vogt and other petty-bourgeois democratic leaders of the March associations confined themselves to revolutionary phrase-mongering and showed indecision and inconsistency in the struggle against counter-revolutionaries, for which Marx and Engels sharply criticised them (e.g., in the article "Ein Aktenstück des Märzvereins", Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 181, December 29, 1848).
  14. ↑ Karl Marx, "The March Association".—Ed.
  15. ↑ Marx puns on März (March) and Kommerz (commerce).—Ed.
  16. ↑ Karl Marx, "The Frankfurt March Association and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung". The italics were introduced by Marx in Herr Vogt.—Ed.
  17. ↑ Stenographischer Bericht..., Bd. 8, S. 6303.—Ed.
  18. ↑ See Engels' works "Elberfeld" and The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution.
  19. ↑ In November and early December 1848 a coup d'état took place in Prussia which led to the establishment of the arch-reactionary Brandenburg-Manteuffel Ministry and the dissolution of the National Assembly.
  20. ↑ The Chimborazo is a peak of the Andes. "Chimborazo insolence" means "monumental insolence".—Ed.
  21. ↑ Karl Marx, "The Kreuz-Zeitung".—Ed.
  22. ↑ Hugo Wesendonck, "Erklärung. Düsseldorf, 8. Februar 1849".—Ed.
  23. ↑ An ironic allusion to the book Kraft und Stoff (Energy and Matter) (1855) by the German physiologist Ludwig Büchner, a vulgar materialist like Vogt.
  24. ↑ Gustav Adolf Stenzel.—Ed.
  25. ↑ At the elections to the Frankfurt National Assembly in May 1848, the Silesian district of Striegau (Strzegom) elected Wilhelm Wolff to deputise when necessary for the liberal deputy Stenzel, who obtained a majority vote. When Stenzel and a group of other liberal deputies walked out of the Assembly in May 1849, his seat went to Wolff.
  26. ↑ The proclamation "The German National Assembly to the German Nation" ("Die deutsche Nationalversammlung an das deutsche Volk") drawn up by the poet J. L. Uhland on behalf of the moderate democrats was dictated by the latter's desire for a political rapprochement with the liberal bourgeoisie. It offered no concrete programme of action and boiled down to an impotent appeal to the German nation to press for the introduction of the Imperial Constitution.
  27. ↑ Marx plays on the surname Reh, a homonym of Reh (roe deer).—Ed.
  28. ↑ Stenographischer Bericht..., Bd. 9, S. 6749.—Ed.
  29. ↑ Archduke John.—Ed.
  30. ↑ Stenographischer Bericht..., Bd. 8, S. 6751.—Ed.
  31. ↑ Vogt of "blind faith" (der "Köhlergläubige" Vogt)—an ironical allusion to Vogt's book Köhlerglaube und Wissenschaft..., Giessen, 1855.—Ed.
  32. ↑ Marx ridicules the ungrammatical verb form used by Vogt: geworden wird.—Ed.
  33. ↑ What a sight!—Ed.
  34. ↑ Stenographischer Bericht..., Bd. 9, S. 6751.—Ed.
  35. ↑ Variation on a verse from Ludwig Uhland's "Des Sängers Fluch": "Und was er spricht, ist Geissel" ("His very speech is a whiplash").—Ed.
  36. ↑ "The Prince of Austria's generosity,Like gentle rain, bestows felicity Both on the people and on the land."—Ed.
  37. ↑ Carl Vogt, Studien zur gegenwärtigen Lage Europas, S. 27-28. Marx's italics.—Ed.
  38. ↑ In the pamphlet by Jacobus Venedey already referred to, Kobes I tells the following story: "In the same session in which Gagern embraced Gabriel Riesser after the latter's speech on the Emperor, ... Karl Vogt embraced Zimmermann in St. Paul's Church with mock pathos and noisy exclamations, and so I called out to him: 'Stop these roguish pranks.' Vogt thought it expedient to reply in provocative and abusive terms and when I challenged him personally, he had the courage, after a friend had made a number of journeys between the two of us, to withdraw his insult" (loc. cit., pp. 21, 22).
  39. ↑ In early May 1849 Middle Franconia (part of Bavaria) was swept by a wave of protests against the rejection of the Imperial Constitution by the Bavarian Government. The movement culminated in a mass rally in Nuremberg on May 13 attended by 50,000 people. In his address Karl Vogt, under cover of pseudo-revolutionary phrases, urged the people to abstain from resolute action.
  40. ↑ Vogt later justified his valiant deeds in Nuremberg with the words: "He had been given no guarantees for his own personal safety."
  41. ↑ Wolff has: "of the German Empire".—Ed.
  42. ↑ Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue, IV. Heft, April 1850, S 75, 76.—Ed.
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