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Special pages :
Marx's Application for Prussian Citizenship
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 13 April 1848 |
Printed according to the manuscript
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 7
On December 1, 1845, Marx, then residing in Brussels, asked officially to be relieved of his Prussian citizenship with the intention of depriving the Prussian authorities, who were making attempts to get him expelled from Belgium, of any opportunity to interfere in his affairs. After the March revolution of 1848 in Germany Marx returned to his homeland and applied for Prussian citizenship.
He wrote his application to the police office on the second day after his arrival in Cologne. The rough copy of the application has also survived. The fair and the rough copy of the application are written in an unknown hand; the signature, place and date are in Marxâs handwriting. The fair copy differs considerably in some places from the rough one, which mentions Marxâs intention to publish the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Apparently Marx thought better about informing the police of this.
On April 18 Marx was summoned to Police Inspector Hiinermund who wrote an account of Marxâs statement. From the text of the account (see next document) it is evident that Marx declined once again to reveal to the police his plans to publish a newspaper.
Subsequent events showed that Marx had good reason not to trust the police.
The Cologne regional police office deliberately delayed answering his application and, after the publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, it firmly rejected it. In a report to the Minister of the Interior, the regional police office described the editors of the newspaper as very dangerous revolutionaries who were striving to overthrow the existing system. Oberpräsident of the Cologne Province Eichmann called Marx the âsoulâ of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, stressing that he was âthe most prominent figure among the republicans of Cologneâ. The Prussian Government did their best to induce the Cologne police to take measures against the activities of the editor-in-chief of the revolutionary newspaper. This was why Marx was refused Prussian citizenship (see this volume, pp. 407-10).
To the police authorities in Cologne
I have the honour herewith to request you to prevail upon the relevant Department to grant me citizenship in the city of Cologne. I was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, studied at the local gymnasium and at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. In 1842 and 1843 I lived in Cologne as editor of the now defunct Rheinische Zeitung. When that newspaper ceased to exist I went abroad and relinquished my Prussian citizenship. After the events which took place recently, I returned to my country and now I intend to settle with my family in Cologne.[1]
Cologne, April 13, 1848
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Karl Marx
Address: Apostelstrasse 7
- â The following version of the last sentence is given in the rough draft of this letter: "Following an invitation to take part in the editing of a newspaper that is to be founded in Cologne, I have now returned to my country, and intend to settle with my family in Cologne."âEd.