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Special pages :
Petition for Permission to Reside in Berne
| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 15 November 1848 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 8
Engels wrote this petition when he arrived in Berne about November 9, 1848, as a political refugee. On the reasons for his departure to Berne see Note 3. The warrant for his arrest and trial, mentioned in the petition, was issued by the Cologne judiciary, who, on the demand of the Imperial Minister of Justice, instituted proceedings against him and. a number of other persons for their speeches. at the public meeting in Cologne on September 26, 1848. Later, the judicial authorities found it expedient to annul the case, and this was officially announced at the end of January 1849, when Engels, who had returned to Germany, was summoned before. the examining magistrate (see this volume, p. 516).
To the Directorate of Justice and Police of the Canton of Berne, in Berne.
On the instruction of the passport office, I take the liberty of submitting a petition for permission to reside in Berne.
I was living in Cologne (Rhenish Prussia) as a writer, when I became involved in the court investigation[1] instituted following the unrest which broke out in that city on September 25 and 26 of this year and was threatened with arrest. I evaded this arrest by flight, and a few days later a warrant was issued against me (Kölnische Zeitung of October 1, 2 and 3),[2] through which my status as political refugee is established. I offer if necessary to produce a copy of this warrant for the Directorate.
On arrival in Switzerland I preferred to claim the hospitality of the canton and city of Berne rather than that of any other place
1. because Berne is sufficiently far from the German border to deprive the German authorities of any pretext for importuning the Swiss Government with claims and assertions that I am abusing the right of asylum by subversive activities etc.[3]
2. because just now Berne affords me the opportunity to study in the work of the Swiss Federal Assembly the practical effect of a Constitution from which Germany in any case can learn much, particularly at a time when the German people may be in a position to give itself a Constitution similar to this in one or another respect.
I presume that my exile will not be of too long a duration, for apart from the slight prospect of stability of the present order of things in Prussia, I have every reason to expect a verdict of acquittal from the Cologne jury, and by my flight I mainly intended only to escape a lengthy detention on remand. I believe, therefore, that by next spring I shall be able to return to my country.
As far as my means of subsistence are concerned, they are perfectly secured, as I can prove if necessary.
Also on the instruction of the passport office, I enclose the passport which the French Provisional Government issued on request when in the month of April of this year I returned from Paris to my homeland, and which was forwarded to me from Cologne.
I take this opportunity to assure the Directorate of my highest esteem.
Frederick Engels
Berne, Postgasse No. 43 B,
c/o Herr Haeberli, November 15, 1848
- ↑ The following phrase: "instituted against me on a charge of instigating to revolt etc., etc.", is crossed out in the manuscript.— Ed
- ↑ See present edition, Vol. 7, p. 593.— Ed.
- ↑ The following phrase: "calling for an uprising against the German Government etc.", is crossed out in the manuscript.— Ed.