| Category | Template | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Text | Text |
| Author | Author | Author |
| Collection | Collection | Collection |
| Keywords | Keywords | Keywords |
| Subpage | Subpage | Subpage |
| Template | Form |
|---|---|
| BrowseTexts | BrowseTexts |
| BrowseAuthors | BrowseAuthors |
| BrowseLetters | BrowseLetters |
Template:GalleryAuthorsPreviewSmall
Special pages :
The Congress of Rhenish Towns
First published: in Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 289, May 4, 1849.
Cologne, May 3. The congress of Rhenish municipal councils will take place after all, although in a less official form, and not until next Tuesday. [1]
It goes without saying that we are expecting nothing at all from this assembly composed of bourgeois elected on the basis of three classes according to the property qualification with the mass of the people debarred from voting. A deputation is to be sent to Berlin, which will not even be allowed into the presence of Herr von Hohenzollern.
But it may be that the congress will not take place at all. On Sunday various party congresses will be held here in Cologne.[2] The Government is trying at all costs to provoke a conflict between the people and the army, in order to be able to muzzle us Rhinelanders, just as the Berliners have been muzzled.
It depends on the workers of Cologne whether this subtle Prussian plan will be frustrated. By their calm behaviour, by unshakeable equanimity in the face of the provocations of the soldiers, the Cologne workers can deprive the Government of any excuse for acts of violence.
Decisive events are at hand. Vienna, Bohemia, South Germany, Berlin, are in a ferment and await the right moment. Cologne can play its part, it can play a very powerful part, but it cannot begin any decisive action.
Let the workers of Cologne bear in mind, especially next Sunday, that all the provocations of the Government aim only at causing an outburst of such a kind as will occur at a moment unfavourable for us but favourable for the Government.
Only by great events can revolutions be carried through but if one accepts the challenges of the Government, the most that can result is a revolt.
Workers of Cologne, remember the 25th of September![3]
- â On May 1, 1849 the Cologne municipal council, which consisted mainly of liberal bourgeois representatives, addressed all other municipal councils in the Rhine Province with a proposal to convene a meeting on May 5, 1849 in connection with the new situation that had arisen in Prussia after the dissolution of the Second Chamber. The Prussian Government banned this meeting (the ban was published in the Kölnische Zeitung No. 104, May 2, 1849). Even so, the Cologne municipal council convoked a congress of delegates from the Rhine cities on May 8, 1849 in Cologne. The Congress came out in favour of the imperial Constitution and demanded the convocation of the dissolved Provincial Diet. It was made clear that, if the Prussian Government ignored the Congressâs resolution, the question of the Rhine Provinceâs secession from Prussia would be raised. This threat, however, was not supported by decisive action and remained merely an empty declaration, because the liberal majority of the Congress rejected the proposal to arm the people and to resist the authorities by force.
- â The organisations of the Rhine Province and Westphalia held three congresses in Cologne on Sunday, May 6, 1849: the congress of workersâ associations, the congress of democratic associations and the congress of constitutional-monarchist citizensâ associations (in Deutz, near Cologne)
- â On September 25, 1848 the Cologne authorities arrested several leaders of democratic and workers'associations and provoked premature action on the part of the workers, who began to erect barricades in the city. Marx and his associates did their utmost to prevent the Cologne workers from premature and isolated actions. On the next day, a state of siege was declared in Cologne on the pretext of âsafeguarding the individual and property.â
On September 26, 1848 the authorities, frightened by the upsurge of the revolutionary-democratic movement in Cologne, declared a state of siege there âto safeguard the individual and propertyâ. The military commandantâs office issued an order prohibiting all associations pursuing âpolitical and social aimsâ, banned all meetings, disbanded and disarmed the civic militia, instituted courts martial and suspended publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung and a number of other democratic newspapers. A protest campaign compelled the Cologne military authorities to lift the state of siege on October 2. The Neue Rheinische Zeitung resumed publication on October 12.