The Position of the Parties in Cologne

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Written 16 June 1848


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Source: Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 7, p. 87;
First published: in Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 18, June 18, 1848.
Collection(s): Neue Rheinische Zeitung
Keywords : Election, Germany, Cologne

Cologne, June 16. A few days ago we had a by-election here which clearly showed how much 64 the position of the parties has changed since the general election.[1]

Police Superintendent MĂźller, substitute for Frankfurt, was elected in Gummersbach as deputy to Berlin.

Three candidates competed in the elections. The Catholic party nominated Herr Pellman, the constitutional party (the Citizens’ Association)[2] ran Herr Fay, a lawyer, and the democratic party backed Herr Schneider II, a barrister, and President of the (Stollwerk) Democratic Society.[3]

In the first round (there were 140 voting delegates), Herr Fay received 29 votes, Herr Pellmann 34 and Herr Schneider 52. The rest of the votes were divided.

The second round (139 votes) resulted in 14 votes for Herr Fay, 59 for Herr Pellmann and 64 for Herr Schneider. Thus, the lead of the democratic party was still steadily increasing.

Finally, in the third round (138 votes), Herr Fay did not receive a single vote. Herr Schneider obtained 55 and Herr Pellmann 75 votes. The gentlemen of the Citizens’ Association had given their votes to the Catholic candidate because they feared the Stollwerk democrats.

These votes show how much public opinion here has changed. In the general elections, the democrats were everywhere in the minority. In this by-election, the democrats emerged as the by far most powerful of the three competing parties and only an unnatural coalition of the two other parties was able to defeat them.

We do not blame the Catholic party for entering into this coalition. We only stress the fact that the constitutional party has disappeared.

  1. ↑ In this article the outcome of the Cologne by-election of June 14, 1848, is compared with that of the general election that had taken place on May 10, 1848. Both were elections of deputies to the Frankfurt National Assembly. The article was first published in English in the collection: Karl Marx, The Revolutions of 1848. Political Writings, Vol. 1, London, Penguin Books, 1973
  2. ↑ Citizens’ associations (Bürgervereine), consisting of moderate liberal elements, arose in Prussia after the March revolution. Their aim was to preserve “law and order” within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, and to combat “anarchy”, i. e. the revolutionary-democratic movement
  3. ↑ The Democratic Society in Cologne, which met in Franz Stollwerk’s Café, was founded in April 1848. Among its members were small proprietors, workers and artisans. Marx and Engels took an active part in the management of the Society. At the meetings, Marx, Engels and other members of the editorial staff of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung managed to get certain resolutions adopted which unmasked the anti-revolutionary policy of the Prussian Government and condemned the irresolute conduct of the Berlin and Frankfurt Assemblies. A year later, when Marx and his followers took practical steps to create . an independent mass party of the proletariat, they decided to sever all organisational links with petty-bourgeois democrats, and withdrew from the Democratic Society. Nevertheless they continued to give support to the revolutionary actions of democratic forces in Germany
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