Revolution and Counter-Revolution; Or, Germany in 1848Marx, Karl
History
Revolution and Counter-Revolution; Or, Germany in 1848
Marx, Karl
Germany -- History -- Revolution, 1848-1849
May, 1849, in all parts of Germany, are all cut out to the same
pattern.
In Dresden, the struggle was kept on for four days in the streets of
the town. The shopkeepers of Dresden, the "communal guard," not only
did not fight, but in many instances favored the proceedings of the
troops against the insurgents. These again consisted almost
exclusively of working men from the surrounding manufacturing
districts. They found an able and cool-headed commander in the Russian
refugee Michael Bakunin, who afterwards was taken prisoner, and now is
confined in the dungeons of Munkacs, Hungary. The intervention of
numerous Prussian troops crushed this insurrection.
In Rhenish Prussia the actual fighting was of little importance. All
the large towns being fortresses commanded by citadels, there could be
only skirmishing on the part of the insurgents. As soon as a
sufficient number of troops had been drawn together, there was an end
to armed opposition.
In the Palatinate and Baden, on the contrary, a rich, fruitful
province and an entire state fell into the hands of the insurrection.
Money, arms, soldiers, warlike stores, everything was ready for use.
The soldiers of the regular army themselves joined the insurgents;
nay, in Baden, they were amongst the foremost of them. The
insurrections in Saxony and Rhenish Prussia sacrificed themselves in
order to gain time for the organization of the South German movement.
Never was there such a favorable position for a provincial and partial
insurrection as this. A revolution was expected in Paris; the
Hungarians were at the gates of Vienna; in all the central States of
Germany, not only the people, but even the troops, were strongly in
favor of the insurrection, and only wanted an opportunity to join it
openly. And yet the movement, having once got into the hands of the
petty bourgeoisie, was ruined from its very beginning. The petty
bourgeois rulers, particularly of Baden--Herr Brentano at the head of
them--never forgot that by usurping the place and prerogatives of the
"lawful" sovereign, the Grand Duke, they were committing high treason.
They sat down in their ministerial armchairs with the consciousness of
criminality in their hearts. What can you expect of such cowards? They
not only abandoned the insurrection to its own uncentralized, and
therefore ineffective, spontaneity, they actually did everything in
their power to take the sting out of the movement, to unman, to
destroy it. And they succeeded, thanks to the zealous support of that
deep class of politicians, the "Democratic" heroes of the petty
bourgeoisie, who actually thought they were "saving the country,"
while they allowed themselves to be led by their noses by a few men of
a sharper cast, such as Brentano.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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