KARL MARX

126
KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY
President and Moses Hess as Vice-President. It had thirty-seven members
to begin with and increased rapidly. 117 In addition to many social activities,
there were lectures on Wednesdays - sometimes given by Marx - and a
review of the week's politics on Sundays by Wilhelm Wolff. Marx was
pleased with its 'quite parliamentary discussions' and found the public
activity that it afforded him 'infinitely refreshing'. 118
At the same time Marx managed to secure ready access to a newspaper
as a vehicle for his views. The Deutsche Briisseler Zeitung was published
twice weekly from the beginning of 1847 by Adelbert von Bornstedt, who
had previously edited Vorwiirts in Paris. Bornstedt had been a spy for both
the Prussians and the Austrians in the 1830s and early 1840s, and many
in Brussels suspected that he was continuing those activities. However,
the paper took on an increasingly radical and anti-Prussian tone. In April
1847 Wilhelm Wolff started contributing, and in September Marx began
to write frequently - having come to an arrangement with Bornstedt that
the paper would accept all contributions by himself and Engels. He
complained bitterly to Herwegh of criticism of this step from Germans
who 'always have a thousand words of wisdom up their sleeves to prove
why they should once again let an opportunity slip by. An opportunity for
doing something is nothing but a source of embarrassment for them.' 119
Marx contributed two important essays to the Deutsche Briisseler
Zeitung. One was a reply to an unsigned article in the Rheinischer Beobachter
whose author - Hermann Wagener, later the close associate of Bismarck
- had tried to give the impression that the Prussian Government was in
favour of 'socialist' and even 'communist' measures, citing its recent
proposals to shift the main tax burden from foodstuffs to incomes. Marx
rejected the idea that the communists had anything to gain from supporting
the Government against the bourgeoisie. And in so far as Wagener
appealed to the social principles of Christianity, Marx claimed that they
merely
transferred to heaven the task of reparing all infamies and that this
justified their continuation on earth The social principles of Christianity
preach cowardice, self-abasement, resignation, submission and
humility - in short, all the characteristics of the canaille-, but the proletariat
is not prepared to let itself be treated as canaille, and it needs its
courage, confidence, pride and independence even more than it needs
its daily bread. The social principles of Christianity are sneaking and
hypocritical whilst the proletariat is revolutionary. 120
In Germany, the proletariat had to ally itself with the bourgeoisie for 'the
aristocracy can only be overthrown by an alliance of the bourgeoisie and
the people'. 121 Wagener was quite mistaken in arguing that the proletariat