KARL MARX

FOUR
Cologne
No German newspaper, before or since, has ever had the same power
and influence or been able to electrify the proletarian masses as
effectively as the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. And that it owed above all
to Marx.
F. Engels, 'Marx and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung', MESW 11 305.
I. FROM BRUSSELS TO PARIS
The revolutionary movement that swept over Europe in 1848-9 began in
Switzerland in November 1847 when the unwillingness of Austria to
intervene in support of reactionary cantons against the radicals severely
diminished her prestige in Italy: shortly afterwards, the Bourbon King
Ferdinand of Naples was overthrown and republics proclaimed in Naples,
Turin and Florence. In France, Louis Philippe continued complacently
to believe that the Parisians never revolted in winter, but when his troops
fired on unarmed demonstrators a rash of barricades sprang up; the King
was exiled and a provisional republican government formed.
News of the revolution in Paris reached Brussels on 26 February. At
first the Belgian Government acted very cautiously and the King even
offered to abdicate. But once its forces had been concentrated, the
Government's policy became tougher. A mild demonstration on 28 February
was broken up, Wilhelm Wolff was arrested and a list of foreigners to
be deported was drawn up, with Marx's name at the top. The Democratic
Association had already demanded that the Government arm the workers,
and sent a congratulatory Address to the provisional French Government.
'Iwo weeks earlier Marx had inherited 6000 francs from his mother
(probably as much as his total income for the three previous years) and
the police suspected (there was no evidence) that he was using it to
finance the revolutionary movement. They even went as far as asking the
authorities in Trier to question Marx's mother, who protested that the only
reason she had for sending the money at that time was that 'her son had
long been asking her for money for his family and this was an advance