Karl Marx: A Biography

(^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 1830 s 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 support-
  ing 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 Christ-

ianity preach cowardice, self-abasement, resignation, submission and

humility - in short, all the characteristics of the canaille-, but the prole-

tariat 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