Karl Marx: A Biography

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96 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY

and Herwegh, the poet - believed that a revolutionary war was inevitable

after a successful revolution and this time proposed themselves to contrib-

ute the vanguard of liberating forces. Marx was utterly opposed to these

adventures. Sebastian Seiler, a member of the Communist League, later

wrote:

The socialists and Communists declared themselves decidedly against

any armed imposition of a German Republic from without. They held

public sessions in the Rue St Denis attended by some of those who

later became volunteers. In one of these sessions Marx developed in a

long speech the theme that the February revolution should be viewed

only as the superficial beginning of the European movement. In a short

time here in Paris the open struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie

would break out, as did happen, in fact, in June. The victory or defeat

of revolutionary Europe would depend on this struggle.^7

In order to give their opposition strength, Marx and his friends organised
a meeting based on the four Parisian sections of the Communist League^8
and founded a German Workers' Club (under the presidency first of
Heinrich Bauer and then of Moses Hess) which by the end of March had
400 members - mainly drawn from tailors and bootmakers. It was also
possible to reconstitute the Central Committee of the Communist
League: the Fraternal Democrats in London had sent to Paris a depu-
tation, including Harney and Jones, with an Address to the Provisional
Government. Schapper and Moll were sent by the London German
Workers' Association. At a meeting on 10 March Marx was elected Presi-
dent, Schapper Secretary, and Moll, Bauer, Engels, Wolff and Wallau
committee members. Marx also enjoyed good relations with Ledru-Rollin
and Flocon, both members of the Provisional Government. Flocon offered
money to start a German-language newspaper, but Marx refused - as he
wished to preserve his independence.
On 19 March news reached Paris which changed the situation radically:
a week earlier Metternich had been driven out of Vienna and the Emperor
was forced to grant the demands of the insurgents; and on the twentieth
news came of revolution in Berlin. The Legion made immediate prep-
arations for departure and marched out of Paris - appropriately on
1 April: at its first encounter with government troops after crossing the
Rhine it was virtually annihilated. Marx and his followers also decided to
return to Germany, but in a less spectacular manner. They, too, benefited
from the Provisional Government's subsidy, and most of the members of
the Communist League left for various towns in Germany (either singly
or in small groups) with the intention of establishing a national network.
They carried with them two propaganda documents: one was the Com-