CHAPTER VIIITHE GERMAN REVOLUTION
OF 1848-49
T
HE events of the German Revolution of 1848-49, so preg
nant with fateful consequences for that unhappy country
and for the world, need not concern us here.^1 The up
rising was marked by many serious divisions in counsel and
strategy and had more of the earmarks of a romantic adventure
than of a practical, well-planned revolution. In larger communi
ties of the United States which had sizable German populations,
it was hailed with mass meetings, resolutions of sympathy and sup
port, and campaigns to raise funds for the revolutionists. For
several years after the collapse of the revolution, societies such as
the Social Reformers of New York continued to send money to
refugees who had been forced to flee the country and to mark the
anniversaries of the revolution with appropriate celebrations.^2
Though it was in no sense a revolution for socialism or com
munism, many varieties of radicals hurried back to Germany filled
with new hope for the cause which happened to represent their
particular panacea. Marx came over to the Continent from Eng
land. Engels and Freiligrath published the Neue Rheinische
Zeitung in Cologne, confident that parliamentary reform would
ripen into a full-fledged proletarian-communist revolution. Work
ers' organizations in Germany took on new life, though there was
(^1) The best account is Valentin, Geschichte der deutschen Revolution von
1848-49, 2 passim.
New Yorker Staatszeitung, December 15, 1849; March 2, 1850.