132 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
ing the communist state at once, he was rebuked by the presiding
officer for "theoretical quarreling."^10 The congress ended by
adopting various resolutions including the customary declaration
about the rights of man, and issued an appeal for support of the
Viennese revolutionists. A second meeting, called for Cologne,
never took place. As a matter of fact, several members were ar
rested before the end of the deliberations in Berlin. One historian
has described this strange gathering of varicolored reformers as
"the most unreasonable, arrogant and uncouth assembly" in Ger
man history.^11
By November, 1848, General Friedrich von Wrangel's forces
moved into Berlin, and Weitling departed hurriedly for Hamburg.
Early in January of 1849, he calmly reported to the Hamburg
police, representing himself as a harmless writer who was living
with a distant relative and working on a "scientific work." As a
propagandist he was more successful in Hamburg and Altona than
he had been in the Prussian capital. As the agent of the New York
Befreiungsbund, he founded two lodges in these cities, and their
membership, which probably reached 400, has been estimated as
high as 1,000. Here Weitling expounded his principles to his fol
lowers. Sometimes he appeared in a red jacket as he presided over
their meetings, though black was his usual costume. His lectures
covered the whole range of his interests from a new kind of money
to communism. The latter he continued to relate to "Christian
love." Each initiate of the organization received a membership
card, a fact of which the secret police were soon aware. Weitling
published a pamphlet describing the propaganda techniques of
his organization. It could be developed rapidly, he professed to
believe, to the point where it could start the revolution and estab
lish the provisional government, which would precede the com
plete acceptance of his communistic system, and the Tauschbank
and Kommerzbuch, which were the heart of his proposals. A sec-
(^10) See Max Quarck, Die erste deutsche Arbeiterbewegung, 157-59, 180-91.
(^11) T. Klein, 1848: Der Vorkampf, 364-67; see also Valentin, Geschichte der
deutschen Revolution, II, 255-63; and Rep. d. Arb., June 14, 1851.