IN SWITZERLAND 47
issues he exposed the caste system of the German intellectuals and
the inconsistencies between practical politics and the religion pro
fessed in the churches. He was sure that only a communistic uni
versal brotherhood could destroy the nobility, who based their
prerogatives on the accident of birth, and the aristocracy, whose
power derived from the money bags. He advocated more and
more discussion clubs, so that "the frightened diplomats, magis
trates and usurers may become as accustomed to the clamor for
communism as the sailor is attuned to the roar of the waves"; and
he agreed with Pierre Josef Proudhon that "Property is theft." He
did not shrink from a temporary dictatorship to establish com
munism, for it was his belief that popular sovereignty and universal
suffrage were but a mirage and democracy only the accidental rule
of the majority over the minority. For the trickery of elections and
the logrolling of parliaments, he would substitute the rule of the
talents and a plan by which voters could choose capacities, not in
dividuals. He promised to explain all these ideas in "a greater
work" which he expected to publish in a few months.^25
In a leading article in the Hülferuf, Weitling developed another
of his favorite themes under the title "The Communion and the
Communists." In this essay he completely identified communism
with the gospel of Jesus. If his references to the Last Supper
seemed blasphemous to ardent believers, he cited Lamennais in
his defense. Weitling contended that there was greater suffering
in his day than in the time of Jesus. He challenged his readers to
debate the true meaning of the Bible and referred sarcastically to
Christian "charity" as actually practiced. He stanchly defended
the institutions of marriage and the family, and spoke frequently
of "higher and more perfect beings" beyond the comprehension
of man. Citing Lessing in support of tolerance and brotherly love,
he wrote, "We are all children of one father, and we all have a
common destiny, to be happy here, and then forever after, in the
great beyond." Almost every issue of the Junge Generation dealt
in some way with religion, religious imagery, and symbolism, and
(^25) Die junge Generation, June, 1842, pp. 83-96.