Marx and Engels in Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 18 June 1848

The Agreement Assembly of June 15 [67]


Source: MECW Volume 7, p. 89;
Written: on June 17, 1848;
First published: in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 18, June 18, 1848.


Cologne, June 17. We told you a few days ago: you deny the existence of the revolution. It will prove its existence by a second revolution.

The events of June 14 are merely the first harbinger of this second revolution and already the Camphausen Government is in full dissolution. By placing itself under the protection of the people of Berlin, the Agreement Assembly has decreed a vote of confidence in them. [68] This act is a belated recognition of the March fighters. The Assembly has taken out of the hands of the Ministers the task of drawing up a Constitution and is seeking “agreement” with the people by appointing a committee which will examine all petitions and resolutions relating to the Constitution. This is a belated annulment of its declaration of incompetence. The Assembly promises to begin its constitutional work by a deed: the abolition of the very basis of the old system, namely of the feudal obligations with which the land is burdened. This promises to become another night of August 4.[69]

In a word: on June 15 the Agreement Assembly repudiated its own past just as on June 9 it had repudiated the people’s past. It has experienced its March 21.[70]

The Bastille, however, has not yet been stormed.

But from the East an apostle of revolution is approaching impetuously and irresistibly. He is already standing at the gates of Thorn. It is the Tsar. The Tsar will save the German revolution by centralising it.