The International Workingmen's Association

Marx's Synopsis of Engels' pamphlet

The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party

The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party.

By Frederick Engels.

(Hamburg, Otto Meissner)

We can warmly commend this pamphlet to our readers
as it treats the most urgent issues of the day in Germany with great incisiveness,
impartiality and expert knowledge. The old organisation of the Prussian
army, the aims behind its reorganisation, the origins of the constitutional
conflict in Prussia, the conduct of the opposition by the Party of Progress
and the simultaneous feuding between the Party of Progress and the Workers'
Party -- all this is presented here in a brief, but original and exhaustive
account.

March 17 1865

Marx's Review of Engels' pamphlet

The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party

In a letter dated March 18, Marx told Engels about the review, originally intended for the Londoner Anzeiger.

The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party.

By Frederick Engels.

(Hamburg, Otto Meissner)

This most important pamphlet falls into three sections.

In the first the author subjects the reorganisation of the Prussian
army to the critique of military science. Its main fault he finds in the
fact that the reorganisation plan "whilst in appearance reverting to the
original concept of universal conscription, which cannot... function
without a large army-reserve in the form of a Landwehr, ... in fact
executes an about-turn in the direction of the Franco-Austrian cadre-system".

The second section sharply criticises the bourgeois opposition's
handling of the military question. The author comes to the conclusion:

"It is immaterial by what errors and complications the bourgeois opposition
is now forced into the following position: it must fight the military question
through to the end, or it will lose the remnants of political power it
still possesses... Can the Prussian bourgeoisie be expected ... to have
the courage to remain adamant, come what may? It would have to have changed
remarkably for the better since 1848, ... and the yearning for compromise
which has found expression daily in the sighs of the Party of Progress
since the opening of this session, is not an auspicious sign."

In the third section the author examines the attitude adopted by "the workers'
party towards this reorganisation of the army" and the "ensuing constitutional
conflict". His answer is summarised in the following sentences:

"The only aspect of army reorganisation in Prussia which is of interest
to the German working class is the increasingly thorough implementation
of universal conscription."

The policy which the working class must pursue in the constitutional conflict
is:

"above all to preserve the organisation of the workers' party as far
as present conditions permit; to drive the Party of Progress on to make
real progress, as far as possible; ... but to reply to the hypocritical
enticements of reaction with the words:

"With the spear one should accept gifts, point against point."